Copper mine up in Tulameen

[Leaseman]

There are all sorts of mines in the area...silver mines up Treasure Mountain, all sorts of old to real old equipment left....core samples etc.

I think the amount of claims staked in the general area(s) would surprise many.

[Tuffguy]

I worked on a project several years ago along the Lawless FSR prospecting, surveying, sampling but never reached the stage of drilling. Southern BC is known as elephant country for the occurrence of larger deposits such as Copper Mountain, Highland Valley etc. There is a recent discovery near Missezula Lake which when a company usually pulls a good hole then it brings a near area play. However, even with a significant discovery, as J_T said, it would take north of 20 years before there would be any sort of production. Mt. Milligan near Mackenzie was discovered in 1983 and didn't go into production until 2012. That being said its different for placer projects which there are a lot of claims and operations near Tulamean searching for platinum group metals and gold. However, prospecting, sampling and surveying is a great way to get paid to scout for the fall

[dracb]

Take a look at the little copper mine north of Logan lake for a good indicator on how it could effect your hunting areas.

Statistics show that mining companies examine a few thousand properties for each property that makes a mine. Quit a few of those properties will have millions of dollars spent on them before being abandoned and left to return to the wild. The more mineralized properties will be explored off and on sometimes for more than 100 years before a mine is established. So exploration disturbance is transitory.

However mines like that little one near Logan lake have historically financed the establishment of civilizations and empires. For examples look up Timna silver mines for Greece or Rio Tinto Mine Spain.
The Hyland Valley Mine currently has on the order of 1400 workers. Canadian mine employees in 2017 earned an average of $119,000 or about twice the average Canadian income. Let us not ignore that each mine site job generate three to ten jobs in the local community and down stream. It has supported at least 6,000 families for the last more or less 60 years and will do so for another 20 or so years Assuming no enhancements in mining technology and economics that will extend the mine life even further into the future. I have no reasonable guess as to the taxes that have flowed into government coffers from that little mine but would likely fill a boxcar or several with $100 bills.

Granted there will continue to be a big hole in the ground, but the tailings ponds which comprise the largest surface disturbance, will be reclaimed and like one reclaimed pond at Hyland Valley be used for sports fishing. But we got so much use out of the area most reasonably people would thank God for the gift to Canada.

[J_T]

Approximately, BC is 94 million hectares, a few years ago 20% of that 94 mill was park. Another percentage is municipalities. I'm not sure what total (mineral) title holding in BC is at present, but a couple of years ago, it was about 15 million hectares. A mining company must carry out work on their property. Somewhere between $10-20/hectare. They must place performance and reclamation bonds to clean up any surface disturbance. Prior to the NDP BC had an annual exploration of approximately $400 million. A good chunk of that exploration budget goes to above average wages for locals. Additional money is spent in local communities on hotels, restaurants, fuel. Money I see as well spent in local rural communities.

[upnover]

I think we should all hope that more deposits are found. Those mines and the people that work in them pay more taxes in one month than anybody in the tourism industry does in a year. If the "free shit army" in this country gets much bigger we will need those tax dollars dont you think? The elk valley coal mines have more game within their boundaries than the national parks to the north or south. Yes i know about the environmental issues associated with large scale disruption of overburden, but engineering solutions are constantly being employed. All the electric cars coming on stream to a big city near you are going to need a few miles of copper wire. Should we supply that copper? Or let other countries? Do we have too many high paying jobs? Sorry for the rant and yes i am a retired miner.