Kootenay Belle Mine, Salmo, Nelson Mining Division, British Columbia, Canadai

Regional Level Types
Kootenay Belle Mine	Mine
Salmo	Village
Nelson Mining Division	Division
British Columbia	Province
Canada	Country

The Kootenay Belle Mine is located on the south side of Sheep Creek, near the junction with Waldie Creek, about 12.6 kilometres east-southeast of the village of Salmo, or 43 kilometres south-southeast of Nelson, British Columbia, in the Nelson Mining Division. It is one of several mines within the Sheep Creek Mining Camp.
There is a description of the property, including regional geology, on the British Columbia “Minfile” site, current to 2020. An extensive portion relative to geology is quoted below:
“The Sheep Creek Mining Camp consists of auriferous sulphide mineralization within a regional system of quartz veins controlled by faults. The camp hosts four distinct fault/fracture systems. All productive veins are associated with faults trending northeast and dipping southeast. The veins are particularly productive where they cross the axis of the two regional, northerly trending anticlines which dominate the geology of the camp. In addition there are a few northwest trending strike slip faults, north trending normal faults and flat faults, on which the hanging wall has been thrust westwards.
Ore occurs in shoots and is almost without exception confined to parts of fault zones in which one or both walls are quartzite. Other parts of the veins are either too narrow or low grade to be economic. The ore shoots are found at the intersection of northeast faults with quartzite stratigraphy, particularly the Upper Nugget and Upper Navada Members of the Lower Cambrian Quartzite Range Formation (correlative with rocks of the Hamill Group). The underlying Motherlode quartzite is, without obvious reason, almost completely barren of economic gold mineralization. The veins contain a quartz gangue containing pyrite with lesser amounts of pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, galena, sphalerite and rare visible gold. Precious metal grades are exceedingly variable and zones of high grade appear to be distributed randomly. Such zones or ore shoots are rarely greater than a few tens of metres in size.
Throughout the camp, economic mineralization is found within a vertical range of less than 500 metres in any given vein and from north to south in the camp this vertical range occurs at progressively lower elevations. At the north end of the camp near Reno Mountain the economic zone lies at about 1675 to 2150 metres elevation and at the south end near Mount Waldie the zone is entirely below 915 metres above sea level. Above the economic zone the veins may occur but are generally too narrow and below the zone the veins usually persist but are commonly wider and of lower grade. Higher grades of greater than 150 grams per tonne are restricted generally to the top of the zone.
The Kootenay Belle deposit lies south of Sheep Creek within quartzites, argillites and argillaceous quartzites of the Navada and Nugget Members of the Quartzite Range Formation. The sediments strike 0 to 15 degrees with a dip of 50 to 75 degrees east and they lie on the west limb of the eastern anticline. Production from the deposit was from the #1 and #2 fissure which contained two ore shoots each. The fissures each dipped 64 to 76 degrees south and intersected along strike. The ore shoots were in the order of 20 to 40 metres long and about 30 centimetres wide. The veins contained quartz and crushed country rock mineralized with pyrite and some galena and sphalerite. A quartz-porphyry sill intrudes along the contact of the Lower Cambrian Reno and Laib formations and is exposed at surface between the 2 and 3 level adits. Wolframite and scheelite are reported locally in the vein quartz. The quartz-porphyry intrusive extends the length of the Sheep Creek gold camp from Reno Mountain to Mount Waldie. Its influence on the gold mineralization is undetermined.”
Giles Peatfield comments:
As mentioned above, the Kootenay Belle Mine is one of a number of previously operating gold mines in what is known as the Sheep Creek Mining Camp – see Mathews (1953) for an in-depth description of the Camp. The mines have very simple mineralogy, with the exception of one species described below.
The Kootenay Belle Mine was mined in a modest way, discontinuously between 1904 and 1967, producing gold (the principal product) and silver, as well as small amounts of zinc and lead. Of this, most of the tonnage was milled on site, with a lesser amount shipped to a smelter, probably the CM&S facility at Trail, British Columbia, for use as silica flux. Official figures on the British Columbia “Minfile” site show that the total ore mined amounted to 305,610 tonnes (336,877 tons), yielding 3,507,079 grams (112,755 troy ounces) gold; 1,306,232 grams (41,996 troy ounces) silver; 59,335 kilograms (130,811 pounds) zinc; and 52,517 kilograms (115,780 pounds) lead. Tungsten, although present, was not apparently commercially produced.
I have chosen to present this property because it is the location of the first British Columbia occurrence of the relatively uncommon secondary tungsten mineral tungstite; see the comment below in the mineral section.

Giles Peatfield comments on the minerals reported:
Given the number of different workers and the time frame involved, I have chosen to comment on all the minerals so far reported at this property.
Calcite: Identified by McCammon (1930) in polished sections, and no doubt seen by others.
Chalcopyrite: Identified by McCammon (1930) in polished sections. Mason (1939) described it as occurring in sphalerite.
Electrum: Mason (1939) described electrum and gold as small inclusions in sphalerite and galena. McCammon (1939) reported only electrum. He noted that “. . . the “gold” did not give very satisfactory etch test results for gold. The reactions corresponded better with those listed for the silver-gold alloy “electrum.” Further analytical work on “A quantity of this mineral . . . .” showed that for the Kootenay Belle ore it had a composition of 27.28 percent silver and 72.72 percent gold, which would in my opinion be best termed “agentiferous gold.”
Galena: Reported by Mason (1939), and by McCammon (1939) in polished sections. This would account for the lead produced from the ore.
Gold: This is the name traditionally given in the Camp for the precious metal mineral, by, inter alia, Walker (1909) and McLeish (1934). See the comment above for electrum.
Pyrite: Reported by Mason (1939) and by McCammon (1939), and no doubt seen by others.
Pyrrhotite: Mason (1939) described this as occurring in sphalerite. McCammon saw it in polished sections, as rounded blebs in galena and less commonly in sphalerite.
Quartz: This is the main vein mineral, reported by all workers.
Scheelite: Reported by Walker (1909), who commented that “In addition to this mineral [tungstite] black wolframite and light brown or buff scheelite were also observed, though in much smaller proportions.” It is important to stress that Walker was probably examining material from higher, near surface, levels in the mine.
Sphalerite: Reported by Mason (1939), and by McCammon (1939) in polished sections. This would account for the zinc produced from the ore.
Tungstite: Reported by Walker (1908, 1909, 1933). He definitely identified tungstite from the Kootenay Belle Mine. Note that Sahama (1981) made the point that absent “valid mineral characterization” the designation “tungstite” is problematic. He stated that “It seems likely that some specimens labeled tungstite in the collections are actually fine powdery ferri-tungstite (alumotungstite) [both discredited, now varieties of hydrokenoelsmoreite – see Mindat mineral species listing], hydrotungstite, etc.” The details of mineralogy of tungsten ochres are complex and beyond the scope of this review. This was the first British Columbia occurrence of tungstite, and was reported by Johnston (1915) and by Traill (1970, 1983). Also reported by Palache, Berman and Frondel (1944).
Wolframite group: “Wolframite” was reported by Walker (1909); see note above for scheelite. He gave no data regarding the specific mineralogy.
Giles Peatfield comments on the rock types reported:
All these rock names were reported by Mathews (1953), who chose the name “quartz porphyry” for the rock commonly referred to in the Camp as aplite.

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Link to British Columbia Minfile:	082FSW046

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References