The HB property is located on Aspen Creek, a tributary of Sheep Creek, 8 kilometres southeast of Salmo. The north end of the No. 1 orebody outcropped at an elevation of 1219 metres, west of Aspen Creek and almost a 1.6 kilometres north of Sheep Creek.
The HB mine was initially staked in 1907 and put into production in a limited manner in 1912. In 1927 the property was acquired by the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company ("Cominco"). Exploration by Cominco in 1949-1950 lead to the discovery of three parallel, steeply dipping, ore zones extending for 900 metres in a north-south direction across the claims. In 1955 the HB Mine was put into production at 1,000 t/day. Ten years later in 1965 the adjacent Garnet Lead-Zinc Mine was put into production as part of Cominco's HB mining operation.
Between 1912 and 1978 the HB and Garnet mines produced a total of 6,656,101 tonnes of ore at an average grade of 4.1% Zinc, 0.8% Lead and 4.8 g/tonne Silver. (BC Geological Survey, Detail Production Report, MINFILE). Seventy percent of this production is estimated to have been mined from the HB Mine deposits.
The HB and Garnet mines closed in August 1978. As of December 31, 1978, the remaining measured and indicated reserves for the HB Mine were reported by Canadian Pacific Limited as approximately 36,287 tonnes grading 0.1 per cent lead and 4.1 per cent zinc.
On Oct 27, 2009 Sultan Minerals Acquired the mine in exchange for $15,000 cash and 100,000 shares of Sultan. [They plan to initially continue exploration of the ore body with an eye to reopening it some time in the future.]
From Sultan Minerals
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