The Matnik occurrence is located on the south side of an east-facing valley of an east to southeast-flowing tributary of the Racing River and approximately 3 kilometres northwest of the former Magnum (MINFILE 094K 003) mine mill site.

The occurrence is in a region known as the Muskwa Anticlinorium, a major north-northwest–trending structure characterized by moderate folding and thrust faulting. The structure consists of Middle Proterozoic (Helikian) rocks of the Muskwa Assemblage, as well as 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 1713A).

The area is underlain by quartzites and quartz-flooded dolomites and siltstones of the Mesoproterozoic Tuchodi Formation, which have been cut by diabase dikes.

Locally, a 1-metre-wide quartz-carbonate vein hosting massive chalcocite, bornite, malachite and hematite is emplaced along the eastern margin of a north-south–trending gabbroic dike cutting well-bedded, silicified dolomitic siltstones. The vein has been traced for 60 metres along a strike of 195 degrees with a dip of 80 degrees. Subparallel faults and shears have caused minor offsets to the vein in a number of locations. An east-west fault along the valley bottom is inferred to have truncated the main mineralized structure to the north, whereas the structure extends under the Paleozoic unconformity to the south. Other weakly mineralized quartz-carbonate veins are reported several hundred metres west of the main Matnik vein.

In 2005, a chip sample (B374263) of the surface high-grade vein assayed 41.3 per cent copper and 19.2 grams per tonne silver over 1.72 metres; however, diamond drilling failed to yield significant results with the best intersection yielding 0.49 per cent copper over 1.45 metres in hole M05-01 (Assessment Report 28281).

Work History

In 1966, Racing River Mines Ltd. completed a program of geological mapping and a ground electromagnetic survey on the area as the Billy, Kid, Nanny and Sam claims.

In 2005, Twenty-Seven Capital Corp. completed a regionally extensive program of geochemical (rock, silt and soil) sampling, 12 diamond drill holes, totalling 421.0 metres, and a 9002.0 line-kilometre airborne magnetic survey on the area as the Muskwa property.

Also in 2005, Action Minerals Inc. and Aries Resource Corp. completed a program of prospecting on the area as the Goat claims of the Trident Copper project.