Western Mines— Myra, Lynx and Price deposits

CIM Bulletin, Vol. 73, No. 824, 1980

R.H. SERAPHIM, Consultant Vancouver, B.C.

Western Mines Limited produces gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc from a number of Paleozoic volcanogenic deposits near Buttle Lake on Vancouver Island. The deposits were emplaced along a series of submarine linear volcanic ridges that extended for at least 6,000 metres in a northwesterly direction.Rock types mapped include: andesitic, dacitic and rhyolitic flows and volcanic breccias; detrital breccias, tuffs and hematitic silts; black and green cherts; and a variety of dykes and sills, including quartz porphyry and diorite. Orebodiesare associated invariably, and in places intimately, with quartz-sericite schist and rhyolitic rocks. The ore is complex, varying in mineralogy and tenor both within each deposit and from one deposit to another.Recent studies have increased our knowledge of the structure and left no doubt that the orebodies were deposited both within the throats of the linear vents and on paleoslopes adjacent to these vents.

Keywords: Ore deposits, Western Mines Ltd., Myra deposit, Lynx deposit, Price deposit, Volcanogenic deposits, Sicker Group, Alteration, Mineralization, Discussion, Walker, R.R.