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Work starts on Kimberley's Sullivan Core Shack

Sullivan Mine and Railway Historical Society Starts Sullivan Mine Geological Display Project in Kimberley, BC
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Mick Henningson and Paul Ransom

The project to be known as the “Sullivan Core Shack” will be a museum level display of ore and rock specimens as well as drill core from Sullivan mine and surrounding area which will be in the Kimberley Underground Mining Railway Station Basement. Mick Henningson, former Senior Vice President of Mining with TeckCominco, now President of the Sullivan Mine & Railroad Historical Society, has secured funding and has started construction for this project with an intrepid group of volunteers and local contractors.

Drawings illustrating key elements of regional and mine geology will also be included in the display. Most of the specimens and core have been donated from Paul Ransom's personal collection that has been put on temporary display many times over the last 16 years for student, tourist and industry groups. Most ore specimens have been polished to enhance mineral and textural details.

The Sullivan Core Shack will be an archive of specimens of one of the greatest Lead-Zinc-(Iron)-Silver deposits on Earth. It will be organized in such a manner that the display will be of educational value to students at all levels and of viewing interest to the layman or professional. In addition to focusing on the orebody itself the display will cover aspects of the sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks of the region as well as five historic mines of note: the North Star and Stemwinder Mines also in Kimberley, the St. Eugene at Moyie, the Kootenay King at Fort Steele and the Estella at Wasa.

Primary funding for this project comes from Columbia Basin Trust through both the Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance and the RDEK administered Community Initiatives Program. City of Kimberley, Kootenay Zinc Corp, Teck Resources, Highway 50 Resources, Tourism Kimberley, Eagle Plains Resources, and Redding Mining provided most of the matching funding for this project. Our Society is greatly appreciative for the many and ongoing donations.

Society President Mick Henningson also stated that Trip Advisor again awarded Kimberley’s Underground Mining Railroad a Certificate of Excellence for 2016. They also rated it the #1 attraction of 17 things to do in Kimberley. The “Sullivan Core Shack” will preserve some of the great geological history of the area. This also provides another Kimberley Underground Mining Railway attraction.