The Silver Star past-producing silver mine is located on the west side of the Similkameen River, about 4.5 kilometres west of Richter Mountain, 16 kilometres south-southeast of Keremeos, in the Osoyoos Mining Division.

Classification: Hydrothermal, Epigenetic
Type: I05: Polymetallic veins Ag-Pb-Zn+/-Au

There is very little published information on this deposit; refer to the British Columbia Minfile page, current to December 2018.

Cairnes (1937) gave a capsule description of the deposit as follows: “The deposits at the Silver Star and Horn Silver properties arc of essentially similar types. Both consist of mineralized quartz veins in alkaline intrusives and in both the principal values are in silver. A few tons only have been shipped from the Silver Star, one shipment of 12 tons averaging $18 a ton in silver and another shipment of 1 ton $38. The deposit is a quartz vein following a shear and mineralized with grey copper [tetrahedrite], galena, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, and molybdenite.”

Official government records show that the total production in 1923 and 1926 was 12 tonnes of direct shipping ore from which 371 Troy ounces of silver were recovered. There is no mention of any other metals having been produced.

Comments on the minerals reported:
With the exception of pyrite and malachite, the minerals listed were reported by Cairnes (1937). Pyrite and malachite were noted by an unknown British Columbia worker in notes available in the Minfile ‘Property File’ (Anon. 1984).

Comments on the rock types reported:

The names of the rocks listed are from Bostock (1940). A small extension of the larger Kruger syenite complex is in contact with granodiorite and rocks of the Shoemaker Formation, dominantly chert.

Research by Giles Peatfield, Courtenay, British Columbia 16 April, 2026.

Other Databases

Link to British Columbia Minfile:	082ESW150

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References