The Nelson Mining Region was located and defined by a series of mineral discoveries along the southern reaches. The American prospectors were moving north from the State of Washington in response to mining activity as far north as Alaska. Any news of a “find” would start rushes into areas but mostly for placer deposits of gold. Gold was discovered in California in 1848 and the science and art of exploration began along the west coast. The interior of British Columbia became a very active placer exploration area after the 1862 discovery of gold in Barkerville. In 1880 the Juneau, Alaska gold belt was discovered and thousands of prospectors headed north to seek their fortunes.

It is important to note that most of the work along the coast was in placer gold and each lode gold camp had its own set of special circumstances. Placer mining had become an art form over the thirty years but lode mining was still thought to be too expensive and complex for most prospectors. Stamp mill crushing technology was the state of the art in some parts of the world but some engineers began applying rotary methods from other metal recovery processes. This was a double problem as the cost and complexity of moving such heavy equipment into a remote site away from tidewater was prohibitive. Even getting dynamite into an area for trenching was a rare event until the early 1880’s. Supply routes developed to support the exploration efforts were generally based on the original hunting and trapping pathways.

For a prospector to do the extra work involved in sourcing the lode veins above a good placer find took time away from gold recovery efforts. Only after the lower elevations were staked did prospecting efforts begin to head to the higher elevations. Snow cover remained in most locations until late in the summer and returned in the early fall so prospecting windows were short. Developing and servicing a surface vein was rife with problems and avoided in favor of the easy placer methods.

This fact was highlighted in the 1886 Annual Report of the Minister of Mines discussions about mine development facets. In the opening statements of this Annual Report the author was optimistic that “the era of quartz mining is at hand.”  Dry seasons had reduced the output of several placer operations and lode quartz mining was being discussed as a possible alternative.  However, to access lode veins at depth one had to understand tunnelling. Two quotes from page 222 of that report are key in the understanding of the development of the determination of the eventual Mine’s deposit type. The quotes read:

“Tunnelling as a rule has caused disaster and ruin to many a promising mining venture and should only be resorted to when a mine has been proved to be valuable by shafts and drifts on the veins…”

and

“Let the prospector endeavour to find a pay-chute and sink on it, never leaving the vein; if he can find no pay-chute on his vein, select a place, sink as deep as possible and drift on the vein hoping to find one. All work done on the vein is useful; all work done outside of the vein has, eventually, to be paid for with cash, or out of the vein when reached.”

These are important excerpts as they assist in understanding the later development of the Mine. In today’s geological prospecting process a deposit is generally drilled and subjected to a host of geochemical and geophysical examinations prior to mine development.  In the case of the Kenville Gold Mine this could not be done as many of the tools that existed at that time were basic at best. The prospector had to uncover the steep slopes with seasonal run off sluicing methods to remove the glacial cover in very small areas.

Diamond drills were not readily available and the local geologists could only work with their limited practical knowledge of vein systems. Most of the comparables at the time came from the gold fields of the Barkerville-Cariboo area to the north and the California-Nevada mining camps to the south. In the 1888 Annual Report to the Minister (page 305), the Gold Commissioner, G.M. Sproat detailed some optimism for future success with reports of high grade showings on Toad Mountain.  One of the claims returned an assay of 171,445 g/t (5,018 oz/ton) of silver and on the Hendryx claim “the miners were drifting into a lode of fifty feet of solid galena, and no hanging wall yet.”  Even with such tremendous reports there was caution in lode mining in part due to the remote nature of the area.  With the short summers, surface exploration time was of a premium and development had to occur to fund the programs.

It appears from the work done in the Mine area that once the six main veins were located surface prospecting for the most part ended. All efforts were placed in developing the veins and no further work was done to better understand the deposit as whole.

Indeed, as deeper work was done, the drilling forays were all based on finding extensions of the known main vein systems. When a new vein was encountered it was simply put into a numbering sequence increasing from west to east. Drill intercepts were noted but no efforts were made to develop the deposit’s nature on a general basis. The work was all based on chasing the veins to initial extinction limits and then moving to known richer underground areas that were developed through drill work or drift efforts. Even the two Venango vein systems to the west of Eagle Creek were not located until 1936 using the same sluicing methods from the 1800’s.

The current area covered by the Kenville Gold Mine holdings has a storied past. It was first developed around 1888 when gold bearing quartz veins were located on the north slope of Toad Mountain. The richness and extent of these veins led to the development of the first lode mine in the Province. The discovery zones were isolated to six main veins that were found to be generally sub-parallel and dipping to the east at approximately 45º. The miners in the region had to learn underground techniques and generally stayed with the vein. The veins produced free milling gold and a mill was setup on the south shore of Kootenay River.

