The Orofino Mountain past-producing gold-silver mine is located about 2.3 kilometres north of Orofino Mountain, 12 kilometres north-east of Keremeos, in the Osoyoos Mining Division.

The deposit and the surrounding geology are described on the British Columbia Minfile page, current to April 2008; selected parts of the description are quoted, as follows:

“The Orofino Mountain property is located within the Intermontane tectonic belt near its eastern boundary with the Omineca crystalline belt. The property is underlain by complexly deformed metamorphic rocks of the Carboniferous to Permian Kobau Group, and west and northwest trending sequences of quartzite, chert and greenstone belonging to the Carboniferous to Triassic Shoemaker and Old Tom formations. These are intruded by gabbroic to granitic rocks of the Middle Jurassic Nelson plutonic complex and Similkameen batholith, Jurassic Oliver plutonic complex and Jurassic to Cretaceous Fairview intrusion. Eocene vesicular basalts of the Marron Formation, Penticton Group are block faulted against older rocks on the north and west sides of the property.

On the northwestern slopes of Orofino Mountain, the oldest rocks are quartzite of the Kobau Group. Light grey, massive to thinly bedded quartzites of the Shoemaker Formation form two relatively narrow bands which strike west and northwest, and dip mainly to the southwest at 70 to 80 degrees. These rocks are adjacent to altered dioritic rocks, varying from massive coarse-grained hornblende gabbros and biotite diorite, to fine-grained biotite schist. Near the quartzite-diorite contact, mineralized quartz veins strike north to northeast and dip moderately to steeply to the southeast or steeply to the west.

The best mineralized veins in the Orofino Mountain gold camp appear to strike north to northeast and dip 45 degrees southeast to near vertical. Trenching and drilling in 1987 have revealed a complex fault pattern which displaces veins left-laterally by steep northeast faults or shallow faults. The intersection of these faults with veins appears to structurally control gold values.”

Giles Peatfield comments:

The question of production from the Twin Lakes mine is complex and not fully clear. Minfile gives the following summary:
“The total production from the Orofino Mountain occurrence is unknown. An estimated 1000 to 2000 tonnes ore was mined from the Lower King adit in 1933 and/or 1934 but not recorded. Production in 1938 and 1940 is included with Grandoro (082ESW010). Production records indicate a 3-tonne ore shipment to the Trail smelter in 1976. Recovery included 31 grams of gold, 69 grams of silver, 3 kilograms of lead and 3 kilograms of zinc.”

In summary, Orofino Mountain was a very small gold-silver producer.

Comments on the minerals reported:

The minerals listed were reported by Christopher (1986, 1987), from surface exposures, adits and drill core. These are all field identifications.

Of special interest is the presence of rhodonite. Leaming (1966) wrote that “Rhodonite is reported from Orofino Mountain (Wm. Moldowin - personal Communication) . . . . It is not known whether it is in the Shoemaker Formation but it appears likely that it is.” Leaming (1973) noted that “Rhodonite is reported from the north slope of Orofino Mountain but the exact locality is not known. Figure 23 [sic - 24] shows the approximate location.” Christopher (1986) wrote that “Rhodonite occurs as replacement zones in the Shoemaker Formation on the Mo claim.” The MO claim is part of the Orofino Mountain property.

Comments on the rock types reported:

The names of the rocks listed are from the reports by Christopher (1986, 1987). These are field identifications. The Minfile write-up mentions chert – this rock is not reported by Christopher, who calls the material in the Shoemaker Formation ‘quartzite’ rather that the more regionally accepted name chert. The rock is no doubt re-crystallized, leading to the discrepancy.

Research by Giles Peatfield, Courtenay, British Columbia.
Posting prepared 13 April, 2026.



Classification: I01: Au-quartz veins, I05: Polymetallic veins Ag-Pb-Zn+/-Au, F01: Sedimentary Mn, Q02:

Other Databases

Link to British Columbia Minfile:	082ESW113

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References