Phoenix Mine was an open pit

Open-pit mining

Open-pit mining or opencast mining refers to a method of extracting rock or minerals from the earth by their removal from an open pit or borrow....

 and underground mining operation in city of Phoenix

Phoenix, British Columbia

Phoenix is a ghost town in the Boundary Country of British Columbia, Canada, 11 km east of Greenwood. Once called the “highest city in Canada” by its citizens it was a booming copper mining community from the late 1890s until 1919...

 in the Boundary Country

Boundary Country

The Boundary Country is a historical designation for a district in southern British Columbia lying, as its name suggests, along the boundary between Canada and the United States. It lies to the east of the southern Okanagan Valley and to the west of the West Kootenay. It is often included in...

 region of British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, Canada that operated in the early and mid 20th century, run by the Granby Consolidated Mining, Smelting and Power Company, Limited

Granby Consolidated Mining, Smelting and Power Company, Limited

Granby Consolidated Mining, Smelting & Power Company, Limited Granby Consolidated Mining, Smelting & Power Company, Limited Granby Consolidated Mining, Smelting & Power Company, Limited (also known as Granby Consolidated Mining & Smelting Company, Granby Copper & Granby Mining Company Ltd was a...

. It was discovered in 1891, but was a lower grade copper deposit than the Rossland

Rossland, British Columbia

Rossland is a city in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia.Tucked high in the Monashee Mountains, Rossland is at an elevation of 1023 metres . Population today is approximately 3500; a number that fluctuates from season to season. The population is at its peak during the winter...

 and Slocan

Slocan, British Columbia

The Village of Slocan, commonly known as Slocan City, is a village in the Slocan Valley of the West Kootenay region of the southeastern Interior of British Columbia, Canada...

 deposits. The low grade and the nearest railroad being 75 miles (120.7 km) resulted in the Phoenix (and other new deposits) receiving less attention.

Discovery & development

The first claims in the Phoenix area were staked by Henry White and Matthew Hatter (of Old Ironsides) on July 15, 1891, they were granted in 1896. In 1896, J.F.C. Miner, a rubber footwear manufacturer from Granby, Quebec

Granby, Quebec

Granby is a city in southwestern Quebec, located east of Montreal. The population as of the Canada 2006 Census was 47,637. Granby is the seat of La Haute-Yamaska Regional County Municipality. It is the fifth most populated city in Montérégie after Longueuil, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Brossard and...

, mining promoter J.P. Graves of Knob Hill Mining Company and A.L. Little of Old Ironsides formed the Miner-Graves Syndicate. In 1899, they incorporated The Granby Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company, Limited and, in 1901, consolidated as Granby Consolidated Mining, Smelting and Power Company, Limited

Granby Consolidated Mining, Smelting and Power Company, Limited

Granby Consolidated Mining, Smelting & Power Company, Limited Granby Consolidated Mining, Smelting & Power Company, Limited Granby Consolidated Mining, Smelting & Power Company, Limited (also known as Granby Consolidated Mining & Smelting Company, Granby Copper & Granby Mining Company Ltd was a...

.

In spite of the low grade of the ore

Ore

An ore is a type of rock that contains minerals with important elements including metals. The ores are extracted through mining; these are then refined to extract the valuable element....

 from the Phoenix deposit, it had the advantage of being self-fluxing

Flux (metallurgy)

In metallurgy, a flux , is a chemical cleaning agent, flowing agent, or purifying agent. Fluxes may have more than one function at a time...

 (only requiring coke

Coke (fuel)

Coke is the solid carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal. Cokes from coal are grey, hard, and porous. While coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is man-made.- History :...

 to be added for smelting), which resulted in a cheaper processing cost for a mining company interested in operating it. In 1896 development of the deposit began and in 1900 the Granby Smelter Company constructed a 700-ton-per-day smelter in Grand Forks, British Columbia

Grand Forks, British Columbia

-Schools:Schools in the region are operated by School District 51 Boundary which has its main office in Grand Forks but also serves Midway, Greenwood, Beaverdell, and Rock Creek....

, which would be the largest non-ferrous smelter in the British Empire

British Empire

The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...

, and the second largest in the world.

1896–1919

Granby operated the Phoenix mine, which comprised both an underground mine and open pit mine

Open-pit mining

Open-pit mining or opencast mining refers to a method of extracting rock or minerals from the earth by their removal from an open pit or borrow....

. The underground operation used the square set mining method, but by 1901 had converted to an open stope and pillar

Stoping (mining method)

Stoping is the removal of the wanted ore from an underground mine leaving behind an open space known as a stope. Stoping is used when the country rock is sufficiently strong not to cave into the stope, although in most cases artificial support is also provided...

 method with considerable cost savings. The operation maintained a completely unsupported

Rock mechanics

Rock mechanics is the theoretical and applied science of the mechanical behaviour of rock and rock masses;also compared to the geology, it is that branch of mechanics concerned with the response of rock and rock masses to the force fields of their physical environment.Rock mechanics itself forms...

 "show stope" with dimensions of 80 feet (24 m) high, 105 feet (32 m) wide, and 400 feet (122 m) long. In 1903 the mine operated three small steam shovel

Steam shovel

A steam shovel is a large steam-powered excavating machine designed for lifting and moving material such as rock and soil. It is the earliest type of power shovel or excavator. They played a major role in public works in the 19th and early 20th century, being key to the construction of railroads...

s to work in the surface operations producing half of the mine's production, making this one of the earliest attempts at open-pit mining in the British Columbia. Ore was transported to the smelter via the Canadian Pacific Railway

Canadian Pacific Railway

The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...

, which had built a line to the mining operation by the time the smelter was completed in 1900.

1959–1976

In 1956 Granby re-evaluated the property in light of recent success in their other open-pit operations in the province. There was an estimated 1,300,000 tons of ore readily available; a 600-ton-per-day concentrator was constructed and production began in 1959. The following year, when more ore per day became available, the concentrator was upgraded to handle 900 tons per day, 1,900 tons per day in 1964 and 2,750 in 1972 The Phoenix mine closed again in 1976.