Monitor Cu Mine, Alberni Canal, Alberni Mining Division, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canadai

Regional Level Types
Monitor Cu Mine	Mine
Alberni Canal	- not defined -
Alberni Mining Division	Division
Vancouver Island	Island
British Columbia	Province
Canada	Country

The former Monitor Cu mine is located on the north shore of the Alberni Canal, near its entrance at Barkley Sound, about 30 kilometres south of Port Alberni, Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
There is a description of the several deposits making up the locality on the British Columbia “Minfile” site, current to 2020, part of which is quoted below:
“This skarn deposit occurs in a bed of limestone, probably related to the Upper Triassic Quatsino Formation (Vancouver Group), interbedded with mafic basalts of the Upper Triassic Karmutsen Formation (Vancouver Group). The bedding strikes 115 degrees and dips 20 degrees to the southwest. These rocks are bounded on the east by a large body of granodiorite of the Early to Middle Jurassic Island Plutonic Suite (formerly the Island Intrusions). The rocks are intruded by a body of granodiorite porphyry, probably a dyke, lying west of the deposits and striking in a northerly direction."

"The ore consists of pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite with small amounts of magnetite and pyrite. It occurs chiefly in the altered limestone, which consists of calcite, quartz, garnet, epidote and actinolite. Some ore is found in the metamorphosed volcanic rocks which are altered to epidote, chlorite and hematite. The strike of the Leonard orebody is reported to conform with the country rock outside the portal of the adit.”

“For the six years that the Monitor mine was in production, a total of 1,288 tonnes was mined, producing 37,137 grams of silver, 62 grams of gold and 116,946 kilograms of copper.”

Comments by Giles Peatfield on several of the minerals reported from the locality:
Actinolite: Reported by Dolmage (1919).
Andradite: Brownish-yellow andradite was reported by Hoffmann (1892). Caution, the location is not certain, but is assumed to be the Monitor property, although this pre-dates the “discovery” of the deposit.
Bornite: Reported by Houle (2008), in rocks from a trench near the original mine-site.
‘Chlorite’: Reported by Dolmage (1919).
Ilvaite: This is the most interesting species here, from a mineralogical and historical point of view. Hoffmann (1892), reported that “Several specimens of what proved to be this rare mineral were received for identification from a gentleman [no name!], who described it as occurring in large irregular masses in a vein about twenty feet wide, near the head of Barclay (sic) Sound, Vancouver Island, British Columbia.” Hoffmann presented an analysis of this mineral. There is no guarantee that this is in fact from the Monitor occurrence. Hoffmann (1893) listed this specimen as being part of the Geological Survey Museum collection. Johnston (1915) noted that “Ilvaite is found at the Monitor mine, Alberni canal, about 3 miles from Uchucklesit harbour (Pr. Com. W. J. Sutton).” Sutton was a well-known early collector in British Columbia, for whom the Sutton-Thompson collection at the Pacific Museum of Earth (University of British Columbia) was named. One assumes that this is the same material studied by Hoffmann. Traill (1970) repeated the above information, and added that the mineral was X-ray confirmed, at the “X-ray Laboratory, Geol. Surv. Can.” Traill (1983) simply repeated the earlier information. Thus it can be seen that while it appears most likely that these ilvaite specimens came from the Monitor mine, it is not absolutely certain.
Sphalerite: Reported by Houle (2008) in rocks from a trench near the original Monitor Mine.
Tetrahedrite: Reported by Houle (2008) in rocks from a trench near the original Monitor Mine.
Tremolite: Hoffmann (1892) described tremolite as ‘altered’ but gave no further data.

Other Databases

Link to British Columbia Minfile:	092C 007

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References