The Pumpkin-Val occurrence is located in the southeastern head waters of Jesse Creek, approximately 5.5 kilometres north of the community of Merritt.

The area is underlain by undivided volcanic rocks of the Upper Triassic Nicola Group which have intruded by granodioritic rocks of the Upper Triassic to Lower Jurassic Jesse Creek Stock.

Locally, trenches are reported to contain K-feldspar, magnetite, malachite and chalcopyrite in fracture zones hosted by andesitic volcanic rocks.

In 1976, samples were collected by Quintana yielding anomalous copper values ranging up to 0.225 per cent copper (Blanchflower, J.D. (2012-02-17): Technical Report on the Jesse Creek Property).

Work History

The area has been explored since the early 1900’s.

During 1962 through 1976, a variety of individuals and companies held mining claims and explored the Jesse Creek area mainly for copper-magnetite skarn mineralization like that at Craigmont Mine. Exploration work at this time usually included soil sampling, trenching and magnetometer surveying. In 1972, Newvan Resources reportedly carried out some trenching and completed 11 drill holes, totalling 502.9 metres, on the old Val 5 and 6 claims (Minister of Mines Report for 1972). Results of this work are not available.

In 1976 and 1977, Quintana Minerals Corp. explored their claims north from the Merritt city limits to the Jesse Creek drainage. A magnetic survey was performed which identified several magnetic anomalies which were followed up on with a program detailed geological mapping to assess the inferred skarn mineralization.

In 1980, Noranda completed a magnetic and electromagnetic (VLF) survey on the area. The following year, an induced polarization and resistivity survey was completed. The geophysical results indicated an interesting chargeability anomaly north of the Val occurrence.

In 1991, Conlon Copper Corp. acquired claims covering the known copper-bearing skarn showings in the area. Over the next decade Conlon Copper or its later publicly-reporting companies, Merritt Copper Corp. and Conlon Copper Corporation, explored the claim holdings with several phases of geological mapping, rock and soil geochemical sampling, geophysical surveying, trenching and diamond drilling.

In 2012, Dundarave Resources Inc. retained Minorex Consulting Ltd. to carry out a property examination on the Jesse Creek property.