The McKay Creek (Ideal 5) occurrence is located on McKay Creek, approximately 3.8 kilometres west of the north end of Wolf Lake.
The area is underlain by basaltic volcanic rocks of the Triassic Karmutsen Formation (Vancouver Group). Diorite and granodiorite of the Upper Eocene to Lower Oligocene Mount Washington Intrusive Suite (formerly Catface Intrusions) have intruded the above rocks, forming stocks, sills and dikes.
Locally, two veins of realgar and stibnite(?) bearing calcite occur within an ankeritic- altered shear zone cutting basalt and pillow basalt and breccia. Both the veins and shear zone are oriented 105 degrees and dip 70 degrees southwest. Exposure of the rusty weathering carbonate alteration zone is 5 metres thick and contains two parallel veins separated by 2.7 metres of altered basalt.
The south calcite vein is 0.70 metre thick and contains patchy and disseminated realgar and rare patches of a mineral resembling very fine magnetite. The northern 7 centimetres of this vein contains 3 to 4 per cent fine stibnite. In 1989, a chip sample yielded 0.29 per cent arsenic and 1.45 per cent antimony (Assessment Report 19081).
The northerly calcite vein is 18 centimetres thick and contains minor to 2 per cent thin stringers of arsenopyrite, minor pyrite and minor disseminated realgar crystals up to 8 millimetres long.
Work History
During 1986 through 1993, Westmin Resources completed programs of prospecting, geological mapping, geochemical sampling and airborne and ground geophysical surveys on the area as the Ideal 1-9 and Harmony claims.
In 2016, Whitewater Capitol Corp. completed a program of geochemical (rock, soil and stream sediment) sampling on the area.
In 2020, Blanton Resources Corp. completed a program of prospecting, geological mapping and geochemical (rock, soil and stream sediment) sampling on the area as the Isla property. Four samples (907459, 907460, 907461 and 907474), taken from an area located approximately 700 metres southeast of the plotted location of the MacKay Creek occurrence, yielded from 0.152 to 0.294 per cent copper (Strickland, D. [2021-03-05]: NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Isla Property Nanaimo Mining Division, British Columbia, Canada).