(Tyee mine shaft on Mar. 24/2026)
Historic Tyee mine shaft on Mount Sicker is collapsing, raising safety issues
Crater-sized hole is close to 10 metres deep, but expected to worsen
The main shaft of the historic Tyee mine on Mount Sicker is collapsing, leaving a crater-size hole that is only expected to worsen and raising safety issues.
Sasquatch Resources, the mining company that is hoping to rework the Tyee’s waste pile, has installed fencing around the site as a caution to visitors.
Given that the shaft is hundreds of metres deep, it’s anyone’s guess how deep the hole might get.
When sixmountains.ca visited the Tyee site on Feb. 10 the shaft location was a fairly minor depression in the ground.
(The Tyee main shaft site on Feb. 10/2026)
But all that has changed in recent days.
On Tuesday, sixmountains.ca revisited the site and observed a hole that is close to 10 metres at its deepest point.
Sasquatch Resources first noticed the problem on Friday and notified various parties, including the provincial government, North Cowichan and Mosaic Forest Management , which has the surface rights as part of its logging operations.
“We always knew where it was,” said Peter Smith, chief executive officer for Sasquatch Resources. “But I never expected it to collapse the way it has.”
(Tyee mine shaft on Mar. 24/2026)
Shafts are plugged for safety reasons once a mine is closed.
Over the years all manner of debris has been used to create them.
“Gravel, riprap, up there they would have grabbed whatever was handy with a bulldozer or excavator,” said Cowichan Valley historian and author T.W. Paterson.
Paterson said that when he first visited the Tyee site in 1977 there was a small fence around the location of the shaft.
It’s unclear when the Tyee main shaft was plugged.
But weather can eventually erode plugs.
“With all the rain we get, it ultimately wears through,” Paterson said. “It just slowly filters down.”
In his book about Mount Sicker’s mining history, Riches to Ruin, Paterson wrote that the main shaft of the Tyee mine “once descended 1,200 feet into the ground.”
(Historian T.W. Paterson stands on the Tyee waste-rock site in 2020)
Sasquatch Resources says that based on historic mining documents the depth could be closer to 1,500 feet.
Paterson said that Tyee mine foreman Charlie Melrose plunged 27 metres down the mine’s main shaft to his death in 1901.
“When they retrieved his body, they remarked that he looked normal. But when they tried to pick him up, every bone in his body was broken. He was just a limp sack.”
The Tyee mine site is today widely used by off-road enthusiasts.
“It’s a nasty hole,” said Dennis Comeau, who observed the shaft on the weekend while riding his side-by-side, four-wheel-drive vehicle and posted to social media. “I was shocked at how big it had gotten.”
Sasquatch Resources has the mineral rights for the Tyee site and has applied for a permit from the province.
Smith said if the company is successful, it would “address the hazards” on site, including the mine shaft.
(https://sasquatchresources.com/ )
The Ministry of Mining and Critical Minerals said in a written statement Wednesday that Tyee Mine is a "historic mine site that predates current legislation, therefore was never permitted."
The ministry added that "on private land, responsibility for site management and associated hazards rests with the landowner and/or tenure holder."
Under B.C.’s Mines Act and the Health, Safety and Reclamation Code, where mine activities are authorized, operators are required to make mine openings safe to protect public safety and the environment, the ministry said.
Ted Swabey, chief administrative officer for North Cowichan, said that if Sasquatch Resources proceeds with industrial activities, it would require a road-access agreement for use of municipal forest roads.
The historic mining era on Mount Sicker — not just The Tyee, but the Lenora and Richard III mines — lasted only a decade, ending in 1907: https://www.sixmountains.ca/article/442d94c7-0647-46b1-bf0a-94c0fceadff4
Read Riches to Ruin: twpaterson.com/about-tom-3/
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— Larry Pynn, Mar. 24, 2026
