Al4 Terrace Review —— Wednesday, September 4, 1991

by Michael Kelly

Along with mining exploration
crews, mine development experts,
prospectors and sundry other types
of people interested more in what
lies under the earth than above it,
‘the Eskay Creek gold fields north
of Stewart are populated this sum-
mer with a group of about 20
scientists from the Geological
Survey of Canada.

Dr. Bob Anderson heads the
crew, who are based out of Stewart
for the summer but reside and
work for the remainder of the year
in Vancouver and other places
closer to what is widely considered
civilization than the mountains of
the Northwest.

In an interview from Stewart last
month Anderson said the geolo-

gists’ main job is creating accurate
geological and topographical maps.
His project this year is the Iskut
area, a tough and remote assign-
ment in a region that has come to
national prominence over the past
five years with a series of spec-
tacular gold discoveries.

It isn’t the first time area has
been mapped for geology.
Anderson says maps for the Iskut
region go back to 1915, but as
techniques for analyzing in geol-
ogy evolve the maps are revised.
"I know rocks don’t move,"
Anderson said, “but the isotopic
data is crucial. It can change the
interpretation."

Isotopic data is obtained by ana-
lyzing crystalline rock, yielding its
age and content. "The field work is
necessary," Anderson said. "We

plot the data — the distribution of
rock types, an analysis of their
contents — and in drawing the
maps we hope to see patterns in
omer to interpret the geological

history of the area. It’s like a big
data base."

In the Iskut area, Anderson says,
there are "packages" of rocks.
There are Devonian age rocks,
over 370 million years old. There
are also Paleozoic rocks, what
Anderson terms the “Club Med"
rock package: they are mainly
limestone formed by corals in
ancient sea beds in warm water
conditions between 250 million

and 370 million years ago. Ironi-

cally, one of the most prominent
outcroppings of these tropical
rocks was found on a mountaintop

Now fF Know why yoty-
bumper sticker says

—"Z BUIT IN FOR

THE #8 Mf ns OF

END OF THE SEASON. The Terrace Stock Car Association is urging everyone in the
community to come out this weekend to the last race of the season at the Terrace Speedway. One
of the featured events will involve cars piloted by Stephanie Wiebe and Carrie Olson of the Terrace

Review.

Registration begins next week
for Terrace scouting groups

One week from today it will be
time for registration in Beavers,
Cubs, Scouts, Venturers or Rovers.
Registration will take place at E.T.
Kenney Elementary School from 7
p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 11 and
whether you are a youngster look-
ing for a challenge or an adult who
would like to help there is a good
variety of groups to join.

There are five Beaver Colonies
in the area which meet at Thornhill
Primary, Parkside and Uplands
schools as well as the Scout Hall

~” HELMUT
GEISBRECHT

Skeena New
| Democrat
for Open and
Balanced
-Government

FATES TELUYLILETITL Eee

and the Kermode Friendship
Centre. There are also five Cub
Packs which meet at E.T. Kenney,
Thornhill Elementary, Uplands and
Parkside schools as well as the
Scout Hall.

There will be between two and
four Scout Troops, depending on
the demand, and their meetings
will most likely be held at E.T.
Kenney and Uplands schools.
Venturers will be meeting in the
Scout Hall in the coming season
and Rovers will meet in a variety
of locations. There are no formal
meetings for Rovers and gatherings

are normally held in private homes

in the area.
The 1991-92 season offers a

wide variety of activities. On Sept.
12 there is the Annual General
Meeting which will be held at the
Knox United Church at 7 p.m. In
October there is the 75th Anniver-
sary Cub Campfire at a location
yet to be announced. In November
there’s Remembrance Day, and in
December Christmas tree cutting
and sales.

Next year, Scout-Guide week
will feature a mall display and
Scout-Guide campfire in February.
There will be a Kub Kar Raily in
April, Trees for Canada in May,

and the Totem Trails Scout Camp —

and Camp Kik-a-tee Cub Camp.

City, Safeway agree

on Ottawa

The City of Terrace and Canada
Safeway have entered into an road
exchange agreement which outlines
the terms and conditions for the
relocation of Ottawa St.

The relocation of Ottawa St. will
allow Safeway to add 86 new
parking spaces, increase their staff
from 100 to 120, and increase the
available floor space in their store
to 42,000 square feet by adding
12,800 square feet on a portion of
what is now Ottawa St.

St. move

The new Ottawa St. which will
be located about 30 metres further
west and intersect Lakelse Ave.
near Sparks St., will be completed

. before the closure of the existing

Ottawa St. According to the con-
tract, the relocation of the roadway
and underground services will be
completed by Canada Safeway
before Dec. 31, 1991. Safeway will
pay all cosis of the relocation,
including $3,000 to cover the

ice field.

