The OKANAGAN mine is located approximately 1 kilometre north of Penticton on the east shore of Okanagan Lake. The area is underlain by granodiorite of the Jurassic Okanagan Intrusions.
The OKANAGAN has been worked intermittently since the late 1800s, and has produced small amounts of ore from which gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc have been recovered. In 1918, the shaft and lower tunnel, 27 metres below the level of the lake, were dewatered and the mine put back into operation by the Penticton Development Company. That year 122 tonnes of ore were shipped to the Greenwood and Trail smelters. The ore averaged 11.2 grams of gold per tonne, 74 grams of silver per tonne and 0.6 per cent copper (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1918, page K211). In 1934, Lakeside Mines Ltd. acquired the property and drove the upper adit to the east. During the period 1948-52 approximately 3 tonnes of ore were mined. In the summer of 1952 W.J. Armstrong, K. Armstrong and J. Trombley dewatered the shaft and cleaned out the workings. Five tonnes of ore was mined from the lower level and shipped to the Trail smelter. In 1979, Ashnola Mining Co. Ltd. carried out 10 metres of underground channel sampling. The results of Ashnola's sampling were not filed as assessment work and are not available.
The mine workings consist of an adit driven eastward on a shear zone for about 27 metres and extending to the east about 20 metres. Two drifts of unknown length have been driven along the fault to the north and south. Near the mouth of the adit an inclined shaft has been sunk 30 metres. On the "100-foot" level crosscuts extend east and west on the shear. In the west drift and crosscuts, which extend over 30 metres, no ore was found. To the east, the drift follows the east-west shear zone and developed about 18 metres of mineralization varying from a thin stringer to 30 centimetres in thickness. Beyond that point the vein pinches and passes into a crushed fault zone. On the lake shore bluffs, about 20 metres above the lake, a shear in granodiorite strikes east-west and dips 70 to 80 degrees to the north. The shear is filled with quartz. At a point about 30 metres to the east of the portal of the adit, a quartz vein has been displaced by a north-south, nearly perpendicular fault. Beyond this, the rock is severely crushed, sheared, and broken. Mineralization consists of pyrite, chalcopyrite, galena and sphalerite in a gangue of quartz and sheared granite.
