The Old Skyline group, comprising the Skyline, Perhaps and Morning Star claims, is situated at an elevation of approximately 1750 metres and approximately 4.2 kilometres west-southwest Ainsworth.
Regionally, the area is underlain by hornblende schists, limestone and banded quartzite of the Upper Mississippian to Permian Milford Formation and basaltic volcanic rocks of the Carboniferous to Permian Kaslo Group. Granodioritic intrusive rocks of the Middle Jurassic Nelson Batholith are exposed to the west.
The area is underlain by rocks of the Upper Mississippian to Permian Milford Formation. The showings are in limestone and in dark-grey to black phyllites and associated argillite. The eastern margin of the Nelson Batholith is within a few hundred metres. The ore consists of porous siliceous rock carrying a dark mineral (argentite?), native silver, galena, and iron and copper pyrites. Values in gold and zinc are also reported from assays.
Mine production started in 1889 and continued intermittently until 1896. The mine produced again from 1918 to 1921 with the last recorded production occurring in 1969. Most of the production took place in 1895 and 1896. Total mine production was 3109 tonnes, and 6 832 553 grams of silver and 2130 kilograms of lead were recovered.
Work History
The mine was worked in the early 1880s and the ore shipped partly to the Pilot Bay smelter and partly to American smelters. The mine is reported to have been closed down in 1896. The workings at that time included an incline 26.5 metres deep, and a shaft further to the west sunk to a depth of 61 metres with a 37-metre long drift on the bottom level.
In 1917, A.W. McCune drove a crosscut tunnel to tap the vein approximately 137 metres below the surface at the old workings. The vein was encountered approximately 366 metres from the portal. The vein was then drifted on for some distance, but little sulphide mineralization was encountered. Work was abandoned in 1918 and all equipment removed. During 1919 through 1921 the property was worked under lease and bond and a small quantity of ore was mined, mostly from surface exposures and from the upper part of the old workings. During this period a raise was begun from the adit level to connect with the old workings. In 1921, all work on the property came to an end.
Another adit, referred to as the Morning Star adit, is located approximately 550 metres northeast of the Skyline workings. In 1961 Mr. T.R. Buckham re-staked the prospect.
In 1996, a program of prospecting and geochemical (rock, silt and soil) sampling was conducted by George Addie on the area as the Silver Hoard property. Three dump samples (90420 to 90422) yielded from 0.01 to 0.99 gram per tonne gold, greater than 30 grams per tonne silver, 0.14 to greater than 1.00 per cent zinc and 0.05 to 0.87 per cent lead (Assessment Report 25055).
During 2007 through 2011, Goldcliff Resource Corp. completed programs of prospecting, geological mapping, geochemical (rock, silt and soil) sampling and an airborne geophysical survey on the regionally extensive Ainsworth Silver property.
In 2015, Goldcliff Resource Corp. conducted a program of prospecting, geological mapping, geochemical (rock, silt and soil) sampling and a 4.1 line-kilometre ground electromagnetic survey on the area as part of the Ainsworth Silver property.
In 2020 and 2021, Goldcliff Resource Corp. conducted a further program of geochemical (rock, silt and soil) sampling and a 508.0 line-kilometre airborne magnetic, electromagnetic and radiometric survey on the Ainsworth Silver property.
