The SILVER BOSS (HORSE TRAIL) occurrence is located in an alpine area 600 metres south-southeast of the peak of Big Timothy Mountain, 83 kilometres east-southeast of the city of Williams Lake.
Regionally, the area is underlain by gabbroic to dioritic rocks of the Buster Lake unit and granodioritic intrusive rocks of the Boss Creek and Schoolhouse Lake units of the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic Takomkane Batholith, which have intruded basaltic volcanic rocks of the Upper Triassic Nicola Group. These have in turn been intruded and are locally overlain near the summit of Big Timothy Mountain by basaltic volcanic rocks of the Pleistocene Wells Gray volcanics.
Locally, a monzodiorite and diorite are cut by 20- to 30-centimetre-wide shear/fracture zones over a strike length of at least 100 metres and a width of 50 metres. The fractured zones generally trend northwest and dip moderately to steeply northeast with variably orientated, 0.5- to 30-centimetre wide, quartz veins hosting pyrite and chalcopyrite. Chlorite, epidote and tourmaline are also reported associated with the fracture zones and veins.
In 2004, a sample (151679) assayed 0.42 per cent copper, 0.013 per cent molybdenum, 28.0 grams per tonne silver and 2.4 grams per tonne gold, whereas a chip sample (151677) across 0.2 metre of vein material, taken 100 metres to the south of the previous sample, assayed 0.564 per cent copper, 43.0 grams per tonne silver and 0.791 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 27755).
In 2005, a sample (151725) of quartz vein material assayed 0.73 per cent copper, 40.0 grams per tonne silver and 1.04 grams per tonne gold over 0.10 metre, whereas a 0.45-metre-wide sample (184424) of quartz vein and diorite wallrock assayed 0.31 per cent copper, 30.0 grams per tonne silver and 0.86 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 28344).
In 2006, grab samples of outcrop, subcrop and float yielded up to 0.42 gram per tonne gold, 93.0 grams per tonne silver, 1.686 per cent copper and 0.637 per cent molybdenum (Assessment Report 28987).
In 2007, a sample (493465) assayed 10.01 grams per tonne gold and greater than 100 grams per tonne silver from a 4-centimetre-wide vein, whereas a sample (4417) from a from a 15-centimetre-wide vein assayed 3.38 grams per tonne gold, 48.0 grams per tonne silver and 0.231 per cent copper (Assessment Report 29970).
From 2005 through 2014, soil and rock sampling programs carried out by Happy Creek Minerals Ltd. identified several zones of elevated copper, molybdenum, tungsten, gold and silver in soil that occur well beyond the known molybdenum deposits, including the Horse Trail zone, extending westward from the Boss Mountain mine’s molybdenum deposits and the East Breccia zone and Silverboss Shaft zone located northwest of the mine. Outcrops of quartz veins in these areas also contain elevated copper, molybdenum, gold and silver values. On both grids, the IP survey returned moderate to strong chargeability values located beneath the positive surface samples. In the Silver Boss (South Ridge) area, 1 to 2 kilometres south of the Boss Mountain mine, prospecting, geological mapping and rock sampling in 2014 found a zone of mineralized granodiorite boulders of the Takomkane Batholith. One more fractured and altered sample (SB-14-07) returned 0.52 per cent copper, 0.20 gram per tonne gold and 11 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 35308).
The area has been historically explored in conjunction with the nearby Silver Boss (MINFILE 093A 019) occurrence and Boss Mountain (MINFILE 093A 001) past-producing mine.
