The Old Gold group, consisting of the Silver Queen (Lot 4694) and Silver King (Lot 4695), is located on the west fork of the Duncan River (Westfall River).
The Old Gold was already considered an important group in 1900 and development is reported to occur up to 1920. A shipment from the Silver Queen of silver-bearing galena was made by the Old Gold Quartz and Placer Mining Company in 1899. Government records show that in 1907, 4 tonnes were mined and 16,640 grams of silver and 1925 kilograms of lead were recovered. In 1916, 22 tonnes were shipped and 62,206 grams of silver and 2722 kilograms of lead were recovered. Conaway Mining Co. mined 24 tonnes of ore from the Silver Queen in 1917 which yielded 58,163 grams of silver, 31 grams of gold, and 13,807 kilograms of lead.
In 1917, development-work consisted of two crosscuts to tap the ore-body and about 42 metres of drifting along the vein, the total amount of tunneling being about 244 metres. In the upper workings approximately 1 metre of ore is exposed along the drift for a distance of 12 metres, and at the bottom of the 3-metre winze, about 1 metre of ore is exposed. Not much drifting has been done in the lower tunnel, but a nice showing of ore occurs, about 23 centimetres wide, at the end of the crosscut and situated approximately under the ore exposed in the winze in the upper level. The ore is a massive galena and tetrahedrite carrying high silver values, fairly free from gangue-matter and apparently low in zinc and iron. The formation consists of slates and graphitic schists, with intermittent narrow bands of limestone.
The strata strike 123 degrees and dip 50 degrees (direction not reported). The ore apparently occurs along the contact of the schists and limestone, and it appears to replace the limestone.
There are five major bands of limestone in the area which are known locally as the Black Warrior, Silver Leaf, Ellsmere Ledge, Horne Ledge and Surprise limestone. These bands are part of the Lower Cambrian Badshot Formation, repeated by folding and interlayered with schist and phyllites of the Cambrian to Devonian Index Formation, Lardeau Group.
During 2006 through 2009, Mineral Mountain Resources Ltd. completed programs of prospecting, geochemical (soil, silt, talus fines and rock) sampling and an airborne geophysical survey on the area as the Kootenay Arc property.
In 2008, 26 rock samples from the area yielded values ranging from 0.002 to 4.471 grams per tonne gold, 0 to 12,147 grams per tonne silver, 0.00 to 19.71 per cent lead, 0.01 to 40.94 per cent zinc and 0.02 to 16.72 per cent copper (Fingler, J. (2010-01-25): Technical Report on the Kootenay Arc Property).
