The Red zinc occurrence is situated in the Chodi 6 claim, 9 kilometres east of the confluence of the Gataga and South Gataga rivers, in the mountainous Muskwa Ranges of the Northern Rocky Mountains (Assessment Report 9540, Plate 8). The subordinate Rock showing is a few hundred metres to the southeast.

The occurrence is on the western edge of the Muskwa Anticlinorium, a major regional structure characterized by thrust faulting and moderate folding. Exposed in the structure are Middle Proterozoic clastic and carbonate rocks of the Helikian Muskwa Assemblage, and unconformably overlying Cambrian and younger Paleozoic rocks (Geological Survey of Canada Map 1343A; Geological Society of America, Geology of North America, Volume G-2, pages 111, 639). All belong to Ancestral North America (Geological Survey of Canada Map 1343A).

Regional geological mapping would place the Red showing within the Gataga Formation of the Muskwa Assemblage, which is dominated by carbonaceous mudstone and siltstone (Geological Survey of Canada Map 1343A, Memoir 373). Property mapping, however, indicates that this and the nearby Gut (MINFILE 094K 016) and Goat (MINFILE 094K 056) showings occur near the contact between a Cambrian dolostone unit and an overlying unit of quartz sandstone, shale and argillite, and limestone (probably all Atan Group; Assessment Report 9540). Given the regional setting, though, this succession is perhaps more compatible with the contact between the Gataga Formation and dolomitic rocks of the underlying Aida Formation; this suggestion is tentative. Stromatolites and cryptalgal laminae are reported from the dolostone. The strata are gently to moderately folded, and strike approximately 320 degrees and dip 35 degrees southwest. Argillaceous rocks are well cleaved.

Mineralization is generally confined to the uppermost 10 metres of the dolostone and dolomitic breccia unit. It consists of pyrite and sphalerite. Fine-grained pyrite occurs in massive lenses up to 20 centimetres thick, and in vertical stockwork zones. Sphalerite, usually yellow or pale red-brown (indicating a high zinc/iron ratio), is much less abundant and occurs in dolostone as coarse-grained massive pods and lenses up to 2 centimetres across. Highly anomalous soils are present in the area, including values of up to 6 per cent zinc (Assessment Report 9540).

From the textures and the association of the sulphides with recrystallization in the dolostone, it has been proposed that the mineralization is a carbonate-hosted, replacement-type massive sulphide deposit (Assessment Report 9540).

In 1994, soil samples from the Red occurrence area yielded highly anomalous values from 623 to 32 415 parts per million zinc (Assessment Report 23566).

Work History

1981, Asarco Exploration Co. of Canada Ltd. completed a program of geological mapping, soil sampling and 20.3 line-kilometres of combined ground magnetic, electromagnetic and induced polarization surveys on the area as the Chodi property.

In 1994, Ecstall Mining Corp. completed a minor soil sampling program on the area as the Chodi claims.