The Wiarton occurrence is located at 1295 metres elevation on the Wiarton (Lot 856) Crown grant in the historic Camp McKinney. The occurrence is 750 metres east of the Cariboo-Amelia occurrence (082ESW020). The camp lies 9 kilometres north-northwest of Bridesville, British Columbia.
The Camp McKinney area is underlain by interbanded and intergrading Carboniferous to Permian Anarchist Group metamorphosed sediments and volcanics. The group is mainly sedimentary and consists of greenstone, locally calcareous, altered quartzite and argillaceous quartzite, greywacke, limestone and locally micaceous quartzite and calcareous biotite schist. The minor volcanics are described as mainly altered andesitic and basaltic flows.
Granite and granodiorite of the Middle Jurassic Nelson intrusions have intruded the Anarchist Group to the west and south as small stocks and plugs. Along the contacts of these intrusions the Anarchist rocks have been deformed and hydrothermally altered. Younger dikes of felsic and mafic composition intrude both stratified and granitic rocks and may have been associated with faults related to these granitic intrusions.
The major regional structural feature in the vicinity of the Cariboo-Amelia occurrence (082ESW020) is a northeast trending fault zone 5 kilometres to the east. The fault follows Conkle Creek, Conkle Lake and Jolly Creek.
Faulting in the Cariboo-Amelia mine area is postmineral and widespread. Major east-dipping, low angle thrust faults in the central portion of the mine have displaced the hangingwall to the northwest by about 122 metres. An east-dipping fault has also moved the hangingwall south by about 91 metres. The complexly faulted and folded rocks are predominantly northwest striking and steeply to moderately northeast dipping.
Hostrocks of the Wiarton occurrence are dominantly argillaceous quartzites. Other lithologies include soft quartzose rocks and other silty to calcareous sediments metamorphosed to amphibolite. The amphibolite is composed primarily of fibrous amphibole. A north-trending gully on the Wiarton claim is indicative of a local fault.
Development on the Wiarton occurrence began in 1894 and continued to 1899 under ownership by the Camp McKinney Development Co. Ltd. By 1899, three shafts, 15.8, 16.1 and 18.3 metres respectively were developed along with 27 metres of drifting. The eastern continuation of the Cariboo/McKinney vein was intersected. The vein was 91 centimetres wide and of similar character to the Cariboo-Amelia and Waterloo (082ESW019) occurrences. In 1934, Pioneer Gold Mines of B.C. Limited conducted a limited surface diamond drilling program on the western edge of the Wiarton and on the Amelia claims to locate the eastern extension of the Cariboo-McKinney vein, without success. It was reported only one high grade quartz section was intersected (Bulletin 6, page 4). Later in that same year an unknown lessee sank a shaft down on one the earlier vertical drillholes of Pioneer. The results of this work is unknown.
Production records indicate 129 tonnes of ore was mined from the Wiarton in 1940 and 1941 by Highland-Bell Ltd. From this, 3950 grams of gold, 1357 grams of silver, 78 kilograms of lead and 245 kilograms of zinc were recovered.
