The Grizzley claims are about 80 miles east of Hedley.
Gold Skarns
Although gold skarns had been mined since the late 1800s (Hedley district, British Columbia,
Billingsley and Hume, 1941), there was so little published about them until recently that they were not included in the major world review of skarn deposits by Einaudi et al. (1981). In the past decade, multiple gold skarn discoveries have prompted new scientific studies and several overview papers, (Meinert, 1989; Ray et al., 1989; Theodore et al.,1991). A particularly useful WWW site on gold skarns has been created by Gerry Ray (1996). The highest grade (5-15 g/t Au) gold skarn deposits (e.g. Hedley district, Ettlinger, 1990; Ettlinger et al., 1992; Fortitude, Nevada, Myers and Meinert, 1991) are relatively reduced, are mined solely for their precious metal content, and lack economic concentrations of base metals.
Other gold skarns (e.g. McCoy, Nevada, Brooks et al., 1991) are more oxidized, have lower gold grades (1-5 g/t Au), and contain subeconomic amounts of other metals such as Cu, Pb, and Zn. Several other skarn types, particularly Cu skarns, contain enough gold (0.01->1 g/t Au) for it to be a byproduct. A few skarn deposits, although having economic base metal grades, are being mined solely for their gold content (e.g. Veselyi mine, USSR, Ettlinger and Meinert, 1991).
Most high grade gold skarns are associated with reduced (ilmenite-bearing, Fe+3/Fe+2 < 0.75) diorite-granodiorite plutons and dike/sill complexes. Such skarns are dominated by iron-rich pyroxene (typically > Hd50); proximal zones can contain abundant intermediate grandite garnet.
Other common minerals include potassium feldspar, scapolite, idocrase, apatite, and high-chlorine aluminous amphibole. Distal/early zones contain biotite+potassium feldspar hornfels which can extend for 100s of metres beyond massive skarn. Due to the clastic-rich, carbonaceous nature of the sedimentary rocks in these deposits, most skarn is relatively fine-grained.
Some gold skarns contain unusual late prehnite or wollastonite retrograde alteration (Ettlinger, 1990). Arsenopyrite and pyrrhotite are the dominant sulphide minerals at Hedley and Fortitude, respectively. Most gold is present as electrum and is strongly associated with various bismuth and telluride minerals including native bismuth, hedleyite, wittichenite, and maldonite.
The Fortitude deposit is part of a large zoned skarn system in which the proximal garnet-rich part was mined for copper (Theodore and Blake, 1978). Similarly, the Crown Jewel gold skarn in Washington is the pyroxene-rich distal portion of a large skarn system in which the proximal part is garnet-rich and was mined on a small scale for iron and copper (Hickey, 1990). Such zoned skarn systems suggest that other skarn types may have undiscovered precious metal potential if the entire skarn system has not been explored (e.g. Solar et al., 1990).
Tungsten Skarns
