Kootenay Queen prospect, Delphine Creek, Invermere, Golden Mining Division, British Columbia, Canadai

Regional Level Types
Kootenay Queen prospect	Prospect
Delphine Creek	Creek
Invermere	Village
Golden Mining Division	Division
British Columbia	Province
Canada	Country

The Kootenay Queen prospect is located in a small cirque on the south side Delphine Creek, about 29 kilometres west-southwest of the village of Invermere or 110 kilometres north-northwest of Cranbrook, British Columbia, in the Golden Mining Division.
There is a description of the property (listed as a prospect) including regional geology, on the British Columbia “Minfile” site, current to 1995. A short description of the prospect is quoted below; for more regional geologic information refer to the Minfile page:
“The occurrence consists of a small adit driven for a distance of 43 metres along a 30 centimetre wide quartz vein. The vein is hosted in cream to buff dolomite of the upper dolomite member of the Mount Nelson Formation immediately below the Windermere unconformity (Open File 1990-26) [Pope, 1990].”
A short description of the prospect was given by Galloway (1916); it seems fit to quote him in full:
“This property is situated at the head of a small creek coming into the south side of Toby [sic – Delphine] creek two miles below the Hot Punch cabin. It is at an elevation of 7,250 feet, and it is a rather steep climb, up an old trail from the wagon-road, to reach the property. A tunnel has been run in 140 feet on a small vein occurring in quartzite and lime and striking N. 30° W. (mag) with the formation. The greatest width of the vein is 1 foot, and for most of the length of the tunnel there is nothing but a good wall. The vein-filling is quartz, but there is very little mineralization to be seen, only a few small pieces of galena being visible. A sample of the galena was taken to see what silver values it carried, and was found to contain 31.8 oz. silver to the ton and 64.6 per cent. lead. This claim cannot be considered to have much prospective value.”
Giles Peatfield comments:
Note that the Minfile description gives the silver grade as 2,400 grams per tonne; this is calculated from the value of 70 ounces to the ton reported by Griffith (1901), rather than the value of 31.8 ounces to the ton given in Minfile, which by my calculation should be about 1,090 grams per tonne. It is also nice to hear from a government official about the lack of prospective value – call a spade a spade. Update: 15 December 2024: The Minfile report and the inventory report page both now report 1,090 grams per tonne. Thanks to Kerri Shaw, Mineral Inventory Specialist at the British Columbia Geological Survey for making the changes

There is no official record of any production from this prospect. Pope (1990) commented that “Tonnage shipped is not known but it is estimated as less than 45 tonnes from the apparent size of the workings.” However, Griffith (1901) wrote that “The ore carries values of 70 oz. silver per ton, and 70% lead. A tunnel has been driven for 33 feet on the lead, during the year, and a few tons of ore extracted. The property, which is owned by Messrs. Bruce and Hammond, is a very promising one, and it is the intention to do extensive development work in the spring.” So here we have an earlier government official with an entirely different take on the value of the property. One other point of historical interest: Bruce was the Honourable Robert Randolph Bruce, engineer, mining proprietor and later 13th Lieutenant Governor [King’s representative] for the Province of British Columbia, 1926-1931.
Comments on the Minerals Reported:
Azurite?: Walker (1926) wrote that “Some specimens from the dump show galena to be the chief sulphide, with minor amounts of sphalerite and tetrahedrite and a little secondary covellite and copper carbonate.” It is not known whether his ‘copper carbonate’ was azurite or malachite.
Covellite: See note above for azurite.
Galena: This is the mineral of most interest from the prospect. Pope (1990) wrote that “The ore shows evidence of intense deformation in the form of well developed bleischweif texture and fine-grained polygonal galena indicative of dynamic recrystallization and annealing . . . .” Bleischweif texture is probably what my old mineralogy professor R. M. Thompson would have called ‘steel galena’.
Malachite: See note above for azurite.
Polybasite: Pope (1990) wrote that “. . . polybasite occurs as very minor inclusions in the galena.”
Quartz: This is the principal vein mineral.
Sphalerite: See note above for azurite.
Tetrahedrite subgroup: Pope (1990) wrote that “The tetrahedrite contains 9 to 10 weight per cent silver . . . .”

Giles Peatfield
BASc. (Geological Engineering) University of British Columbia 1966.
PhD Queen's University at Kingston 1978.
Worked for Texas Gulf Sulphur / Texasgulf Inc. / Kidd Creek Mines - 1966 to 1985.
Consultant 1985 to 2016

Other Databases

Link to British Columbia Minfile:	082KSE033

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References