The Whopper showing is situated on a northern ridge of McKay Mountain, approximately 2 kilometres north of Whiteboar Lake, 3 kilometres northeast of Ailsa Lake and 31 kilometres southwest of Kimberley.
The area is underlain by siltstones, greywackes, quartzites and phyllites of the Proterozoic Upper and Middle Aldridge and Lower Creston formations (Purcell Supergroup), intruded by a small quartz monzonite stock of possible Cretaceous age. The Lower Creston Formation consists mainly of laminated to thickly bedded argillites and siltites with minor fine-grained quartz wackes. The rocks are waxy green to olive in colour with tan weathering surfaces, wavy bedding and abundant mudcracks. Rocks of the Upper Aldridge consist of a relatively homogeneous unit with occasional thin interbeds of rusty weathering light grey quartzite and laminated light and dark grey argillaceous quartzite. Locally, these rocks are intruded by gabbro or diorite sills and dikes of the Moyie intrusions. The intrusive stock consists of medium to fine-grained massive biotite monzogranite. The sediments adjacent to the intrusion have been altered to produce concentric zones of biotite hornfels and siliceous siltstone.
Galena and chalcopyrite mineralization is hosted in quartz veins. Mineralization is hosted mainly within a gabbro sill package; however, zones of mineralization and alteration were also present in the surrounding sediments. The mineralization cuts the gabbro sill package and is possibly related to a later mineralizing event than the Ailsa showing (MINFILE 082FNE001) discovered in the Ailsa Lake stock to the west.
Chalcopyrite, pyrite, epidote and malachite are associated with crystalline quartz veins in sheared or schisty gabbro and fractured gabbros. In the upper sill, alteration occurs as fractured zones with magnetite, epidote disseminations and seamlet, quartz carbonate, chalcopyrite and malachite. Some areas of the gabbro are altered to schisty green. Appreciable amounts of copper have been associated with the upper gabbro sill. Mineralized samples from the lower sill consisted of crystalline quartz veins in vuggy, sheared gabbro with lead sulphides, chalcopyrite, limonite and pyrite.
In 1992, Firesteel Resources Incorporated staked an area extending from the north side of Meachen Creek to the northern tip of Whiteboar Lake and covering the Whopper showing area as part of their Meachen Creek property. The area was initially identified during Cominco mapping program in 1990, and a program of reconnaissance deep penetrating electromagnetic surveys (UTEM) followed by diamond drilling was proposed to Cominco at that time. Exploration was focused on a Sullivan-type lead-zinc target. The following year, Firesteel Resources conducted a contour soil geochemical survey over the northwest fault in an attempt to locate anomalies identifying possible lead-zinc targets at depth. A total of 57 soil samples and two silt samples were collected; three weak to moderate lead-zinc soil anomalies were identified.
In 2005, Sean Kennedy staked the Whopper claims to the south of Meachen Creek to cover an area of promising soil geochemistry results over a Cretaceous granitic stock previously outlined by Cominco. Kootenay Gold Incorporated later optioned the property and had Kennedy complete various rock and soil geochemistry and geological mapping programs.
The following year, Sean and Mike Kennedy conducted a brief prospecting and rock geochemistry program around Ailsa and Mayo lakes (Ailsa showing, MINFILE 082FNE001) to the southeast. Results of the program identified a strong silver-bismuth-tungsten anomaly that appeared to be closely related to the intrusive event.
In 2007, Sean Kennedy discovered an approximately 1-kilometre-long north-south–trending zone of copper-bearing iron oxide breccia while carrying out a soil and rock sampling program on the Whopper claim group. A total of 15 rock samples and 200 soil samples were collected and sent for analysis. The rock samples were collected from an area between Whiteboar and Ailsa creeks, from two gabbro sills and regions of altered sediments between the sill packages. Seven of the 15 samples returned assays of greater than 1000 grams per tonne copper. The two northernmost samples were from a vuggy crystalline quartz vein in sheared gabbro of the lower sill with lead sulphides, chalcopyrite, limonite and/or pyrite, chlorite or malachite.
From the 2007 rock sampling program, two samples of mineralized quartz vein material, samples WP-77 and WP-78, returned 1298 grams per tonne copper, greater than 1 per cent (10 000 grams per tonne) lead and greater than 100 grams per tonne silver and 3404 grams per tonne copper, 0.25 per cent lead and 17.9 grams per tonne silver, respectively (Assessment Report 29315, page 8). Three other samples, samples WP-101, WP-104 and WP-105, collected from chalcopyrite-bearing fractured gabbros, returned up to 5388 grams per tonne copper and 15.6 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 29315, page 8).
