The Black Wednesday occurrence comprises a copper-bearing quartz vein, on a cliff above a small tributary south of lower Bluff Creek, approximately 5 kilometres northeast of the Gataga River, 8 kilometres northwest of Split Top Mountain in the Muskwa Ranges of the Northern Rocky Mountains (Open File 1995-4, lithogeochemistry sample site 1).

The area, which is just northeast of the Northern Rocky Mountain Trench, is underlain by Cambrian to Devono-Mississippian sedimentary rock units that have been deformed into tight, northeast-overturned folds and imbricated by several thrust faults (Fieldwork 1994, Open File 1995-4; Geological Survey of Canada Maps 42-1962, 1712A, Paper 88-1E). The general strike is northwest, and the dominant dip is moderately to steeply southwest.

The Black Wednesdayoccurrence is in a narrow, thrust-bounded panel that is made up of an unnamed Middle to Upper Cambrian limestone unit and overlying shales, siltstones and calcareous rocks of the Cambro-Ordovician Kechika Group and the Ordovician to Lower Devonian Road River Group (Open File 1995-4). The mineralization is hosted in anastomosing quartz veins near the top of the Cambrian limestone (Fieldwork 1994, page 293). The limestone is grey, fine- to medium-grained, and strikes 120 degrees and dips 65 degrees southwest. The veins, which are approximately concordant with the bedding, have a composite thickness of 3 to 4 metres; individual veins are up to 1 metre thick. They have a strike length of at least 30 metres. Lenses or sheets of limestone between the veins commonly contain highly silicified rock, which may have been siliciclastic interbeds in the limestone.

Small amounts of chalcopyrite and chalcocite were noted in a few parts of the vein system. Weathered fracture surfaces in the quartz veins are coated with orange to red-brown iron oxides, and locally with extensive malachite and azurite. A select sample of the quartz vein with visible mineralization was analysed at 0.86 per cent copper (Open File 1995-4).

Work History

In 1978, Texasgulf Canada Ltd. completed a program of geological mapping and geochemical (rock, soil and silt) sampling on the area immediately northeast of the occurrence as the Red Bluff claims.

In 1981 and 1982, Noranda Mining and Exploration Inc. completed soil sampling programs on the area as the Heavy, Split, Top, Weight, New and Moon claims.

In 1990 and 1991, NDU Resources Ltd. completed programs of prospecting, geological mapping and geochemical (rock, silt and soil) sampling on the area immediately west as the Netson property.

In 2011 and 2012, BCarlin Resources Ltd. completed regionally extensive programs of geochemical (rock, silt and soil) sampling on the area as the Netson Lake property.