The Merchants 7 (Embayment-Craigmont West-No. 4 orebody) occurrence is located at an elevation of approximately 1460 metres on a southeast-facing slope, approximately 2.5 kilometres northeast of the peak of the Promontory Hills.

The Promontory Hills-Craigmont mine area is underlain by a complex northwest-trending, steeply dipping volcanic pile of Upper Triassic Nicola Group rocks, bounded to the north by the Upper Triassic to Lower Jurassic Guichon Creek Batholith and unconformably overlain by the Upper Cretaceous Kingsvale Group. Most of the area is covered by thick gravel overburden. Regional faults trend north-northwest.

Locally, mineralized skarn zones similar to that of the nearby Craigmont (MINFILE 092ISE035) past-producing mine have been identified by diamond drilling. The skarn zones have been traced for at least 230 metres along strike to the west by diamond drilling. Locally high-grade zones are associated with cross-cutting fault systems, creating a narrow, structure bound mineralized zone. The mineralized zone lies within a considerable fault zone, referred to as the Embayment fault, with mineralization decreasing away from the fault zone. This zone has been previously described as the potential No. 4 orebody of the Craigmont mine.

Work History

The area has been explored in conjunction with the nearby Craigmont (MINFILE 092ISE035) past-producing mine and the Titan Queen (MINFILE 092ISE034) occurrences and a complete exploration history of the area can be found there.

In 1978, a drillhole (S-100) is reported to have yielded 0.41 per cent copper over 149 metres (Assessment Report 37888).

In 1985, Craigmont Mines Ltd. completed a single 445.6-metre diamond drill hole on the Merchants 7 claim. Drillhole S-124 intercepted a series of steeply dipping calcareous epidote-actinolite skarn bands with low-grade copper-iron mineralization yielding up to 0.26 per cent copper and 5.69 per cent iron over 9.2 metres (254.5 to 263.7 metres down hole) and 0.37 per cent copper over 7.0 metres (291.1 to 298.1 metres down hole; Assessment Report 14102).

In 2016, Nicola Mining Inc. completed a program of prospecting, rock sampling, geological mapping and five diamond drill holes, totalling 1063.7 metres, on the Thule Copper property. A lone drillhole (THU-002) on the Merchants 7 claim intercepted a banded garnet-pyrite skarn from 268.9 to 331.0 metres down hole yielding 0.21 per cent copper over 8.80 metres (300.65 to 309.45 metres down hole), a 1.52-metre-wide chalcopyrite vein (331.08 to 332.6 metres down hole) yielding 3.79 per cent copper and a epidote-magnetite-chalcopyrite skarn from 332.6 to 417 metres down hole yielding 1.11 per cent copper over 85.92 metres (Assessment Report 36844).

In 2017, Nicola Mining Inc. and Clibetre Exploration Ltd. completed a program of geological mapping; a 27.0 line-kilometre induced polarization survey; a 24.5 line-kilometre airborne magnetic survey; 29 rotary drill holes, totalling 392.0 metres, and 5 diamond drill holes, totalling 2994.7 metres, on the Thule Copper property. Drilling yielded intercepts including 0.32 per cent copper over 19.0 metres (444.0 to 463.0 metres down hole) in hole NC-2017-03 and 0.31 per cent copper over 32.0 metres (438.0 to 470.0 metres down hole) in hole NC-2017-04 (Assessment Report 37888).

In 2018, Nicola Mining Inc. completed a 9.0 line-kilometre ground magnetic and induced polarization survey, 70 percussion drill holes, totalling 1540.0 metres, and 16 diamond drill holes, totalling 6438.5 metres, on the area as the Craigmont property. Drilling on the zone yielded up to 1.33 per cent copper over 100.6 metres in hole NC-2018-03 (Assessment Report 38679).

In 2019 and 2021, Nicola Mining Inc. completed a program of soil sampling and 5 diamond drill holes, totalling 3649.0 metres, on the area as the New Craigmont property.