The package of rocks getting all
the attention from miners is the
Mesozoic package, volcanic rocks
from 180-250 million years ago.

These are quartz veins formed

from the throats of ancient vol-
canoes and are the rocks that host
most of the precious metal
deposits. Anderson’s crew is Ie-
cording the location of the ‘old
volcanoes, some of which were
tipped on their sides when the
_coast mountains formed. "It’s a
unique opportunity to examine
volcanic plumbing," he said.

Sedimentary rocks, 150-180
million years old, are apparent on
the Spatzizi plateau, particularly in
the near-surface Mount Klappan
coal deposit.

Granitic rocks are the youngest
— 150 million years or less —
and most prevalent in the area.
They are the dominant rock type,
making up most of the coast
mountains, -but unfortunately for
miners they host no important
minerals.

The maps created from the GSC
research, most of them scaled four
miles to the inch, are used mainly
by people associated with the
mineral industry. "The exploration
companies need better and more
detailed maps. The mapping helps
economic development by making
exploration faster and more exact,"

Anderson says. The GSC’s indica-
tions of where and how deep rock
types and strata occur are invalu-
able for mineral exploration. But
Anderson says the data flows both
ways.

The intense exploration and
mining activity in the Iskut area,
particularly around Eskay Creek,
has proven invaluable to the GSC.
"When you’re in the mountains
you can’t get everything the first

Adrian has 5,700 acres.

Gold fields update -

- Westmin and Tenajon are both pleased with the results from the
first run of ore milled out the joint venture SB property near
Stewart, according to an Aug. 1 press release. Gold production for
the five-day run was 2,025 ounces, a 91.6 percent recovery rate
from 7,585 short tons of ore. The next run, 20,000 tons, is
scheduled for late August. The partners plan to run 100,000 tons
through the mill before the end of 1991. .

Survey mines mountains for information

time," he said, referring to previ-

_ous mapping efforts. With the

exploration and mining action in
the aréa, access is now easier and
the geologists are receiving with
interest drilling results from the
explorationists — they normally
have to draw their conclusions on
the structure of underground strata
by careful examination of rock
samples from the surface. "This is
changing our concepts about how
the strata are grouped," Anderson
remarked.

_ As an example, the zones of real
geological interest in the Eskay
area, he added, show very little on
the surface.

Miners aren't the only pro-
fessionals that use the GSC maps,
and geologists aren’t the only
people clambering around in the
mountains with the GSC crew, The
GSC data is used by B.C. Hydro in
dam engineering to locate fault
zones in potential reservoirs and it
provides a base for more detailed
maps created by the Mining De-
partment research unit at UBC.
The B.C. provincial government
survey also uses the data for pro-
duction of their maps. :

In addition to scrutiny by geol-
ogists, the rocks in the Iskut area
are also being examined by two
paleontologists looking for rem-
nants of ancient life —- fossils.
One of them is analyzing
outcroppings of Jurassic rocks, the
other is doing a general examin-
ation of rocks in the Eskay area.

The new techniques and added
data haven’t taken the mystique

_ out of geology, however. Anderson

says mapping the strata beneath
the earth’s surface is still as much
an art as it is a science. "If you
send 10 geologists out to the same
area, chances ate you'll get 10
different maps," he says.

Newhawk Gold Mines plans to have spent $1.5 million
exploring the Sulphurets gold property north of Stewart by the end
of this year’s exploration season. The work includes drilling on
several areas of the property not explored to date. Earlier this year
Newhawk shied away from a production decision on Sulphurets
and is now involved in attempting to increase reserves on it. The
property is a joint venture with Granduc.

Over the past two years the number gold projects In the
development stage in Canada has dropped by 66 percent,
according to a report released last month by the Metal Economics
Group. The report, described in the Aug. 12 Northern Miner, says
there are 51 projects in that category this summer, compared to
150 in the summer of 1989. Two of the seven new gold mines
being started up in Canada this year are in B.C.: Dome Mountain,
scheduled to start in the third quarter, and Westmin-Tenajon’s SB
project near Stewart, which began producing in May.

Skyline Gold has farmed out it’s Johnny Mountain gold
property in the Iskut River valley to Placer Dome Inc. and Adrian
Resources. The companies are currently evaluating surface drilling
results from several locations. Johnny Mountain, the first mine put
into production in the "golden triangle" area, closed last year when
ore grades proved to be below a profitable gold content. Placer
Dome is exploring 1,800 acres under the farm-out arrangement and