Delphine Mine, Delphine Creek, Invermere, Windermere District, Golden Mining Division, British Columbia, Canadai

Regional Level Types
Delphine Mine	Mine (Inactive)
Delphine Creek	Creek
Invermere	Community
Windermere District	Mining District
Golden Mining Division	Division
British Columbia	Province
Canada	Country

The former Delphine mine is located at 1950 metres (6,400 feet), on the south-east flank of Mt. Catherine, near the headwaters of Delphine Creek, about 28 kilometres west of the village of Invermere or 115 kilometres north-northwest of Cranbrook, British Columbia, in the Golden Mining Division.

There is a description of the property, including regional geology, on the British Columbia “Minfile” site, current to 1995. Relevant portions are quoted below:
“Regionally, the area is underlain by Proterozoic clastic sedimentary rocks of the Purcell and Windermere supergroups and by lower Paleozoic strata of the Beaverfoot and Mount Forster formations . . . .
The Purcell Supergroup strata include the Aldridge, Creston, Kitchener, Dutch Creek and Mount Nelson formations. The Windermere Supergroup unconformably overlies the Purcell Supergroup rocks and includes the Toby Formation and Horsethief Creek Group ([McLaren, et al., 1990] in [British Columbia Geological Survey] Paper 1990-01[ pp. 29-38]).
In the vicinity of the occurrence, rocks of the Kitchener and Dutch Creek formations have been further subdivided and assigned to the Van Creek and Gateway formations. The Van Creek Formation correlates with the Lower Kitchener Formation while the Gateway Formation is equivalent to the lower portion of the Dutch Creek Formation. The Mount Nelson Formation has been subdivided into seven discrete members, a lower quartzite, a lower dolomite, a middle dolomite, a purple dolomite, an upper middle dolomite, an upper quartzite, and an upper dolomite (Open File 1990-26 [Pope, 1990]).”
“The Delphine mine occurrence consists of a quartz-carbonate vein 0.3 to 1 metre wide within a normal fault. The fault strikes 150 degrees, dips 78 degrees northeast and cuts the middle dolomite member of the Mount Nelson Formation. Ore minerals include galena and tetrahedrite with minor sphalerite, pyrite and chalcopyrite (Open File 1990-26, page 32 [Pope, 1990]). The vein, where it has been stoped for 60 metres, had an average width of 1 metre and was of solid galena ([British Columbia] Minister of Mines Annual Report 1898 [Robertson, 1899]).”

Giles Peatfield Ph.D., P.Eng (Retired) comments:
It should be noted that the solid galena material originally produced has been mined out, and the working have long since deteriorated to the point of being mostly inaccessible. Pope (1990), who gained access to an old stope, wrote that “Traces of massive galena are present around the edges of the stope, which is up to 2 metres wide.”

The production total for this mine is listed by “Minfile” as 170 tonnes, yielding 19,751 ounces of silver, 46,880 kilograms of lead, and 3,025 kilograms of copper. This production was from presumably hand-sorted ore shipped to the Trail smelter, in the period 1899 to 1905. A caveat here is that we do not know if the amounts of metal produced are based on mine-head grades or smelter production figures.

Comments on the Minerals Reported:

Baryte: Reported by Pope (1990) who described “. . . small crosscutting barite-chalcopyrite veins. . . .”

Carrolite: Pope (1990) reported carrolite in the above-mentioned “barite-chalcopyrite” veins.

Chalcopyrite: Reported by Pope (1990) – see above.

Covellite: Pope (1990) reported covellite as an alteration product in tetrahedrite.

Freieslebenite: Pope (1990) reported freieslebenite (or possibly diaphorite – he seemed not fully clear on this) “. . . as very small (5 to 10 µm) inclusions in the galena.”

Galena: This was the principal ore mineral, mentioned in most Government reports starting with Robertson (1899), who reported “solid galena”, and ending with Pope (1990).

Polybasite: Pope (1990) described this as inclusions in galena – see above for freieslebenite.

Pyrite: Reported by Pope (1990); earlier workers did not see it, or did not regard it as important enough to mention. Pope reported it as a minor component of the mineralized material that he examined.

Quartz: Reported only by Galloway (1916) – again, did others see it and not bother to mention it?

Sphalerite: Reported by Galloway (1916) and by Pope (1990) as a minor component. Langley (1920) reported material that assayed 4% zinc, presumably in sphalerite.

Tetrahedrite subgroup: Galloway (1916) reported ‘grey copper’. Langley (1920) reported material that assayed 1.6% copper. Pope (1990) reported tetrahedrite as “panidiomorphic clumps” in galena. It seems likely that tetrahedrite was the source of much of the copper recovered at the smelter; it may also have been a major carrier of silver.

Other Databases

Link to British Columbia Minfile:	082KSE032

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References