The Eholt property includes the Princess Louise (Lot 1124), Delamar (Lot 1346) and Orient (Lot 1438), Rambler (Lot 792S), Colorado Boy (Lot 781S), Livingstone (Lot 1563) and Bell Flower (Lot 3151) reverted Crown grants, located in the headwater area between the west flowing Eholt Creek and east flowing Brown and Pass creeks, 11 kilometre northeast of Greenwood and 16 kilometre northwest of Grand Forks. Access to the property is from several logging roads and the abandoned Kettle Valley Railway from the settlement of Eholt located just north of Highway 3.
The Eholt property is underlain by moderately deformed Paleozoic and Mesozoic volcanic and sedimentary rocks and somewhat tilted but relatively fresh Tertiary beds. The rocks are cut by a few granodiorite/diorite offshoots of the Wallace Creek pluton (Jurassic/Cretaceous) and numerous small syenite and monzodiorite bodies related to the nearby Coryell batholith (Eocene).
The oldest beds occur on the west side of the property and belong to the Knob Hill Group (Devonian to Permo-Carboniferous?). The rocks consists of quartzite (metachert), phyllite, schist and amphibolite. The amphibolites are aphanitic to very fine grained, dark green rocks which generally are massive but locally display some schistosity and gneissic foliation. The æquartzitesÆ are white to buff and dark grey, rusty weathering rocks with blocky fractures aligned with bedding. Transitional zones of interbedded quartzite and amphibolite contain lenses of crystalline limestone and marble. The formations of the Knob Hill Group generally trend northwest but swing west near Eholt, dipping at moderate angles to the north. No evidence has been found suggesting repetition of the stratigraphy by folding or faulting. Minor open and tight folds plunge at low to moderate angles to the north and northwest. Tertiary faults trend north and northeast, offsetting the formations in the Boldue and South Pass creeks area.
The Eholt property is bisected by a narrow finger of Brooklyn rocks (Triassic) that extends north from the Oro Denoro (082ESE063) and Emma (082ESE062) mines. The basal formation of the Brooklyn Group is sharpstone conglomerate, that is well exposed west of the Emma mine and on the railway grade south of Eholt. South of Eholt, the unit is buff to grey weathered and consists of angular fragments of light coloured chert, quartz, jasper volcanic rocks and rarely limestone. The clasts are mainly less than 3 centimetres across and are set in a dark grey siliceous matrix containing metamorphic biotite and amphibole. Bedding is rarely visible but at a few localities the strike is to the north and the dip is nearly vertical.
Northeast of Eholt, the sharpstone conglomerate is found only in one rock cut on the old Jewel Lake road. It is east (and south) of a single outcrop of siliceous argillite/chert (Knob Hill Group) and beneath a bluff of marble to the east. While the evidence is minimal, the sequence and position of these outcrops is distinctive enough to be reasonably sure that the Brooklyn Group continues northward to the head of South Pass Creek.
The Brooklyn limestone that overlies the sharpstone conglomerate in the Eholt area is normally massive, light grey to white, fine to medium grained. Locally the unit is grey and well banded and on the bluffs north of Eholt it is white, coarsely crystalline, siliceous marble containing well cleaved blades of a white silicate (tremolite or wollastonite). No limestone is exposed on Eholt Ridge, north of Eholt settlement, but the sharpstone conglomerate has a calcareous matrix in this area.
A volcanic complex (the Eholt formation) consisting of greenstone and/or microdiorite lies above the Brooklyn limestone on Eholt Mountain. These rocks are generally fine-grained and massive although plagioclase and amphibole microlites are commonly seen with a hand lens. Weathered surfaces are often mottled and fragmental facies can be distinguished in some places. A prominent fragmental facies is well exposed on the open slopes of Eholt Mountain where it forms a northwesterly-trending, steeply dipping layer as much as 100 metres thick, grading laterally into massive greenstone. The unit contains subangular fragments of greenstone up to 10 centimetres across in a matrix of the same rock with a crushed appearance. A second conspicuous facies is a volcanic breccia with both rounded and angular fragments of porphyritic greenstone clasts mixed locally with limestone clasts 5-10 centimetres across. The western contact of these greenstone formations with the Brooklyn limestone appears to be partly transgressive and partly intrusive.
