Newly Recognized White Talc-Carbonate Filler Potential of the Greenwood – Bridesville Area, British Columbia (NTS 082E), and Brief Talc Market Review

The re cently rec og nized Bridesville talc-car bon ate de posit, in the Green wood – Bridesville area of south ern BC, is the sed i men tary-hosted va ri ety. It has a lower grade than most tra di tional high-grade car bon ate-hosted talc de pos its, such as Henderson, Conley and East de pos its lo cated in On tario (Simandl, 1985b) and those in Montana, United States. How ever, a par al lel may be made be tween the Bridesville de posit and the New Conley de posit, On tario. White fill ers con tain ing talc, de rived from the New Conley orebody (talc-bear ing do lo mite), were suc cess fully mar keted in the past by Can ada Talc In dus tries Ltd. un der the trade marks Dolfil and Talfil. The pos si bil ity that there is a mar ket for ‘talc-car bon ate filler’ in west ern North Amer ica should be in ves ti gated. If the re sults of the in ves ti ga tion are pos i tive, the talc-car bon ate zone of the Bridesville de posit may pro vide sell able prod uct with out need for up grad ing. The need for cap i tal cost-in ten sive pro cess ing (such as flo ta tion), to achieve a mar ket able prod uct, would lower the de vel op ment po ten tial of this de posit. Even if there was no mar ket for the talc-car bon ate filler, the iden ti fi ca tion of the Bridesville de posit is sig nif i cant. Car bon ate-hosted talc de pos its typ i cally oc cur in clus ters. A higher grade ex ten sion of this de posit, or an other higher grade car bon ate-hosted deposit (characterized by high brightness and whiteness talc ore), could be discovered in southern BC. THE TALC MARKET