British Columbia Ministry of Energy, Mines and Natural Gas and Responsible for Housing
News | The Premier Online | Ministries & Organizations | Job Opportunities | Main Index

MINFILE Home page  ARIS Home page  MINFILE Search page  Property File Search
Help Help
File Created: 19-Apr-1990 by George Owsiacki (GO)
Last Edit:  01-Jan-0001 by BC Geological Survey (BCGS)

Summary Help Help

NMI
Name SPRING Mining Division Nanaimo
BCGS Map 092F018
Status Prospect NTS Map 092F02E
Latitude 049º 08' 42'' UTM 10 (NAD 83)
Longitude 124º 33' 00'' Northing 5444732
Easting 386961
Commodities Gold, Zinc, Silver, Copper, Lead Deposit Types I06 : Cu+/-Ag quartz veins
Tectonic Belt Insular Terrane Wrangell
Capsule Geology

The Spring occurrence area is underlain by rocks of the Paleozoic Sicker and Buttle Lake groups, and the Upper Triassic Karmutsen Formation (Vancouver Group). The oldest rocks, the Devonian Nitinat Formation (Sicker Group) are poorly exposed and comprise pyroxene porphyritic basaltic agglomerate and breccia. These rocks are apparently conformably overlain by Upper Devonian McLaughlin Ridge Formation (Sicker Group) rocks comprised of an interbedded package of dominantly fine-grained tuff, argillite and chert/cherty siltstone and tuff with local beds of lapilli tuff. Bedding is planar to slightly undulatory and generally thin (less than 30 centimetres) and strikes east with moderate to steep dips to the south. Variability in bedding orientations suggests gentle folding about a south plunging axis. A south-southeast trending fault juxtaposes Sicker Group rocks with Mississippian to Pennsylvanian Fourth Lake Formation (Buttle Lake Group) rocks consisting of argillite, massive crinoidal limestone, chert, cherty siltstone and sandstone. Bedding strikes south-southeast and dips moderately to the northeast. Massive, mainly crinoidal limestone and interbedded siltstone and shale of the Upper to Lower Pennsylvanian Mount Mark Formation (Buttle Lake Group) conformably overlies Fourth Lake Formation rocks. Interbedded sandstone and shale of the Permian St. Mary's Lake Formation (Buttle Lake Group) overlies the Mount Mark Formation. These rocks trend north-northwest. Unconformably overlying the St. Mary's Lake Formation, and in places the Mount Mark Formation, is massive basalt of the Karmutsen Formation. Intermediate hornblende-feldspar porphyritic dykes crosscut the overall stratigraphic sequence. The Tertiary dykes are generally oriented parallel to bedding and dip steeply north and south and are up to 15 metres wide. Faulting on the property includes major northwest trending faults (Cameron River fault) and northwest trending splay faults. Minor northeast to east trending faults also occur and appear to localize the dykes and/or mineralized quartz veins and alteration zones.

Mineralization includes quartz veins spatially associated with hornblende-feldspar porphyry dykes, quartz and quartz-carbonate veins in shear zones and minor sulphide disseminations in hornblende- feldspar porphyry dykes. The quartz veins are up to 50 centimetres wide and have been traced along strike for up to 400 metres (three veins have been located). The veins cut chert and cherty tuff of the McLaughlin Ridge Formation and occur on either side of hornblende feldspar porphyry dykes. Mineralization consists of pyrite, sphalerite, chalcopyrite and galena. Several short adits explore the quartz veins. A rock sample from these veins near the adits assayed up to 3.6 grams per tonne gold, 2.8 per cent zinc, 30.5 grams per tonne silver and 0.18 per cent copper (Assessment Report 18108). An east-northeast trending shear zone lying 200 to 300 metres south of and parallel to the quartz veins developed by the adits, contain sulphide-bearing quartz and quartz carbonate veins up to 5 centimetres wide. The veins generally occupy imbricate shears and are variably mineralized with pyrite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite and galena. Rock samples from these veins assayed up to 2.64 grams per tonne gold, 0.39 per cent lead and 0.13 per cent zinc (Assessment Report 18108). Hornblende-feldspar porphyry dykes locally contain trace to minor disseminated pyrite and minor chalcopyrite.

Bibliography
EM EXPL 2002-29-40
EMPR ASS RPT 15590, *17183, *18108
EMPR FIELDWORK 1987, pp. 81-91; 1988, pp. 61-74
EMPR OF 1989-6
GSC MAP 17-1968; 49-1963; 1386A
GSC OF 463; 1272
GSC P 68-50
EMPR PFD 902467, 888025, 826976

COPYRIGHT | DISCLAIMER | PRIVACY | ACCESSIBILITY