SOUTH-EAST

KOOTENAY DISTRICT.

:0:

FORT STEELE MINING DIVISION.

REPORT OF J. F. ARMSTRONG, GOLD COMMISSIONER.

SIR,-I have the honour to submit a report on the progress of mining in the Fort Steele Mining Division for the year 1907.

The following table shows approximately the number of mineral claims held during each year since 1899:

The assessment work done on mineral claims again shows a large decrease and the number of new locations is smaller than in the previous year.

The shipping mines have been the St. Eugene group at Moyie, and the Sullivan and North Star groups at Kimberley.

The Cambrian is a property lying under Moyie lake; it is now held under Crown grant. A double compartment shaft is being sunk through the alluvial deposit on the bed of Moyie Lake a couple of hundred feet from the east bank; it has now reached a depth of 90 feet from the surface of the water. The management expect to reach bedrock by sinking 10 feet farther. Three shifts a day are now at work and an air compressor, two pumps and drilling machinery have been installed.

The Aurora group, on the west side of Moyie lake, is being developed by local capital. Good progress is being made, but, so for, no ore has been shipped.

extent.

The Victor group, on Maus creek, near Fort Steele, has been developed to a considerable The management is gratified with the result and await increased facilities of transport as the present railways are too far away for shipping.

The North Star has only shipped 3,000 tons of ore. Much development has been done. The Sullivan group has been shipping and smelting ore all the year. The results will be shown in the report of the Provincial Mineralogist. The ore is now of such a nature that no additional flux is required.

The St. Eugene has been at work during the whole year. As no reports are made to me, I would refer to the annual Report of the Provincial Mineralogist.

St. Eugene.

NOTE BY PROVINCIAL MINERALOGIST.

The St. Eugene mine, at Moyie, on Moyie lake, is owned and operated by the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Co. of Canada, and has been in continuous operation during the year. About 125,000 tons of ore were mined and concentrated in the company's concentrator, producing about 22,600 tons of lead concentrates, the ratio of concentration being about 5.5 tons of ore to 1 of concentrates. These concentrates, containing about 607,000 ounces of silver and 27,000,000 pounds of lead, were smelted, for the greater part, at the Trail smelter, owned by the same company.

A full description of the mine and concentrator will be found in the Report of this Bureau for 1904. This mine is the largest producer of lead in the Province, producing about 56% of total output.

Sullivan.

The Sullivan group of mines, owned by the Sullivan Group Mining Co., is located near Kimberley, on Mark creek, and was in operation almost continuously until within the last three months of the year, when the drop in the prices of lead and silver, combined with the financial depression, caused a shutdown and the property did not start up again during the year. A very large tonnage of ore was developed in the mine, but it is a very low grade, in lead and silver, and contains a high percentage of zinc blende. The nature of the ore is such that no attempt has been made at concentration by water, and the ore is smelted direct at the company's smelter, erected at Marysville, on Mark creek, at its junction with the St. Mary's river, which place is connected by a branch with the main Canadian Pacific Railway at Cranbrook. The company mined and smelted in 1907 about 28,000 tons of ore, carrying about 179,000 ounces of silver and 9,200,000 pounds of lead.

A description of this property was also given in the Report of 1904.

The North Star mine, also situated at Kimberley, is interesting as North Star Mine. having been the first large producer in the district. The known ore-bodyan immense lens of very pure galena-was seemingly exhausted several years ago, and repeated attempts by various engineers failed to locate any extension of the then known ore-body. The property was turned over to the charge of the then accountant, Mr. Curran, to clean up the little ore left in the old stopes, but he has somehow managed to find ore and has continued shipments of about 3,000 tons in 1906 and about the same amount in 1907.

These three properties produced in 1907, 821,367 ounces of silver and 37,526,194 pounds of lead-nearly 79% of the total lead production of the Province.

PLACER CLAIMS.

The usual output by Chinamen hydraulicing and sluicing on Wild Horse creek has been maintained.

One company has been working on Perry creek. It is said that the property has been purchased by the Illinois Steel Co.

The Company operating on Bull river has been working on their diversion and power ditch but have not yet completed it.

A mining lease was located on Moyie river, but no work has been done on it.

COAL CLAIMS.

The only shipping collieries are those of the Crow's Nest Pass Coal Co., at Coal Creek and Michel. As no returns are made to this office, I must refer to the Provincial Mineralogist.

Development work has been carried on at the Carbonado collieries of the same company and shipments from that point will probably be resumed in 1908.

The Hosmer colliery, an enterprise in the interests of the Canadian Pacific Railway, has been developed on a large scale. Machinery is being installed, coke ovens are being built, and shipping on a large scale will soon be commenced.

On Elk river, between Morrissey and Fernie, the Western Coal and Oil Company hold eight claims, but no development is apparent.

The other coal propositions in the district are in situations not reached by railway, and the mines cannot be operated until such means of transport is provided.

The Corbin Group, on the south fork of Michel creek, in Block 4,593, consists of 17 claims held under lease and four under licence. Development work has been continuous and it is expected that a railway will be built in 1908.

On the other groups of coal and oil claims in Block 4,593 very little work has been done, pending litigation being given as an excuse, but applications have been made for 46 new licences, and 15 applications for renewals have been reported through this office.

The Imperial Coal and Coke Company hold 83 claims under lease and six under licences. Coal has been developed at many points, but railway transport has not yet been secured.

The Northern Coal and Coke Company hold 44 licences and leases along both banks of the upper 20 miles of Elk river. They have proved the existence of coal in large quantities and are awaiting railway construction.

A syndicate is holding 45 claims on the eastern bank of Elk river, between the Northern Company's land and Lot 4,588, and is also awaiting the advent of a railway.

