Phoenix Camp, Greenwood Mining Division, British Columbia, Canadai

Regional Level Types
Phoenix Camp	- not defined -
Greenwood Mining Division	Division
British Columbia	Province
Canada	Country

Copper mine.
Located about 3.5 miles east of Greenwood, covering the old townsite of Phoenix.

The geology of the Phoenix area is complex. The mine is underlain by an intricately folded, faulted, metamorphosed and mineralized sequence of Paleozoic and Mesozoic volcanic and sedimentary rocks that are overlain in turn by Eocene volcanic and epiclastic rocks. Paleozoic rocks at Phoenix include the Knob Hill Group, consisting mostly of chert, cherty argillite, greenstone and a minor amount of limestone. Scanty fossil evidence indicates that the Knob Hill rocks may be as old as Devonian, although some geologists suggest a Permo-Carboniferous age. These rocks are unconformably overlain by Brooklyn limestone, sharpstone conglomerate, argillite and the Eholt volcanics believed to be Middle-Upper Triassic age. Small microdiorite intrusions together with possibly coeval andesites of the Eholt Formation, overlie and intrude Brooklyn limestone and sharpstone conglomerate units. North-trending fold axes and a series of north-dipping thrusts, associated with serpentinite slices, have been identified within the pre-Tertiary assemblages. Locally, sedimentary rocks of the Kettle River Formation unconformably overlie the older rocks. These are feldspathic sandstones and conglomerates containing interbeds of rhyolite ash and minor carbonaceous seams. Overlying and intruding these beds are pulaskite and augite porphyry dikes and sills, and trachyte and mafic phonolite volcanics of the Marron Formation.
The ores of the Phoenix area are almost exclusively the result of limestone alteration. The extensive deposits of low grade copper ore, which have given rise to the mining industry at Phoenix, occur in mineralized areas of the Brooklyn limestone, which have all the characteristics of metasomatic replacements. These replacements are composed essentially of chlorite-epidote skarn rocks with variable amounts of garnet, calcite and quartz, accompanied by blebs and disseminations of pyrite, chalcopyrite, magnetite and specularite. The skarn and copper minerals are localized in a band of impure limestone above a well-defined footwall argillite. The thickness of mineralization varies from a maximum of 60 metres to less than 1 metre at the limits of mining. The ore beds are generally inclined downward to the east, but dips vary and a series of north-south faults have produced irregularities.

Other Databases

Link to British Columbia Minfile:	082ESE020

Localities in this Region

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References