The Silver Dollar property is located approximately 10.2 kilometres southeast of Camborne, BC, on the north side of the East fork of Mohawk Creek, and is at 1860 to 2130 metres elevation. The property lies within the historical Camborne gold-silver mining camp and includes several historical past-producing mines and developed prospects. The property covers a 9-kilometre portion of a 40-kilometre-long structure containing other past producers and developed prospects of silver, gold, lead and zinc. An access road crosses the length of the property, which also contains an historical aerial ore tram and mill site.
Silver-lead-zinc ores are typical of the central belt and occurrences to the northeast. The ore minerals are mainly pyrite, galena, sphalerite and smaller amounts of chalcopyrite and pyrrhotite. Silver is the most important commodity; it occurs in argentiferous tetrahedrite, galena and, less commonly, as native silver. Gold is present in small quantities and is rarely seen as native gold or electrum. Quartz is the dominant gangue mineral; however, carbonates such as ankerite, calcite and/or dolomite are significant gangue components in some veins. The deposits are characterized by open-space fillings with limited wall rock replacement. In a few places where replacement is important, carbonate gangue is relatively abundant. Gold can occur with either dominantly pyrite-bearing mineralized zones or with base metals and silver values.
The age of mineralization in the Beaton-Camborne camp coincides with a major Late Cretaceous through Early Tertiary tectonic transition (to 59 Ma), marked by uplift, decollement and intrusion in the Kootenay Arc. This was followed by extensional exhumation of the Monashee gneissic core complexes along the Columbia River and Slocan Lake faults. The Trout Lake Intrusion dated 76 Ma and associated molybdenum and tungsten deposits represent the beginning, whereas the silver, lead, zinc veins—such as those found at the Enterprise mine in the Slocan City area, dated 58.2 ± 0.7 Ma—represent the culmination of the mineralizing cycle.
Work History
Prospect development of the area dates to the late 1800s, performed by numerous individuals or small companies on a multitude of small mineral claims. In 1933, the Gillman shipped between 1 and 14 tonnes of ore grading 62 grams per tonne gold and silver each. In 1947, the Silver Pass Development Syndicate processed 6 tonnes of ore and recovered 9860 grams silver, 1378 kilograms lead and 1,009 kilograms zinc. With multiple small claim owners, intermittent, fragmented surface work and underground development occurred into the 1950s. Ore shipments were transported to the smelter in Trail, BC, or the United States. In 1984, a drill hole on the Silver Dollar zone returned 2.1 metres grading 229 grams per tonne silver, 1 gram per tonne gold, 10.95 per cent zinc, 4.04 per cent lead and 0.29 per cent copper. In 1986, a drill hole intersected 0.7 metre grading 38 grams per tonne gold. The historical drilling appears to be relatively shallow in depth and selectively sampled with positive grade intervals open in width. Mineralized zones also remain open at depth. The drill holes also intersected mineralized zones that do not outcrop at surface, which is an important indication that hidden or ‘blind’ mineralized zones occur (www.happycreekminerals.com).
In 2012, Happy Creek Minerals completed a Heli-GT, three-axis magnetic gradient, and spectrometer geophysical survey, and collected 38 rock-grab and chip samples from surface and historical underground development headings. Geophysical results identified the trend containing the known mineralized zones and other sub-parallel ones that extend through the property. Rock sample results indicate locally strong precious metal contents including 50.3 grams per tonne gold, 216 grams per tonne silver and 4.49 grams per tonne gold, 4496 grams per tonne silver. Locally strong base metals also occur with chip samples returning 1.8 metres of 16.8 per cent zinc, 3.9 per cent lead, 1.67 grams per tonne gold and 241 grams per tonne silver. The spectral and magnetic airborne geophysical surveys covered a 9-kilometre-long portion of the Camborne fault on the Silver Dollar property (V STOCKWATCH, May 16, 2013).
In 2014, Happy Creek Minerals Ltd. completed a program of prospecting and sampling on the area. In 2016 and 2017, Explorex Resources Inc. completed programs of prospecting and rock and soil sampling on the area as the Silver Dollar property. A grab sample assayed 43.54 grams per tonne gold, 257 grams per tonne silver, 0.29 per cent zinc and 0.6 per cent lead (Chapman, J. (2019-03-20): National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report on the Silver Dollar Property).
In 2019, Mariner Resources Corp. completed a 624 line-kilometre airborne magnetic and radiometric survey on the area as the Silver Dollar property.
