Nip And Tuck Mine, Red Line Creek, Invermere, Golden Mining Division, British Columbia, Canadai

Regional Level Types
Nip And Tuck Mine	Mine (Abandoned)
Red Line Creek	- not defined -
Invermere	- not defined -
Golden Mining Division	Division
British Columbia	Province
Canada	Country

The former Nip And Tuck (Tecumseh) mine is located at 2553 metres (8,375 feet), near the headwaters of Red Line Creek, north of Red Line Peak, about 27 kilometres west of the village of Invermere or 118 kilometres north-northwest of Cranbrook, British Columbia, in the Golden Mining Division.

There is a description of the property, including regional geology, on the British Columbia “Minfile” site, current to 1995. Relevant portions are quoted below:

“Regionally, the area is underlain by Proterozoic clastic sedimentary rocks of the Purcell and Windermere supergroups and by lower Paleozoic strata of the Beaverfoot and Mount Forster formations . . . .

The Purcell Supergroup strata include the Aldridge, Creston, Kitchener, Dutch Creek and Mount Nelson formations. The Windermere Supergroup unconformably overlies the Purcell Supergroup rocks and includes the Toby Formation and Horsethief Creek Group ([McLaren, et al., 1990] in [British Columbia Geological Survey] Paper 1990-01[ pp. 29-38]).

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]).”

“The Nip and Tuck occurrence is hosted within a north-trending fault that cuts the middle dolomite member of the Mount Nelson Formation (Open File 1990-26, Figure 19b [Pope, 1990]). Rocks of the Mount Nelson Formation are thinly laminated to massive, buff to grey dolomite and dolomitic limestone.

Mineralization is of two types. The first type is represented by the East, No. 1 and 3 veins. These consist of tabular to pod-like bodies of manganiferous siderite and pyrite, with variable amounts of galena, sphalerite, tetrahedrite and stibnite [see below for a discussion of stibnite]. The galena has numerous inclusions of polybasite and freieslebenite and some native antimony (Open File 1990-26 [Pope, 1990]). The second type, represented by the No. 2 and 4 veins, is as quartz veinlets containing tetrahedrite and galena within dolomitized limestone. The host carbonate rocks have been replaced by manganiferous siderite and pyrite (Assessment Report 11739 [Price, 1982]).

The East vein lies on the east limb of a fold and the No. 1 vein is situated in a fault zone cutting the crest of the fold parallel to its axis. The No. 2 vein is approximately 30 metres west of the No. 1 vein and consists of disseminated mineralization within dolomitized limestone. The No. 3 vein is a body of altered limestone, 5 to 6 metres wide, containing disseminated pyrite and galena. The area is southeast of the No. 2 vein. The No. 4 vein lies between the No. 1 and 2 veins. The area of veining is 4 to 6 metres across and extends for 150 metres (Assessment Report 11739 [Price, 1982]).”

Giles Peatfield Ph.D., P.Eng (Retired) comments:
This old mine is one of a group of similar occurrences in the local area. Interested readers should also refer to these “Minfile” properties: Iron Cap and Helldiver (082KSE036); Maple, Silver King (082KSE047); and Ptarmigan (082KSE030).

Note that the “Minfile” write-up refers to two different styles of mineralization. This may account for the differences in minerals reported by various workers.

The production total for this mine, for intermittent shipments between 1904 and 1923, is listed by “Minfile” as 161 tonnes, yielding 14,809 ounces of silver, 82,315 kilograms of lead, and 1 ounce of gold. This production was from presumably hand-sorted ore shipped to the Trail smelter. A caveat here is that we do not know if the amounts of metal produced are based on mine-head grades or smelter production figures.

Comments on the Minerals Reported:
Antimony: Pope (1990) reported native antimony as minor inclusions in galena.

Arsenopyrite?: The only reference to arsenopyrite that I can find is by Kerruish (1922), who was manager of the mine at that time. I would regard this as possible but tentative.

Boulangerite: Pope (1990) reported boulangerite as one of the minerals in the ore.

Calcite: Galloway (1916) reported ‘lime’ by which I assume he meant calcite.

Cerussite: This was reported by both Galloway (1916) and Kerruish (1922), in both cases as ‘lead carbonate’.

Dolomite: Price (1982) reported dolomite, and since the host rocks are at least in part dolomites, this is considered legitimate.

Freieslebenite: Reported by Pope (1990) as minor inclusions in galena.
Galena: Reported by all workers; Price (1982) made the comment that the galena was ‘argentiferous’.

Gold: Kerruish (1922), in describing the East Vein, commented that “No work of any consequence has been done on this vein to date, but the outlook for discoveries of shoots of ore along it is very promising; gold float being found along the strike of it for several hundred feet.” In light of the fact that a very small amount of gold was produced from the mine, this seems reasonable.

Malachite: Price (1982) observed malachite in several places, usually in conjunction with tetrahedrite.

Polybasite: Pope (1990) described this as minor inclusions in galena – see above for freieslebenite.

Pyrite: Reported by Price (1982) and Pope (1990); earlier workers did not see it, or did not regard it as important enough to mention. It does not appear to a common mineral in this occurrence.

Quartz: Reported only by Galloway (1916) and Price (1982) – again, did others see it and not bother to mention it?

Siderite: This was reported by Galloway (1916). Price (1982) described it as ‘manganiferous’, based on the observation of black staining or what he called “Mn oxides” on several rock samples collected for analysis.

Stibnite?: This was reported only by Price (1982). He described one rock sample as pyrite with stibnite from the dump of an adit at 8940 feet elevation. His analysis of this sample was: 0.03% Cu; 17.2% Pb; 0.01% Zn, 9.36 oz/ton Ag; and 8.40% Sb. I think it probable that Price mistook boulangerite for stibnite – not difficult to do. Consider that although his analysis was 17.2% Pb, he did not mention galena in the sample. Also, using atomic ratios (as suggested by Dr. J. D. Scott) the ratio of lead to antimony (1.20) is not far from the ratio for theoretical boulangerite (1.268) derived from figures in Palache, Berman and Frondel (1944). There is an added complication in that Price’s sample appears to have been taken from the adjacent Iron Cap property. This occurrence has similar mineralogy, so the argument is still valid.

Sphalerite: Early workers (Galloway (1916); Kerruish (1922)) reported ‘zinc blende’. Pope (1990) reported sphalerite, but described the average assay of the ore as showing only 0.7 per cent zinc. This coupled with the fact that there was no recorded zinc production from the mine suggests that sphalerite was a minor constituent of the ore.

Tetrahedrite subgroup: Galloway (1916) reported ‘grey copper’; Kerruish (1922) ‘gray copper’. Price (1982) reported float material that assayed: “0.370 oz/ton gold, 330 oz/ton silver, and 14.8% copper, with negligible lead and zinc.” Pope (1990) reported tetrahedrite as invading and replacing the primary pyrite. It seems likely that tetrahedrite was a major carrier of silver; it is curious that no copper was listed in the production figures.

Wad: I have used this generic term for the black Mn oxides described by Price (1982) – see siderite above.

Other Databases

Link to British Columbia Minfile:	082KSE037

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References