The Driftwood or Copperline occurrence is located approximately 1 kilometre northeast of Skutsil Knob about 94 kilometres northeast of the community of Hazelton.
The occurrence area is underlain by gently dipping, subaerial, calc-alkaline volcanic flows, tuffs and breccias, with interbedded agglomerates, sandstones, mudstones, and limestones of the Lower Jurassic Telkwa and Nilkitkwa formations, both of the Hazelton Group. A system of fracturing which strikes approximately 330 degrees, dipping steeply southwest, crosscuts the volcanic hostrocks and is one of the controls on the copper mineralization. Bornite is the chief ore mineral which occurs associated with calcite and zeolites filling amygdules and fractures in the volcanic rocks. Chalcocite, chalcopyrite and tetrahedrite are less common ore minerals.
The best drill intersection was 25.0 metres grading 2.54 per cent copper and 50.4 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 19978, Figure 7). The deposit has been estimated to contain approximately 900,000 tonnes grading 2 per cent copper and 48 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 19978, page 1).
In 1929, 16 claims staked by N. McMillan were sold to Consolidated Mining and Smelting Co. of Canada Ltd. (Cominco), who completed assessment work during 1930-34. The claims were Crown granted in 1935. In 1939, Cominco completed 14 trenches over a strike length of 330 metres.
In 1973, Craigmont Mines optioned an 80 per cent interest in the 16 claims from Cominco, staked an additional 26 claims, and drilled four holes totalling 587 metres in the area of the Main zone on the Cominco option. Prospecting located a new showing, now referred to as the West zone, about 1220 metres southwest of the Main zone near the west edge of the Cominco option. Chip samples from the new showing yielded 3.6 per cent copper and and 92.6 grams per tonne silver in a brecciated flow top (Assessment Report 27276). Craigmont drilled an additional nine holes totalling 1235 metres in the vicinity of the Main zone in 1974.
In 1989, T.J. Resources Inc. acquired an interest in 13 Reverted Crown-granted mineral claims surrounding but not including Cominco’s three Crown-granted mineral claims. IGNA Engineering and Consulting Ltd., on behalf of T.J. Resources, completed reconnaissance-type ground magnetic and Very Low Frequency Electromagnetic surveys on two small grids, located east and southeast of the Main zone.
In 2000, Kleinebar Resources Ltd. acquired by staking a 20 unit modified grid mineral claim surrounding the three Cominco Crown grants, optioned the three claims from Cominco, and named it the Copperline property. In 2001, Hathor Exploration Limited acquired a 100 per cent interest in the Copperline property from Kleinebar and completed geology and prospecting in two short field programs.
Hathor Exploration Ltd. granted Kit Resources Ltd. an option to earn a 60 per cent working interest in 2003. In 2003, the property was re-evaluated by Kit Resources and Hathor by drilling 444 metres in five holes. The companies drilled three holes to confirm and expand the previously identified Main zone, and two holes to test the West zone, which is 1.2 kilometres to the southwest. Mineralization consists of 5 to 10 per cent fine-grained disseminated and stringer bornite, tetrahedrite, chalcopyrite, chalcocite, and rare native copper within subaerial, calc-alkalic volcanics of the Lower Jurassic Telkwa Formation. Drillhole CL-16 intersected two well mineralized zones on the Main zone that are 13 metres apart. The upper interval averaged 0.812 per cent copper and 25.8 grams per tonne silver over 14.3 metres and the lower interval averaged 0.385 per cent copper and 13.3 grams per tonne silver over 21.0 metres (Exploration and Mining in British Columbia 2003, page 22).
