Beulah claim, Mount Catherine, Delphine Creek, Invermere, Windermere District, Golden Mining Division, British Columbia, Canadai

Regional Level Types
Beulah claim	Occurrence
Mount Catherine	- not defined -
Delphine Creek	- not defined -
Invermere	Community
Windermere District	Mining District
Golden Mining Division	Division
British Columbia	Province
Canada	Country

The Beulah claim is located at 2897 metres (9,500 feet), just below the summit of Mt. Catherine, near the headwaters of the Delphine Creek, about 28 kilometres west of the village of Invermere, and 115 kilometres north-northwest of Cranbrook, British Columbia, in the Golden Mining Division.

There is a brief description of the property on the British Columbia “Minfile” site, current to 2009. Portions that detail the geological setting are quoted below:
“In the vicinity of the occurrence, rocks of the Kitchener and Dutch Creek formations have been further subdivided and assigned to the Van Creek and Gateway formations. The Van Creek Formation correlates with the Lower Kitchener Formation while the Gateway Formation is equivalent to the lower portion of the Dutch Creek Formation. The Mount Nelson Formation has been subdivided into seven discrete members, a lower quartzite, a lower dolomite, a middle dolomite, a purple dolomite, an upper middle dolomite, an upper quartzite, and an upper dolomite (Open File 1990-26 [Pope, 1990]).

Rocks of the Horsethief Creek Group, Beaverfoot and Mount Forster formations are folded and overthrusted [sic] by rocks of the upper portion of the Dutch Creek Formation and the lower members of the Mount Nelson Formation. The sedimentary rocks have undergone regional metamorphism to at least greenschist facies.

The prospect has been explored with several trenches and a 45 metre long adit. Mineralization is hosted within a sheared quartz-barite vein cutting the middle dolomite member of the Mount Nelson Formation (Open File 1990-26 [Pope, 1990]). The vein varies in width from 5 to 60 centimetres and has been followed along strike for a distance of 150 metres. Galena, bournonite, sphalerite and tetrahedrite occur as narrow streaks and massive pockets [for] the entire length of the vein. Malachite and azurite are common in surface exposures.”

Giles Peatfield comments:
There has been some confusion regarding the name of the property. In 1915, Galloway (1916) knew it as the Beulah.

In 1925, O’Grady (1926) referred to it as the Last Hope and Last Chance claims. Galloway (1926) and Langley (1927) referred to it as the Key Group or Key. Pope (1990) reverted to the Last Hope and Last Chance. Meredith-Jones (2009) added Homestake to the mix. I have chosen to refer to the property using the original name of Beulah. The use of the name Key has led to unfortunate confusion, as detailed below in the section on production.

Galloway (1926) gave a detailed description of the property. Among the points of interest is the information that during 1925, a 3,750 foot tram was erected to move ore from the mine to a point where it could be more easily transported to rail-head, probably by horses or mules. A longer lower tram was contemplated, but there is no evidence to suggest that it was ever built. Galloway (1916) had previously made a prescient comment when he stated that “This property is badly handicapped by its inaccessibility.” At 9,500 feet elevation, this would be amongst the very highest mines with any production in British Columbia, if not in Canada.

The question of production totals for this occurrence is somewhat complicated. The British Columbia Minister of Mines Index 3 (1955) does not list any production from this property. “Minfile” does not list official production from the property, but in the write-up, Meredith-Jones, (2009) stated that “In 1926, a 52 tonne (~57 ton) bulk sample was collected from the adit and shipped to the Trail smelter.” Indeed, Langley (1927), reporting on the Key property, stated that “. . . a shipment of 58 tons was made to the Trail smelter.” This would presumably be hand-sorted ore. However, in the same report, Langley provided a table which showed production from several mines in the Windermere Mining Division, including 28 tons of silver-lead ore from the Key property. This 28 ton amount, incidentally, appears to have been inadvertently attributed to the Silver Key property on Doctor Creek, well to the south – see Mindat entry for “Silver Key Group, Doctor Creek, Golden Mining Division.” Based on a balance of probabilities, I suspect that the 58 ton figure is in error and that 28 tons were shipped to Trail in 1926. Note that the Windermere Mining Division no longer exists – it has been included in the Golden Mining Division.

Comments on the Minerals Reported:
Azurite: Meredith-Jones (2009) reported that “Malachite and azurite are common in surface exposures.” but gave no reference for the identification of azurite.

Baryte: Reported by Pope (1990) who described “. . . a barite-bournonite mylonite with barite porphyroclasts . . . ."

Bournonite: Reported by Pope (1990) – see above for baryte.

Cerussite: Reported by Galloway (1926) as “lead carbonate”.

Galena: First reported by Galloway (1916), as the principal ore mineral.
Limonite?: Galloway (1926) reported that the oxidized ore near surface contained “iron oxide”.

Malachite: Galloway (1926) reported “a little copper carbonate” which I have assumed is most likely malachite.

Quartz: Reported by Galloway (1916).

Sphalerite: Reported by Meredith-Jones (2009). Langley (1927) did not specifically mention sphalerite, but did report assays as high as 5.2% zinc, and Galloway (1926) reported “zinc blende”.

Tetrahedrite subgroup: Both Galloway (1916) and Langley (1927) reported ‘grey copper’. It seems likely that tetrahedrite was a serious carrier of silver; Langley reported that “A sample of selected ore containing a lot of grey-copper which was taken assayed: Gold, 0.1 oz. ; silver, 471.2 oz. ; lead, 13.8 per cent. ; copper, 15.8 per cent.” Interestingly, Galloway (1926) reported several sample assays, of high-grade lead-bearing material (assays 8.0 to 70 per cent) but with very low copper values (less than 1.5 percent) – silver assays for these samples ranged from 21.5 to 97 oz. per ton, much less than for the copper-rich material reported by Langley. This tends to confirm that the tetrahedrite carried abundant silver.

Giles Peatfield
BASc. (Geological Engineering) University of British Columbia 1966.
PhD Queen's University at Kingston 1978.
Worked for Texas Gulf Sulphur / Texasgulf Inc. / Kidd Creek Mines - 1966 to 1985.
Vancouver based consultant 1982 to retirement in 2016

Other Databases

Link to British Columbia Minfile:	082KSE057

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References