Easterly dipping beds of the Thimble Mountain Tertiary basin occur on the east side of the Eholt property. These rocks comprise the Penticton Group (Eocene) that consists of Kettle River 'arkose' at the base and a variety of Marron lavas above. The Kettle River beds are well exposed near Wilgress Lake and on the north part of the property. The arkose is a light buff and light grey sandstone and conglomerate composed of poorly cemented subangular fragments of rhyolite, feldspar and quartz in a fine grained clay/quartz matrix. These rocks are disconformably overlain by a large thickness of lavas and volcaniclastics and cut by feeder dikes, sills and stocks - some of which appear to be related to the Coryell batholith.
Two types of mineralization occur on the Eholt property. These are (1) massive sulphide and/or magnetite replacements within or associated with skarn occurrences, and (2) sulphide stringers and disseminations within the metavolcanics and sharpstone conglomerate beds. The principal deposits are the massive sulphide skarn occurrences. These are the 'Dead Honda' showing on the Orient claim (Rambler area), the 'Eholt Mountain' (Pt. Eholt) showing on the Delamar claim, and the Brown Creek showing on the Princess Louise claim. Shallow workings at these localities expose garnet (+/- epidote, pyroxene) replacements in the Brooklyn limestone/volcanic rocks, containing pyrrhotite, pyrite, magnetite and chalcopyrite in varying ratios and abundance. The Dead Honda zone trends east-west.
Skarn is crosscut by light-blue coloured chalcedony +/- jasper veins which may be related to the younger Tertiary extensional (graben) event and/or intrusion of the Middle Eocene Coryell Intrusions.
Disseminated pyrrhotite, up to 2 per cent, occurs in tremolite altered Brooklyn sharpstone conglomerate on the southwest slopes of Eholt Mountain. Also, disseminated pyrite in concentrations up to 3 per cent, with traces of gold and copper, is common in fragmental metavolcanic rocks in the area south and east of Eholt Mountain.
Subsequent igneous intrusions, including numerous Tertiary feeder dikes and sills, emplaced on an intricate fault and fissure system, may have afforded the development of contact metamorphism and the skarn mineralization, although causative evidence such as intrusive contacts are not readily apparent.
Recent work describes the Dead Honda zone, located on the Orient Crown grant, as multiple, parallel zones of garnet-pyroxene (+/- epidote, chlorite, actinolite) skarn occur within calcareous lithologies of the Brooklyn Formation. In general, the skarn occurs along the contact between Brooklyn limestone and overlying greenstone and volcanic breccia although in many places alteration is so intense that the protolith is unrecognizable. Sulfide mineralization in the skarn consists of disseminated, patchy and semi-massive pyrrhotite, pyrite and chalcopyrite. Magnetite also occurs locally, as semi-massive zones, with or without pyrite. The mineralization is interpreted to trend at approximately 310 to 320 degrees and dips 50 degrees north east. Drilling has shown that, at depth, the skarn is cut by abundant syenite dikes and sills.
Approximately 500 meters north-northwest of the Dead Honda zone garnet-pyroxene skarn alteration is reported on a prominent knoll, referred to as the Oregon occurrence, which may represent the on-strike continuation of the Dead Honda zone.
The Eholt Mountain occurrence is situated approximately 750 meters east-southeast of the Dead Honda zone, near the southern end of Eholt Mountain, on the former Delamar crown grant (L. 1346). The Eholt Mountain is underlain by a thick sequence of Triassic Brooklyn greenstone and fine to coarse volcanic breccia, with interbedded calcareous volcaniclastics and limestone. Calcareous lithologies are altered to pyroxene +/- garnet, epidote, tremolite, chlorite skarn, with local zones of massive to semi-massive pyrrhotite and pyrite. Mineralization at the Eholt Mountain showing is poorly exposed in several historic exploration pits. The area is complexly faulted and intruded by numerous Eocene (and older?) dykes and sills.
