Gold in Nickel Plate - Hedley, BC
N 49° 21.373 W 120° 04.669
10U E 712193 N 5471163
One of the BC roadside markers now mounted on the side of the Hedley Museum.
Waymark Code: WM95HA
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Date Posted: 07/02/2010
Views: 10
From the marker:
From the heart of the mountain, men took $47,000,000 in gold. It started in 1904 when Hedley boomed with the opening of the mill in town and the Nickel Plate Mine on the mountain-top. The nearby Hedley Mascot Mine on a claim less than an acre, Mined a fortune. Finally, in 1955, the great orebody of gold, silver, and copper was exhausted.
The ore body was not 'exhausted' though as the Nickel Plate was reopened in 1987 as an open pit mine and operated until October of 1996. To date 2,500,000 ounces of gold (77,758 kilos, 171,427 lbs) of gold have been mined from the mountain. In 2009, gold was $1000 USD so that works out to $2.5 billion... Mining of gold does pay well.
While researching this sign, I came across a webpage by Jean-Francois Brulotte, on it he has this picture taken in the late 1950's or early 1960's showing the original location of the sign. You can see in the photo the Stamp mill standing in the background. A friend of his, Rich Bauer, acquired the photo as a slide at a garage sale.