Mineral Exploration

14 Mineral Exploration | amebc.ca PHOTO: TECK COAL LIMITED Today, ongoing exploration continues in the region, and millions of dollars are spent each year on the acquisition of mineral tenures and exploration programs by companies and prospectors, as well as public geoscience initiatives by the Geological Survey of Canada, Geoscience BC and academic groups. Rocky Mountains and coalfields After the eventual breakup of ancestral North America (780 million to 570 million years ago), passive margin siliciclastic, carbonate and evaporitic sedimentary rocks were deposited on the western flank of the continent during the Paleozoic era. Terrane accretion to the margin of the continent in the Mesozoic era caused these sequences to be uplifted and thrust northeastward. Thrust loading and uplift to the west also led to foreland basin subsidence to the east, and the development of the Jurassic-Cretaceous coal swamps. Continued accretion, uplift and eastward migration of the deformation front eventually caused these coal deposits to also be uplifted in the Rocky Mountain Front Range. Today, structurally thickened and upturned coal seams of the Mist Mountain formation extend along a northwest-southeast trend for 175¬kilometres. Coal discoveries in the Elk Valley date back to around 1845. The first underground mine, at Coal Creek, opened in 1897 and operated until 1958. In the early 1900s and into the 1960s, several other underground mines operated intermittently. These included the Morrissey, Hosmer, Michel/ Natal and Corbin mines. All produced industrial steam coal and coke for the smelting industry. The Balmer mine was the first large open-pit mine in the Elk Valley. It opened in 1968, and was encompassed by the currently operating Elkview mine. The Elk Valley today is a major source of mining revenue for the province. Currently, there are five operating metallurgical coal mines in the Elk Valley, with ongoing expansion plans and a few other projects that are moving forward from advanced exploration to the environmental assessment stages. The main product is metallurgical coal, which is used in the steel-making industry. In 2015, production from the Elk Valley was approximately 25 megatonnes, making up approximately 90 per cent of Canada's total annual coal exports and accounting for 44 per cent of British Columbia's $6.9 billion in direct mining revenues. Over 5,000 people are directly employed at the mines, in addition to thousands of other contractors, service providers and suppliers, bringing in additional indirect socio-economic benefits to the region and to the province. In addition to coal, the upturned thrust sheets of the Rocky Mountain fold and thrust belt also host siliciclastic, carbonate and evaporitic sequences with relatively easily mined industrial minerals such as gypsum, magnesite and silica. Several industrial mineral operations exist in the region, providing additional revenues for the province and employment opportunities for the region. Southeastern B.C. Coal seams of the Mist Mountain formation within the Alexander Creek syncline at the Line Creek mine

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