Exploration and mining in the Southeast Region, British Columbia Fiona Katay1, a 1 Regional Geologist, British Columbia Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, 202-100 Cranbrook Street N, Cranbrook, BC, V1C 3P9 a corresponding author: [email protected] Recommended citation: Katay, F., 2020. Exploration and mining in the Southeast Region, British Columbia. In: Provincial Overview of Exploration and Mining in British Columbia, 2019. British Columbia Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, British Columbia Geological Survey, Information Circular 2020-01, pp. 95-112 (revised, February 2020). 1. Introduction processes generated the varied deposit types that contribute The Southeast Region (Fig. 1) offers a variety of mining to the mineral endowment of British Columbia (Nelson et al., and exploration opportunities accessible by well-developed 2013). infrastructure. Five metallurgical coal mines that operated The Southeast Region (Fig. 1) contains elements of in the Elk Valley in 2019 account for most of Canada’s coal ancestral North America (Laurentia) including: Archean production and exports. Several industrial mineral mines to Mesoproterozoic basement rocks; Proterozoic rift and produce silica, magnesite, and gypsum. Limestone, smelter intracratonic basin successions (Belt-Purcell and Windermere slag, rock wool, aggregate, rip rap, railroad ballast, fl agstone, supergroups); Paleozoic to Jurassic passive-margin, shelf, and dimension stone, sand and gravel are quarried, and placer slope carbonate and siliciclastic successions that were deposited mining occurs throughout the region. The region hosts many on the western fl ank of the ancient continent (Kootenay terrane, historic producers dating back to the mid-1800s, including the and North American platform); and Jurassic to Cretaceous lead-zinc-silver Sullivan Mine, and many small producers from foreland basin deposits. It also contains parts of the Slide the Rossland, Greenwood, Sheep Creek, and Slocan gold and Mountain terrane, which records mid- to late- Paleozoic back- silver camps. Exploration for base metals and precious metals arc extension that split the western fl ank of ancestral North continues to be a focus. The Trail smelter (Teck Resources Ltd.) America to form the Slide Mountain ocean, and Quesnel is still in operation, and produces approximately 305,000 t of terrane (Quesnellia) and its basement (Okanagan subterrane; refi ned zinc, 90,000 t of refi ned lead, and 16 to 18 Moz of silver Nelson and Colpron, 2007; Nelson et al., 2013). Magmatic annually. intrusive rocks such as those formed in the Proterozoic (Moyie Exploration slowed in 2019 relative to 2018. Drilling intrusions) and Devonian (diatremes and volcanic rocks) continued at some projects that have been active in the last represent periods of extension along the margin of ancestral several years and started at a few new projects. Mine expansion North America, whereas others (Jurassic and Cretaceous) and exploration continued at the coal mines in the Elk Valley are related to subduction and crustal thickening. Cenozoic and grassroots exploration took place on several projects, and magmatic rocks and exhumation of the normal fault-bounded for assessment work. metamorphic complexes occurred during post-orogenic Estimates for exploration expenditures, drilling programs, Tertiary extension. and other metrics were captured in the British Columbia Historically, the Canadian Cordillera has been divided into Mineral and Coal Exploration Survey, a joint initiative of the fi ve northwest-trending physiographic belts. The Southeast Province of British Columbia Ministry of Energy, Mines and region includes two of these belts: the Rocky Mountain foreland Petroleum Resources, the Association for Mineral Exploration belt, which consists mainly of unmetamorphosed sedimentary in British Columbia, and EY LLP. For the Southeast Region, successions that were thrust northeastward in thin-skinned exploration expenditures were estimated at $45.0 million and sheets; and the Omineca belt, which includes more deformed exploration drilling was estimated at approximately 117,700 m and higher grade (greenschist to amphibolite) siliciclastic and (Clarke et al., 2020; EY LLP, 2020). volcanic rocks, and basement-cored gneiss domes (Monger, 1999). For further details about the geology of the Southeast 2. Geological overview Region see Katay (2017). The Canadian Cordillera has long been of interest to the exploration industry. It is a collage of allochthonous terranes, 3. Mines and quarries parathochtonous terranes, and authochthonous basement, The Southeast Region produces metallurgical coal from four containing diverse rocks and structures. Metallogenetic mines in the Elk Valley, and continues to be an important source 