The Owl occurrence is located along a forestry road, west of Cunningham Lake, about 78 kilometres east of Houston.
The showing area occurs in a region underlain dominantly by metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks of the Mississippian to Triassic Cache Creek Group and by ultramafic bodies of ophiolitic character related perhaps to the oceanic Cache Creek Group. These ultramafic bodies, known as the Permian to Triassic Trembleur Intrusions, are composed dominantly of dunite and peridotite but pyroxenite and gabbro are also present in some areas.
Rocks in the immediate area consist of banded to tuffaceous rhyolites and tuffaceous to massive andesites to rhyodacites. Quartz monzonite porphyry intrudes the sequence in the northeast part of the property.
Several types of mineralization have been identified in the occurrence area, including the following:
1.) Disseminated to blebby chalcopyrite and pyrite mineralization is hosted in tuffaceous and massive andesite and has been traced discontinuously for approximately 400 metres and very sporadically over 2 kilometres. Alteration varies from chlorite-epidote to potassic (potassium feldspar-quartz vein with sericite?). Rhodochrosite blebs and veins have also been identified. In 1990, a sample (Owl-AN-902) assayed 0.695 per cent copper and 11.6 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 20377).
2.) Stringer quartz occurs with chalcopyrite in silicified rhyolite tuffs and tuffaceous andesite and has been traced continuously over 100 metres and sporadically over 1 kilometre of strike length. In 1990, a sample (Owl-2) assayed 1.04 per cent copper, 14.8 grams per tonne silver and 0.13 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 20377).
3.) Quartz carbonate veins, varying from a few centimetres to 1.5 metres wide, and vuggy, drusy quartz veins with coliform manganese, hematite and trace chalcopyrite occur in altered volcanic breccia. In 1990, samples (844, 831B and 212-P4) yielded values of up to 0.46 per cent copper, 306.4 grams per tonne silver and 2.15 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 20377).
4.) Massive sulphide boulders, comprising a chlorite (-anthopyllite)– altered andesite tuff, have been identified in the area. In 1990, a 1- by 0.5-metre sample (no. 835) from one of the larger boulders yielded 1.28 per cent copper, 5.8 grams per tonne silver and 0.24 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 20377).
Hematite and epidote are reported to be widely distributed through the area, whereas a banded rhyolite also contains bands, up to 10 centimetre wide, and wisps or clasts(?) of magnetite.
Work History
In 1990, W. Halleran and A.A.D. Halleran completed a program of prospecting, rock sampling, geological mapping and ground geophysical surveys on the area as the Owl 1-10 claims. The following year, three trenches, totalling 47.5 metres, were completed on previously identified geophysical anomalies.
In 1991, Cominco Ltd. optioned the Owl claims and the following year completed a program of geological mapping, geochemical (rock and soil) sampling, prospecting and 14.8 line-kilometres of magnetic and induced polarization surveys.
In 1998, Ascot Resources Ltd., on the behalf of Eastfield Resources Ltd., completed a program of prospecting, geological mapping, geochemical (rock and soil) sampling and 27.3 line-kilometres of magnetic and induced polarization surveys on the area as the Elden 1-13 and But 4 claims of the Fort property. Two rock samples (FT98-R9 and -R10) yielded 0.45 and 0.51 gram per tonne gold, 1.8 and 6.8 grams per tonne silver with 0.250 and 0.235 per cent copper, respectively (Assessment Report 25760).
In 2007, Amarc Resources Ltd. held the area as apart of the Megamine property. A soil sampling program was completed on the Megamine 5 and 6 claims to the north.
In 2010, Torch River Resources Ltd. completed a program of geochemical (rock and soil) sampling and 12.5 line-kilometres of ground magnetic surveys on the area as the Fort-Elden property. The following year, six diamond drill holes, totalling 1412.33 metres, were completed on the property. This work centred on the Fort (MINFILE 093K 093) occurrence to the northwest.
