The Saunders Southwest showing is located approximately 6 kilometres east-southeast of the Lawyers mine (094E 066), some 280 kilometres north of Smithers. It lies within the Omineca-Cassiar Mountains at the southern end of the Toodoggone gold camp. The occurrence is situated within a Mesozoic volcanic arc assemblage which lies along the eastern margin of the Intermontane Belt, a northwest-trending belt of Paleozoic to Tertiary sediments, volcanics and intrusions bounded to the east by the Omineca Belt and to the west and southwest by the Sustut and Bowser basins.

Permian Asitka Group crystalline limestones are the oldest rocks exposed in the region. They are commonly in thrust contact with Upper Triassic Takla Group andesite flows and pyroclastic rocks. These Takla rocks have been intruded by plutons and other bodies of the mainly granodiorite to quartz monzonite Early Jurassic Black Lake Suite and are in turn unconformably overlain by or faulted against Lower Jurassic calcalkaline volcanics of the Toodoggone Formation, Hazelton Group.

The dominant structures in the area are steeply dipping faults which define a prominent regional northwest structural fabric trending 140 to 170 degrees. In turn, high angle northeast-striking faults (approximately 060 degrees) appear to truncate and displace northwest-striking faults. Collectively these faults form a boundary for variably rotated and tilted blocks underlain by monoclinal strata.

The Saunders Southwest showing is underlain by a succession of lower to middle subaerial volcanics and associated volcaniclastic sediments of the upper volcanic cycle of the Toodoggone Formation. Lithologies underlying the Saunders Southwest showing consist predominantly of partly welded, crystal-rich dacitic ash flows of the Saunders Member. To the north and east, Toodoggone Formation volcanics are composed of latite lava flows with interflow lahar and mixed epiclastic and pyroclastic rocks of the Metsantan Member. The dominant lithologies southeast of the showing are delineated into two informal units. The first unit consists of pyroxene-biotite- hornblende porphyry flows with interbedded breccias and lapilli tuffs. The other unit consists of well-bedded lapilli, crystal and ash tuffs with interbedded sandstone and siltstone. The area is also disrupted by a conjugate set of northwest and northeast-striking faults that appear to have substantial displacement.

The Saunders Southwest showing consists of a weakly pyritic (up to 5 per cent) and silicified quartz-calcite breccia zone, 1 to 2 metres wide. Weak argillic alteration, consisting of limonite, is associated with the zone. The zone has the same orientation as the Saunders Main vein (094E 017), and may possibly represent the southern extension of, or a subparallel en echelon-oriented zone to the Saunders vein system.

In 1981, a sample (DN-6) from a 1.5-metre-wide zone of narrow, up to 6-centimetre wide, quartz stringers and veinlets with pyrite, striking 123 to 133 degrees and located along the ridge approximately 450 metre southeast of the Saunders Southwest occurrence, yielded 0.73 gram per tonne gold and 4.6 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 10349).

Sample BT-S-8 from this breccia zone assayed 0.108 gram per tonne gold and 10.4 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 14487). Sample DD-S-14 from this zone contained an unidentified black sulphide.

In 2004, a sample from the Saunders Southwest occurrence area assayed 0.108 gram per tonne gold and 24.0 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 27760).

Work History

In 2003, Stealth Minerals staked the SWAN claims. During the same year field crews completed a program of prospecting, stream geochemical sampling, and, in participation with the Geological Survey of Canada/Private Partnership Toodoggone Initiative, completed a helicopter airborne magnetic and radiometric survey. The survey recorded 2 magnetic parameters and eight gamma-ray spectrometer parameters flown at a line spacing of 400 metres and a sensor height of 60 metres over the entire property including the Saunders Southwest showing (Assessment Report 27442).

In 2004, a rock chip geochemical traverse was completed along the ridge to the west of the Saunders Showing. The traverse was extended north-easterly along the ridge to the Saunders Northwest Showing. The main objectives of this traverse were to determine if any geochemical signatures for potential mineralized zone could be identified along the ridge from the Saunders Southwest to the Saunders Northwest showings. Samples were collected at 20 metres intervals along the traverse line. Additionally, one short line of soil sampling was completed across the projected southerly extension of the Main Saunders showing. The sample line is approximately 100 metres south of the showing.

Refer to Saunders (094E 017) for complete details of the Saunders/Swan property work history.