The I.X.L. prospect is on the east side of Silver Cup Ridge. It is at 2300 metres elevation on the southeast flank of Triune Mountain, and on the northwest side of North Brown Creek. The property is variously described as being 400 metres west of the Morning Star [082KNW098] and being down hill and on strike (i.e. southeast) of the same property. This occurrence is not I.X.L. (L.4727), which is located at the head of Laughton (Eight-Mile) Creek, on the west side of the ridge.
The I.X.L veins were explored intermittently through to 1914. At that time, there were two adits, with a combined length of 76.2 metres. The "upper adit", at 2286 metres elevation, followed the vein for 15.2 metres and had a 10 metres deep winze in it. The "lower adit", at 2240 metres elevation, drifted for 61 metres along the strike of the vein. In 1929, when the property was owned by Mr. Hanson and Associates, there was a third adit that had been driven above the original upper adit. At that time, the winze was reported to be in the middle adit. The I.X.L. tenure later, in 1979, became part of a cluster, known as the "Silver Basin Group", owned by American Chromium Limited. The cluster also included Morning Star [082KNW098], Chance [082KNW119] and Noble Five [082KNW153] prospects. American Chromium explored the area into the late 1980s.
The Trout Lake area is underlain by a thick succession of sedimentary and volcanic rocks of the Badshot Formation and Lardeau Group near the northern end of the Kootenay arc, an arcuate, north to northwest trending belt of Paleozoic and Mesozoic strata that is now classified as a distinct, pericratonic, terrane. The arc rocks are bordered by Precambrian quartzite in the east and they young to the west, where they are bounded by Jurassic-age intrusive complexes. They were deformed during the Antler orogeny in Devonian-Mississippian time and were refolded and faulted during the Columbian orogeny, in the Middle Jurassic. A large panel, the "Selkirk allochthon", was later offset to the northeast by dip-slip motion along the Columbia River Fault.
The Badshot Formation is composed of a thick Cambrian limestone that is a distinctive marker horizon in the Trout Lake area. It is underlain by Hamill Group quartzite, and it is overlain by a younger assemblage of limestone, calcareous, graphitic and siliceous argillite and siltstone, sandstone, quartzite and conglomerate, and also mafic volcanic flows, tuffs and breccias, all of which belong to the Lardeau Group. The rocks are isoclinally folded and intensely deformed, but only weakly metamorphosed. They occur as intercalated beds of marble, quartzite and grey, green and black phyllite and schist. Fyles and Eastwood (EMPR BULL 45) subdivided the group into six formations (Index, Triune, Ajax, Sharon Creek, Jowett and Broadview) of which the lowermost (Index) and uppermost (Broadview) are the most widespread. The Triune (siliceous argillite), Ajax (quartzite) and Sharon Creek (siliceous argillite) are restricted to the Trout Lake area. The Jowett is a mafic volcanic unit.
The I.X.L. prospect is underlain by green phyllites and carbonates of the Index Formation on the northeast side of the Cup Creek Fault. The geology is very similar to that at the Morning Star [082KNW098], which is most likely on strike to the northwest. The rocks are highly folded, deformed and schistose. The foliation displays the regional northwest strike and moderate to steep northeast dip found throughout the area.
The property covers a series of en echelon gash veins that have similar trends and variable dips. They consist of coarse-grained siderite and white, vuggy, quartz lenses in a pale-green phyllite within an argillaceous limestone. The lenses pinch and swell from 0.2 to 2 metres in width, and contain pods and disseminations of galena, pyrite and lesser sphalerite, chalcopyrite and possible tetrahedrite. Some of the pods are up to 0.5 metre wide and have several metres of strike length. Their depth extent is unknown. The "vein" system strikes to the north to northwest and dips moderately to steeply to the northeast.
The uppermost adit follows a quartz and carbonate vein that strikes at 145 degrees and dips at 30 degrees to the northeast. At this elevation it is 0.15 metre wide and consists of galena, pyrite and sphalerite. Near the portal, there are also numerous small quartz veins that are oriented conformably with the regional schistocity. They dip steeply to the east. There is commonly mineralization where they meet the flatter-lying vein. The middle adit was collared on the same vein as the upper, only 21.3 metres lower in elevation. It was driven along the vein, which is 0.15 to 0.46 metre wide and contains a variable amount of galena, pyrite, sphalerite and tetrahedrite. The raise and winze were developed on a high-grade shoot approximately 0.46 metre wide and well mineralized with tetrahedrite. In the winze, the vein steepens to 75 degrees to the east and is approximately parallel to the schistocity of the country rock. An "average" sample over 0.3 metre in the winze assayed 6.86 grams per tonne gold, 850 grams per tonne silver and 9.5 per cent lead. The lowest adit follows the same vein for 61 metres along strike in a fault zone. For the first 27 metres, there was little sign of the vein but it picked up deeper in the adit and near the face is 0.3 to 0.45 metre wide and has well defined walls. The sulphides are found in lens-shaped masses, accompanied by some quartz and chlorite in the shear zone. They consist of pyrite, galena, sphalerite, very little arsenopyrite, and very small amounts of chalcopyrite and tetrahedrite. A pyrite-rich sample, 0.3 to 0.46 metre wide across the face of the vein assayed 50.06 grams per tonne gold and 411.4 grams per tonne silver. Gold and silver appear to be restricted to areas of significant pyrite and galena mineralization.
