The Empire past-producing gold-silver mine is located about 4 kilometres east-southeast of Burnell Lake, 2.5 kilometres north-northwest of Oliver, in the Osoyoos Mining Division.

There is a limited amount of published information on this deposit. Unfortunately, the British Columbia Minfile page, current to July 2020, has some apparent errors, and should be treated with caution. The following capsule comment regarding the deposit comes from Freeland (1935):

“Two or more roughly parallel quartz veins, with free walls, varying from 1½ 4½ feet wide, strike north-westerly, dip nearly perpendicular, occur in fissures in the Oliver granite. Mineralization consists of pyrite, galena, sphalerite and occasionally chalcopyrite in a gangue of quartz.”
Giles Peatfield comments:

Official government records show that the total production between 1936 and 1942 was 586 tonnes of direct shipping ore from which 141 Troy ounces of gold and 1,449 Troy ounces of silver were recovered.


Comments on the minerals reported:
Freeland (1935) reported the minerals listed – refer to the note above.

Comments on the rock types reported:

The Empire claim lies within the garnet-muscovite quartz monzonite phase of the “Oliver Granite” as shown by Sinclair, et al. (1984).

Research by Giles Peatfield, Courtenay, British Columbia.
Posting prepared 04 May, 2026.

Other Databases

Link to British Columbia Minfile:	082ESW093

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References