Silver Key Group, Doctor Creek, Golden Mining Division, British Columbia, Canadai

Regional Level Types
Silver Key Group	Occurrence
Doctor Creek	Creek
Golden Mining Division	Division
British Columbia	Province
Canada	Country

The Silver Key property is located at the headwaters of the east fork of Doctor Creek, about 30 kilometres south-west of the village of Canal Flats, and 63 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 2012. The portion of this that details the geological setting is quoted below:
“The occurrence is hosted within the lower division of the Aldridge Formation of the Proterozoic Purcell Supergroup of southeastern British Columbia.
In the vicinity of the occurrence, the Aldridge Formation consists of quartz wacke, quartz arenite, siltstone and lesser argillite that are intruded by thick gabbroic sills of the Proterozoic Moyie intrusions. The sedimentary rocks are characteristically rusty weathering, fine to medium grained and thin to medium bedded. Individual beds range from a few millimetres to 30 centimetres thick. Discontinuous horizons of intraformational conglomerate were noted in a number of localities. Finely disseminated pyrrhotite is common. The sedimentary rocks of the Lower Aldridge Formation have undergone both thermal and regional metamorphism to at least greenschist facies. Biotite alteration in the argillaceous units and quartz-sericite alteration in the arenite and wacke have generated widespread phyllitic and schistose textures.”
“The occurrence consists of several opencuts and a small adit 130 metres long. Mineralization consists of disseminated galena and pyrite within structurally controlled quartz veins 2 to 5 centimetres wide that strike due north and dip 45 degrees west. The veins are within tightly folded and sheared quartzite. At least six veins are known to exist.”
Giles Peatfield comments:
For a detailed description of this occurrence, refer to Maconachie (1939).
The question of production totals for this occurrence is a vexed one. “Minfile” lists production in 1926 of 25 tonnes (27.5 tons) of silver, lead and zinc bearing material. The 1955 Index No. 3 to publications lists 32 tons for 1926. Total production for “Minfile” (1926; 1936; 1930; and 1940) is 29 tonnes (32 tons). The problem is that the property was not staked until 1934, and there is no mention of anything from here in the Annual Report of the Minister of Mines for 1926. To add further to the confusion, Termuende (1996) reports (with no reference) that a total of 308 tons of ore was produced. I can find no other mention of this latest figure. It is impossible to say what the production from this occurrence really was, but I think it is safe to assume that the 1926 figures do not refer to this property, and that if there was any production it was probably very minor – perhaps a few pack-horse loads for testing. In this regard, Maconachie (1939) wrote that “Since 1936, the road has been improved at its upper end so that it is now possible to drive for 15 miles from the highway; the succeeding 11 miles of trail from the end of the road to the camp needs considerable further work, including some relocation, before permitting of economical horse-packing in either summer or winter.” The solution to the problem is simple. Langley (1927) reported on the Key property, formerly the Beulah, situated west of Invermere on Delphine Creek; his table of local producers for 1926 includes “Key, Invermere, 28 tons, Silver-lead” – so it is clear that someone in the Department of Mines simply took the production for the Key property and applied it to the as yet un-staked Silver Key property. Given the property names, it is easy to see how the mistake was made.
Comments on the Minerals Reported:
Arsenopyrite: Reported only by Sargent (1936) who reported “some” arsenopyrite with quartz, siderite, pyrite, galena and fine-grained sphalerite.
Boulangerite: This mineral was identified by X-ray analysis by Thompson (1951), who wrote that the samples he worked with “. . . vary [from] massive gneissic galena intimately mixed with boulangerite to mixtures of quartzite with siderite containing needles of and vugs lined with boulangerite.” Dr. J. D. Scott, working with specimens collected by Peatfield in 1969, confirmed the X-ray analysis of Thompson (personal communication July 1983). In this case, the boulangerite needles were found to be in vugs lined with tiny clear quartz crystals. See also Traill (1970, 1983).
Chalcopyrite: This appears to be not common; it was reported only by O’Grady (1935), who in describing two “porphyritic granite dykes” found that “The two dykes exposed, as well as the adjacent quartzite, are irregularly mineralized with pyrite, occasional galena, sphalerite, and chalcopyrite.”
Galena: This appears to be the main “ore mineral”, and is common. All the workers referenced described it. Thompson (1951) made the point that some of his material contained “gneissic galena”.
Graphite: Reported by Maconachie (1939), who wrote that “Impurities originally contained within the quartzites have produced considerable muscovite and graphite as products of regional metamorphism.”
Malachite: Reported by Maconachie (1939), who in describing one of the veins wrote that “There, too, the vein is bedded and consists of strong mineralization by galena and some tetrahedrite with the production of some secondary copper minerals, notably malachite.”
Mica Group: As noted above, Maconachie (1939) reported muscovite; both O’Grady (1935) and Sargent (1936) described the host quartzites as “sericitized”.
Pyrite: This is common; reported by O’Grady (1935), Sargent (1936) and Maconachie (1939).
Quartz: Reported by all workers.
Siderite: Reported by O’Grady (1935), Sargent (1936) and Thompson (1951); it was also X-ray confirmed by Dr. J. D. Scott (see above for boulangerite).
Sphalerite: Reported by O’Grady (1935), Sargent (1936) and Thompson (1951). It is not as abundant as is galena.
Tetrahedrite subgroup: Maconachie (1939) mentioned this in several places. It is perhaps significant that assays of galena without tetrahedrite tend to have low silver values, whereas if there is tetrahedrite with the galena the silver assays tend to be high. In this regard, Thompson (1951) mentioned that “Assays of over 200 oz. of silver per ton are believed to be due to argentiferous tetrahedrite but none was seen in the samples examined.”

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Link to British Columbia Minfile:	082KSE053

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References