70

At the portal of the adit the sheared zone ranges from 8 to 4 feet in
width and contains a quartz-arsenopyrite vein 1 foot wide. The vein
consists of about 40 per cent quartz and 60 per cent arsenopyrite. Other
quartz-arsenopyrite stringers lie in both walls of the sheared zone. The
vein narrows gradually within the adit, consisting of 7 inches of almost
solid arsenopyrite 20 feet from the portal and 8 inches of arsenopyrite with
quartz 35 feet from the portal. Where it narrows to 3 inches another quartz-
arsenopyrite vein, 6 inches wide, comes in along the hanging-wall side
of the sheared zone. The latter vein maintains an average width of 6
inches for 50 feet to the face of the adit, and for this distance lies along
the hanging-wall side of a sheared zone 15 inches wide. A 5-inch channel
sample taken across the quartz-arsenopyrite vein 40 feet from the portal
assayed: gold 0-36 ounce a ton; silver, 0-05 ounce a ton.

In an open-cut at elevation 4,650 feet, the sheared zone is 4 feet
wide with 12 inches on the hanging-wall side replaced by arsenopyrite.
At the next open-cut, elevation 4,715 feet, the mineralization has changed.
A lens consisting of black sphalerite and pyrrhotite cut by stringers of
chalcopyrite occurs along the fissured zone. The lens is 30 feet long, with
an average width of 6 inches. The andesite wall-rock is mineralized over
a width of several feet on either side of the 30-foot lens by small stringers
of similar sulphides. The bedrock is washed clean for 30 feet at elevation
4,800 feet, and there the sheared zone is 8 inches wide. A parallel sheared
zone 6 inches wide lies 12 feet to the southeast. Both are well mineralized
with arsenopyrite, but are leached and oxidized by surface weathering.
In a natural exposure 100 feet farther up the slope there are three parallel
sheared zones, 6 and 10 feet apart, respectively. They are each 3 inches
in width and contain very little arsenopyrite.

Silver Lake Group (49)

References: Ann. Repts., Minister of Mines, B.C.: 1917, p. 124; 1926, p. 1380; 1927,
p. 187; 1928, p. 164; 1929, p. 165; 1931, p. 73; 1933, p. 98; 1934, p. C6.

The Silver Lake group, owned by Peter Schufer of Smithers, is 8
miles due northwest of Smithers on the northwest shoulder of Hudson Bay
Mountain. There are seven claims in the group, the Silver Lake No. 1,
Silver Lake No. 2, Silver Lake No. 3, Bee, Cee, A Fraction, and Second
Glacier. The principal mineral occurrences are on a plateau between
elevations of 6,500 and 7,000 feet. The claims are due south of the Silver
Creek group, from which they are reached by switchback pack-trail. A
tractor road 4 miles long connects the latter property with the road to
Lake Kathlyn and Smithers near the foot of the mountain.

The property was located under the title of White Heather group by
Frank Martin a few years prior to 1916, and a few tons of hand-sorted
silver-copper ore were shipped at that time. L. S. McGill and P. Schufer
restaked in 1926, and prospected several newly discovered silver-lead
veins during the next few years. W. R. Wilson and Sons held an option
on the property for several years commencing in 1929, and carried out
considerable prospecting work by digging numerous open-cuts through
the shallow covering of rock debris and by driving a short adit.