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File Created: 24-Jul-1985 by BC Geological Survey (BCGS)
Last Edit:  27-Mar-2019 by George Owsiacki (GO)

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NMI 093L9 Au1
Name JACK RABBIT, SAW, SUSAN, MEGAN, PALOMINO Mining Division Omineca
BCGS Map 093L058
Status Showing NTS Map 093L09W
Latitude 054º 34' 12'' UTM 09 (NAD 83)
Longitude 126º 24' 36'' Northing 6050027
Easting 667427
Commodities Copper, Gold, Silver Deposit Types L01 : Subvolcanic Cu-Ag-Au (As-Sb)
L04 : Porphyry Cu +/- Mo +/- Au
Tectonic Belt Intermontane Terrane Stikine, Plutonic Rocks
Capsule Geology

The Jack Rabbit occurrence is located on a branch stream entering Johnny David Creek, 10 kilometres northwest of the community of Topley or approximately 6.4 kilometres north of Perow.

The showing area is underlain by Lower Jurassic Hazelton Group volcanics of the Telkwa Formation, comprised mainly of andesitic to rhyolitic flows, tuff and breccia. South of the property, the Hazelton rocks are underlain by Upper Triassic Takla Group volcanics comprised of dark green tuffs, flows and shales. North of the property, Eocene Endako Group volcanics overlie the Hazelton rocks.

The Hazelton Group rocks are comprised of variegated red, maroon to green breccia and tuff. Anhydrite infills fractures with calcite infilling in cavities and veinlets. Epidote is abundant. The volcanics are crosscut by a beige to buff coloured porphyry dike. The dike is 20 metres wide and hosts angular laths of bleached feldspar and rounded quartz eyes. Alteration consists of sericite and kaolinite minerals with 1.0 to 2.0 per cent disseminated pyrite and malachite. Malachite occurs in fractures or as rims on pyrite and chalcopyrite grains.

Near the quartz feldspar porphyry dike of quartz monzonite composition is a mineralized shear zone striking 160 degrees and dipping 70 degrees west. The gouge zone hosts fault breccia cemented with quartz and clay. It is bleached to pale green and hosts minor specular hematite. The shear cuts grey rhyolite and an andesitic fragmental rock with siderite, epidote, calcite, and malachite in the fractures.

In 1927, the Jack Rabbit mineralized shear was sampled. A 40 centimetre vein sample assayed 42.5 grams per tonne gold, 171.4 grams per tonne silver, and 9.4 per cent copper. Another 120 centimetre sample assayed 10.3 grams per tonne gold, 89.1 grams per tonne silver, and 2.5 per cent copper (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1928, page 117).

In 1986, a grab sample of highly oxidized dump material assayed 0.28 gram per tonne gold, 4.1 grams per tonne silver, and 1.82 per cent copper. Also, a chip sample across 1.5 metres above a collapsed adit assayed 4.9 grams per tonne gold, 6.5 grams per tonne silver, and 0.22 per cent copper (Assessment Report 16071).

Widespread weak copper mineralization ranging from 0.02 to 0.07 per cent is reported to occur in intrusive and volcanic rocks away from the vein and within an area about 60.0 metres in length along a creek east of the Jack Rabbit showing. In 1966, two samples taken above an old tunnel assayed 0.27 and 0.17 per cent copper.

In 1927, the Jack Rabbit mineralized shear zone was discovered outcropping on the south bank of an east-west tributary of Johnny David Creek. Efforts to trace the zone on surface were hampered by excessive overburden so a short adit was driven in 1928 to test the mineralization. In the 1960s, the property was examined for porphyry-style mineralization and a chalcopyrite-bearing quartz feldspar porphyry dike located adjacent to the shear was stripped and sampled.

In 1973, Phelps Dodge Corporation conducted a magnetometer and VLF-EM survey on a grid over the known mineralization.

In 1997, Bell acquired the property and performed a self potential survey over the shear zone and analyzed 129 till samples. The original adit that was driven in 1928 to explore the shear zone was excavated in 2001 and sampled to confirm the high-grade nature of the sulphide mineralization. Further prospecting revealed the presence of a previously unreported outcrop of quartz feldspar porphyry and chalcopyrite in andesite porphyry boulders in till.

In 2003, exploration work was performed on the Palomino claims for the purpose of locating conductors and zones of higher magnetic susceptibility that may be related to sulphide mineralization. The work program conducted was an electromagnetic/magnetic ground reconnaissance style geophysical survey carried out over a 16.7 kilometre grid, which is centred on a prominent aeromagnetic anomaly. The surveys totalled: magnetic (15.84 kilometres), Very Low Frequency Electromagnetic VLF-EM (16.65 kilometres) and Broadside Vertical Loop Electromagnetic BVL-EM (6.98 kilometres).

In 2004, a short vertical diamond-drill hole was collared near a magnetic anomaly and propylitically altered bedrock was intersected which assayed 0.11 per cent copper over 8.0 metres. The elevated copper content suggests that the propylitization may be hydrothermal alteration related to a mineralized system.

In 2005, a second drillhole collared over the same magnetic feature at another location intersected volcanic tuff containing a propylitic alteration mineral assemblage consistent with that found near many porphyry and shear/vein type deposits. The discovery of a new mineralized quartz feldspar porphyry dike outcropping peripheral to the magnetic feature and zones of propylitization suggests that the observed sulphide mineralization may be related to an undiscovered intrusive stock or plug of porphyry.

In November 2005, the Palomino property was optioned to Manson Creek Resources Ltd. In 2006, Manson Creek Resources Ltd. completed a 7.3 line-kilometre magnetic and induced polarization (IP) survey. Following up on the data acquired from the surveys, a single inclined diamond-drill hole (254.2 metres) was drilled to test a roughly coincident chargeability and magnetic anomaly. The weighted average for a 14.33 metre intersection of porphyry yielded 0.013 per cent copper, including a 0.20 metre interval at 0.27 per cent copper. The weighted gold value for the same intercept was 0.035 gram per tonne. The host volcanic rocks returned anomalous copper values, including an interval grading 0.96 per cent copper over 0.30 metre. While the program was successful in identifying a new mineralized porphyry system on the Palomino property, the Company has decided, due to the overall lower copper-gold grades than originally targeted, to terminate the option on the Palomino property.

Bibliography
EMPR AR 1928-177; 1930-144; 1933-99; 1937-342
EMPR ASS RPT 2738, *4760, *13845, *16071, 26005, 26641, 27051, 27424, 27703, 28299, *29104
EMPR EXPL *1976-E148; *1985-C313; 1987-C304; 1998-19-31
EMPR GEM 1970-157; 1973-342
EMPR MAP 69-1
EMPR PF (Prospectors Report 1998-13 by Steve Bell; Prospectors Report 1999-8 by Steve Bell; Prospectors Report 2000-6 by Steve Bell)
GSC BULL 270
GSC MAP 671A; 971A
GSC OF 351
GSC P 40-16, p. 16
GSC SUM RPT 1928 Part A, p. 76
CMJ Dec.8, 2006
EMPR PFD 886294, 861626

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