The Copper Creek occurrence is located approximately 20 kilometres Northeast of Fort Steele along Maus Creek Road, 500 metres east of the road.
The occurrence is found along the northern area of Copper Creek within the overlying Creston Formation. This unit it regionally overlain by the carbonate bearing Kitchener Formation. The Creston Group quartzites which contain the occurrence are equivalent to the Revett Formation quartzites hosting the historic Spar Lake Mineral Deposit in Troy, Montana. Regionally, the Creston Formation is a subunit of the Belt Supergroup hosting scores of stratiform, sedimentary deposits of copper and copper-silver (Pighin, D. (2010-03-12): Technical Report on the Wildhorse Property).
The mineralization of the occurrence is primarily chalcopyrite with minor malachite, bornite, quartzite, and azurite. The minerals host gold and copper. Alterations of bleaching, sericitization, banding, chloritization, and ankeritic textures are observed. Mineralization at the occurrence is likely due to the depositional environment of the Creston Formation. Deposition occurred in an emerging shallow, lacustrine to marine environment in saline conditions. The depositional environment alongside the observed structural regime of the Wildhorse area allows for stratiform sediment-hosted copper mineralization to occur.
WORK HISTORY
In 1996, Tim Termuende conducted a field program near the Dardanelle occurrence (082GNW019) to investigate the Copper Creek drainage above 1600 metres elevation (Assessment Report 25011). Soil, silt, and rock float samples were geochemically analyzed. High grades of copper were observed. Grab samples specifically returning values in the 0.21 to 0.519 percent range for copper, and 5 to 20 grams per tonne silver across a new 30 metre showing in the creek bottom (Pighin, D. (2010-03-12): Technical Report on the Wildhorse Property). The new area of mineralization was named the Copper Creek showing. Grab samples returned a highlighted result from a quartzite float sample (CDWHR-07) south of the showing grading 0.146 percent copper (Kenwood, S. (2011-10-20): Technical Report on the Wildhorse Property).
In 1998, a field program was conducted on the Wildhorse Claim group to evaluate the Copper Creek (Spar Lake Type) occurrence. Results are not explicitly stated although were summarized as encouraging and that further work was recommended (Kenwood, S. (2011-10-20): Technical Report on the Wildhorse Property).
In 2004 Eagle Plains Resources Ltd. exploration program consisted of an airborne, high resolution Time Domain Electro Magnetic geophysical survey (Assessment Report 27934). The survey area covered 2.21 square kilometers and comprised 11 lines and three tie lines. The survey disclosed a moderate AdTau value (indicator of conductivity and volume) on the northwestern most portion of the claim unit. However, all the known mineralization that occurs within the Creston Formation being the Dardanelle (082GNW019), Lily May (Tit for Tat) (082GNW020), and the Copper Creek (082GNW0102) occurrences, failed to generate a response.
In 2010, a drilling program by Turnberry Resources Ltd. focused on the area of the Copper Creek occurrence. The “Spar Lake” horizon of the upper Creston Formation was targeted to estimate mineral potential. Significant drill intercepts were summarized as 0.71 metres grading 0.69 gram per tonne gold in hole WH10001, 0.78 metre grading 1.8 grams per tonne gold in hole WH10005, and 0.27 metre grading 0.28 percent copper, and 0.44 metres grading 0.68 percent copper in hole WH10001 (Kenwood, S. (2011-10-20): Technical Report on the Wildhorse Property). The observed copper mineralization in WH10001 was from samples of chalcopyrite and bornite in brecciated quartzite containing intense silica-sericite-ankerite alterations (Assessment Report 32287).
In 2012, Turnberry Resources Ltd. conducted a program on their Wildhorse Claim consisting of 555.4 metres of NQ2-size diamond drilling (on the Dardanelles) along with geological mapping and a geochemical sampling program resulting in the collection of 16 rock samples and 303 soil samples near the three mineral occurrences on the claim. The claims covered the Dardanelle (082GNW019), Lily May (Tit for Tat) (082GNW020), and Copper Creek (082GNW102) occurrences (Assessment Report 34199). Geochemical surveys identified some new prospective targets, two gold anomalies, one possibly structurally controlled, and mineralization hosted in the mafic intrusive sill on the property. The highest gold value in soil returned 193 parts per billion (sample WHL009) taken from directly beside a creek draining from the Dardanelles zone. Two days were spent during the program working on the understanding of the Copper Creek showing with the base of the overlying Kitchener Formation being successfully mapped out and followed along strike. This is reported to be the horizon that is stratigraphically equivalent to the Spar Lake horizon at the Spar Lake mine in Montana.
Refer to Bird Dog (082GNW098), Lily May Ext. (082GNW011), Dardanelle (082GNW019), and Lily May (082GNW020) for related geological and work history.
