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Location: 51 km SW from Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada
P.O. Box 1500Logan LakeBritish Columbia, CanadaV0K 1W0
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The Teck Highland Valley Copper (THVC) mineralization is a typical porphyry copper-molybdenum deposit. It is characterized as a calc-alkalic copper-molybdenum type. These deposits are typically hosted in intrusive rocks, usually of granodioritic or quartz monzonitic composition. These deposits are often large, oval, inverse-haped deposits. The dominant mineralization at the Highland Valley deposits is characterized by chalcopyrite, bornite, pyrite and molybdenite with minor specular hematite, magnetite and chalcocite.Zoning of the mineralization is well developed at both the Valley and Lornex deposits. The zoning is concentric at the Valley mine and from the centre to the periphery of the deposit is typically bornite through chalcopyrite to a pyrite-dominated zone. At the Lornex deposit the zoning mimics the contours parallel to the large quartz porphyry dyke emplaced in the southern part of the deposit. Mineralization zoning at the Highmont deposit is not as well defined as the deposits to the north. Molybdenum and copper zoning is generally parallel but not coincident. Molybdenite grades are much more variable than the copper grades at the Highland Valley deposits. At the Lornex deposit the molybdenite grades are associated with both the bornite and chalcopyrite zones but primarily with the chalcopyrite. Molybdenite values at the Valley mine are significantly lower and are found more closely associated with the margins of the deposit. At Highmont, molybdenite zones are sub-parallel to the Gnawed Mountain porphyry. Ore is mined from the Valley, Lornex and Highmont pits. The pits are located in the Guichon batholith, which hosts all of the orebodies located in the area. The host rocks of the Valley deposit are mainly porphyritic granodiorites of the Bethsaida phase of the batholith with minor inter-mineral dykes. These rocks are medium-to-coarse-grained with large phenocrysts of quartz and biotite. The rocks of the deposit were subjected to hydrothermal alteration, extensive quartz veining, quartzmuscovite veining, and a late sericite and argillic overprint. Bornite, chalcopyrite and molybdenum were introduced with the quartz and quartz-muscovite veins, and with the late sericite alteration. Minor pyrite, sphalerite, and galena are associated with the mineralization.The Lornex orebody occurs primarily in the medium-grained quartz-diorite Skeena phase of the batholith with a small portion of the Bethsaida phase. These phases have been intruded by younger inter-mineral quartz porphyry and aplite dykes. The rocks of the deposit have been subjected to similar hydrothermal alteration as the Valley deposit with quartz veining, quartz-muscovite veining being overprinted by extensive sericite and argillic alteration. Bornite, chalcopyrite and molybdenite are the main economic minerals contained within the veins, associated with the late sericite alteration. Minor pyrite, sphalerite, and galena are also associated with the mineralization.The Highmont deposit is entirely hosted within the Skeena granodiorite and the Gnawed Mountain Composite Dyke (GMCD) which is a multiphase intrusion and hydrothermal breccia body. The Bethsaida phase of the batholith occurs 750 metres southwest of the deposit. Historical intercepts of Bethsaida logged within the deposit are interpreted to be phases of the GMCD. The lithology of dykes in Highmont is less constrained than the Valley-Lornex deposit. Copper mineralization occurs dominantly as chalcopyrite or bornite within quartz and quartz-muscovite veins, and to a lesser degree as breccia infill. The generalized sulphide distribution indicates a roughly concentric distribution of bornite-chalcopyrite and pyrite centered in the east of the deposit and extending northwest along the contacts of the GMCD.