The Princess Louise occurrence is located north of the railgrade near Eholt and approximately 900 meters south of the Eholt Mountain occurrence and comprises several old pits immediately adjacent to the Brown Creek road and several pits and shafts in a recently logged area a few hundred meters to the north. Skarn altered Brooklyn limestone is exposed in the old workings. Argillic altered Eocene syenite with millimeter-scale quartz and chalcedony veins is seen on the dump of one of the workings and epithermal-style quartz veining and quartz breccia occurs in limestone float nearby.
The Rambler occurrence is located approximately 1.3 kilometers north-northwest of the Dead Honda occurrence and comprises two water filled shafts and several old pits exposing a zone of disseminated and massive pyrite, pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite, within a broad zone of siliceous, hornfelsed and epidote-chlorite (+/- garnet) skarn altered greenstone of either the Knob Hill Complex or Brooklyn Formation.
The Ellmo occurrence is located approximately 1 kilometer north west of the Rambler occurrence on the former Ellmo claim (L. 2728) Crown grant and comprises an old adit and several hand dug trenches exposing a 3 to 4-meter wide mineralized shear zone.
The A zone occurrence is located south of South Pass Creek and approximately 1.3 kilometers east of the Rambler occurrence and comprises rusty, brecciated, pyritic, bleached and argillic altered fine grained volcanics and sediments are exposed in sub-crop along an old logging road. The zone of alteration and mineralization occurs on or near the surface trace of the Thimble Mountain fault.
The Bellflower occurrence is located just west of Bolduc Lake on the Bell Flower (L.3151) Crown grant and comprises weakly epidote altered, iron-stained siliceous Knob Hill greenstone, with disseminated and minor local poddy pyrrhotite, pyrite, magnetite and chalcopyrite. Several narrow quartz veins also occur within the greenstone.
Work History
Although the Eholt property contains numerous old pits, shallow shafts, trenches and short adit on old Crown granted claims, there is little reference in government publications to the early work which was probably done during the first decade after 1900 or just before this time. The earliest written record of activity on the property is in 1909 when the Princess Louise claim, adjacent to the settlement of Eholt, was Crown granted to Samuel McOrmond. Assessment reports indicate that geophysical and geochemical work was done by Granby Mining Company between 1959 and 1966, west of the Eholt property near Boldue Lake. In the same period Rayore Mines Ltd. did geophysical work at the head of South Pass Creek near the Orient claim. In 1980, an assessment was made and one hole drilled for Geokor Energy Holdings Ltd. north of the settlement of Eholt. The hole encountered 10.16 metres of pyrrhotite mineralization but no significant copper, gold or silver as previously reported. The drill hole was on a north-south alignment of old workings that consisted of 6 shallow shafts and 5 short trenches at an elevation of 1113 metres. All of the trenches were caved and several of the shafts contained water; the deepest shaft was about 3.6 metres.
Recent documented exploration on the Eholt property was conducted by Kettle River Resources Ltd. from 1982 to 1984, and Golden Kootenay Resources Inc. during the period May 1987 to January 1989. The work by Kettle River Resources Ltd. was mainly geological mapping. The investigation of Golden Kootenay included grid cutting, soil geochemistry and diamond drilling (3 holes). VLF-EM was run over the grid, and a magnetometer survey was done on part of this area. A grab sample from a shaft dump (Dead Honda showing) assayed 0.53 per cent copper, 10.3 grams per tonne silver and 19.5 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 17488). Diamond drilling in 1988 yielded a 4.8-metre interval grading 0.14 per cent copper and 1.47 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 21080).
During the period October 1991 to March 1992, Orvana Minerals Corp. re-established the old grid and installed a new grid over which a ground magnetometer survey was run. Results of this program demonstrated significant magnetic relief over the surveyed area and demonstrated the potential presence of skarn deposits. A dump grab sample from old workings on the Elmo zone yielded 9.7 grams per tonne gold and 12.3 grams per tonne silver (Caron, L. (2010-07-09): National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report on the Eholt Property).
