Mount Copeland, Revelstoke Mining Division, British Columbia, Canadai

Regional Level Types
Mount Copeland	Mountain
Revelstoke Mining Division	Division
British Columbia	Province
Canada	Country

The former Mount Copeland molybdenite mine is located within the Frenchman Cap Dome in the Shuswap Metamorphic Complex, about 32 kilometres north-west of the city of Revelstoke, British Columbia. There is an extensive description of the prospect on the British Columbia “Minfile” site, current to 2014, to which interested readers are referred; selected excerpts are quoted below:
“The Mount Copeland deposit lies within metamorphic rocks flanking the southern margin of Frenchman Cap Dome. The Frenchman Cap Dome is one of a series of gneiss domes that occur along the eastern border of the Precambrian-Paleozoic(?) Shuswap Metamorphic Complex which is a narrow belt of high-grade metamorphic rocks in the Columbian orogen of southeastern British Columbia. This dome, which is centred 32 kilometres northwest of Revelstoke, has a core zone of migmatite and a fringing zone of metasedimentary rocks.
The metasedimentary rocks comprises a series of mappable units of biotite schist and grey schist, white quartzite, calc-silicate gneiss and marble, and grey gneiss. Concordant bodies of nepheline syenite gneiss occur with the calc-silicate gneiss and marble unit. Field, petrographic, and to a lesser extent, chemical evidence suggest the syenitic gneisses were emplaced as sills, and that these sills were emplaced before Shuswap deformation and metamorphism (Fyles, 1970; McMillan, 1974). The margins of the syenite bodies are nepheline-free, which may be the result of reaction with enclosing rocks.”
“The pegmatites and aplites have similar mineralogies. Both are leucocratic relative to the enclosing gneisses but both have local mafic-rich folia and lenses. Potassium feldspar is the dominant mineral. Locally the pegmatite matrix consists of masses of calcite that contain clusters of biotite, pyrrhotite, pyrite and ilmenite. Minor amounts of zircon are present; quartz is rare but occurs interstitially or as vug fillings. The oxide minerals, magnetite and ilmenite, are fairly common and locally form equant blobs up to 2 centimetres across. Sulphide minerals present include pyrite, pyrrhotite, molybdenite, and rare chalcopyrite. Sulphides fill cracks in the oxide minerals and apparently post-date them.
Molybdenite has a number of habits; it may be disseminated, form clumps and rosettes of crystals along hairline cracks, fill vugs, or occur as intergrowths with calcite, sericite, and potassium feldspar. Large crystals of molybdenite contain inclusions of potassium feldspar, calcite and zircon. However, molybdenite also occurs in potassium feldspar crystals and commonly is concentrated around potassium feldspar megacrysts in the pegmatites. Pyrrhotite and pyrite are also distributed as disseminations, fracture fillings, and line or fill vugs.”
“Molybdenite showings on the north flank of Copeland Ridge were discovered in 1964. Underground exploration commenced in September 1967. A decision to go into production was made in 1969 and installation of a 180-tonne-per-day crusher and concentrator was completed in February 1970. Development work was underway simultaneously and production officially began on July 1, 1970. At that time, reserves were 163 278 tonnes grading 1.09 per cent molybdenum (Geology, Exploration and Mining in British Columbia, 1973). Production ceased in July 1974 and the mine was officially closed in October 1974.”
Further comment by Giles Peatfield on the locality:
The original mining interest in the area involved the molybdenite occurrences, and resulted in the underground mine as mentioned above. In recent years, the focus of interest has shifted to examining the area for potential sources of material with elevated REE contents. An example of the values found is given in the following quote:
“In 2011, Torch River Resources Ltd. extracted 48 rock chip samples from Mt. Copeland. Highlights include sample 832, which assayed 6100 grams per tonne cerium, 5780 grams per tonne lanthanum, 969 grams per tonne neodymium, 405 grams per tonne praseodymium, 104.5 grams per tonne samarium, 87 grams per tonne dysprosium, 712 grams per tonne yttrium, 145 grams per tonne zirconium, 0.0589 per cent molybdenum and 88.2 grams per tonne niobium (Press Release, Torch River Resources Ltd., January 11, 2012).”
For more information, interested readers are directed to the “Minfile” page, and to the reports of Kikauka (2007, 2010 and 2011).
Comments by Giles Peatfield on some of the minerals reported from the locality:
Aegerine: Reported in thin section by Currie (1976).
Actinolite: Reported only by Kikauka (2010), with no supporting data. Regarded as tentative.
Adularia: Reported only by Wilson (1965) – probably valid.
Allanite?: Reported as “possible” in thin section by Leitch (2010).
Analcime

Reported only by Kikauka (2010), with no supporting data. Regarded as tentative.
Ankerite?: Reported as “possible” in thin section by Leitch (2010).
Cancrinite: Reported only by Kikauka (2010), with no supporting data. Regarded as tentative.
Columbite-Tantalite?: Reported as “possible” in thin section by Leitch (2010).
Hematite: Reported by Payne (2007) in thin section.
Iddingsite?: Reported as “not certain” in thin section by Leitch (2010).
Monazite?: Reported as “tentative” in thin section by Leitch (2010).
Oligoclase: Reported only by Kikauka (2010), with no supporting data. Regarded as tentative.
Perthite: Reported in thin section by Currie (1976).
Riebeckite: Reported only by Kikauka (2010), with no supporting data. Regarded as tentative.
Rinkite: Reported in thin section by Currie (1976).
Rutile: Reported in thin section by Wilson (1965) and by Payne (2007).
Scheelite: Reported only by Kikauka (2010).
Sillimanite: Reported in thin section by Currie (1976).
Sphalerite: Reported by Payne (2007) in thin section.
Tourmaline: Reported only by Kikauka (2010).
“Zeolite”: Reported only by Kikauka (2010), with no further data.
In addition to these minerals, it must be noted that Leitch (2010) saw several minerals that he could not identify, but that he suspected were REE bearing species. Clearly, more detailed mineralogical work would be valuable.

Other Databases

Link to British Columbia Minfile:	082M 002

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References