95 Provincial Overview of Exploration and Mining in British Columbia, 2019. British Columbia Geological Survey, Information Circular 2020-01 Katay Property status Project type coloured by project type Coal (! Operating Mine* (! Cu-Mo, Cu-Au-Ag, Mo (porphyry) ÌÌ (! Mine in Care and (! Precious metal Maintenance** (! Base and precious metal ( Mine Development (! Cobalt, base and precious metal ( Proposed Mine (! Ni-Cu-Co-precious metal (! É Exploration Project Tungsten (! Specialty metal *Operated in, or for a portion of 2019 *Operated within the last 3 years WX Jade WX Industrial mineral Geology Post accretionary assemblages Intrusives Supracrustal ALBERTA Neogene to Quaternary volcanics Terranes Moberly Silica Quesnellia Slide Mountain ÌWX Ancestral North America Golden Basinal strata Platformal strata Allco É! É! Regal Transportation Road Driftwood Rail line Revelstoke Creek WX WX Mount ÌBrussilof Silver Dollar É! É! Thor Invermere ÌWX Elkhorn Gibraltar Enderby Duncan WX# Fording River É! Ì WX Greenhills Armstrong Kootenay West Ì Elkford Line Creek Vernon Ì Elkview Crown Mountain É! Ì Silvana Vulcan Sparwood É! É! LH Kimberley Michel CRDO Ì Black CrystalÌ Coal Mountain Bull River Fernie WX É! é Cranbrook Rex é Coal Creek É!É!Empire Strathcona É! éé MonroeÉ! Vine Elko É! Nelson Gold ShearÉ! Kenville É! Silver Fox Castlegar Ore Hill Sweet Spot É! Creston É! Gold Drop UNITED STATES OF AMERICA É! Trail UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Rossland Greenwood WX Winner É! Foreland Midway Ì Grand Forks Intermontane Insular Omineca Kilometres Southeast 0 100 Coast Cordilleran morphogeological Regional belts Districts Fig. 1. Mines and selected exploration projects, Southeast Region, 2019. 96 Provincial Overview of Exploration and Mining in British Columbia, 2019. British Columbia Geological Survey, Information Circular 2020-01 Katay of industrial minerals such as gypsum, magnesite, silica sand, also been underway to reduce the reliance on, and increase mineral wool, dolomite, limestone, fl agstone, railroad ballast, the effectiveness of, active water treatment. The fi rst saturated rip rap, smelter slag, and aggregate (Fig. 1). rock fi ll pilot project was constructed at Elkview in 2018. It uses biological processes enhanced by the addition of 3.1. Metal mines nutrients (methanol and phosphoric acid) to remove nitrate In 2019, no metal mines operated in the Southeast Region. and selenium from the water. This technique is reported to almost completely remove nitrate and selenium from water 3.2. Coal mines at processing rates of 10 million litres per day. In 2019, Teck The main coal deposits in southeastern British Columbia received approvals to expand this project (Teck, 2019). Capital extend for 175 km following the northwest-southeast trend of costs of a saturated rock fi ll facility are approximately 20% of the Rocky Mountain Front Ranges, and coal is produced from those of an active water treatment facility, and annual operating structurally thickened seams of the Mist Mountain Formation costs are approximately 50%. Total capital spending by Teck (Kootenay Group; Jurassic; Table 1; Figs. 1, 2). Today, four Coal Limited on water treatment in 2019 was estimated at open pit mines are operated by Teck Coal Limited in the Elk approximately $235 million, making effi ciencies in treatment Valley (Fording River, Greenhills, Line Creek, and Elkview). techniques an attractive option. Other water quality trials are A fi fth mine (Coal Mountain) reached the end of its reserves underway, including capping and reclamation techniques life and produced intermittently until Q2 of 2019. The pit and methods for calcite management (Teck, 2019). Jameson operations are now suspended, though the plant and load out Resources Ltd. (Crown Mountain) and North Coal Ltd. facilities continued to process coal into Q3. (Michel Coal) are also actively involved in independent design With a history that dates to the 1800s, several underground and test work for their proposed mine projects. coal mines operated in the region by the early 1900s. Open- pit mining began in 1968, with the introduction of large-scale 3.2.1. Fording River (Teck Coal Limited) equipment, hydraulic shovels, and bulk mining methods. In The Fording River mine (Fig. 2) consists of approximately 2004, the fi ve Elk Valley mines consolidated into the Elk Valley 23,000 ha of coal lands, and produces primarily metallurgical Partnership and, in 2008, Teck Coal Limited acquired most of coal, and a small amount of thermal coal. The current annual this partnership and began operating the open-pit mines. The production capacity of the mine is 9 Mt; the preparation plant main product is metallurgical coal (85%), with some thermal has a capacity of 9.5 Mt of clean coal. In 2019, production at