AMPLE GOLDMAX
The Cayoosh Gold Rush was one of several in the history of the region surrounding Lillooet, British Columbia, Canada. If estimates of its yield are true, it would be one of the richest single finds in the gold mining history of that province.
Lillooet mining division
The Cayoosh Gold Rush was one of several in the history of the region surrounding Lillooet, British Columbia, Canada. If estimates of its yield are true, it would be one of the richest single finds in the gold mining history of that province.
This area has a long but intermittent history of gold prospecting which dates back to 1866 when the Chinese discovered placer gold along its lower reaches. The placer activity was so rich the word spread through their community throughout the Fraser Canyon and the Cariboo of the find such that all claims were staked by the time any non-Chinese found about it.
Local government agent and claims recorder Caspar Phair, who presided over the issuing of claims, in 1887 estimated C$6-7 million in gold had been taken out, in a decade when the official total gold revenue for the entire province was only about C$1.5 million.
By the end of the decade the claims were exhausted but the renewed interest in the Lillooet region helped spur a wave of new exploration in the area, which lead to the commissioning of two hard rock mines; Golden Cache and the Ample mines.
Two past producing gold mines occur within the property’s boundary. The Golden Cache Mine produced slightly over one thousand tons of gold ore in the late 1800’s. The mine is noted for spectacular native gold specimens collected from its workings. Total production recorded for the Golden Cache between 1897 and 1901 was about 3,000 tons (2,722 tonnes) of ore (processed in a 10-stamp mill at Cayoosh Creek), which yielded 807 ounces (25,100g) of gold, or 0.26oz/ton (9 grams per ton). The Ample Mine was worked intermittently from around the turn of the century to the 1930’s. About 300 metres of underground workings were established during that time, but production was likely only a few thousand tons.
“On February 25, 1993, while driving along the Duffy Lake Road, I noticed a large quartz boulder on the opposite lane of the highway. Due to its location (about 300 metres west of the Goldmax #6 final post), and its greenish colour, I stopped, put it in my truck and brought it home with me. Upon breaking it apart, I discovered it contained visible gold, which assayed 4.34 oz. Au, .65 oz. Ag and .079 % Cu.”
In 1995, Homestake Canada Inc. optioned the property and the following year initiated a fourteen hole drill program (four of which did not reach bedrock). Totalling 1813 metres of drilling to test the Ample-Goldmax Zone, they intersected significant gold mineralization including 11.76 grams/tonne gold over 8.2 metres (Kuran and McLeod, 1997a).
Historical Drill Results
*true widths/orientation of mineralization unknown
The Ample-Goldmax property lies within a geologically complex portion of the Canadian Cordillera, dominated by major north-northwest to northwest striking, high-angle, strike-slip faults, low-angle thrust faults, and multiple periods of folding and metamorphism. The geology is so complex and the rock units so broken up that some geologists consider the rocks to be part of a mélange terrane. In general, the rocks of this region are part of the Coast Range Province of southwestern British Columbia, with metamorphosed turbidites, cherts, and intermediate volcanic rocks the predominant lithologies.
The Cayoosh Creek Thrust Fault (at least in the Ample-Goldmax area) may be as thick as 50 meters, separating the Bridge River Complex from the tectonically lower (but younger) Cayoosh Creek Assemblage. Because both formations have such similar lithologies and similar grades of metamorphism, it is usually impossible to determine, at an outcrop scale, which formation is exposed. It is only when mapping a large enough area, where the more prevalent greenstones of the Bridge River Complex and the more prevalent clastic rocks of the Cayoosh Assemblage can be observed, that the two formations can be separated and mapped.
Most of the gold mineralization discovered to date at the Ample-Goldmax is closely associated spatially with the Cayoosh Creek Thrust Fault zone. For a detailed geological analysis please reference the Ample Goldmax 2019 Geochemical Assessment Report V3- Amendments
