Mineral Exploration

22 Mineral Exploration | amebc.ca PHOTOS: TOM SCHROETER CAMPS OF FAME revised to $160,222. Taylor Engineering was contracted to build the railway and commenced construction in April 1917. The route followed the pack trail, but carving a railroad through steep canyon-like rock walls and talus slopes presented many challenges. Wartime shortages drove up the price for rails and other materials, and labour problems at the Vancouver and Prince Rupert docks delayed deliveries. Despite this, by October 1917, the first eight miles were complete and all bridges and trestles constructed from hand-hewn timbers were completed for 15 miles. Taylor Engineering was operated by Alfred Taylor, a young, resourceful and hard-working engineer. However, his inexperience in business led to financial problems for him and his firm during the final construction stages of the railway. Even with Granby Company's bail-out funding on October 22, 1918, Taylor Engineering went into bankruptcy with the railway less than one mile from the Dolly Varden mine. Fortunately, Taylor Mining Company was reorganized and, on July 28, 1919, the first trainload of ore reached the wharf at Alice Arm for shipment by barge to Granby's smelter at Anyox. The railway was later extended another two miles to the Wolf Mine. With completion of the railway and a hydroelectric power plant on Trout Creek, the Dolly Varden mine – now operated by Taylor Mining Company, along with the railway ––was in production. The mine was developed on three levels, and an aerial tramline installed to transfer the ore from the mine portal down to the railway siding. Mine production was maintained at 100 tons per day. During the mining, several small bonanza-grade native silver ore shoots were encountered; the super-rich ore was hand-picked and sacked for shipment to the smelter. During the first year of production, the mine shipped 42 tons of super-high- grade ore grading 1,280 oz/ton Ag. Ore shipments from July 1919 until heavy winter snowfalls closed the railway totalled 6,709 tons averaging 63 oz/ton Ag. In 1920, production averaged 150 tons per day for a total of 28,037 tons grading about 30 oz/ton Ag. At this time, preliminary plans were on the drawing board to construct a concentrator for the Dolly Varden and Wolf mines, primarily to process lower-grade ore. With the persistently low silver price in 1921, only broken ore was salvaged and shipped to the smelter, totalling 1,874 tons grading 24.3 oz/ton Ag. Then the mine closed. The financial issues that had previously plagued Taylor Engineering returned, and this time Taylor lost control of the property. The company was reorganized in the fall of 1922 under George Wingfield, and the property was promptly transferred to Goldfields Consolidated Mines Company, though the mine was not put back into operation. Neither was the railway, and although the tracks were available for hand-cars and speeders, the other mine operators in the camp were unable to ship large tonnages to Alice Arm. The Dolly Varden mine remained closed until 1935, when a small shipment of high-grade ore totalling 234 tons grading 271 oz/ton Ag was transported to Alice Arm by speeder and flatcar. Over the years, a number of mining companies have evaluated the possibilities of reviving the Dolly Varden, Wolf and North Star properties, but this once- vibrant and promising mining venture has never reopened. In a nutshell, the demise of the Dolly Varden mine began with reckless spending on equipment by Taylor and construction cost over- runs, and was compounded by a labour strike and falling silver prices, resulting in bankruptcy. Huge exploration expenditures were incurred on the Wolf and North Star properties, but only a small tonnage of ore was ever mined from them. Thanks to Nick Carter and Tom Schroeter for providing information and old photographs of this historic mining camp. (Left and below) From horseback to railway to helicopter: the remote Torbrit property has been accessed by various means of transportation over the years; (bottom) Never operated, but never forgotten: The Wolf property has periodically seen exploration activity over the years although it did not go into production.

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