The Pilot occurrence is located in the southern headwaters of Winnifred Creek, approximately 4.75 kilometres northeast of Lightning Peak.
The area is underlain by greenstone of the Devonian-Triassic Harper Ranch Group, which is intruded and hosted by granodiorite and diorite of an unnamed Middle Jurassic intrusion. The showing is located near the contact between the Harper Ranch Group and the intrusive. Quartz porphyry dikes cut through the area. A basaltic dike, measuring approximately 1 metre wide, strikes northeast.
Locally, disseminated and thin fracture fillings of pyrite, pyrrhotite, and minor chalcopyrite occur in greenstone. Molybdenite is reported at one location.
In 1982, a grab sample assayed 5.1 grams per tonne silver, 0.01 per cent copper, 0.04 per cent lead and 0.01 per cent zinc (Assessment Report 11247).
The Pilot occurrence was originally staked as the Pilot and Uta claims in 1930 by N. Melstrom and A. Scaia. Trenches on the property are believed to date from the 1930s; however, no records of this work exist.
In 1967, Mastodon-Highland Bell Mines prospected and sampled the area. This work identified a small lens of pyrite, located approximately 700 metres to the east, which assayed 10.3 grams per tonne gold and 930.2 grams per tonne silver (Property File - J.C. Stephen [1967-10-20]: Report - Lightning Peak Area - Mastodon Highland Bell Mines Ltd.). The lens was reportedly removed by stripping.
In 1968 and 1969, International Mine Services Ltd. carried out some geological mapping and soil sampling for the Great Horn Mining Syndicate. The Pilot occurrence was covered by the Peak 157 claim during this period, although no work was recorded in the Pilot area.
In 1981, Mohawk Oil Co. Ltd. staked the general area as the L.P. claim group; the Pilot occurrence was covered by the L.P. 3 claim. Mohawk carried out regional prospecting and stream sediment sampling in 1981, followed by more detailed work in 1982. The L.P. 3 claim was covered by a program of geological mapping, soil sampling (646 samples) and geophysics (VLF-EM and magnetometer surveys). Prospecting of the old trenches in the vicinity of the Pilot occurrence failed to locate any significant mineralization. The soil sampling program found that most anomalies were related to the intrusive rocks and that a crude zonation of anomalies was suggested. Copper anomalies form a core zone surrounded by a molybdenum anomaly on the northwest, north and east. The molybdenum anomaly is overlain and surrounded by anomalous lead, zinc and silver soil geochemistry. Areas of propylitic, argillic and potassic alteration have also been mapped. The geophysics program identified many anomalies, some of which coincide with the geochemical anomalies, but no clear pattern emerged.
In 1989, Annax Ventures examined the area as the Xen 2 claim. In 1992, Zalmac Mines completed a program of geological mapping, soil and rock sampling, surveying and aerial photograph studies on the area as the Big Z claims.
