108

ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS

The tonnage of the various deposits, based on careful surveys and
measurements of thickness as determined in various trenches and pits,
was determined by MacKenzie to be as follows:

Forrest deposit
Denain creek..
Feo creek.
Rae creek.

McClure Mountain deposits (two).
Near McClure mountain

669,350

“Deposits of limonite similar (to the above) are reported from the
vicinity of some of the headwaters of Big creek . . . . Prospectors
. . . . state that they are thin and of small extent.”

Analyses of a number of samples show the iron content to range
between 44-0 per cent and 51-6 per cent.

Owing to the nature of the country to the south, a railroad to the area
would have to enter the district from the north by following up Taseko
valley from Chilko river, a distance of about 75 miles. . . . “From
Chilko river a possible route . . . . (is by way of) Homathco river
to Bute inlet on the Pacific coast.”

ASHCROFT MINING DIVISION
(30) Thompson and Fraser Rivers above Lytton

Bodies of magnetite have been reported to occur at various places
northward of Lytton on or near both Thompson and Fraser rivers.
The available information for the most part has not been verified by the
authors of the various published statements.

Dawson! states that it was reported to him that magnetite occurs
“about 23 miles above Lytton, on the Fraser river, where the vein is
reported to be 20 feet in thickness.”

A sample of magnetite received by the Mines Branch? is said to have
been obtained from the head of Nelson creek, 12 miles from Ashcroft.

Magnetite has been reported to occur on Thompson river east of
Lytton at three localities, but possibly two or all three references are to
the same occurrence. An iron-bearing deposit is said® to lie 10 miles east
of Lytton. About 6 miles southeast (sic) of Lytton, on the east side of
Thompson river there is . . . .  ‘‘a group of claims on which there
are a few showings of iron ore. The ore is magnetite, and it lies in layers
between gneiss in a nearly horizontal position. The thickest bed is 19
feet and the others are much thinner’! . . . . The third reference
is by Dawson? who states that a vein or irregular mass of magnetite accomp-
anied by much pyrite outcrops in a ravine half a mile below Thompson, on
Thompson river.

21 deman, E., and Bolton, L. L.: ‘Iron Ore Occurrences in Canada’’; Mines Branch, Dept. of Mines,
Canada, vol. 2, p. 24 (1917).

Rept., Minister of Mines, B.C., 1890, p. 378.
5 L. B.: quoted in ‘‘Iron Ore Occurrences in Canada’’; Mines Branch, Dept. of Mines, Canada, vol. 2,

7).
F Dez EOD G. M.: “The Mineral Wealth of British Columbia’; Geol. Surv., Canada, Ann, Rept., vol. III,
pt. R, p. 151.