The Jackhammer occurrence is located south of Coffee Creek and approximately 5 kilometres west of Kootenay Bay.
Regionally, the area is underlain by hornblende schists, limestone and banded quartzite of the Upper Mississippian to Permian Milford Formation and basaltic volcanic rocks of the Carboniferous to Permian Kaslo Group. Granodioritic intrusive rocks of the Middle Jurassic Nelson Batholith are exposed to the west.
Locally, a carbonaceous quartz mineralized zone cuts through limestone of the Ainsworth or Milford formations. The main sulphide zone is in a solidified and brecciated mineralized zone, more than 30 metres wide at the surface, dipping between 65 degrees and 85 degrees southwest and striking between 40 degrees and 45 degrees west. The zone carries zinc, lead and silver sulphides at or near the footwall on the northeast side of the zone.
In 1998, drilling (hole 98-01) intercepted 3.3 metres of zinc-lead mineralization, yielding up to 3.4 per cent combined zinc-lead (Assessment Report 26059).
In 1999, drilling and trenching identified three zinc-lead veins, varying from 0.45 to 0.75 metre wide, striking northwest and parallel to the main quartz zone. A sample from the trench returned 0.120 gram per tonne gold, 22 grams per tonne silver, 0.064 per cent cadmium and 7.61 per cent zinc (Assessment Report 26059). Also at this time, drilling yielded intercepts of up to 3.11 per cent zinc, 0.38 per cent lead and 12.7 grams per tonne silver over 0.45 metre (1.07 to 1.52 metres down hole) in hole JH 99-01 (Assessment Report 26059).
Work History
In 1979, David Minerals Ltd. conducted a program of geochemical (stream and silt) sampling on the area immediately north as the Peanut Butter claims of the Ainsworth property.
The claims were staked in 1989 and added to over the next three years as more sulphide zones were discovered by trenching. In 1992, a single diamond drill hole, totalling 56.4 metres, was completed but failed to intersect the mineralized zone. In 1998 and 1999, 17 short drillholes, less than 6.9 metres each and totalling 59.5 metres, were completed.
In the 2000s, the Jackhammer claims were combined and explored in conjunction with the Queens Coffee group. During 2006 through 2009, Kenneth Turner completed programs of prospecting and geochemical (rock) sampling on the area as the Queens Coffee property. In 2011 and 2012, David Wallach prospected and rock sampled the area as the Coffee Creek and Ainsworth properties.