The following excerpt from the 1889 Annual Report of the Minister of Mines helps explain what problems the miners were faced with and why they went to lode mining.

“As the camp now is, it is difficult to for anyone to estimate its potential value. The first requirement for such an estimate does not exist, namely a geological examination showing the true character of the lodes and their ores, the metamorphism, the connection, if any, with eruptive rocks, and the various regional, or local, conditions which assimilate the camp to, or differentiate it from, other silver camps that have succeeded. The opinion of experienced mining men-practical and scientific-decidedly is, that the camp is one of great promise, as far as this can be said of a surface showing. Very little work has been done as yet, but the ores improve as a rule, with depth, both in quantity and quality.

The assays from different claims show that the ore of which the grey copper forms a large proportion yields from 1,714.3 g/t (50 troy oz. /t) to several hundred troy ounces per ton - in some cases very much higher – and the galena ores from 1,371.4 g/t (40 troy oz. /t) up to 3,428.6 g/t (100 troy oz. /t).  Some of the claims will be much helped by the gold that is in them.  It is a high grade camp, though several claims, unless they improve when sunk into, must be classed as low grade, owing to too much gangue, needing concentration of the ores before shipment.

But the assays of specimens and small lots are chiefly useful to the prospector; the milling test of a large quantity of ore is the true test.  So far I can mention but one – a return of 7,542.9 g/t (220 troy oz./t) of silver, gross, to the ton, and 17 per cent copper, from a two-ton lot of sorted ores sent from a claim in which the gangue is, as I have said, chiefly mineralized country rock, with little quartz and galena.”

The reporting continues to detail average silver values from an assortment of 2,000,000 g (2 ton) mill lot shipments. The lowest was 1,302.9 g/t (38 troy oz./t) on July 27, 1888 and the highest assay value was 64,079.9 g/t (1,869 troy oz./t) on August 5, 1888. The average of 27 assays was 15,327.8 g/t (447.06 troy oz./t) of silver per lot. None of the other metallic minerals were included in the data. Again to be clear, if these reports detail the higher outcrops it is still important to note as the feed stock for these systems would be in the lower reaches of the southward raking veins.

Further reporting (1888 Report to the Minister, page 299) details that the gold belt was located about 2.41 km (1.5 miles) down slope below the higher silver showings but above the river. There is a convergence of the gold and silver belt systems as you trend west. The gold veins are located in generally clean quartz that is white to brown in tone. The opened veins referred to in the report could be the Poorman, Granite or Beelzebub veins. One of the veins was opened for 213.4 metres (700 feet) with an average thickness of 0.46 metres (18 inches). The assay values ranged from $40 USD to $1,400 USD a ton which is between 68.6 to 2,400 g/t (2 to 70 troy oz/ton).

By 1898, a large amount of development work had been done underground and the Mine was a collection of unconnected adits and drifts. By 1900, nearly 365.8 metres (1,200 ft) of development work had been done on the Granite vein including 39.6 metres (130 ft) of raises and 18.3 metres (60 ft) of shafts. The Poorman vein had 381 metres (1,250 ft) of development work including 103.6 metres (340 ft) of raises. The original mining companies in operation on the claims were ‘Eagle Creek Gold Mining Co.’ and ‘Granite Gold Mines’. In 1901, the mines were grouped under the term ‘Duncan United Mines’.  Under the Duncan Mines’ direction, a more unified approach was developed to expand the mine footprint as a unit instead of high grading known veins.

This was a risky venture as significant amounts of tonnage had to be moved from the Mine in cross cutting and drifting to the expected surface vein intercepts at depth. Smaller veins and shear zones were simply driven past with the expectation of reaching those known surface traces. This appears to be one of the reasons that new discoveries are being made with today’s mapping and exploration efforts. Several old surface vein trenches, adits and shafts dot the area as shown on the historical mapping. These workings are currently the subject of a field program to locate them. After 100 years of forest overgrowth many of the showings are totally covered with vegetation.

A further excerpt from the Annual Reports to the Minister (1908 p.106) further suggests why underground work on the drifts remained the focal point for the miners:

“In addition to the mill returns from the average ore, they had the good fortune to strike several of the valuable pockets characteristic of the Poorman mine. From one of these pockets, containing only four or five cubic feet, several thousand dollars’ worth of auriferous quartz was taken, which can only be classified as “specimen rock”. Several pieces weighing one pound contained half that weight in gold, and the specimens (valued at $1,500) sent down to the  Spokane Interstate Fair were easily the most remarkable in the display…”

The intensity of underground development at each individual mine site is well reported in the literature. In the 1910 Annual Report to the Minister the footages of driven drifts, raises, crosscuts and stoping across and in proximity to the present Kenville Gold Mine property area is detailed. A further consolidation of underground efforts occurred at the end of 1910 with the new investment of Kootenay Gold Mines, Limited. The main focus of the mine consolidation was to deliver more ore to the newly upgraded mill located at the water’s edge below the portals.

