The Cirque occurrence is located on top of a ridge to the east of Charleston Creek, approximately 33 kilometres north of the community of Fort Babine and approximately 97 kilometres northeast of Smithers.

The area is underlain by undivided sedimentary rocks of the Trout Creek Formation (Upper Jurassic Bowser Lake Group) and fine clastic sedimentary rocks of the Ashman Formation. These have been intruded by feldspar porphyritic intrusive rocks of the Eocene Babine Plutonic Suite. Lower Jurassic Hazelton Group basalts of the Ankwell Creek member, calc-alkaline volcanics of the Telkwa Formation and undivided sedimentary rocks of the Nilkitkwa Formation occur to the northeast.

The occurrence is underlain by Jurassic Bowser Lake clastic sediments intruded by a large Eocene Babine Plutonic Suite biotite feldspar porphyry. Locally a zone of pervasive sericite-pyrite (phyllic) alteration is in turn intruded by later stage unmineralized dikes. The phyllic alteration has been strongly leeched. Phyllic alteration is thought to extend approximately 1500 metres east-west, with unknown north-south extent.

Mineralization consists of pyrite cubes, up to 3 millimetres in size and in concentrations of up to 5 per cent whole rock volume. Malachite staining is the only visible indication of copper mineralization.

Work History

In 1997, Hewitt and Day performed reconnaissance prospecting and sampling of silt and talus fines on the area of the property previously known as the Tip claim. They found up to 1.755 per cent copper and up to 0.24 gram per tonne gold in silts and 2.5 grams per tonne gold in talus fines (Property File 888875; Assessment Report 25413).

In 2010, Teck Resources completed a program of prospecting, mapping and geochemical sampling on the former Cirque (now called Babe) claim. The program found a multi-element ICP anomaly including anomalous copper, gold and molybdenum based on silt and talus fine samples. Silt and talus fine sampling yielded up to 0.1661 per cent copper, 0.0022 per cent molybdenum and 23.18 grams per tonne gold (samples LT-97-01 and LT-97-03; Assessment Report 31932). Rock samples yielded lower results, which, along with the low values from the 1997 work, are likely due to the significant leeching of the phyllic zone bedrock. Mapping identified high magnetic anomalies over the property, thought to have resulted from interactions with intrusive fluids (Assessment Report 31932).

In 2019, Glen Prior performed an analysis of field photographs taken in 2015 and air photography taken in 2019. Large areas of gossan, extensive fracturing, gossanous soil on top of the ridge and a lack of outcrop near the top of the steep ridge were observed during this analysis. The 2015 field photography also reveals fracture-controlled and disseminated sulphide mineralization, dominantly in the form of pyrite. There is also extensive pyrite mineralization in hairline fractures. Linear features, oriented northeast-southwest, were observed in air photography and could be fractures.