sandstone with lesser volcanics, black slate and limestone, which have undergone multi-stage deformation with penetrative fabrics and regional metamorphism ranging from lower greenschist (chlorite) to locally amphibolite (garnet-staurolite-kyanite) grade. The Frank Creek volcanics, part of the Harvey’s Ridge succession, comprise andesites in pillowed flows and tuffaceous deposits, with derived clastic sediments and felsic tuffs, the latter hosting stratiform and stringer base metal occurrences. The Quesnel Lake Gneiss, which intruded the Snowshoe Group along the western boundary of the Barkerville Terrane, is a leucocratic, biotite granitic gneiss with megacrysts of potassium feldspar.
The lithologies are characterized by shallow to steeply dipping, southeasterly striking, locally overturned folds with northwesterly shear zones and plunging lineations, regional east-southeasterly striking thrust faults and later faulting along a general north-northeast direction.
The principal style of gold mineralization is associated with high strain zones in favorable lithologies and parallels magnetic features from regional and detailed airborne geophysics. Gold mineralization typically is associated with quartz veins, iron carbonate (ankerite), and pyrite cutting amenable metasedimentary units of greenschist grade. Regional base metal targets are focused mainly around Kuroko or Besshi style volcanogenic (VMS) mineralization as identified at the Frank Creek and several other showings and prospects. The Sellers Creek occurrence comprises disseminated Cu-Pb-Zn sulphide and oxide-carbonate mineralization within a quartz sandstone and marble sequence.
Previous work on the Property identified favourable geological units overprinted by extensive deformation and covered by glacial deposits, and included regional geological mapping, airborne geophysics, line cutting and reconnaissance to focused soil and stream geochemistry surveys. The Property exhibits widely spaced geochemical anomalies for gold, silver, copper, zinc and lead, and select pathfinder elements such as bismuth, thallium, arsenic, antimony, selenium and mercury.