CASSIAR ASBESTOS MINE

LOCATION

The Cassiar Asbestos Mine is located in north central British
Columbia on McDame Mountain in the Cassiar Range. It is linked to
major highways by an all weather gravel road 86 miles southwest from
Mile 649 on the Alaska Highway near Watson Lake. Air service is pro-
vided by C.P.A. to Watson Lake. Transportation between Cassiar and
Watson Lake is provided by company limousine daily except Sundays.
The Cassiar road is a northern portion of the proposed road to Stewart
on the Pacific Coast.

HISTORICAL

The existence of this deposit had been known by native hunters
for many years. Stories are told of mountain sheep bedding down in
matted fibre that accumulated from weathering of the outcrop. In
1950, four prospectors, Sittler, Nelson and the Kirk brothers, staked
the property and their holdings were acquired by Conwest Exploration
of Toronto, who commenced development of the orebody. A small
tonnage of ore was mined and processed from the talus ore in the fall of
1952 and a mill was started in 1953 at a rated capacity of 150 tons
per day. Since that time the operation has expanded steadily to its
present capacity of 2,000 tons per. day. Ore originally was brought
down by means of trucks over a road six miles in length. To eliminate
the long truck haul, a flight conveyor within a steel chute brought the
ore down the steep face of the mountain (in years 1953 — 55) from
elevation 6,200 to 4,800, where 10 ton trucks hauled to the mill.
This system was abandoned in favour of the aerial tramline, construction
of which started in 1954.

OREBODY

The orebody is located at an elevation of 6,200 feet on McDame
Mountain, which is 6,800 feet high. It occurs as a large lenticular ore-