In 1993, a drill hole on the Ellmo zone yielded 2.2 per cent copper, 2.2 grams per tonne gold and 40.3 grams per tonne silver over 2.8 metres (Caron, L. (2010-07-09): National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report on the Eholt Property).
In 1995, Orvana Minerals Corp. completed 3100 metres of diamond drilling on the Dead Honda showing and on the east flank of Eholt Mountain. At Dead Honda, 7 holes tested a northerly elongated belt 1.5 kilometres long by 200 to 300 metres wide. The drilling intersected a 210-metre long sulphide-bearing garnet-pyroxene skarn zone intruded by numerous Coryell related dikes. DDH E-95-4 returned a 27.8-metre interval of core grading 2.7 grams per tonne gold and 0.28 per cent copper; and DDH E-95-6 returned a 5.5-metre interval grading 5.1 grams per tonne gold, in addition to copper credits (George Cross Newsletter, Jan. 15, 1996). Drilling on the Rambler occurrence yielded up to 4.82 grams per tonne gold, 24.5 grams per tonne silver and 0.96 per cent copper over 3.0 metres in hole R95-2, while a channel sample of outcrop adjacent to the shaft assayed 2.6 per cent copper and 4.0 grams per tonne gold over 4.5 metres (Caron, L. (2010-07-09): National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report on the Eholt Property). Also at this time, drilling on the Eholt Mountain occurrence yielded 0.19 per cent copper and 0.204 gram per tonne gold over 15.4 metres (Caron, L. (2010-07-09): National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report on the Eholt Property).
In 1996 Orvana Minerals Corp. and Teck Corp. entered into a 40/60 joint venture to further explore skarn discoveries. In 1996, Teck Corporation, under a joint venture agreement with Orvana Minerals Corp., drilled 12 holes totalling about 1930 metres in an area between the Dead Honda showing and northwest of the Rambler showing (old shafts).
In 1997, Teck completed a program of trenching of a moderate to strong, north west-trending copper soil anomaly with weak, spotty anomalous gold, northwest of the Rambler shaft yielded up to 0.44 gram per tonne gold, 5.4 grams per tonne silver and 0.16 per cent copper over 7.5 metres, while four samples collected over 3 metres from trenches on the Ellmo zone yielded from 0.9 to 9.67 grams per tonne gold (Caron, L. (2010-07-09): National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report on the Eholt Property).
In 2006, 12221998 Alberta Ltd. optioned the property from J.W. Carson and completed a program of prospecting, rock sampling, geological mapping, soil sampling and airborne geophysics. Sampling returned up to: 6.05 grams per tonne gold, 36.3 parts per million silver, 1.07 per cent copper and 3027 parts per million zinc from the Princess Louise showing; 11.30 grams per tonne gold, 67.9 parts per million silver, 3.65 per cent copper and 308 parts per million zinc from the Seattle showing and 6.05 grams per tonne gold, 36.3 parts per million silver, 1.77 per cent copper and 49 parts per million zinc from the Dead Honda showing (Assessment Report 28787). Also In 2006, samples from the A zone yielded up to 3.82 grams per tonne gold, while a select grab sample from the Bellflower occurrence yielded 0.35 per cent copper and 3.62 grams per tonne gold (Caron, L. (2010-07-09): National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report on the Eholt Property).
In 2007, the property was optioned by Knob Hill Silver Inc. and a program of soil geochemistry and trenching was completed. Trenching on the showing returned 5.3 grams per tonne gold and 0.21 per cent copper over 10.25 metres (Assessment Report 29702).
In 2010, Knob Hill Silver Inc. was acquired by Range Capital Corp. and later changed their name to Open Gold Corp.
In 2011, Open Gold Corp. completed 1795.94 metres of diamond drilling at the Eholt property. Highlights include drillhole EH 11-07, which returned 18.9 metres grading 1.27 grams per tonne gold, 0.8 per cent copper and 4.35 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 33121).
