The Silver Reef showing is located approximately 1 kilometre southeast of the former Shasta mine (094E 050), some 280 kilometres north of Smithers.

The occurrence lies within the Omineca-Cassiar mountains at the southern end of the Toodoggone gold camp. The Silver Reef showing 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 Silver Reef showing is underlain by the Attycelley and overlying Saunders members of the Toodoggone Formation volcanics. The Attycelley Member (a pyroclastic series) unconformably overlies pyroxene feldspar phyric basalt flows and breccias of the Takla Group. To the north of the Silver Reef showing, the Attycelley Member consists of dacitic feldspar quartz crystal tuffs, chloritic and heterolithic lapilli tuffs, and an underlying feldspar-quartz- biotite porphyry flow. These units all contain characteristic orange-weathering plagioclase feldspars. The Saunders Member (an epivolcaniclastic series) consists of green to maroon feldspar phyric tuffs, heterolithic agglomerates, lahars and ash tuffs.

Locally the volcanic rocks of the Toodoggone Formation are feldspathized and silicified in quartz vein and brecciated vein stockwork zones. These zones weather a distinctive pink-white and are frequently accompanied by limonite and jarosite staining. Composition of these veins is 30 to 70 per cent feldspar in a dark green matrix containing small vitreous quartz crystals and finely disseminated pyrite. Brecciated zones within veins contain elongate drusy cavities 2 to 10 millimetres wide. Manganese oxide staining is common on quartz crystals. Extensive silicification is common in country rocks adjacent to breccia zones.

The Silver Reef showing is immediately west of a major thrust fault between structurally overlying Takla Group volcanics and the underlying Toodoggone volcanics. The showing consists of portions of a quartz vein stockwork, traced east-southeastward from the former Shasta mine (094E 050), and several small silicified zones 450 and 700 metres to the east, and 1300 metres to the northeast.

The main exposure, in a steep bluff on trend with the Shasta mine, strikes approximately 300 degrees with an easterly dip of 50 to 90 degrees. Here the altered zone is 1 to 3 metres wide, consisting mainly of silicified stockwork bands in unaltered fresh volcanics. Mineralization is minimal in veins from this zone and samples assayed negligible precious and base metals. Sample 32130 yielded the highest precious metals values; 1.028 grams per tonne silver and 0.27 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 9886).

Two distinct zones occur 450 and 700 metres east of the main zone respectively. These zones trend northwestward and dip steeply northeast. One band was traced in felsenmeer for about 100 metres along strike. Variable amounts of pyrite (up to 15 per cent) occur in veins and jarosite alteration is common. Four small trenches were blasted to uncover fresh vein material. Assay results from these trenches were up to 0.04 per cent lead, 0.02 per cent zinc, 0.686 gram per tonne silver and 0.343 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 9886).

Silicification in the northeast zone is limited. Vein material assayed only trace amounts of base and precious metals (Assessment Report 9886). Assay results from soil samples at this zone indicated strong lead, zinc, silver and gold anomalies, suggesting the possibility of mineralized vein material nearby (Assessment Report 9886).

In 2015, sampling across the valley to the south of the Silver Reef occurrence yielded values of up to 0.54 gram per tonne gold and 5.0 grams per tonne silver from a zone of quartz stockwork associated with the Shasta fault (Sample 150530-2; Assessment Report 35687).

Work History

The area was originally staked in 1980 as the Silver Reef claims and a program of prospecting was completed later that year. The following year, Granada Exploration Corp. completed a program of geological mapping and geochemical (rock and soil) sampling on the area.

The area has been explored in conjunction with the nearby Shasta (MINFILE 094E 050) occurrence.