The Hunger West showing is located 4 kilometres southeast of Mount Doupe.
The region is dominantly underlain by black shale of the Jurassic Fernie Group which unconformably overlies the Triassic Spray River Group comprised of indurated shale, mudstone and siltstone. The base of the Fernie Group is marked by a persistent pelletal phosphorite horizon that is 1 to 2 metres in thickness. These rock formations are regionally underlain by Pennsylvanian-Permian Rocky Mountain Group consisting mainly of dolomitic carbonate rock units. These units are exposed along the northeast limb of a broad syncline. Bedding along this limb averages a strike of 121 degrees with 18-degree dips southwest.
A backhoe trench sample (89-9) from a phosphate bed graded 22.36 per cent (P2O5) and 0.067 per cent Yttrium over a true thickness of 0.46 metres (Assessment Report 19938).
In 1989, Formosa Resources Corporation began exploration for yttrium and phosphate in the area, staking a number of claims as part of the Columbia Project (Assessment Reports 19948, 19954, 19938). A significant section of the phosphate trend was trenched as the RAM A (082GSE063). The phosphate bed/layer was explored from Leslie Creek west to a south-flowing tributary of Bighorn Creek. A MINFILE occurrence (Ram 1 (082GSE056)) is documented up the tributary from the confluence, where the phosphate layer continues. A total of 8 hand trenches and 9 backhoe trenches revealed the phosphate layer intermittently over 5 kilometres from southeast (near Ram A) to the northwest (near Ram 1) along its trend (Figure 5, Assessment Report 19938). In 1992, Formosa Resources conducted an 8-kilometre radiometric survey over a 400 by 2000 metre grid area considered to have potential for a higher-grade phosphate mineralization (Assessment Report 22736). The west end of the grid area appears to be near to where the northeast-flowing north fork of Leslie Creek comes close (within 700 metres) of the Ram A access road, possibly between trenches 89-5 (Ram A prospect) and 89-7 (082GSE123) (Figure 5, Assessment Report 19938).
Refer to Ram A (082GSE063) for in depth work history and related geological information.
