The Papex showing is located at an old abandoned adit, at the headwaters of Loak Creek, 3.25 kilometres southeast of Apex Mountain and 9.5 kilometres north-northwest of Olalla, British Columbia.
The Papex showing has been explored by Apex Exploration and Mining Co. Ltd. in 1979 and 1980 in the vicinity of an old short adit. The adit probably dates back to the early 1900s.
The regional geology of the area consists of a series of Carboniferous to Triassic volcanic and sedimentary rocks that have been intruded by granitic Okanagan intrusions. Larger intrusions are composed of granite and granodiorite, while smaller stocks are composed of diorite and gabbro. Numerous sills, dikes and apophyses are associated. Carboniferous to Triassic rocks are assigned to the Shoemaker and Old Tom formations. These rocks form the eastern limb of a large anticlinal fold with fold axes striking roughly north. The Shoemaker consists of cherts, greenstone and minor argillite. The cherts of the Shoemaker Formation are commonly lighter coloured (buff, pink, grey, grey-green) and commonly show a saccharoidal texture. The overlying Upper Triassic Independence Formation consists of interbedded, dark grey to black chert (commonly rusty or red stained), chert breccia, and siliceous greenstone containing disseminated pyrite and pyrrhotite or pyrite and arsenopyrite.
At the Papex showing, the Shoemaker Formation is composed of dark grey, sillimanite hornfels. In thin section, this rock is composed of sillimanite-rich aggregates that enclose or are interbanded with quartz-feldspar masses. The sillimanite is associated with cordierite, orthoclase, uralite, quartz, hematite and a few grains of forsterite and some apatite. The sillimanite hornfels has been replaced by silica so that the present rock is composed of embayed and serrated inclusions of hornfels in a mosaic of anhedral secondary quartz. Pyrite commonly occurs as fracture fillings and chalcopyrite is scarce. Magnetite is locally present.
The Old Tom Formation consists of propylitically altered, dark grey to green, fine grained, massive greenstone (andesite?) with an amygdaloidal texture. In thin section the matrix consists of epidote, zoisite and fibrous amphibole with some minor quartz and albite. Amygdules are commonly composed of optically positive, non-fibrous zeolite. In places the matrix has been partially replaced by quartz. The greenstone carries pyrite and in places appreciable chalcopyrite. Magnetite is generally absent. White, fine grained, crystalline limestone with sporadic dark patches is locally present within the greenstone at the Kopr showing (082ESW050). Skarn is also associated with greenstone at the Papex and Kopr showings. Brown garnet, calcite, quartz and akermanite with pyrite and chalcopyrite comprise skarn mineralization at the Papex showing.
Syenite forms the hangingwall of a fault striking 260 degrees, at its eastern exposure. Hornblende monzonite occurs in the footwall. Saussurite and uralite alteration are equally developed in these intrusions.
A short adit was driven along the hangingwall of a fault striking 020 degrees and dipping 80 degrees southeast. Above the adit, the fault zone has been exposed over 24.38 to 30.48 metres width in two trenches, 36.58 metres horizontally and 30.48 metres in elevation apart. The hostrock is Shoemaker Formation hornfels and the fault is a subsidiary fault of a main fault striking 315 degrees and dipping 75 to 80 degrees northwest. The adit has exposed silicified greenstone of the Old Tom Formation and skarn mineralized with pyrite and chalcopyrite over 2.4 to 3.0 metres width. The west side of the skarn is bound by a fracture zone in silicified hornfels of the Shoemaker Formation. The fracture zone is 45 centimetres wide, striking 185 degrees and dipping 80 degrees west. The fracture zone contains magnetite, pyrite and chalcopyrite. The east side of the skarn is also bound by silicified hornfels. The main fault striking 020 degrees is well developed and contains blocks of greenstone.
Topper Gold Corp. and Grand National Resources Inc. drilled on the Nugget claims in 1998. See also Kero (082ESW209).
