The McNeil property is centred on the approximate middle of the claim group on which diamond drilling was carried out and reported on in Assessment Report 19989 (1990). The prospect lies about 20-25 kilometres southwest of Cranbrook, at about 1370-1675 metres elevation in McNeil Creek. This occurrence consists of minor stratabound and vein-controlled Zn-Pb-Cu mineralization (sphalerite, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite and pyrite noted) in drillholes intended to determine the source of anomalous lead, zinc, and silver geochemistry and weak geophysical (UTEM and Maxmin) conductors.
The area is underlain by (meta-)sedimentary rocks of the Middle Proterozoic Purcell Supergroup, a thick succession of siliciclastic and lesser carbonate rocks that is known to host the Sullivan Sedex lead-zinc deposit (082FNE052). On the property, rocks of the Lower and Middle Aldridge formations are broadly folded into a north-northeast plunging syncline. Lower Aldridge rocks crop out east of McNeil Creek fault and north of the major northeast- trending Moyie fault; this is a similar location to the Fors (082GSW035) and Vine (082GSW050) prospects located 10 kilometres to the northeast. The Lower-Middle Aldridge contact, or LMC, which corresponds to Sullivan time, is found at depths from 0 to 2000 metres across the property. Several thick regional gabbroic intrusions (Moyie sills) occur on the property, of which the uppermost, the Hiawatha sill, was intersected in drillholes.
Vein and stratiform massive lead-zinc-silver mineralization have been the main targets of exploration on the McNeil property, but surface trenching and drilling has disclosed vein-controlled copper mineralization partly associated with the gabbros, as is common elsewhere in the region. Anomalous gold also occurs on the property in quartz veins, gabbro and fault zones, and may be related to the McNeil Creek fault (which extends into the Palmer Bar fault, known to carry gold mineralization).
Geochemical anomalies at surface are weak (less than 800 parts per million lead, 450 parts per million zinc and 5.3 parts per million silver). Twenty-one drillholes for a total of 5621 metres were drilled and intersected anomalous (250 parts per million) zinc and lead (100 parts per million) over true widths of 7-16 metres at the LMC. Anomalous gold up to 30 parts per billion occurs in Aldridge rocks, and anomalous gold to 19 parts per billion plus platinum-group metals platinum, palladium and rhodium, occurs in drill intersections of gabbro.
Alteration is very weak and consists of minor chlorite on fractures associated with mineralized intervals, chalcedonic silica and sericite associated with stratabound mineralization, and biotite- chlorite associated with anomalous gold. Lamprophyre dikes, believed to be Cretaceous or Tertiary, may be associated with the anomalous gold. Tourmalinite (identified in thin section as recrystallized coarse-grained material compared to Sullivan tourmalinite) is known in float.
Sedex Mining Corp. drilled the property in 1998. See McNeil (082GSW024).
