(left) The McLeod family at Silver Star;
(below) Alteration and mineralization at
Mount Washington.
Immigrant trappers, prospectors
and other pioneers, particularly from
Scandinavia and central Europe, introduced and used skis to travel parts of the
rugged frontier of British Columbia that
had limited accessibility. Recreational
ski clubs and the first resorts emerged
and then grew in popularity after the
Second World War. And how did these
early ski enthusiasts access the pristine
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w i n t e r
peaks? Often through the same access
roads that miners had built to access
their operations.
One example is the Mount Washington
ski area on Vancouver Island. Starting in
the 1940s, explorers identified copper, gold
and silver mineralization on the mountain;
in the mid-1960s, the Mount Washington
Copper Company Ltd. produced almost
400,000 tons of ore from two open pits,
2 013
with an average grade of 1.16 per cent Cu,
0.01 oz/ton Au, and 0.5 oz/ton Ag. As was
often the case with small mines of that era,
the site was abandoned but its environmental consequences remained. Starting
in 2003, the Tsolum River Partnership
(consisting of representatives from the
community, the mining, forestry and
fishery industries, and the federal and
provincial governments, together with
Photographs : Rob McLeod ; Hamish Greig
13-10-31 11:14 AM
13-11-27 10:02 AM
