The Kathleen Mountain occurrence is 5.0 kilometres west-southwest of the summit of Mount Kathleen and 1.5 to 1.8 kilometres east of Trout Creek. The main showing occurs in chloritized granodiorite in the southern margin of the Early Jurassic Pennask batholith, immediately east of a stock of granite of the early Tertiary Otter intrusions. The batholith is intruded by several mafic dikes in the vicinity of the showing.
The granodiorite is cut by a zone of fracturing 2 to 3 metres wide, striking 107 degrees. The dark-weathering fractures comprising this zone are mineralized with minor amounts of pyrite and chalcopyrite in a gangue of siderite, quartz, pyrolusite and magnetite. Diamond drilling indicates the zone is of limited extent and of irregular shape. A diamond-drill hole intersection, 20 metres downdip, assayed 5.5 grams per tonne gold, 100 grams per tonne silver and 0.32 per cent copper over a true width of 3.0 metres (Assessment Report 4896, page 13). A second hole drilled vertically, analysed 10.3 grams per tonne gold, 117 grams per tonne silver and 0.149 per cent copper over a core length of 4.57 metres (Assessment Report 5932, page 4, hole 2, 7.62 to 12.19 metres). A channel sample assayed 8.18 grams per tonne gold, 31.6 grams per tonne silver and 0.347 per cent copper across 2.7 metres (Assessment Report 12790, certificate of assay, sample MK No. 2).
Veins of carbonate, quartz, pyrite, sphalerite and galena have been noted nearby. A hole drilled 70 metres north of the fracture zone intersected a section of silicified rhyolite porphyry with sulphide, hematite, manganese (pyrolusite (?)) and calcite veining, averaging 2.27 grams per tonne gold and 6.58 grams per tonne silver over 15.2 metres (Assessment Report 14556, geochemistry certificate, hole 85-2, 61.0 to 76.2 metres). Threads and stringers of molybdenite, with sparse coarse pyrite and rare chalcopyrite also occur in the vicinity.
A quartz-filled shear zone, striking 020 degrees, lies about 150 metres southeast of the fracture zone. An adit, 60 metres long, was excavated along this shear without intersecting significant mineralization. A grab sample from the adit dump assayed 0.04 gram per tonne gold, 8.0 grams per tonne silver and 0.018 per cent copper (Assessment Report 12790, certificate of assay, sample MK No. 1).
Minor gold values are associated with the mafic dikes. A sample from the margin of such a dike assayed 1.15 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 12790, certificate of assay, sample 3).
Work History
Two adits were initially excavated into this showing earlier this century. Two holes were then drilled on the fracture zone some time previous to 1974. An additional five holes totalling 177 metres were drilled on the zone by Exel Explorations Ltd. in 1975, after completing magnetometer and soil surveys in 1973. The occurrence was then prospected and sampled by Canadian Nickel Company Ltd. in 1981 and Del La Mothe Exploration in 1984, before being drilled by Argonex International in 1985. The company drilled two holes totalling 183 metres. In 2011 and 2012, limited programs of geochemical sampling were completed on the area. In 2018, Vizsla Capital Corp. completed a program of 310 line-kilometre airborne geophysical survey on the area as the Kathleen Mountain property.
