The Carruthers Pass occurrence is situated approximately 200 kilometres north of Smithers and 38 kilometres northeast of Bear Lake, between the Asitka River and Quenada Creek.

Regionally, the area is underlain by bimodal volcanics of the Permian Asitka Group, coarse clastic sedimentary rocks of the Upper Triassic Dewar Formation (Takla Group), basaltic volcanic rocks of the Upper Triassic Savage Mountain Formation (Takla Group), undivided volcanic rocks of the Upper Triassic Takla Group and Upper Triassic gabbroic to dioritic intrusive rocks. To the west these units are overlain by calc-alkaline volcanic rocks of the Lower Jurassic Telkwa Formation (Hazelton Group), while to the east they have been intruded by quartz monzonitic to monzogranitic rocks of the Lower Jurassic Hogem Plutonic Suite and granodioritic rocks of the mid-Cretaceous Ecstall Plutonic Suite.

Locally, mineralization on the Carruthers Pass property consists of massive and laminated sediment-hosted iron, copper and zinc sulphides. Economic minerals identified to date are chalcopyrite and sphalerite which are commonly associated with the iron sulphides pyrite and pyrrhotite. The sulphides commonly occur as disseminations, fracture fillings and laminations along bedding planes in sedimentary rocks, comprised of (tuffaceous?) graphitic mudstones, siltstones and fine-grained sandstones) and occasionally in volcanic rocks of the Upper Triassic Dewar Formation (Takla Group).

Work History

No exploration work is recorded in the general area around the Carruthers Pass property prior to its staking by Phelps Dodge Corporation of Canada Ltd. in 1997. A brief exploration program carried out in September 1997 consisted of preliminary prospecting, rock sampling and contour soil sampling over the claim area. A total of 37 rock samples, eight stream sediment samples and 127 soil samples were collected.

In 1998, Phelps Dodge collected 782 soil samples, conducted geological mapping and prospecting and collected 92 rock samples. Four rock samples (62692, 72638, 634454 and Govt-A) from mineralized boulders yielded from 1.12 to 4.44 per cent copper, 2.99 to 4.50 per cent zinc, 56 to 250 grams per tonne silver and 0.169 to 3.170 grams per tonne gold, while a bedrock grab sample taken from the Car 1 claim to the north west from a 20 by 20 metre exposure of shale-hosted massive sulphide yielded 0.831 per cent copper, 2.2 grams per tonne silver and 0.069 per cent cobalt (Goodall, G., Erdman, L. (2006-10-30) – Summary Report on the Carruthers Pass Property, Omineca Mining Division, British Columbia with Recommendations for Further Exploration).

In 1999, Phelps Dodge returned with a program that included staking the Car 4, Rut 3 and Rut 4 claims, additional soil sampling (30 samples), rock sampling (51 samples) and some limited geophysical surveys (magnetometer and Genie electromagnetic).

In 2000, Phelps Dodge’s work program started with a small geophysical survey followed by diamond drilling six holes for a total of 989 metres. Anomalous copper and zinc values were reported from drillhole 295-3, with the best intersection encountered from 128 to 129 metres depth with a 1-metre intercept of 1 per cent copper, 0.25 per cent zinc and 15.3 grams per tonne silver. This was within a 5-metre section (from 127 to 132 metres) that averaged 0.57 per cent copper, 0.19 per cent zinc and 7.8 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 26493).

In 2003, Phelps Dodge optioned the property to Wildrose Resources Ltd., who subsequently granted an option on the property to MaxTech Ventures Inc. In September 2003, Mincord Exploration Consultants Ltd. completed a small prospecting and sampling program on the property on behalf of Wildrose, which consisted of bedrock mapping, prospecting and geochemical sampling. In 2004, Fugro Airborne Surveys Corp. completed 295 line-kilometres of airborne survey on the Carruthers Pass property on behalf of operators MaxTech Ventures Inc. and Wildrose Resources Ltd.

In 2005, Wildrose Resources Ltd. and MaxTech Ventures Inc. drilled 405 metres in four diamond-drill holes, targeting several prominent geophysical/geochemical targets. Due to marginal drill results from the 2005 exploration program, Wildrose Resources and MaxTech agreed to terminate their joint venture agreement.

In 2006, Hawthorne Gold Corp. conducted geological mapping, prospecting and soil sampling in an attempt to locate massive sulphide mineralization in areas untested by drilling. Prospecting identified massive sulphide material topographically above a large, massive sulphide boulder, suggesting a local mineralized source yielding values of up to 2.35 per cent copper, 4.32 per cent zinc and 80.4 grams per tonne silver (Sample 140GG031; Assessment Report 28781).

In 2011, La Quinta Resources Corp. optioned the property and drilled four diamond-drill holes totalling 792.1 metres. In hole Car 11-13, drilling intersected chalcopyrite, pyrite and pyrrhotite as veinlets and disseminations in mixed volcanics and siltstone grading up to 4824 parts per million copper, 7017 parts per million zinc and 4482 parts per million silver. Drilling also tested whether a large rock representing the Boulder zone was in situ. Although results indicated to the contrary, the rock contained a 3.4-metre intercept of massive sulphide grading 5.4 per cent copper, 4.9 per cent zinc, 163 grams per tonne silver and 2.09 grams per tonne gold, indicating a prospective nearby source (Assessment Report 33312).

Also in 2011, La Quinta Resources completed a surface and borehole induced polarization survey, identifying several strong chargeability highs, some of which are associated with low resistivity areas (Assessment Report 32693).