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File Created: 21-Nov-1988 by Gary V. White (GVW)
Last Edit:  21-Apr-2008 by Mandy N. Desautels (MND)

Summary Help Help

NMI
Name MINERAL HILL, SNAKE BAY, SECHELT Mining Division Vancouver
BCGS Map 092G051
Status Past Producer NTS Map 092G12W
Latitude 049º 30' 55'' UTM 10 (NAD 83)
Longitude 123º 49' 04'' Northing 5485061
Easting 440805
Commodities Limestone, Wollastonite Deposit Types K09 : Wollastonite skarn
R09 : Limestone
Tectonic Belt Coast Crystalline Terrane Plutonic Rocks, Wrangell
Capsule Geology

The Mineral Hill deposit is located on the Sechelt Peninsula, 1.5 kilometres west of Snake Bay and 60 kilometres west-northwest of Vancouver.

The wollastonite deposit is hosted within a roof pendant of calcareous metasediments, possibly of the Upper Triassic Vancouver Group (Quatsino or Karmutsen formations). The pendant occurs in Upper Jurassic diorite of the Jurassic to Tertiary Coast Plutonic Complex. The roof pendant trends north for 500 metres and varies up to 180 metres in width. The metasediments generally strike northeast and dip moderately to steeply west.

The roof pendant is comprised mostly of limestone and banded skarn. Thinly-bedded, light and dark grey, fine to medium grained limestone, outcrops in the northern half of the roof pendant. The limestone, locally massive and coarse grained, is occasionally contaminated by siliceous layers. These siliceous layers contain calcite, garnet, quartz and wollastonite that are commonly boudinaged or brecciated. The limestone is reported to average 90 to 92 per cent CaCO3 and a sample of white limestone displayed a brightness of 96 per cent (R. Reipe, personal communication, 1989). A composite sample of limestone taken from a 10.34 metre section of core assayed 51.79 per cent CaCO3, 0.42 per cent MgO, 8.80 per cent SiO2, 0.41 per cent Al2O3, 0.50 per cent Fe2O3 and 35.39 per cent ignition loss (Industrial Mineral File - Goldsmith and Kallock, 1988).

Variably striped, maroon, green, yellowish white and brown to black skarn containing diopside, epidote and wollastonite with rare pyrite, chalcopyrite and sphalerite, outcrops throughout most of the roof pendant. The roof pendant and the enclosing diorite are intruded by aphanitic, greenish black to black dykes that strike west to southwest and dip 65 to 90 degrees northwest.

Wollastonite is developed near the eastern margin of the roof pendant over most of its length. Wollastonite occurs in the following three forms: (1) in layers up to 0.08 metre thick alternating with garnet in banded skarn, (2) as a very fine replacement of siliceous layers and inclusions in limestone that comprise up to 35 per cent of the rock, and (3) in thinly laminated calcium silicate rock comprised of layers of coarse crystalline, light brown wollastonite alternating with layers of dense, green coloured wollastonite, tremolite(?) and other calcium silicates, excluding garnet.

Drilling has defined a north trending zone of wollastonite mineralization extending continuously, for up to 150 metres in length, in the northern half of the roof pendant. The zone contains probable reserves of 291,000 tonnes of wollastonite assessed to a vertical depth of 100 metres (Property File - Goldsmith and Kallock, 1988). The grade is up to 50 per cent wollastonite (Z.D. Hora, personal communication, 1991). Significant wollastonite of undetermined continuity was encountered south of this zone.

This deposit was initially explored for wollastonite by Tri-Sil Minerals Ltd. in 1987 and 1988. Sixteen holes were drilled for a total of 1719.53 metres. Since November 1989, the company has been quarrying limestone for agricultural purposes. The deposit has also been investigated as a source of white limestone for use as calcium carbonate filler. Since 1991, wollastonite has been quarried and shipped to the Tilbury Cement Plant in Delta, B.C for use as cement additive (Z.D. Hora, personal communication, 1991).

Clearview Mineral Resources Corp. drill tested mineralization exposed on surface between the Mine and Skidder zones during February 2002.

Bibliography
EM EXPL 2002-29-40
EMPR FIELDWORK *1988, pp. 489-493
EMPR INF CIRC 1995-1, p. 9
EMPR MAP 65 (1989)
EMPR OF *1991-17; 1992-1; 1992-9; 1994-1
EMPR PF (Goldsmith, L.B. (1987-05-19): Geological Mapping and Diamond Drilling of Wollastonite Occurence - Mineral Hill Claim Group; Anderson, R.B. (1987-08-28): Progress Report - Snake Bay Project; McElroy, R.O. (1987-09-17): Re: copy of Whole Rock analytical results; McElroy, R.O. (1987-09-18): Re: Canamin Wollastonite Test Program; Tri-Sil Minerals (1987-10-09): Sechelt Wollastonite Project - Review of Findings to Date; Hunter, R.G. (1987-10-19): Mineral Samples - Snake Bay; McElroy, R.O. (1987-10-28): Re: Wollastonite Beneficiation Testwork; McElroy, R.O. (1988-03-08): Re: Benefication of Snake Bay Wollastonite; Bacon, Donaldson and Associates Ltd. (1988-10-11): Preliminary Metallurgical Investigation of Garnet Ore; de Leeuw, H. (1990-04-27): Sechelt Wollastonite Project - Property Report; Unknown (1994): Wollastonite Skarn Photo; Unknown (1994): Black Granite Photo I; Unknown (1994): Black Granite Photo II; Unknown (1994): Black Granite Photo III; Unknown (1994): Black Granite Photo IV; Unknown (1994): Black Granite Photo V; Sanguinetti, M.H. (2002-12-11): Summary Report on the Geology and Exploration Potential of Mineral Hill Property; Acme Analytical Laboratories Ltd. (2002-08-12): Selected Geochemical Analyses)
GSC MAP 42-1963; 1069A; 1386A
GSC OF 611
GSC P 69-25
GCNL #128, 1985
PR REL Clearview Mineral Resources Corp., May 13, Nov.22, 2002;
Mar.13, 2003
Ditson, G.M. (1978): Metallogeny of the Vancouver-Hope Area,
British Columbia, M.Sc. Thesis, University of British Columbia
Goldsmith, L.B. and Kallock, P. (1988): Geological Mapping, Diamond
Drilling & Reserve Estimates of Wollastonite Deposit, Mineral Hill
Claim Group, Sechelt Area, B.C.
Goldsmith, L.B. and Logan, J.M. (1987): Geological Mapping & Diamond
Drilling of Wollastonite Occurrence, Mineral Hill Claim Group,
Sechelt Area, B.C.)

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