
High grade gold
Virtual Museum ID: 19-EKM11
Specimen Summary
Gold is a valuable, highly prized mineral used in everything from jewellery to electronics and dentistry. Gold is desirable due to its special properties, such as malleability and resistance to tarnishing. Gold is commonly microscopic or embedded within or around sulphide grains. Free visible gold occurs as disseminated grains, or rarely as crystals. Crystals of gold commonly form within or around quartz, as seen in this sample. In its natural mineral form, gold is commonly alloyed with silver. Gold is distinguishable by its characteristic golden yellow colour and extreme heaviness.
Specimen Data
The information listed below relates to the current holding location or collection that the sample is from, and whether the item is viewable at that location or is part of a private collection. Coordinates are given as guides, and we remind you that collecting specimens from these locations is not allowed. Caution is advised visiting such sites and Below BC assumes no responsibility for any injuries or trespassing charges that may occur as a result of the viewer entering these sites.
Collection Details
Original Collection:
East Kootenay Chamber of Mine (EKM)Sub Collection:
-Collection ID:
EKM_11Virtual Museum ID:
19-EKM11Accessibility:
Date Added to VM:
2019-06-14Location Information
Sample Origin:
Perry Creek, BCSpecific Site:
-UTM Easting:
565104UTM Northing:
5481947Datum:
11 (NAD 83)Coordinate Accuracy:
ApproximateSpecimen Details
VM Category:
MineralPrimary Features:
High grade goldPrimary Mineral Formula:
AuPrimary Category:
native elementSecondary Features:
Advanced Geological Information
The following section provides geological data relating to the specimen or the site it was collected from, when available. Information has been obtained from various sources including private and government datasets but may not be up to date. Any geological time periods or ages listed often relate to the primary geology of the area, and may not be the actual date of an event such as mineral formation.
Geological Formation:
Moyie IntrusionsGeological Period:
Mid-ProterozoicStratigraphic Age:
1000 - 1600 Million YearsGeological Belt:
OminecaGeological Terrane:
Ancestral North AmericaMinfile ID:
082FSE087Site Details:
The Mark occurrence is located on the north side of Walsh Creek, approximately 600 metres northwest of its junction with Perry Creek.
The Perry Creek area is underlain by sedimentary rocks of the mid-Proterozoic Creston Formation (Purcell Supergroup). The middle Creston Formation consists of a sequence of medium-bedded, grey to maroon, fine-grained quartzite with intercalated thin beds of grey phyllite. A stockwork of quartz veinlets, up to 7 centimetres thick, is found within the quartzite. A few of these quartz stringers carry up to 2 per cent hematite and minor chalcopyrite. To the west, this sequence is overlain by the upper Creston succession of thinly interbedded, light and dark-green argillites and green siltstone, which are locally phyllitic. To the northwest, the sequence is overlain by the Kitchener Formation.
Microdiorite bodies, part of the mid-Proterozoic Moyie Intrusions, are generally medium-grained but have porphyritic phases containing hornblende phenocrysts. The microdiorite bodies are generally pervasively chloritized and locally contain quartz stockwork. Argillites on both the footwall and hangingwall are siliceous, possibly due to the intrusive event. Disseminated pyrite occurs in the quartz stockwork in the microdiorite and the adjacent phyllites.
Locally, mineralization is associated with quartz veins, stock-works and siliceous zones in the vicinity of the microdiorite bodies that are emplaced along regional shear zones in the sedimentary rocks. These shear zones run parallel to Perry Creek (i.e. north east) on the west side of the creek. The shear zones are filled by vein, irregular lenses and stringers of quartz containing box-works of limonite (after pyrite) and occasionally gold, galena, sphalerite and chalcopyrite. Hydrothermal alteration of wall-rocks occurs as chlorite, sericite and talc schists. The shear zones are topographically recessive, occurring between resistant ledges of siliceous sediments, possibly due to the ease with which breccia, gouge and hydrothermally altered materials in and marginal to the shears are eroded.
In 1984, trench samples yielded up to 53 grams per tonne silver and 3.4 grams per tonne gold over 3 metres (Assessment Report 13007).
The area has been prospected for placer and lode gold since the mid-1800s. Several small shipments of gold ore are reported from adits, shafts and trenches although no major deposit was discovered.
In 1978, Meridian Resources completed a program of geochemical sampling and geological mapping on the area as the Mark group. During 1979 through 1985, Gallant Gold Mines completed programs of rock, soil and silt sampling, trenching, geological mapping and ground electromagnetic and magnetic surveying on the area as the Perry Creek property. In 1984, Trans-Artic Explorations completed a program of geological mapping and a ground electromagnetic survey on the area. In 1987, Chapleau Resources completed a program of soil, silt and rock sampling, trenching and geological mapping on the area as the Racki claims, Morgan property. In 1988 and 1989, the area immediately west was prospected as the Beaver claims. In 2016, West Gold Corp. completed a program of prospecting, rock sampling and geological mapping.
Additional Images