The Chilako showing is situated immediately east of a small lake in the northern part of the Tagai property, 9.3 kilometres west of Tagai Lake, approximately 60 kilometres south-southwest of the community of Vanderhoof.
The area is underlain by an unnamed Cretaceous volcanic unit composed of rhyolite, rhyodacite, ash and lapilli tuff. This unit is overlain by nonmarine Eocene to Oligocene Nechako Plateau Group felsic volcanics, which are unconformably capped by slightly younger Endako Formation basaltic and andesite plateau flows, breccias and tuffs. Three small Paleogene intrusive plugs intrude the previous units. The entire package is capped by widespread Neogene Chilcotin Group olivine basalt flows.
The Tagai showing—the only known area of surface mineralization on the property—is exposed in a road cut at the end of a forest service road in the southern part of the property. Two samples of medium to coarse-grained quartz feldspar porphyry with disseminated malachite and azurite reported anomalous results for gold and copper. The 2012 drill program intersected an interval of rhyodacite with abundant chalcopyrite assaying anomalous results for gold and copper.
Sometime prior to 2007, prospector F. Critchlow discovered mineralized float in the area and staked the Tagai claims. In 2007, Strategic Metals Limited optioned the property from Critchlow and conducted prospecting and reconnaissance soil and till geochemical sampling. Two samples collected 190 metres apart from north-striking, gaugey shear zones approximately 0.1 metre in width reported 0.677 gram per tonne gold and 1.43 per cent copper and 0.898 gram per tonne gold and 0.37 per cent copper, respectively (Assessment Report 31431). In 2008, a helicopter-borne magnetic and variable time domain electromagnetic geophysical survey was completed over the property. In 2009, Condor Consulting Limited completed an interpretation of the geophysical data and Strategic Metals performed a program of minor prospecting and geochemical sampling.
In the autumn of 2010, Korax Explorations Incorporated cut five northeast-trending lines across the Chilako and Tagai zones, allowing Aurora Geosciences Limited to perform induced polarization and resistivity geophysical surveys. Later that year, the new geophysical data was integrated with the 2008 survey data.
Strategic Metals staked two additional claims along the southern edge of the property in early 2010. By October of that year, the company had earned a 100 per cent interest in the property.
In 2012, Strategic Metals completed 23 reverse circulation drill holes totalling 557.78 metres. Thirteen drillholes were completed on the Tagai showing and 10 on the Chilako zone to the north. One drillhole, situated at the southwest end of the Chilako zone, reported anomalous values for gold and copper.
Drillhole RCH-12-16 reported 1.52 metres of 0.183 gram per tonne gold and 0.42 per cent copper (Assessment Report 33669, page 10).