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File Created: 24-Jul-1985 by BC Geological Survey (BCGS)
Last Edit:  07-Jan-2020 by Karl A. Flower (KAF)

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NMI 092L2 Au28
Name KING MIDAS NO. 1 VEIN, EHATSET, BIG BEN (L.1676), YAUCO Mining Division Alberni, Nanaimo
BCGS Map 092L007
Status Past Producer NTS Map 092L02W
Latitude 050º 03' 36'' UTM 09 (NAD 83)
Longitude 126º 47' 32'' Northing 5547637
Easting 658021
Commodities Gold, Silver, Copper, Zinc, Lead Deposit Types I05 : Polymetallic veins Ag-Pb-Zn+/-Au
I01 : Au-quartz veins
Tectonic Belt Insular Terrane Wrangell, Plutonic Rocks
Capsule Geology

The King Midas No. 1 vein occurrence is located on the western side of the north fork of the Zeballos River, approximately 140 metres south of Fault Creek and 3 metres above the Zeballos River level.

Regionally, the area is underlain by Upper Triassic to Lower Jurassic Bonanza Group basaltic to rhyolitic volcanic rocks. Conformably underlying the Bonanza volcanic rocks are limestones and limy clastics of the Triassic to Lower Jurassic Parson Bay Formation (Bonanza Group) and Upper Triassic Quatsino Formation (Vancouver Group), and the tholeiitic basalts of the Upper Triassic Karmutsen Formation (Vancouver Group). Dioritic to granodioritic plutons of the Zeballos intrusion phase of the Jurassic Island Plutonic Suite have intruded all older rocks. The Zeballos stock, a quartz diorite phase of the Eocene to Oligocene Mount Washington Plutonic Suite, is spatially related to gold-quartz veining in the area. Bedded rocks are predominantly northwest-striking, southwest-dipping and anticlinally folded about a northwest axis. A north-south–striking fault occurs along the Zeballos River valley, north of the rivers junction with the Nomash River.

The King Midas No. 1 vein lies near the faulted contact between Quatsino limestone on the east bank of Zeballos River and Karmutsen andesites on the west. Feldspar porphyry dikes, possibly related to the South Zeballos Pluton phase of the Eocene to Oligocene Mount Washington Plutonic Suite, cut volcanics and sediments. The vein is hosted by silicified andesite and consists of lenses of quartz with sphalerite, arsenopyrite and pyrite with minor chalcopyrite, galena, pyrrhotite and native gold mineralization following a somewhat wider shear zone. The gold was found to be associated with sphalerite and chalcopyrite and is also present as free gold. Locally, the vein splays into several parallel stringers 30 to 40 centimetres apart, with andesite hostrock flooded with thin quartz veinlets and impregnated with sulphides. The vein strikes 354 degrees with a vertical dip and has been traced for 80 metres.

A parallel vein is reported 244 metres up Fault Creek (Bulletin 27, page 116); no other details are available. Other veins are reported to be exposed in the riverbed approximately 40 metres downstream of the downstream adit.

In 1932, a sample assayed 97.38 grams per tonne gold and 28.11 grams per tonne silver (Geological Survey of Canada Summary Report 1932, Part A, II, pages 39-42).

In 1938, the Tunnel vein was reported to average 8.8 centimetres wide with 70.5 grams per tonne gold (Property File - C.C. Starr [1938-05-03]: Report on the King Midas Mine).

In 1940, one tonne of high-grade ore produced 156 grams of gold, 31 grams of silver and 10 kilograms of copper.

In 2009, samples (no. 20 to 29) of a 10-centimetre wide quartz vein on the east side of the Zeballos River yielded up to 2.11 grams per tonne gold and 0.504 per cent zinc (Assessment Report 31273). Also, at this time samples (no. 30 to 36), taken along a former logging skid road trending southwest from the highway bridge over Fault Creek and above the King Midas No. 1 vein adit area, yielded up to 2.67 grams per tonne gold, 0.507 per cent zinc and 0.193 per cent copper (Assessment Report 31273).

The King Midas No. 1 property was originally staked in 1926. By 1932, an adit on the ‘main’ vein is reported to have been driven for 56.1 metres of lateral development and included a 4.8 metre winze. A second adit is located approximately 80 metres down river from the main adit. In 1938, the King Midas Mining Co. Ltd. was operating on the property; byt this time 33.0 metres of crosscuts, 54.0 metres of drifting and a 5 metre winze were completed on the main tunnel and 45.0 metres of crosscuts were coeted on the second, downstream tunnel.

In 1975, Diana Explorations Ltd. completed 11.0 line-kilometres of ground electromagnetic and magnetic surveys on the area immediately south. In 1979, Esperanza Explorations completed a program of regional silt sampling and prospecting on the area. In 1988, Equus Petroleum Corp. completed a program of rock and soil sampling and a ground magnetic survey on the area, immediately south, as the Gold Rock claims. In 1993, Equus completed a 5.0 line-kilometre ground electromagnetic survey on the Gold Rock claims.

In 1999, the area was prospected by the Zeballos Mining Company as the Zeb Au claim. In 2003, Canalska Ventures Ltd. completed a regional program of rock, silt and soil sampling on the area. In 2009, Global Silver Producers Ltd. and A25 Gold Producers Corp. prospected the area.

Bibliography
EMPR AR 1929-376; 1932-205; 1933-253; 1934-F6; 1938-F53,F56; 1940- 27; 1954-65
EMPR ASS RPT 5377, 5765, 17376, 22904, 26082, 27428, *31273
EMPR BULL 20-V, p. 16; *27, p. 115
EMPR FIELDWORK 1982, p. 290; 1983, p. 219
EMPR PF (One Resources Canada Corp. (unknown): Collected Data - Zeballos River area - Big Ben; T.J. Marks (1931-05-13): Letter and Report - Ehatset Group of Mineral Claims; *C.C. Starr (1938-05-03): Report on the King Midas Mine; C.C. Starr (1938-05-04): Map of North Half of Claims Showing Locations of Veins and Contacts; C.C. Starr (1938-05-04): Workings on North Fork of Zeballos River - King Midas Mining Co. Ltd.; C.C. Starr (1938-05-14): Re: Further work on the King Midas property; Esperanza Explorations (1979-09-01): Vancouver Island and Fraser River Gold Geochemistry - 1979)
EMR MP CORPFILE (King Midas Mining Co. Ltd.)
GSC EC GEOL 1-1947
GSC MAP 4-1974; 255A; 1028A; 1552A
GSC MEM 204, p. 17; 272, pp. 47,59
GSC OF 9; 170; 463
GSC P 38-5; *40-12, pp. 30-32; 69-1A; 70-1A; 72-44; 74-8; 79-30
GSC SUM RPT 1929A; *1932AII, pp. 38-42
CIM Trans. Vol. 42, 1939, pp. 225-237; 1948, pp. 78-85; 72,
pp. 116-125
GCNL #146, 1983; #5, 1984
N MINER Apr. 1938, pp. 39-45
Carson, D.J.T., (1968): Metallogenic Study of Vancouver Island with
emphasis on the Relationship of Plutonic Rocks to Mineral Deposits,
Ph.D. Thesis, Carleton University, Ottawa

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