Come and check out the Ashlu Mine! To get to parking I would suggest an SUV or truck, and from parking to the mine facilities and mine itself you have a 2-3 km hike with 100~200 meters of elevation change. It is not a difficult hike, but will take a little effort. You will also have to cross Roaring Creek, which varies in ferocity according to the season.
The Ashlu quartz veins were discovered in 1923 by F. Pykett and associates, who originally called the claims the Golden King group. By 1930, the claims were known as the Gold Coin group, owned by the Pykett estate, C. Anderson and R.V. Carson. In 1947, Giant Mines & Metals explored the area as the M2-5 mineral claims. Since 1975, about 1,000 metres of diamond drilling have been completed on the deposit. Osprey Mining and Explorations Limited reportedly installed a 91 tonne per day mill in 1979, but except for 36 tonnes milled in 1984 no other production was recorded. The surrounding area was restaked as the Ashlu 1 to 5 claims by 421424 B.C. Ltd. During 2009 through 2012, Ashlu Mines completed a program of rock, soil and silt sampling on the area.
The portal of the former Ashlu mine is located at the confluence of Roaring Creek with Ashlu Creek, 45 kilometres northwest of Squamish, British Columbia. The Ashlu mine area is underlain by extensive areas of quartz diorite, granodiorite and diorite bodies. The quartz vein consists of massive to cleaved white quartz with pods, streaks and disseminations of pyrite and pyrrhotite, especially near the vein walls. Minor amounts of chalcopyrite, scheelite, sphalerite, ankerite and siderite also occur in the vein. Gold values are closely associated with the sulphide minerals.
Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silicon and oxygen atoms. Quartz is the second most abundant mineral in Earth's continental crust, behind feldspar. Quartz is the mineral defining the value of 7 on the Mohs scale of hardness, a qualitative scratch method for determining the hardness of a material to abrasion. The word "quartz" is derived from the German word "Quarz" which came from the Polish dialect term kwardy, which corresponds to the Czech term tvrdý ("hard").
Varieties (according to color)
Pure quartz, traditionally called rock crystal or clear quartz, is colorless and transparent or translucent, and has often been used for hardstone carvings. Common colored varieties include citrine, rose quartz, amethyst, smoky quartz, milky quartz, and others. These color differentiations arise from the presence of impurities which change the molecular orbitals.
How to Identify Quartz
Quartz comes in many colors and shapes. Once you start studying minerals, though, quartz becomes easy to tell at a glance. You can recognize it by these identifiers:
- A glassy luster
- Hardness 7 on the Mohs scale, scratching ordinary glass and all types of steel
- It breaks into curved shards rather than flat-faced cleavage fragments, meaning it exhibits conchoidal fracture.
- Almost always clear or white
- Almost always present in light-colored rocks and in sandstones
- If found in crystals, quartz always has a hexagonal cross-section like that of a common pencil.
Most examples of quartz are clear, frosted, or found as milky-white grains of small size that don't display crystal faces. Clear quartz may appear dark if it's in a rock with a lot of dark minerals.
To log this EC:
- At the posted coordinates - approximately how wide & high is the adit here, the primary entrance to the mine?
- Please enter the mine (only a meter or 2 is fine) - bring a flashlight along, watch your footing, and shine your flashlight to the walls and ceiling - describe what you see.
- Please find a sample (there should be many on the ground) and describe its characteristics. Do you think you have found quartz?
- Go down to stage 2 - approximately how wide & high is the adit here?
- Go to stage 3 (the mining facility) - what do you find in behind the primary structure? For what do think it is used?
- Please describe the inside of the mining facility.
Please message or email me your responses, but do not post with your log.
Please post pictures of your adventure along with your log, with your crew or personal items.
Handy things to bring along: