The Barb 1-4 occurrence is located on a north-facing slope, south of the east end of Smith Lake and approximately 4 kilometres northeast of Deerhorn Hill.
Regionally, the area is underlain by undivided volcanic rocks of the Lower to Middle Jurassic Hazelton Group, felsic volcanic rocks of the Eocene to Oligocene Ootsa Lake Formation (Nechako Plateau Group) and andesitic volcanic rocks of the Eocene Endako Formation (Nechako Plateau Group).
Locally, at least six en echelon vein systems are exposed in an area 100 metres across by 200 metres along strike. Finely disseminated pyrite occurs in grey to black chalcedony veins with traces of amethyst and rose quartz. Other zones display banded, cream-grey to varicoloured chalcedony veins up to 0.2- to 0.3-metre wide in north-northeast–trending subvertical shears. Tiny fracture coatings contain arsenopyrite and pyrite. Narrow, fracture-controlled chalcedony veins are straddled by barren stockwork quartz veinlet haloes up to 1.5 metres wide.
Just west of the Barb showing, a 1.5-metre wide zone (the Bar fault zone) of friable gouge, dark chalcedonic quartz breccia and heterogeneous lithic quartz breccia was exposed in trenching. The high-angle, 015 degree trending structure marks the contact between a light-green tuffaceous andesite and a siliceous rhyolite. In the brecciated matrix, 1 to 3 per cent sulfides, mainly cubic pyrite, form irregular pods and clusters. Samples showed anastomotic milky white to grey quartz veinlets, 1 to 5 millimetres wide, hosted in both the bleached andesite and rhyolite.
In 1988, a chip sample across a 0.15-metre wide shear zone on the Barb zone assayed 0.360 grams per tonne gold and 1.6 grams per tonne silver, whereas samples from the Bar fault zone to the west yielded from trace to 0.12 gram per tonne gold, 0.1 to 9.3 grams per tonne silver and 0.0003 to 0.0520 per cent molybdenum (Assessment Report 18092).
Work History
The area has been explored in conjunction with the nearby Rhub (MINFILE 093F 054) occurrence and a complete exploration history can be found there.
In 1986, a stream and silt sediment sampling survey was completed by Newmont Exploration of Canada. During 1987 to 1988, Newmont conducted geological mapping, soil sampling, stream sediment sampling, rock chip sampling, hand trenching and geophysical surveys.
