The PTC showing is located 85 kilometres north of Golden and is situated on the Prattle Creek drainage.
Helicopter reconnaissance in the Prattle Creek drainage in 1989 revealed a 400 by 100 metre gossanous hydrozincite showing in black shale. Follow-up ground prospecting revealed three gossanous hydrozincite outcrops in strongly silicified gossan; lead-zinc- silver mineralization was discovered in dolomitic carbonate rocks to the east of the gossans. Further prospecting along strike to the regional folding revealed mineralization in dolomitic carbonates for 4.1 kilometres in scattered outcrop and float. This trend of mineralization is on strike with the local axial plane of a megascopic fold with a 400-metre wavelength.
The PTC showing lies in a deformed northeasterly tapering wedge of supracrustal rocks overlying the crystalline basement complex. A 60 kilometre wide belt surrounding the claims are comprised of Lower Cambrian to Devonian marine terrigenous sediments and carbonates.
The Chetang Formation (Snake Indian Formation) of the Middle Cambrian Chancellor Group to the Upper Ordovician Beaverfoot Formation carbonates and shales are overthrust by Upper Cambrian Lynx Group carbonates to the west. A 2-kilometre long, northwest belt of Upper Devonian Fairholme Group carbonates and shales occur to the east of the PTC showing. Folding in the area is complex, with folds isoclinally folded and plunging in northeast and southwest directions.
Lithologies underlying the showing are tightly folded limestone, dolomite and shales of the Middle Cambrian Chetang Formation, Chancellor Group and the Upper Ordovician to Lower Silurian Beaverfoot Formation, within a tightly folded recumbent syncline with a 400-metre wavelength. Individual beds dip 60 degrees to the west. The axial plane of this fold strikes 310 degrees and is parallel to the regional foliation.
Mineralization is confined to grey oolitic dolomitic limestone as fractures, blebs and closely spaced individual crystals. Mineralization consists of carbonate hosted lead-zinc-silver and quartz vein hosted copper and minor zinc. Carbonate hosted lead-zinc-silver mineralization consists of reddish brown sphalerite, cubic crystalline galena, pyrite and marcasite. The dolomitic limestone host is silicified with closely spaced sphalerite grains, appearing to be connected, as reddish brown pods and blebs with minor disseminated galena.
One outcrop of mineralized dolomitic carbonate assayed 0.25 per cent zinc over one metre in grab samples (Assessment Report 21524). Numerous other outcrops display sweats of sphalerite, galena and pyrite of less than one metre width and variable grade (0.25 to 2.7 per cent lead plus zinc over 0.3 to 1.0 metre length) (Assessment Report 21524). A continuous chip sample over a total of 9.0 metres length was taken from a hand trench on the PTC 3 claim. Partial assay results of this continuous chip sample are as follows. Precious metal values are given in grams per tonne and base metals in per cent (Assessment Report 21524).
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sample No. Width Pb Zn Cu Ag
P9-9 0.5 metres 0.4426 >1 0.137 3.0
P9-10 0.5 metres 0.2003 >1 0.086 2.0
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sampling from a soil geochemical grid outlined an area 400 by 75 metres of greater than 0.010 per cent lead with three samples in the area greater than 0.020 per cent zinc (Assessment Report 21524).
