The Bluejay property is located 38 kilometres north of Rock Creek and 12 kilometres southeast of Beaverdell. The claims are between 1250 and 1350 metres elevation on the southern part of Kloof Ridge, 1 kilometres east of Crouse Creek. Access to the property from Westbridge on Highway 33 is north via the Christian Valley road for 29.0 kilometres, then westerly 6.7 kilometres on old logging roads to the centre of the property.
This area has been explored intermittently since the first influx of prospectors in 1878. Surface programs consisting of panning, lode prospecting and trenching led to the discovery of silver, gold and copper in the region in 1896. However, up to the 1960's there are few written records of exploration on Kloof Ridge. In 1968, R. Rutherglen staked the Rusty claims, to cover a series of old workings, and in the same year Amax Exploration Ltd. carried out a soil and rock chip geochemical program for molybdenum, copper and nickel.
In 1981, F. McNeill and R. Rutherglen staked the Bluejay claims in the same area and, in 1983, Titan Resources optioned the property to explore the 'Bluejay Shear Zone' that comprised the old workings. A series of pits and shafts were excavated along the gossanous shear. Reported assays of samples from the workings, on a 200-metre segment of the shear, range from 0.7 to 37 grams per tonne gold. In 1985 the property was optioned to Valar Resources Ltd. Gewargis Geological Consulting Inc. was then hired to conduct an exploration program which included a survey grid, geological mapping, blasting, geochemical sampling and geophysical surveys (magnetic and VLF-EM). In 1986, the same company completed a diamond drill program (4 holes, 235.6 metres) that produced disappointing results. In 1990, the claims were optioned to Lucky 7 Exploration Ltd. that did an experimental biogeochemical survey of the property using Lodgepole pine twigs. (The survey yielded up to 15 part per million silver in ashed samples.)
Considerable work, including soil and rock geochemistry, ground geophysics, mapping, and diamond drilling, was conducted by Bitterroot Resources Ltd. in the area surrounding the Gus and BlueJay properties property in 2003 through 2007. A contour soil program done in 2003 identified several anomalous coincident Au, Ag, As, Cu and Zn anomalies. Nine diamond drill holes were drilled on the GK property in 2004 for a total of 1882 meters, largely to test geochemical and geophysical anomalies. Further drilling in 2007, for a total of 2636 metres was intended, in part, to assess a 50 metre anomalous gold intersection (250 parts per billion Au) encountered in the 2004 drill program. The drill programs identified extensive zones of brecciated stratified rocks, disseminated and fracture controlled sulphides (dominantly pyrite), and associated chlorite, calcite, quartz and locally epidote alteration. The best intersection in hole GK07-02, assayed 2251 parts per billion Au over 4.1 metres (Assessment Report 30041).
1252 metres of trenching were done on the Blue Jay property in 2007. The trenching extended the length of the mineralized zone to approximately 400 metres. A high of 6.75 grams per tonne Au over 9.0 metres, including 22.95 grams per tonne over 2.0 metres, was intersected near the northwestern part of the trend, and highs up 1.23 grams per tonne Au intersected near the southeastern end of the trench. The highs were within a sulphide-rich vein-breccia and stockwork zone with a fine-grained siliceous and tourmalized matrix. Trenching also discovered a subparallel zone to the west that returned values up to 2.9 grams per tonne Au over 3 metres and 1.17 grams per tonne Au over 5 metres (Assessment Report 30495).
The traditional geological maps show that much of Kloof Ridge, the wedge-shaped area between Crouse Creek and the east fork of the Kettle River is underlain by volcanic and metasedimentary rocks of the Upper Paleozoic Anarchist Group. However, detailed mapping of the property shows that the Anarchist rocks occur as scattered roof pendants in the Jurassic Nelson dioritic batholith.
The main mineralized structure on the property is a discordant shear zone in fine- to medium-grained porphyritic andesite (Anarchist Group). The volcanic rocks trend northwest and dip moderately southwest. The shear zone, up to 2 metres wide, strikes approximately 150 degrees and dips 45 to 70 degrees southwest, cutting obliquely across the geological contacts. A number of late, steeply dipping cross-fractures have caused several 1- to 15-metre offsets in the main shear zone.
Andesitic rocks within the shear zone have been silicified, brecciated and mended with later silica. Silica has also flooded the surrounding country rocks forming 'cherty andesite'. The brecciated and silicified part of the shear zone is 250 metres long, but the best developed sulphide-enriched sections (marked by a series of pits) occur within the central 160-metre segment. An examination of the pits reveals that some of the sulphide mineralization occurs in the narrow cross-fractures for distances of 3 to 6 metres from the main shear zone. Massive pyrite and pyrrhotite (up to 50 per cent), and lesser chalcopyrite and arsenopyrite (trace to 1 per cent) have filled the late openings. The best gold values (up to 35 grams per tonne) appear to be associated with the late chalcopyrite and arsenopyrite mineralization. Drill hole intersections indicate that the extent of sulphide mineralization and gold is less than that observed on surface - the best gold intercepts were 2.6 grams per tonne over 0.6 metre and 1.7 grams per tonne over 1.3 metre from hole DDH 86-3 (Assessment Report 14456).
