The area of interest is in the vicinity of Ivanhoe Ridge and Sophia Creek, some 6.4 kilometres southwest of Rossland.
From incomplete information it appears that two chromite showings have been prospected, one located on Crown-grants at about 1341 metres elevation on Ivanhoe Ridge (Burlington, 082FSW264), and the other, about 1.6 kilometres to the south, at about 1250 metres elevation on the ridge between the two main forks of Sophia Creek and about 300 metres southeast of the natural gas pipeline.
The Vandot group of 5 recorded claims, reported to be located on the Cascade highway at the first summit west of Rossland, were owned in 1966 by V.M. Van, of Rossland. Old trenches were deepened and sampled.
Noranda Exploration Company Limited held the property in 1984 as the Ross, Ross 2-3, and Cal claims. Work included magnetometer surveys over 16 kilometres, induced polarization and electomagnetic surveys over 1 kilometre, a geochemical soil survey comprising 177 samples, and trenching.
The Vandot showing is underlain by ultramafic rock, probable of Permian age and related to the Slide Mountain terrane, comprised of serpentinite that is brown weathering and stands out as outcrops with sparse vegetation. The serpentinite is in contact with altered Lower Jurassic Elise Formation volcanics of the Rossland Group. These rocks are intruded by a mass of the Middle Eocene Coryell Intrusions comprised of syenite with associated dykes.
There are three chromite showings on the property in black serpentinite. The serpentinite is highly fractured with light green talc developed in the fractures and minor veinlets of blue-green fibrous asbestos and yellow-green steatite. The highly fractured rocks host abundant nickeliferous magnetite and chromite.
Three shallow pits on the property expose fine-grained serpentinite with many fractures and abundant light green serpentine. Visible chromite associated with these fractures is fairly abundant in one pit. A vertical lense of massive chromite is 30 centimetres wide in a sheared zone striking 330 degrees. The walls host disseminated chromite within patchy bands up to 10 centimetres in width. Chromite stringers and disseminated chromite also occur in the serpentinite. One dump hosts massive chromite up to 15 centimetres in thickness. In 1979, a selected grab of massive chromite yielded 29.8 per cent CrO3, 17.2 per cent Fe2O3, and 0.08 per cent TiO2 (Assessment Report 7162). Two selected samples of chromite taken by Fyles from a trench assayed 3.24 and 12.0 per cent chromium and 0.10 and 0.20 per cent nickel (Bulletin 74). Samples from another trench near the northern edge of this same mass of serpentinite assayed 0.23 per cent chromium and 0.17 per cent nickel (Bulletin 74).
In 1974, the chromite showings were sampled and analyzed for platinum. Six samples showed trace silver, trace gold, 1.0 to 1.4 grams per tonne platinum, 0.16 to 0.23 per cent nickel, 0.8 to 16.5 per cent chromium and 0.006 to 0.016 per cent cobalt (Assessment Report 4927). Apparently other companies have not been able to duplicate the platinum results. Samples from the serpentinite mass along Little Sheep Creek were submitted to the Geological Survey of Canada and pyrite, millerite, and a mineral of the linnaeite group were identified. Ten samples taken by Fyles at various places throughout the two masses of serpentinite exposed in the area gave nickel assays of less than 0.24 per cent (Bulletin 74).
In 1990, Tom Lewis completed an exploration program of prospecting, soil geochemistry and EM geophysical surveys. Of the 18 rock samples collected, none returned anomalous values for precious or base metals.
In 2008, Kim and Peck collected ultramafic samples from Ivanhoe Ridge for scanning electron microscopy and x-ray spectrometry analysis. The sample showed silica minerals of olivine, serpentine, talc, and amphiboles. The sulphides included pentlandite, millerite, and pyrite. Coarse silica minerals showed sulphide and Fe-oxide inclusions.
