06/22/2021
The Kas Silver Project is located in the Kamloops Mining District, on the east side of the North Thompson River, approximately 16km south of Clearwater, British Columbia. The project is 80.4 hectares in size, consisting of one mineral tenure of 4 cells. The project overlies Crown Grants Prospector (L 288) and Ironclad (L289), which retain mineral right in their respective boundaries.
The Lone Prospector (Lot 288) and Iron Clad (Lot 289) claims were Crown granted to J. O'Brien in 1895. The claims lay idle until about 1916 when they were bonded by B.T. Foote and J.L. Cardon. Additional claims, including the Queen Bess, were apparently located at this time. A Seattle syndicate optioned the 6-claim group in 1917, and in 1918, Queen Bess Mines Company took over the property. A 50-ton-per-day concentrator was installed by the company in 1919 along with an office, superintendent’s house, bunkhouse with kitchen and reading room and several cottages for married couples. A tramline was also constructed from the mine to mill. The mine was operated for short periods in 1919 and 1920. The mine was closed in 1920, then re-opened by the Queen Bess Mining Company in 1927. Additional machinery was installed at this time and further development was reported; however, the operation was abandoned later in the year. Development work to 1927 totalled some 550 metres of crosscuts and drifts on two adit levels and a 31-metre winze.
From 1917-1919, 73 tonnes of ore were shipped from this property, from which 52,222 grams of silver, 13,789 kilograms of lead and 12,503 kilograms of zinc were recovered.
From 1981 to 1983, exploration work on the property (then the Rudy and Walter claims of the Fran claim group) included reconnaissance geological mapping and sampling in the vicinity of the old Queen Bess workings. In 1984, a VLF-EM survey was run over the same area. Mid-Centre Resources conducted detailed geochemical and VLF-EM surveys over the Jane 1 claim in 1989.
Narrow quartz veins carrying galena, sphalerite and tetrahedrite occur in fissures in basalts of the Devonian to Permian Fennell Formation (Slide Mountain Group). Most of the mineralization occurs in two veins which range from 30 centimetres to more than 1 metre in width. The Cameron vein strikes northeast and dips 50 to 75 degrees northwest, while the Bigelow vein, intersected 50 metres farther east in the main adit crosscut, strikes 020 to 030 degrees and dips vertically to very steeply west. The veins are continuous and generally well defined throughout the workings, but good mineralization, comprising massive pods and lenses of sphalerite and galena, is erratically and commonly sparsely distributed through them. The greenstone along the fissures show ankeritic carbonate alteration; in places the alteration is widespread. Country rock is typical upper Fennell basalt, in places with good pillow structures preserved. The basalts are cut by a number of steeply dipping northeast to east striking shear zones containing rusty carbonate and quartz, which typically display rusty carbonate alteration envelopes.
