VITAL CREEK Gold/Silver Paleoplacer and Jade Mine $4,000

36.46 hectares / 90.09 acres. The placer tenure is accessible by a summer four-wheel drive road from the nearest settlement, Takla Landing, a 2 hour and 15 minute drive under poor road conditions. Smithers is approximately 145 kilometers southwest of the property. Helicopter flight time from Smithers is approximately 45 minutes.

From Minfiles 093N064, 093N044 (Production Report):

Vital Creek flows northeasterly from the Vital Range into Silver Creek approximately 41 kilometres northeast of Takla Landing.

The creek drains an area underlain by a north-northwest striking, east-dipping metasedimentary/volcanic suite assigned to the Carboniferous to Jurassic Cache Creek Complex. Here, phyllite, limestone and tuff are the most common members. These rocks host numerous barren-looking, locally rusty, white quartz veins varying up to a metre in width.

Exploration on the creek dates back to 1869 when gold was originally discovered in the district. Initial work was by means of drift diggings, followed later by ground sluicing and hydraulicking. Between 1922 and 1934, two adits, 285 and 42 metres long respectively, were driven along the bedrock/sediment contact in order to follow the preglacial channel. In 1935, drift mining was abandoned in favor of hydraulicking, which too was soon abandoned due to lack of dumping facilities. Subsequent to this, a 27-metre shaft was sunk to bedrock without much success (Geological Survey of Canada Memoir 252, pages 141-142).

Recorded gold production from Vital Creek was 117,091 grams, between 1876 and 1900, and 26,031 grams between 1926 and 1940; a total of 143,122 grams of gold (Bulletin 28, page 46). Early recoveries came from the present-day channel below a waterfall, 3 kilometres above the mouth of the creek. Later, gold in the form of extremely coarse, well-worn flakes which lay along bedrock was recovered from the preglacial channel upstream from this point.

Arquerite, a native amalgam of silver and mercury, is also fairly abundant in the gold-bearing gravels of Vital Creek.

In 1963, three nephrite jade boulders, weighing 2267, 907 and 363 kilograms, were reportedly recovered from a point on Vital Creek approximately 0.8 kilometre upstream from the bridge.

Consolidated Minfile bibliographies for 093N064 and 093N044:

EMPR ANNUAL REPORTS 1875-16; 1879-244; 1897-511,515; 1898-983; 1899-611; 1900-748; 1901-974; 1902-128; 1903-72; 1904-53; 1907-76; 1913-109; 1923-119; 1924-108; 1926-151; 1927-160; 1928-181; 1929-206; 1932-87; 1933-105-106; 1934-G51; 1935-C28,G48; 1936-C39; 1937-C34; 1938-C54; 1940-90; *1963-151

EMPR ASSESSMENT REPORTS 11881, 11978, 12546, 14547, 17623

EMPR BULLETIN 1, p. 35; 28, pp. 7, 43, 46

EMPR EXPL 1983-459,462; 1985-C334

GSC MAP 844A; 907A; 971A; 1424A

GSC MEMOIRS *252, pp. 141-142

EMPR OPEN FILE 2000-33

GSC P 74-1A; 74-1B, pp. 31-42

EMPR PROPERTY FILE Chevron (IB, BM (1974): Air photo overlay, BC-2061 23; IB, BM (1974): Air photo overlay, BC-2060 93; Dick (1974): Air photo overlay, Base map; IB BM (1974): Air photo overlay, BC-2061 23; MF (1974): Air photo overlay, BC-2059 103; Dick (1974): Air photo overlay for Vita - Byrnes Lake; MF (1974): Air photo overlay, BC-2061 23; IB, BM (1974): Air photo overlay, BC-2059 63; MF (1974): Air photo overlay, BC-2060 33; IB BM (1974): Air photo overlay, BC-2060 34; IB BM (1974): Air photo overlay for Silver Creek, BC-2059 104; IB BM (1974): Air photo overlay, BC-2060 39; IB BM (1974): Air photo overlay, BC 2060-94, Kelly Creek Geochem Traverse; IB BM (1974): Air photo overlay, BC-2060 93; IB BM (1974): Air photo overlay, BC-2059 102; IB BM (1974): Air photo overlay BC-2061 22; IB BM (1974): Air photo overlay, BC-2061 27; IB BM (1974): Air photo overlay, BC-2060 89; IB BM (1974): Air photo overlay, BC-2060 35; MR (1974): Air photo overlay, BC-2065 95; IB BM (1974): Air photo overlay, BC-2060 92; IB BM (1974): Air photo overlay, BC-2060 32; MF (1974): Air photo overlay, BC-2060 29; IB BM (1974): Air photo overlay, BC-2061 91; IB BM (1974): Air photo overlay, BC-2060 28; IB BM (1974): Air photo overlay, BC-2060 31; IB BM (1974): Air photo overlay, BC-2060 30; IB BM (1974): Air photo overlay, BC-2060 29; IB BM (1974): Air photo overlay, BC-2061 26; MF (1974): Air photo overlay, BC-2064 8; IB BM (1974): Air photo overlay, BC-2060 94; MF (1974): Air photo overlay, BC-2060 91; MF (1974): Air photo overlay, BC-2060 31; Unknown (unknown): Sketch of sample locations; Unknown (unknown): General notes on Manson Fault zone; Unknown (unknown): Map to accompany General notes on document no. 840385; Unknown (unknown): Map of Manson River showing Vital Project; Unknown (unknown): Soils, silts and rock chips graph of As and accumulative totals of Vital; Unknown (unknown): Soils, silts and rock chips graph of Au and accumulative totals of Vital; Unknown (unknown): Soils, silts and rock chips graph of Hg and accumulative totals of Vital II)

Related links:

Actinolite

Amphibole

British Columbia Gold Rushes

Geoscience BC: Jade Sites

Greenstone

Jade, Jadeite

Jade Fever: Hunting the Stone of Heaven 2005 S. Leaming, R. Hudson pp. 25-27

List of ghost towns in British Columbia

Manson Creek Regional Information

Mindat: Vital Creek

Reverberations: Canadian Geographic Magazine September/October 2005

Wikipedia: Omineca Country

Wikipedia: Omineca Gold Rush

Wikipedia: Vital LaForce

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