Gold Harbour, British Columbia

Gold Harbour, was a gold and silver mine and camp on Mitchell Inlet, part of Tasu Sound on Moresby Island in the Queen Charlotte Islands of the North Coast of British Columbia, Canada. It is notable as the location of the first lode mine worked in what is now British Columbia.

The mine property, first prospected by Captain Mitchell of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1852 in the wake of the Queen Charlottes Gold Rush, and between $5,000 and $75,000 in gold was taken out by Major W. Downie by 1859. The sixteen claims by then forming the property and owned by J. McLellan were bonded Nuba Mining in 1907 but the mine did not have a successful showing and the company surrendered its claims in 1912, with McLellan continuing his own work on the site until 1933. A good many Japanese nationals worked at this mine. In that year Gold Harbour Mining Limited milled tailings and a new cut and is reported to have recovered $179,000 in gold, but operations were suspended on December 13 of that year.

The Gold Harbour area is a National Historic Site of Canada.

See also

• Tasu

References

• BC MINFILE Record Summary

Coordinates: 52°47′00″N 132°03′00″W / 52.78333°N 132.05000°W / 52.78333; -132.05000 (Tasu Sound aka Tasoo Harbour)