Red Rose Mine, Omineca Mining Division, British Columbia, Canadai

Regional Level Types
Red Rose Mine	Mine
Omineca Mining Division	Mining Division
British Columbia	Province
Canada	Country

The following quotes are from B.C. Government site “Minfile”- Minfile No. 093M 067:
“Siltstone and argillite of the Middle Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous Bowser Lake Group are intruded by the Late Cretaceous Rocher Deboule granodiorite stock of the Bulkley Plutonic Suite. The sediments are hornfelsed by emplacement of the stock and are intruded by northeast trending diorite dikes which are older than the stock. Bedding in the sediments strikes 015 degrees and dips 30 to 50 degrees west. The Chicago Creek fault, striking 010 degrees and dipping 70 degrees west, cuts all rocks and is a normal fault with a dip slip of 600 to 900 metres.
The Red Rose vein-occupied shear is a small, 145 degree striking, 65 degree west dipping fault, mainly hosted in a diorite dike. The vein is 1.2 to 2.8 metres wide, 60 to 120 metres along strike, and at least 335 metres downdip. It is pegmatitic and contains largely quartz with lesser amounts of feldspar, biotite, hornblende, ankerite, tourmaline, apatite, scheelite, ferberite, chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite, molybdenite and uraninite. Extensive lenses of chalcopyrite occur in the hanging wall shear. The biggest concentrations of radioactive material are erratically distributed with molybdenite in the wallrocks.
The vein has been developed and mined above the 1100-level and little is known below this level. Between 1942 and 1954, 103,424 tonnes produced 1,002,839 kilograms of tungsten. It is estimated that there are 13,600 tonnes of ore at a grade of approximately 1.9 per cent WO3 above the 1100-level (Bulletin 43). A 75-centimetre sample taken in 1914 assayed 28.8 grams per tonne gold, 110 grams per tonne silver and 3.9 per cent copper (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1914). A radioactive sample from the mine assayed 0.35 per cent equivalent uranium (Geological Survey of Canada Economic Geology 16).
Probable reserves above the 335-metre level are 13,606 tonnes grading 1.18 per cent tungsten (1.5 per cent WO3; conversion to tungsten used a factor of 1.2611).”
Further comments by Giles Peatfield regarding minerals reported:
I have been able to find no published confirmation of the presence of uraninite. It has been assumed to be present based on radioactivity of some material studied – see for example Stevenson (1947).
Stevenson (1947) quoted analytical data suggesting that the arsenopyrite he studied contained about 4% cobalt.
Four minerals (native copper, covellite, marcasite and siderite) are reported only by O’Neill (1919).
Interestingly, Stevenson (1947) does not report pyrite, although it was noted by several other writers.
Safflorite was reported by O’Neill (1919), and also by Stevenson (1943), although Stevenson did not list the mineral in his 1947 Economic Geology paper. Was he in 1943 simply reiterating O’Neill’s report? Safflorite at Red Rose must remain tentative.
Lang (1952) and Stevenson (1947) both mention wolframite, but give no further information. Was this actually ferberite, which is also reported by Stevenson?
Stevenson (1947) lists tungstite as “probable”.
And finally, of personal interest to me is that none of the writers reported sphalerite!- Giles Peatfield

References

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Link to British Columbia Minfile:	093M++067

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