The Montana property is located 42 kilometres north of Rock Creek and 10 kilometres east-southeast of Beaverdell. The claims are between 800 and 1100 metres elevation, on the lower section of Canyon Creek and its tributary, Fourth of July Creek. Access to the centre of the property, and to the confluence of these streams, is west off Christian Valley Road for approximately 2 kilometres on the Canyon Creek road.
The area is located just west of a north-trending, east dipping normal fault that marks the western boundary of the Rock Creek graben. Host rocks to mineralization are mainly composed of altered mafic volcanic rocks, argillite and siltstone of the late Paleozoic Wallace Formation. Immediately to the north, a thin veneer of sandstone of the Eocene Kettle River Formation and alkalic volcanic rocks of the overlying Marron Formation, unconformably overlie the Wallace Formation. Numerous dikes, including felsic to intermediate Jurassic and Eocene granite and granodiorite, and Eocene feldspar porphyry and diabase, intrude the Wallace Formation.
The principal mineralization exposed in the original adit on the Montana property consists of irregularly distributed iron sulphides with traces of gold and silver, associated with quartz lenses in a sheared, fine- grained igneous rock within black shaley beds. The No.1 adit is located 87 metres north of Canyon Creek and explores a highly oxidized quartz vein that contains malachite, azurite, pyrite, galena and sphalerite. The vein is 0.3 to 0.5 metre wide and dips 70 degrees north east. In 1985, dump samples yielded up to 0.75 gram per tonne gold, 401 grams per tonne silver, 1.76 per cent lead and 5.62 per cent copper, while dump samples the following year yielded 21 grams per tonne gold, 107 grams per tonne silver , 0.44 per cent lead, up 0.35 per cent copper and 4.28 per cent zinc (Assessment Report 15173).
A second adit, located 25 metres to the north west, crosscuts a steeply dipping, sulphide-bearing, quartz-carbonate vein mineralized with pyrite and malachite. The vein is 0.8 metre wide and strikes north west. A grab sample from the vein returned 174 grams per tonne silver and 11.2 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 15173). A cut on the same vein, located just north west of the portal, assayed 2.03 per cent copper, 43 grams per tonne silver and 0.137 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 15173).
In 1989, sampling of a trench exposing a pyrite-arsenopyrite bearing siliceous shear zone with in volcanics or sub-volcanics of the Anarchist Group, described as being located on the plateau to the south of Canyon (Guttridge) Creek, yielded up to 15.8 grams per tonne gold, 4.0 grams per tonne silver and 0.317 per cent copper from grab samples, while a 1.0- metre chip sample (no. 18365) yielded 8.6 grams per tonne gold, 4.9 grams per tonne silver and 0.155 per cent copper (Property File - L. Lee [1989-11-01]: Summary Report - Barnato area).
This area has been explored intermittently since the first influx of prospectors in 1878. Surface programs consisting of panning, lode prospecting and trenching led to the discovery of silver, gold and copper in the region in 1896.
The property was first staked just prior to 1900 and consists of the Montana claim (Lot 2640) and a cluster of adjacent claims including Muldoon (Lot 2639) and Fourth of July (Lot 2638; MINFILE ) to the north, and the Colorado (Lot 2641) and Idaho (Lot 2642) claims to the west. In 1900, good showings of copper-gold mineralization were reported on the Montana, Colorado and Fourth of July claims and $2000 was expended during this year on development work. By 1901, on the Montana claim, an adit was driven easterly for 21 metres on a north-dipping shear zone, a small winze was sunk on this structure, and two open cuts were developed on parallel structures 30 metres to the south. The claims were Crown granted to A. Waddell and W.G. McMynn in 1903.
No known subsequent work was recorded on this property until 1985, when Sundance Gold Ltd. re-examined the old workings. This was followed in 1986 by a limited geological, geochemical and geophysical program completed by Agrel Resources Ltd. that targeted the showings on the Montana claim. From 1987 to 1990, Control Energy Corp. carried out an exploration program to gain access and to re-explore the old workings.
In 1994 and 1995, Phelps Corporation of Canada, Limited conducted programs of prospecting, geological mapping, soil sampling and diamond drilling on the area. In 1997, Emjay Enterprises Ltd. optioned the property from Phelps Dodge Corp. and carried out some geological mapping, sampling, and an induced polarization survey, and, in 1999, the work continued with additional mapping, soil geochemical programs and a ground magnetic survey. In 2000, a program of rock and soil sampling, geological mapping, trenching and a 9.4 line-kilometre ground electromagnetic survey was completed.