A group of 24 claims has been applied for on the west bank of Elk river, opposite the

FISSURE IN ROCKS ABOVE COAL CREEK MINES, FERNIE.

VICTORIA, 26th November, 1907.

The Honourable the Minister of Mines,

Victoria, B. C.

RE REPORTED DANGER FROM ROCK SLIDES AT COAL CREEK.

SIR,-In accordance with instructions received from you, I left Victoria on November 1st and proceeded to Fernie, to investigate the condition of the mountain above the workings of the coal seams of the Crow's Nest Pass Coal Company at Coal Creek, which had been reported to you as being in a condition, owing to the extraction of the underlying coal, to cause danger to life and property.

I arrived in Fernie on night of 3rd, and on the 4th I interviewed your informant, Mr. Biggs, the secretary of the local Union, and learned from him that the anticipated danger lay in the fact that the extraction of the coal in No. 1 and No. 9 mines, Coal Creek, had caused a subsidence of the hill above these seams, which subsidence was manifested by the opening of cracks in the higher rocky beds of which the mountain is formed, and it was feared by many of the inhabitants of Coal Creek that these fissures-some of which were in rocky cliffs-would cause large fragments of the cliff to become detached and that these would roll down upon the houses in the valley, causing a disaster similar to that which occurred some years back at Frank, Alberta.

As far as Mr. Biggs knew, or I could hear from others, there was no insinuation or expectation of danger in the mines mentioned, and the supposed danger was entirely from the surface material which it was thought might roll down upon the houses.

On the 5th inst., I went up to Coal Creek and examined the whole of the ground in question. As your information had been from the secretary of the local Union, I considered it advisable that the secretary and two other members should accompany me, which they did at my request. I was also accompanied by Mr. McEvoy, the geologist and engineer of the Crow's Nest Pass Coal Company, and by Mr. Morgan, the Inspector of Mines for the District.

I find that the mountain in question is on the north side of Coal Creek—its highest point being almost due north of the tipple-from which the hill rises with a very uniform slope of about 35° to a height of some 1,800 feet above the railway tracks, with two or three sandstone or conglomerate bluffs from 30 to 60 feet high, standing nearly vertical, making the average angle from the top to both of about 36° to 37°. There are two coal seams underlying this hill that have been worked, viz.: No. 1 mine and No. 9 mine.

No. 1 mine is the the overlying seam and has been extensively mined, but has recently been abandoned on account of the pavement rising up gradually and filling the levels, etc., causing heavy expense in timbering and in "brushing out" the levels and air-courses. While this argues a subsidence of the overlying strata, it also argues that the greater part of such subsidence has already taken place and that no sudden caving is to be expected.

No. 9 seam underlies No. 1 and is from six to eight feet thick of coal. These workings I inspected on the 6th inst. This mine has been operated exclusively on the "long-wall " system, whereby all the coal in the seam is extracted as the working face is advanced; the space left by the coal is partially filled with timber, refuse, rock, etc., and as the workings advance the roof gradually settles down, crushing and compressing the filling, until the roof and pavement are practically in contact and as secure from further settlement as before the coal was extracted.

The travelling and haulage roads and the airways through the worked-out portions of the mine, where the roof and pavement have come together, have been kept open by taking down the roof or taking up the pavement and are now practically rock tunnels. In this system of mining there are no old workings left in which any accumulation of gas can occur.

From these facts I argue that no further subsidence of any importance will occur in the surface overlaying the seams so far worked, and as the workings at present extend to a point under the brow of the hill-back of which the surface is more nearly level-any further cracks due to subsidence will be in the flatter country and free from all suspicion of danger.

As to any danger from the subsidence which has already taken place, I would say there is none, for the reason that the strata forming the mountain are hard, solid beds of sandstone, conglomerate and argillite, quite unaffected by water. These strata are merely horizontalsuch dip as they have being into the hill-which eliminates any possibility of there being any general slide of the hillside into the valley of Coal Creek.

The fissure, which was the immediate cause of the investigation, occurs in a sandstone bluff some 75 feet high, which forms the brow of the hill, some 1,800 feet above the level of the railway tracks, and cuts across a point of this bluff in a direction parallel with the main creek. The fissure in the solid rock is about 18 inches wide, but where the rock is covered with earth, the earth has in places run down, giving the impression, to a casual observer, of a fissure of several feet in width.

This fissure evidently occurred in the early part of the past summer. In addition to this most recent fissure, I found several other parallel fissures occurring at intervals down the hillside, which fact indicates that the subsidence of the hill has been gradual and going on for some time. This number of small fissures is much less dangerous than if the effect was concentrated in one large break.

The most recent fissure had detached a section of the bluff some 75 feet high, which toppling over, had fallen down on the steepest part of the general hillside, and the fragments of this rock fall had rolled or been thrown down the hillside for some distance, the piece going farthest a mass of some eighty tons-being not over 100 yards from the base of the bluff. This gives a practical illustration that the slope of the hill is not sufficiently steep to permit of boulders rolling any distance. From this bluff to the nearest buildings is a horizontal distance of about 2,500 feet.

As to the underground workings-I could not enter No. 1 mine, as it had been abandoned for some time and is now nearly choked up, but I know it from previous inspections.

I went through No. 9 mine with the overman, the Inspector and Mr. Biggs, and found everything in good order and as safe as coal mining can be made.

etc.

I include with this report a section of the hill in question, showing location of fissures,

In conclusion, I beg to report that, in my opinion, these fissures do not offer or suggest any danger from slides or rolling rocks from the hillside, and that no further investigation is required.

I might say that I found some 150 men had been frightened from their work by stories of the extent of these fissures; consequently, I considered it advisable to give a statement of my findings to the local press at once and before making my report to you, of which action I informed you by telegraph.

I am, etc.,

WM. F. ROBERTSON,

Provincial Mineralogist.