Blue Hawk Mine is a

gold mine Gold Mine may refer to: *Gold Mine (board game) *Gold Mine (Long Beach), an arena *"Gold Mine", a song by Joyner Lucas from the 2020 album '' ADHD'' See also * ''Gold'' (1974 film), based on the novel ''Gold Mine'' by Wilbur Smith *Gold mining ...

located on the east slope of Blue Grouse Mountain, on the west side of

Okanagan Lake Okanagan Lake ( oka, kɬúsx̌nítkw) is a lake in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada. The lake is long, between wide, and has a surface area of 348 km2 (135 sq. mi.). Hydrography Okanagan Lake is called a fjord lake as i ...

. The mine is just a few kilometres from Downtown

Kelowna Kelowna ( ) is a city on Okanagan Lake in the Okanagan Valley in the southern interior of British Columbia, Canada. It serves as the head office of the Regional District of Central Okanagan. The name Kelowna derives from the Okanagan word ''ki� ...

in the

Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. The

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

consists of several

adit An adit (from Latin ''aditus'', entrance) is an entrance to an underground mine which is horizontal or nearly horizontal, by which the mine can be entered, drained of water, ventilated, and minerals extracted at the lowest convenient level. Adits ...

s operated for a single year, 1934, and has been virtually abandoned ever since. British Columbia's Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources refers to the mine as "082ENW002",British Columbia's Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources
and states that 5 metric tonnes of

ore Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically containing metals, that can be mined, treated and sold at a profit.Encyclopædia Britannica. "Ore". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 April 2 ...

was mined yielding 560 grams (18 oz t) of

silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

and 156 grams (5 oz t) of

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

. The total horizontal length of the mine is approximately 90 metres. The mine is known to many Kelowna locals, and a gravel road leading past the mine is regularly maintained. The entrance to the mine often contains pooled water, but the interior is relatively dry and contains many undisturbed geological formations (

first First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...

). The location of the mine according to British Columbia's Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources is . Several Kelowna localshttp://charette.no-ip.com:81/images/2004_06/BlueHawkMine/
/ref> have reported the entrance to the mine to be at the alternate coordinates of , at an elevation of 965 meters.

History

* 1930s: Blue Hawk Mine, surface trenching and pits * 1965 through 1980: Dawood Mines Ltd explores the property with surface trenching, linecutting, grid preparation, soil sampling, and

magnetometer A magnetometer is a device that measures magnetic field or magnetic dipole moment. Different types of magnetometers measure the direction, strength, or relative change of a magnetic field at a particular location. A compass is one such device, o ...

survey Survey may refer to: Statistics and human research * Statistical survey, a method for collecting quantitative information about items in a population * Survey (human research), including opinion polls Spatial measurement * Surveying, the techniq ...

. F. Marshall Smith's Assessment Report also mentions "minor scaling of the main adit walls and roof", though the exact year this was undertaken is not recorded.Assessment Report on the Kurtis Property (Bluehawk Claim)
/ref> * 1980 through 1986: Neall Curtis Lenard completes limited prospecting, mapping and sampling programs * 1986 through ?: Pinewood Resources performs additional drilling, trenching, soil sampling for gold, and completes "a 5 hole drill program in the area of the existing adit"Geological Report Blue Hawk Project
/ref> More recent history of the property and rights is unclear, though the most recent owner to the property seems to be Armac Investments Ltd. of Vancouver, BC. The claims to an area covering 3 km² -- including the Blue Hawk Mine—may have been sold by Armac to Southern Pacific Development Corp. of Vancouver, BC, in 2004 or 2005.

Adit map

Page 13 of F. Marchall Smith's Assessment Report (dated December 18, 1994) contains a detailed map of the area around the mine, including the adit. Recent exploration of the mine has shown that the ceiling has collapsed and is now impassable in the adit beneath "Trench 5". An annotated copy of the map is available with the approximate location of the collapse indicated in red.

References

{{reflist Gold mines in British Columbia Silver mines in Canada Underground mines in Canada Tourist attractions in the Okanagan