The Tough Oaks occurrence is located on Broken Creek and consists of two principal showings; the Creek and Wheelbarrow. The occurrence is about 17.5 kilometres from Hedley, British Columbia.
Former work on the Tough Oaks property consists of trenching and blasting on various mineral showings. Umex carried out a geochemical soil survey over the Wheelbarrow showing. In 1980, Tricor Resources Ltd. carried out geophysical surveys. Diamond drilling was conducted in 1981.
Hostrocks of the Tough Oaks occurrence are limestone, quartzite and minor altered andesite tuff comprising a 1.62 by 6.5 kilometre roof pendant of Triassic Nicola Group. These are intruded by fine grained, biotite hornblende granite of the Jurassic Okanagan intrusions and to the south by a coarse grained, pink granite of the Middle Jurassic Nelson Plutonic Suite. The pink granite appears to be older than the fine-grained granite. These are cut by late granite porphyry dikes.
Mineralization consists of pyrite and arsenopyrite in quartz and ore silicified zones in Nicola Group rocks. At the Creek showing, a pit west and adjacent to Broken Creek has exposed a 1-metre wide zone of discontinuous and irregular quartz veins, less than 2 centimetres wide and about 15 centimetres apart. The zone strikes 050 degrees and dips vertically in grey to reddish quartzite. Occasional blebs of tetrahedrite and rare disseminations of arsenopyrite comprise sulphides. A select sample of quartz yielded 0.34 gram per tonne silver and 0.03 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 9780). Two drillholes on the Creek showing failed to intersect significant mineralization.
The Wheelbarrow showing appears to be on strike, 250 metres to the southwest of the Creek showing. A siliceous zone contains quartz veins, strikes 060 degrees and dips 80 degrees southeast in black quartzite and chert with silicified argillite. The zone contains fine-grained stringers of pyrrhotite and rare disseminated arsenopyrite. A 2-metre chip sample yielded 1.03 grams per tonne silver and 1.56 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 9780). Drillhole 81-4 intersected 2.57 grams per tonne gold, 0.68 gram per tonne silver and 0.01 per cent copper over 1 metre (Assessment Report 9780).
Other showings in the vicinity include the Sitting Rock showing, east of the Creek showing, a skarn zone occurring at the contact between calcareous units and coarse limestone. The skarn is composed of dark brown calcsilicate minerals and garnet with blebs of chalcopyrite. A sample of skarn yielded 0.01 per cent copper, 0.14 gram per tonne gold and 0.48 per cent tungsten (Assessment Report 9780). The Blacksmith showing is located east of the Creek showing and north-northeast of the Sitting Rock showing. A number of open pits, trenches and adit have exposed a silicified zone in siltstone, cherts and diorite dikes. The best sample yielded 5.48 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 9780)