144

LODE DEPOSITS

Little prospecting has been done in the Rocky Mountains east of
Parsnip and Finlay Rivers, and so far only minor gold and copper deposits
have been reported. Ores of silver-lead-zine, copper, barite, and gold, and
deposits of mica have been found in the district west of the Rocky Mountain
Trench (Dolmage, 1928; Roots, 1948; and Armstrong, 1949), but only
descriptions of those properties lying east of the Trench are within the scope
of this report.

MOUNT SELWYN GOLD QUARTZ

Mineral claims were staked as early as 1899 on some of the quartzite
bands that together with schist and limestone form the bulk of Mount
Selwyn on the south side of Peace River 8 miles east of Finlay Forks. The
quartzite was said to contain a little gold. In 1922 and 1923, Peace River
Mining and Milling Company carried out some surface work on nine
Crown-granted mineral claims on this mountain. A small test mill was
erected, and 12 tons of rock were treated, but according to the owners
the plant developed mechanical difficulties and did not yield satisfactory
results.

J. D. Galloway visited these claims in 1923, and his report (1924)
states that quartz occurs in small stringers and veinlets throughout the
quartzite, and, in the aggregate, forms a negligible percentage of the
whole. The owners, however, claimed that gold to the value of from $2
to $4 a ton occurred generally throughout the quartzite bands without
relation to the quartz.

Douglas Lay visited the property for the British Columbia Depart-
ment of Mines in 1928. Five samples collected by him yielded not even
a trace of gold. The property was under option to Gold Mountain Mines
Syndicate in 1933, at which time additional sampling was done by J. G.
MacGregor. Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company did some
sampling in 1935. Rejects from some three hundred and fifteen samples
collected by the Company were sent to the Department of Mines at Victoria.
The Provincial Assayer quartered these samples and prepared a 70-pound
bulk sample, representative of the rejects, which he sent to the Depart-
ment of Mines at Ottawa. An amalgamation test showed that it contained
only a faint trace of gold. mi Ne)

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COPPER EAST OF FINLAY RIVER 74 ij 3] W953 S¥Seo

A copper occurrence east of Finlay River and about 20 miles north of
Fort Grahame has been described by Dolmage (1928). The deposit is above
timber-line on the steep side of a high limestone mountain, and consists of
a mass of enargite several feet long enclosed in unaltered limestone. Below
the enargite the limestones are stained with malachite, giving the deposit,
when viewed from a distance, the appearance of being much larger than
it is. Efforts to find more extensive deposits have been unsuccessful.

“About 15 miles northwest of this deposit and at the same distance
east of Finlay River, a large body of disseminated pyrite and marcasite
enclosed in limestone and associated with veins of siderite was examined.
No other minerals however, are present, and assays of samples taken show
only traces of gold. Along a line Joining these two deposits and extending
far beyond to the northwest, rusty outcrops of siderite and pyritized