Ashloo Mine (Ashlu Mine; Golden Coin Mine; Golden King Mine; Ash Mine; Hawk Mine; Ashluck Mine), Ashlu Creek, Squamish, Vancouver Mining Division, British Columbia, Canadai

Regional Level Types
Ashloo Mine (Ashlu Mine; Golden Coin Mine; Golden King Mine; Ash Mine; Hawk Mine; Ashluck Mine)	Mine
Ashlu Creek	- not defined -
Squamish	District Municipality
Vancouver Mining Division	Division
British Columbia	Province
Canada	Country

On Ashlu Creek, about 45 kilometres north-west of Squamish, British Columbia; Vancouver Mining Division.
The following quote is from B.C. Government site “Minfile”- Minfile No. 092GNW 013:
“The Ashlu mine area is underlain by extensive areas of quartz diorite, granodiorite and diorite bodies of the Jurassic Cloudburst pluton of the Jurassic to Cretaceous Coast Plutonic Complex. This pluton has intruded into and along the margins of Lower Cretaceous Gambier Group greenstone forming the eastern boundary of a major northwest trending pendant, east of the mine site. Regionally, these pendants are composed of andesite to rhyodacite flows and pyroclastics, greenstone, argillite and minor zones of conglomerate, limestone and schist. These pendant rocks may be metamorphosed up to amphibolite grade. A major north-west trending shear zone of Cretaceous age, the Ashlu Creek shear zone, in part defines the contact of the pluton and the pendant. Forming the western contact of the pendant is the Cretaceous Squamish pluton.
All mining was done along the plane of the vein, which dips 25 to 30 degrees west, striking approximately 010 degrees. At the lowest level the vein steepens to 35 degrees. The quartz vein is situated at the hangingwall of an elongated roof pendant consisting of biotite and amphibole hornfels which strikes 015 degrees and is up to 4.6 metres in width. The hangingwall, in contact with the quartz vein, and the footwall, in contact with the pendant, are composed of biotite granodiorite. Previous to 1994, many reports stated a complex, fine grained, dark, mafic-rich rock intimately associated with the quartz was a dike. Petrographic analysis indicates it is a phyllonite produced by cataclastic deformation along a fault (Assessment Report 4036). The quartz vein varies in width from 0.2 to 3 metres. Most of the underground workings follow this vein over a strike length of 90 metres and downdip for 85 metres.
The quartz vein consists of massive to cleaved white quartz with pods, streaks and disseminations of pyrite and pyrrhotite, especially near the vein walls. Minor amounts of chalcopyrite, scheelite, sphalerite, ankerite and siderite also occur in the vein. Gold values are closely associated with the sulphide minerals.
Petrographic studies show that the gold does occur in native form of very fine size (0.01 - 0.04 millimetre) but mainly it is associated with the tellurides: tellurobismuthite, calaverite, frohbergite, hessite and altaite. The tellurides occur as small grains in euhedral pyrite adjacent to the ore zone. In 1994, several additional distinct gold associations were made. Gold occurs as: 1) large inclusions (up to 0.1 millimetre) in pyrite, 2) blebs less than 10 microns in chalcopyrite, 3) native gold up to 40 microns along fractures in quartz, 4) native gold up to 50 microns along pyrite-quartz grain boundaries and 5) native gold up to 35 microns along fractures in pyrite (Assessment Report 24036).”
Comments by Giles Peatfield regarding some of the minerals reported:
Arsenopyrite: This was reported by Warren and Davis (1940) but has not been seen by numerous subsequent workers, and should be regarded as unlikely. It does occur at the Hunter Mine on Khutze River (which see).
Galena: This was reported by Warren and Davis (1940) but has not been seen by numerous subsequent workers, and should be regarded as possible but unlikely.
Magnetite: This was reported only by Yeager and Ikona, but is considered likely – I have let it stand.
Sylvanite?: This gold-silver telluride was reported as tentative by Warren and Cummings (1936) at the Hunter Mine, Khutze River, but careful reading of their paper shows that they did not specifically mention the location of the material they were considering, and other evidence in the paper suggest that it might have been from the Surf Point property on Porcher Island rather than from the Hunter Veins. Warren and Davis (1940) repeated the possibility of sylvanite at Hunter and by extension also at Ashloo. No other workers have identified sylvanite from the Hunter property, and its presence must be considered as unlikely there; it is even less likely that it occurs at Ashloo. I have not included it here. Recently, a specimen has been located in a private collection that is labelled as “sylvanite” and for which the location given puts it at the Hunter Mine. Recent re-examination of the specimen has cast doubt on the identification, and confirmatory test-work is planned. Stay tuned.
Tellurobismuthite: This mineral was first reported (as tellurbismuth) by Warren and Davis (1940), who remarked that it was “possible” at Ashloo. This identification was subsequently reported by Thompson (1949) and by Berry and Thompson (1962), presumably based on the paper by Warren and Davis. This identification has been substantiated for Ashloo (see following comment).
The various telluride minerals (altaite, calaverite, frohbergite, hessite and tellurobismuthite) were all identified by SEM analyses (Payne, 1988). Payne did not find sylvanite.

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Link to British Columbia Minfile:	092GNW013

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References