The Polaris occurrence is located 1.5 kilometres above the mouth of Polaris Creek, 4 kilometres north of Aiken Lake and approximately 100 kilometres northwest of the community of Germansen Landing.
The area is underlain by a fault-bounded section of volcanic and sedimentary strata of the Upper Triassic Takla Group. Lithologies include andesitic breccias and tuffs, minor acidic tuffs, fetid black limestone and shale. A major northwest-trending fault, the Polaris fault, terminates the mixed volcanic-sedimentary assemblage on the southwest, and a one-kilometre-thick section of grey to black siliceous pyritic argillite occurs southwest of the fault. The layered rocks are cut by small intrusive bodies of porphyritic quartz monzonite, biotite feldspar porphyry and diorite porphyry (Assessment Report 6037) which may be related to the Early Jurassic Hogem Plutonic Suite.
The main showing consists of a network of small quartz and quartz-calcite veins which reach a maximum width of 90 centimetres, with most veins less than 5 centimetres in width. The veins contain disseminated, banded or blebby pyrite, arsenopyrite and pyrrhotite (Geological Survey of Canada Memoir 274, page 222), and are hosted by calcareous and cherty black argillite near a small stock of diorite porphyry. Assays of more than 100 grams per tonne gold were obtained over widths of a few centimetres (Property File - Cominco assay plans, 1932). The showings have been explored by a small adit which has since caved.
A second area of mineralization located south of the adit, consists of lenses of massive sulphide up to 9 metres thick and 30 metres long. These bodies consist of pyrrhotite with minor pyrite and chalcopyrite associated with the Polaris fault.
A third area of mineralization north of the adit contains chalcopyrite and minor molybdenite in fractures in quartz monzonite and chalcopyrite in fractures in pyritized volcanic rocks.
In 1927, prospecting for lode deposits was initiated throughout north-central British Columbia by the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company (Cominco) and was successful in the discovery of a number of mineral showings including the Jupiter (094C 012) and Polaris (094C 012, this description) gold-silver prospects. The Polaris and Jupiter showings are included within claims of the present (ca. 2009) Besshi property. Work by Cominco on these two prospects continued through the 1930s and included surface stripping, hand trenching and more than 500 metres of underground development on the Jupiter prospect and hand trenching and 45 metres of underground crosscutting on the Polaris prospect 4 kilometres to the east.
Both prospects lay dormant until 1975, when a large block of claims located by Susie Gold Mines Ltd. included most of the present Besshi property (Assessment Reports 6037 and 6607). Work by this company in 1976 and 1977 was directed towards assessing the potential for porphyry copper-molybdenum mineralization and included geological mapping, magnetometer and VLF-EM surveys and soil sampling over a large area north of Lay Creek between Berry and Polaris creeks.
In 1980, claims were re-located over the same general area by Golden Rule Resources. The precious metals potential of the Jupiter and Polaris prospects was the main focus of attention and work through 1983 included soil geochemistry and geophysical surveys centred on the two principal mineral showings, construction of a 1 kilometre tote road linking the Jupiter workings with the Omineca Road and some re-sampling of the main Jupiter adit (Assessment Report 11251).
In 1987, Skylark Resources Ltd. re-located claims and completed soil and stream sediment geochemistry north and south of Lay Creek (Assessment Report 17457). Prospecting and limited rock sampling was carried out by W.H. Halleran in the area of the Jupiter and Polaris showings following the location of the Pol 1-3 claims in 1990.
In February 1993, Dentonia Resources Ltd. commissioned Geonex Aerodat Inc. to complete a helicopter mounted magnetic-electromagnetic-VLF-EM survey over the property. In the survey, a total of 125 line-kilometres was flown, and a satellite-based global positioning device (GPS) was utilized for accurate location of the anomalies. In August 1993, Dentonia completed ground geochemical and geophysical surveys which included silt geochemistry (60 samples), lithogeochemistry (18 samples) and 2 kilometres of magnetic and VLF-EM surveying (Assessment Report 22883).
In August 2000, additional lithogeochemical (2 samples), stream sediment (21 samples) and soil geochemical (38 samples) surveys in the area west of Polaris Creek were completed (Assessment Report 26308). In October 2009, an attempt to sample the Discovery zone with a diamond rock saw was made. Unfortunately, inclement weather and conditions on Polaris Creek were dangerous preventing sampling from taking place but new compilation maps were prepared to facilitate this and future programs on the property, as well as the assay results from two till samples believed to be derived from local material.
In 2011, Nanika Resources Inc. completed a soil and lithogeochemical survey on its Polaris Gold property; a total of 125 soil samples and 15 lithogeochemical samples were collected. The sampling took place in the vicinity of the Discovery zone and Polaris Gold zone and the objective was to extend the 2010 soil sampling grid west to Polaris Creek while re-sampling areas that analyzed anomalous gold from the 2010 sampling.
In 2012, Prosper Gold Corp. commissioned a geological reconnaissance of the Polaris Gold property. The objectives were to examine and sample all known showings that were accessible (Jupiter zone, Polaris Cu/Mo zone, Discovery zone, Nanny zone, Polaris Gold zone, Polaris Zinc zone), to sample soils west of Polaris Creek, to sample tills along logging road cuts, and to sample pine bark along the east bank of Polaris Creek.
