The Del property is underlain by a northwest trending thrust panel of Cambrian to Devonian stratigraphy. Oldest to youngest, the rocks are limestone and phyllite of the Cambrian to Ordovician Kechika Group, overlain by shale, silty limestone, siltstone and dolomite of the Ordovician to Devonian Road River Group, which are in turn, overlain by siliceous shale and mudstone of the Devonian to Mississippian Earn Group. A horizon of bedded barite (the West zone) occurs within Upper Devonian shales of the lower Earn Group (Gunsteel Formation).

Two shale-barite horizons, Main (Del East (094F 026)) and West Horizons (Del (094F 018)), occur. The easternmost or Main Horizon is hosted by black shale of the Road River Group and contains the Main Barite Kill Zone. The West Horizon is hosted by black shale of the Earn Group and is characterized by the West Barite Kill Zone.

The West Horizon has a 500-metre strike extent and exhibits a very localized lead in soil anomaly from previous work. The West Barite Kill Zone of the Del showing has more distal characteristics (nodular to laminar barite) as compared to the more massive barite in the Main Kill Zone of the Del East showing.

Work History

The Del barite showing was originally staked in 1980 by Cominco who conducted geological mapping and silt, rock and grid soil sampling, from 1981-1985 (Assessment Reports 9672, 11557, 14177). Two baritic horizons were delineated in the property area. The easternmost, Del East (or Main Barite Horizon), is the most extensive with coincident lead, zinc silver anomalies. In 1985, rock samples (4-6B and 4-8A) from the West Barite Kill Zone yielded up to 0.02 per cent lead, 0.09 per cent zinc and 23.53 per cent barium (Assessment Report 14177).

In 1994, a total of 21-man days were spent on the DEL property of Teck Corporation. Work consisted of a 7.7-line-kilometre soil survey and detailed 1:2000 scale mapping with concurrent rock sampling along the Main shale-barite horizon (Del East). The 1994 soil survey yielded values up to 0.82 per cent lead, 0.65 per cent zinc and 7.2 grams per tonne silver; Maximum values obtained from rock were 0.2 per cent zinc and 0.05 per cent lead (Assessment Report 23676). The western barite-shale horizon, hosted by shale of the Earn Group, is represented by the West Barite Kill Zone (Del (094F 018). The barite, here, is more distal in character than in the Main Barite Kill Zone (at the Del East (Main and is limited in extent. No further work was recommended for the Main Horizon due to size restrictions posed by a shallow synformal closure.

Megastar Development Corp acquired its interest in the area in 2006 upon entering into an option agreement with 747080 B.C. Ltd. whereby it acquired an interest in 38 mineral claims comprising over 18,000 hectares. At the time, widely-spaced samples taken from the rocks of both the Gunsteel and Road River terrains detected weak lead and zinc mineralization in one of the sampled areas and generally low-to-background values elsewhere (Assessment Report 28995). The highest values were obtained from the central part of Claim 522602, which contained both the Del (MINFILE 094F 018) and Del East (MINFILE 094F 026) occurrences and yielded up to 0.287 per cent zinc and 0.213 per cent lead (Assessment Report 28995).

In 2007, Rio Grande Mining Corp. conducted a program of geochemical sampling, gravity geophysical surveys, prospecting and geological mapping on the area as part of the Kechika property. The following year, Rio Grande completed an airborne magnetic survey on the area.

See Del East (MINFILE 094F 026) for details of that nearby zone.