The Gordon occurrence is located on a hillside south of the Osilinka River, approximately 180 kilometres northwest of the community of Fort St. James.
The showing occurs in a sandy dolomite and massive limestone package of the Ordovician to Lower Devonian Echo Lake Group. A regional northwest-plunging anticline is offset by faults and local drag folds.
Mineralization consists of sulphide minerals hosted in an area where the dolomitic limestone is intensely brecciated. The breccia zone is typically cone or pipe-shaped and is offset by northwest-striking faults. Sphalerite, galena, and pyrite occur as replacements of the dolomitized groundmass and as disseminations. Barite, dolomite, and calcite are also associated with the breccia. A chip sample taken across 12 metres assayed 2.6 per cent zinc (Assessment Report 72).
In 1949, lead-zinc mineralization was discovered on the Gordon showing and the claim group was staked in 1950. In 1951, the property was staked by Ernest and Gordon Davies and optioned to Northwestern Explorations Limited. Evaluation of data obtained by trenching indicated the existence of low-grade lead-zinc mineralization.
Placer Development Limited initiated geochemical and geophysical work on the property during 1966 and continued working there intermittently through 1968. Approximately 762 metres of trenching was carried out and failed to prove continuity between the small pods of breccia-hosted mineralization previously found. Ainsworth’s (1968) evaluation was that the property had a very limited tonnage potential and was characterized by low-grade mineralization; he did not recommend additional work.
Borovic returned to the area for Placer in 1976. On the basis of his mapping, he recommended an expanded soil geochemical survey of the claims which was carried out in 1977. A total of 77.5 kilometres of lines were surveyed and flagged with compass and hip chain. This work extended the geochemical anomalies identified earlier and located previously unknown anomalies farther east on the Alfie 4 claim.
Work carried out by Placer Development Limited during 1980 consisted of extending the 1977 soil grid to the northwest of the grid origin and filling in gaps in the coverage east of the grid origin. A total of 1020 soil samples were taken. Very detailed prospecting, geological mapping and rock sampling was also carried out on some soil geochemical anomalies identified by earlier workers.
