The Skelton occurrence is located on Skelton Creek, approximately 52 kilometres north of Williams Lake, and approximately 54 kilometres south-southeast of Quesnel, British Columbia. As part of the larger Ben property, the Skelton occurrence is situated between the Mount Polley Mine and the Gibraltar Mine. The Ben property lies on the Fraser Plateau, a flat and gently rolling area mostly covered by glacial drift. The Ben property lies on a northwest trending height of land between the Beedy Creek and Beaver Creek Valleys, two prominent topographic lineaments considered to mark significant faults (Assessment Report 35173).
Situated within the Cache Creek Terrane, the Skelton occurrence is underlain by rock units of the Permian to Triassic-aged Cache Creek Complex. Noted rock units include marine sedimentary and volcanic rocks including phyllite, siliceous phyllite, ribbon and massive chert, argillite, mudstone, sandstone, limestone, tuff, mafic volcanic rocks, and serpentinite. The area is bounded to the east and to the west by rocks of the Quesnel Terrane. The structural geology of the Ben property is not well understood or documented. The fabric of the underlying sedimentary and volcanic rocks trends north-northwest (Assessment Report 35173).
Although not formally mapped, drilling at the Skelton occurrence intersected several zones containing shallow-dipping, variably serpentinized dunites, with lesser peridotites and gabbros. The serpentinite is mostly composed of antigorite and lizardite. Accessory magnetite (up to 10 percent) and chlorite are dispersed within serpentine-rich pseudomorphs and within vein-like domains. The ultramafic rocks occur within interbedded marine sedimentary rocks of the Cache Creek Complex (mudstone, greywacke, sandstone, conglomerate), and volcanic rocks (tuff, dacite, basalt). Alteration styles at Skelton include serpentinitzation, iron-carbonate alteration, and silicification. Listwanite often occurs within silicified intervals, and chlorite alteration is common in volcanic rocks. Nickel and cobalt mineralization are hosted in variably magnetic serpentinized ultramafic rocks, mostly contained within the nickel-sulphides heazelwoodite and pentlandite, with possible millerite (Assessment Report 35173).
Amoco Minerals first explored the area of the Ben property and Skelton occurrence in 1983 and 1984 by way of a regional silt sampling program. Strong amounts of heavy minerals (gold, arsenic, antimony) were identified in North Ben Creek, South Ben Creek, and Skelton Creek.
Very limited work was recorded on the Skelton occurrence until Westhaven Ventures optioned the property from claim owner B.H. Kahlert in 2012. Rock geochemical samples and one induced polarization line (2 kilometres) was completed in 2012 (Assessment Report 33544). One hole (102 metres) was drilled in 2013 and intersected highly serpentinized, magnetite-rich ultramafic rocks. Results included 70.6 metres grading 0.31 per cent nickel and 120.3 parts per million cobalt (in BN13-03 from 16.4 to 87 metres down hole depth) (Assessment Report 34737).
In 2014, Westhaven Ventures completed a property wide airborne magnetic survey, consisting of 851-line kilometres, with flight lines oriented east-west and spaced at 200 metre intervals. Follow up work at Skelton included geochemical sampling (rock and soil), and two separate campaigns of ground geophysical surveying (induced polarization and ground magnetics). In July of 2014, the first drilling campaign completed 7 holes (759 metres), targeting chargeability anomalies from the June induced polarization survey. The goal was to test the continuity of the nickeliferous serpentinite body discovered in the 2013 drill hole. Following detailed ground magnetic surveying in August and October, 4 additional drill holes (255.4 metres) were completed in October on the basis of magnetic targets. Overall, drilling encountered serpentinized dunite, along with varying units of sandstone-mudstone-siltstone, conglomerate, black argillite, marine shale, and tuff. Results include 16.5 metres grading 0.34 percent total nickel (0.22 per cent sulphide nickel), and 0.012 per cent cobalt (in BN14-08 from 30 to 46.5 metres down hole depth) (Assessment Report 35173).