By 1915, the mining was being conducted by leasers with a greater focus on the Hard Scrabble vein to the west of the property suite. Work in the eastern mines (White and Granite) had stopped in favour of the higher grades currently being intersected in the Poorman and Hard Scrabble veins. Most of the ore production for 1915 came from the Greenhorn vein while the stopes, winzes and drifts were being developed in the other veins. This start and stop mining resulted in a fractured overall plan and mixed efforts by the virtual mining cooperative that was in place. Several companies were formed and dissolved over the subsequent decades but only limited development took place. Some new surface exploration efforts were focused on the Venango property in the early 1930’s and in 1936 the two main Venango veins were discovered by 1888 style sluicing. The discovery saw that claim area become the new focus of the area.

The Crown Grants weathered many changes in ownership and mill configuration and in 1945 Kenville Gold Mines Ltd. acquired the properties.  Kenville Gold Mines was controlled by Quebec Gold Mines and Noranda Mines Ltd.  Over the next five years, more than 6,096 metres (20,000 ft) of surface and underground diamond drilling was done around the Mine and a 125 tonne per day mill was in operation from 1947-1949. In 1949, Kenville Gold Mines Ltd. ceased mine operations but opened the levels to separate groups of leasors who continued the high grade efforts to feed the Kenville mill operations. This situation continued until 1954 when the mill eventually closed.  Some high grading efforts continued and direct shipments of ore took place in 1960 and 1961 to the Trail smelter. However in 1962 Noranda shut the Mine down and removed all the useable equipment.

The extensive workings fell into disrepair due to world economic conditions at that time. The Mine was slowly brought back to life through a series of ownership changes leading up to the present day.  In 1969, Algoma Industries & Resources Ltd., acquired the property. They dewatered the 257 Level, re-built the mill and maintained the Mine workings. However, the lack of planning and working capital forced Algoma to leave the property as well. Some drill exploration work was done in 1980 on the Greenwood and Venango properties. This drilling indicated the presence of some possible supergene (copper, gold) enrichment zones on the west side of Eagle Creek. In 1987 Coral Industries Ltd. began the purchase of the Mine property from Algoma. They eventually took control of both the Mine and Venango properties in 1989. This was an important part of the history of the area as it was the first time since 1945 that both sides of Eagle Creek could be explored under the control of one company.

Coral Industries was eventually acquired by 409556 BC Ltd. which was subsequently acquired by Anglo Swiss Resources Inc. in 1992.  In 1994 the Company entered into a three year option agreement with Teck Corporation. Teck conducted two drill programs, geochemical and geophysics work in 1995 and 1996. They then dropped their option in 1997 due to the political situation in British Columbia and the world metals price declined to record lows until 2005. In the Deposit type section of this report further information on the development of the porphyry model hypothesis is described.

Government records show that the Mine complex has produced 2,029 kg of gold, 861 kg of silver, plus an assortment of other metals since 1890. A total of 181,395 tonnes have been mined to date. Only one level (257) of the six-level mine is currently available for exploration. This single level is the focus of this Technical Report.

Geological Setting

The subject property is located within the Selkirk Mountains at the north toe of Toad Mountain. The Kootenay River Valley which runs from east to west in front of the property separates the Slocan Range to the north and the Nelson Range to the south. Both ranges are a mix of Nelson Group plutonic rocks consisting of porphyritic granite, pseudo diorite, pegmatites and diorite. The study area is unique as it is underlain by the Mesozoic Nelson Group pseudo diorites and pyroxene-hornblende-biotite rocks with a wrapping on the east/south and west flanks by Lower Jurassic Rossland Formation volcanics. The Rossland Group provides contact zones with andesites, basalt flows, tuff and porphyry.

The following map shows the regional geology with the regional outline area in the red box.  The Mine is located roughly in the centre of the box.

Map 4 - Geological Map of Study Area Scale bar is 6km
Red Box contains 257 Level Study Area - Nelson Group Rocks in pink
Rossland Formation Rocks in yellow

Map 4 - Geological Map of Study Area
Scale bar is 6km
Red Box contains 257 Level Study Area
Nelson Group Rocks in pink
Rossland Formation Rocks in yellow