The Hackla claim (L. 2847) is 14.5 kilometres east of Beaverdell and 48 km north of Rock Creek. It lies at the elevation of about 1265 meters, immediately west of the Barnato claim (L. 2848) (082ESE109) in the headwater area of Stewartson Creek on the east slope of Lake Ridge. The area has been extensively logged resulting in a network of four wheel drive roads. Access to the property is by logging roads from either the main Kettle Valley road to the east or from Beaverdell to the west.
The first work on the Hackla claim was reported in 1900, although surface programs consisting of prospecting and trenching led to the discovery of gold in the area in 1896. In 1917 it was observed that no work had been done in the area for some time and the workings had caved to some extent.
In 1938, Cominco completed an exploration program consisting of mapping, prospecting, test pitting and drilling. This showed that the veins on the property were erratic and diminished in thickness and grade with depth. During the period 1965 to 1966, Amcana Gold Mines conducted a program of road construction, claim surveying, trenching and diamond drilling (4 short holes) in the area of the main Barnato workings. In 1977, Camnor Resources Ltd. acquired the property from G. Bleiler. Subsequently, the company completed several programs consisting of ground and air geophysical surveys, soil and rock chip sampling, mapping, trenching and prospecting. Golden Seal Resources optioned the property in 1986 and received no encouraging results. Following this, limited soil and mapping programs were carried out by Camnor Resources Ltd. In 1989, Carmac Resources Ltd. completed a detailed chip sampling program on a shear zone near the northeast extremity of the Hackla claim and in the vicinity of two short adits on the contact zone between quartz diorite and andesite in the adjacent Barnato claim. The best results from the shear were a 40-centimetre width assaying 67 grams per tonne gold and 3.4 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 19524).
In 1994, Phelps Corporation of Canada, Limited conducted 40-line kilometres of soil sampling in the area. In 1997, Emjay Enterprises Ltd. optioned the property from Phelps Dodge Corp. and carried out some geological mapping, sampling, and an IP survey, and in 1999 the work continued with additional mapping, soil geochemical programs and a ground magnetic survey.
The Hackla claim is primarily underlain by quartz diorite related to the Jurassic Westkettle pluton (Nelson Intrusions) and Upper Paleozoic Westkettle volcanic and sedimentary rocks of the Anarchist Group. These rocks locally consist of fine grained andesitic tuffs and lava flows, chert and volcanic derived sedimentary rocks with some interbedded limestone trending northerly.
Mineralization consisting of pyrite, pyrrhotite, minor magnetite, arsenopyrite and chalcopyrite with some gold, occurs in quartz veins, fracture fillings and as disseminations within both the quartz diorite and volcanic rocks. The mineralization appears to be localized in part along the contact between the intrusive and surrounding country rocks.
The principal mineralization on the Hackla claim is exposed in an open cut in altered quartz diorite on the northern part of the claim. A lead 90 to 120 centimetres wide that contains massive pyrrhotite, pyrite, arsenopyrite and minor chalcopyrite is cut off by a porphyry dike. Mineralization within altered quartz diorite is locally massive and grades into silicified rock. There is no free gold discernible in hand specimens, but gold may be panned from many of the oxidized mineralized zones. Arsenopyrite and pyrrhotite were the earliest sulphides to form, and gold has, in some cases, proved to have been introduced at a later date together with pyrite (and sphalerite). This may well account for the erratic values obtained in sampling. Pyrite is younger than pyrrhotite and arsenopyrite and is seen locally to contain small cavities surrounded by a rim of pyrite with colloform texture. There has been little or no shearing, but rather light and irregular fracturing which has produced single or complex fissures or breccia zones. Commonly rock alteration is marked by sericitization in its weaker phases and by the production of kaolin (dickite), chlorite, actinolite and epidote in stronger phases. In stronger phases there is secondary quartz and, in the Barnato, veinlets of quartz and secondary microcline.
