Moonshine Mine, Lardeau, Slocan Mining Division, British Columbia, Canadai

Regional Level Types
Moonshine Mine	Mine
Lardeau	- not defined -
Slocan Mining Division	Division
British Columbia	Province
Canada	Country

Lead deposit with a significant weathered zone.

The old Moonshine Mine is located on Crown Grant Lot 1881, just west of Highway 31, one kilometre south of the Davis Creek bridge, south of Lardeau, on Kootenay Lake, in the Slocan district, British Columbia.
The following quote is from B.C. Government site “Minfile”- Minfile No. o82KSE 011, current to 2007:
“Regionally, the area lies within the Kootenay Arc near the margins of the Ancestral North American Terrane. The Kootenay Arc is a curving belt of highly deformed metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks which includes the Upper Proterozoic Horsethief Creek Group, the Eocambrian Hamill Group, the Lower Cambrian Badshot Formation, and the lower Paleozoic Lardeau Group. The volcano-sedimentary sequence is intruded by numerous Ordovician, Devonian and Mississippian granitoid plutons. The rocks have undergone regional metamorphism to middle or upper greenschist facies [Warren and Price, 1993].
The mineralization is hosted by grey and white crystalline limestone of the Lower Cambrian Badshot Formation which is overlain by brown micaceous quartzite of the Marsh Adams Formation of the Hamill Group and phyllite of the Index Formation of the Lardeau Group. The rocks strike northwest and dip 15 to 20 degrees southwest. The limestone forms steep bluffs above and south of the workings.
Massive galena, sphalerite and minor chalcopyrite occur with minor quartz in a narrow discontinuous fractures that strike northeast and dip 65 degrees northwest. The sulphides are present both as fillings of the fracture and as replacement of the limestone, near the base of the unit. Quartz is mainly along the footwall of the fracture. The mineralized fracture ranges in thickness from a few centimetres up to almost 2 metres. Lenses of coarse massive sulphides, up to 1.5 metres long and 30 centimetres, wide occur along the fracture and constitute the best ore.
Limited mining between 1951 and 1968 produced 188,868 grams of silver, 98,366 kilograms of zinc, 86,748 kilograms of lead, 437 kilograms of copper and 31 grams of gold from 573 tonnes milled.”
More details regarding the regional geology can be found in Fyles (1964).
Comment by Giles Peatfield regarding the deposit name:
The property was first worked in the 1890’s, and the Crown Grant for the Moonshine Claim (Lot 1881) was issued to Victoria Mining & Development Company, Ltd. on 28 June, 1898. Several concerns have been active here over the years; Willett Mines Ltd. operated in the 1950’s. It is not correct to refer to this as the Willett Mine – the correct name is Moonshine Mine.

Other Databases

Link to British Columbia Minfile:	082KSE011

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References