ENGINEER MINE PROPERTY

History

The history of the Engineer Mine property dates back to 1899 when an engineer from the Yukon & White Pass Railway discovered visible gold in quartz veins on the shore of Tagish Lake below Engineer
Mountain. He returned with associates and they staked the Engineer Group of claims. After some
development work, the claims were allowed to lapse in 1906, but were re-staked and sold in 1907
to Captain James Alexander and partners.

Location map of the Engineer Property, north-western British Columbia.

In 1912, Captain Alexander took control and systematically explored the property. He developed
the upper levels of the underground workings and built a stamp mill at what is now known as the
1-Level Entrance. He processed over 2,000 of gold over several seasons. In 1918, Captain
Alexander died in the sinking of the Steamship Princess Sophia. He died along with many others,
including two men involved in a deal that had just been made for the sale of the Engineer Mine to
the Mining Corporation of Canada. After his death, several claimants appeared with interests in
the Property, and many years of litigation followed.

The Property was taken over in 1923 by a New York group and mining began in 1924 for Engineer
Gold Mines Limited. Developments at this time were the most significant that the property had
yet seen, including the development of the town site, the installation of a power plant on the Wann
River with transmission lines to Engineer, and the concentrator and mill on the lakeshore near the
5-Level portal. Over 140 people were employed at the site at this time and development of the underground tunnels down to the 8-Level occurred at this time. The presence of visible gold was the primary method of identifying and following ore shoots in the veins. Reserves were exhausted by 1927, but development continued with drifting and limited mining on the 6, 7 and 8 levels until 1933. Underground workings consist of about 5,500 metres of drifts, shafts, raises and stopes on 8 levels.
 

A total of 562 kilograms gold (Au) (18,000 ounces) and 278 kilograms silver (Ag) (9,000 ounces) was reportedly produced from 14,263 tonnes of ore at Engineer Mine in the period between 1913 and 1952. This equates to total realized gold and silver production grades of 39 g/t Au (1.2 oz/ton) and 20 g/t Ag (0.6 oz/ton) respectively.

The property changed hands several times in the intervening years. Reginald Brook, an associate
of Captain Alexander, stayed on as caretaker of the property and selectively hand-mined parts of
the mine. In 1944 a group of miners leased the property and high-graded the veins on the underground workings until 1952.
 

Several exploration companies worked on the property from the 1960’s to 1980’s, to varying
degrees. These include: Tagish Gold Mines in the early 1960’s, Nu-Energy Resources Limited in
1975 who sampled the hydrothermal breccia zone along Shear Zone A on the 5-Level, and Nu-
Lady Gold Mines Ltd. in 1979. In 1987, Total Erickson Resources Limited conducted the most
comprehensive modern exploration of the property to that date, including an aeromagnetic survey,
detailed geology, and drilling.

Gentry Resources Ltd. optioned the property from Total Erickson in 1989, and acquired title to the
property in 1990 with Winslow Gold Corp. Ampex Mining acquired an interest in the property
from Winslow in 1993, and through further transactions the property interest was passed to Old
Engineer Mining Corp. who underwent a name change to Engineer Mining Corp in 1997. Mining
and development activities occurred through this time and is detailed in Davidson (1998).

In 2007, BCGold Corp. optioned the property from Engineer Mining Corp. An exploration program began in 2007 and carried on into 2008, including drilling and property wide compilation. BCGold has spent $1.4 million in exploration at the Engineer Mine Property since acquisition in January, 2007.

 

last updated: January 14, 2010