Carolin Mine (Ladner Creek Mine), Hope, New Westminster Mining Division, British Columbia, Canada

Located 18 kilometers NE of Hope, British Columbia, Canada and accessible by way of the Carolin Mines exit from the Coquihalla highway and then from a 6 kilometer long dirt-gravel road.

The mine itself is located along the Coquihalla Gold Belt, which also hosted the Emancipation, Aurum, Pipestem and Ward properties. The mine produced 45,000 ounces of gold from 900,000 tons of ore between the years of 1982 and 1984 (Century).

G.E. Ray discusses the local geology in detail in the reference below, but, in essence, the Hozameen fault is associated with local greenstones—the Coquihalla serpentinites. The form of epigenetic mesothermal gold-bearing mineralization at the Carolyn Mine is of the “sulphide-rich albite-quartz-carbonate-gold [type of] mineralization within folded sedimentary rocks in the basal portion of the Ladner Group” (Ray).

Roads that spur off from the road to the mine, and other quarries and spurs off from the main higway in the general vicinity of the mine have some interest, or potential, for mineral collecting. The species noted to be present in the vicinity, not the mine per se, which was posted off limits during a site visit (ROM), include clinozoisite, chrysotile variety asbestos, talc, pyrite, and an undetermined member of the feldspar group that sometimes occurs in gemmy colorless crystals of up to 3 cm in size.

References:

Century Mining Corporation. “Exploration British Columbia: Carolin Mine.” 2005. 3 Sept. 2006. http://www.centurymining.com/bc.php.

Government of British Columbia, Ministry of Energy, Mines, and Petroleum. “MINFILE Record Summary 092HNW007.” 2006. 3 Sept. 2006. http://www.em.gov.bc.ca/Mining/Geolsurv/minfile/App/Summary.aspx?minfilno=092HNW007

Ray, Gerald E. “Bulletin 79: The Geology and Mineralization of the Coquihalla Gold Belt and Hozameen Fault System, Southwestern British Columbia.” 1990. Government of British Columbia Ministry of Energy, Mines, and Petroleum Resources. 3 Sept. 2006. http://www.em.gov.bc.ca/mining/Geolsurv/Publications/Bulletins/Bull79/toc.htm.