The Shaft and Cat showings are located approximately 6 kilometres south of Nelson and are a part of the larger Kena property of Sultan Minerals Inc. Old trenches and adits on the property are believed to have been excavated between 1900 and 1904.
The Kena property hosts a number of porphyry style, gold and gold-copper occurrences. The property lies on the eastern limb of the Hall Creek Syncline, a south-plunging fold associated with intense shearing that dominates the structure of the Nelson map area. The syncline incorporates volcanic and lesser sedimentary rocks of the Lower Jurassic Elise Formation (Rossland Group) which are intruded by a synvolcanic monzodiorite complex and by the younger? Middle Jurassic Silver King Intrusions comprising a coarse-grained plagioclase porphyry stock with related dikes and sills.
The area is underlain by basaltic tuffs, andesite flows and augite porphyry of the upper Elise Formation intruded by a complex of fine to medium grained diorite sills. The rocks have been extensively sheared, with foliation dominantly striking northwest and dipping southwest.
The Shaft and Cat showings are situated 800 metres apart along a northwest trending diorite unit that cuts Elise Formation volcanics. Mineralization is widespread within this area and is comprised of chalcopyrite, pyrite and magnetite as disseminations and fracture fillings in brecciated and altered andesite and subvolcanic diorite sills in a northwest trending zone of shearing adjacent to the contact of the Silver King porphyry. Two showings are exposed in trenches, the Shaft and the Cat, and if mineralization is continuous between these two, the implied strike length of the zone is in excess of 800 metres. In 2000, Sultan Minerals relogged drill core and conducted sampling which traced this dioritic unit for an additional 700 metres to the south, giving the zone a possible minimum strike length of 1500 metres.
At the Shaft showing, the diorite is locally brecciated and extensively altered to a chlorite-epidote-carbonate assemblage that contains magnetite, chalcopyrite and pyrite. Gold and copper mineralization appear to be associated with malachite and chalcopyrite which occur in the diorite complex as disseminations, patches and fracture fillings. In 1999, trench confirmation sampling by Sultan Minerals yielded 1.14 grams per tonne gold and 0.66 per cent copper over 10.25 metres in the Cat trench, and 5.6 grams per tonne gold and 0.95 per cent copper over 12 metres in the Shaft trench (Assessment Report 26503).
At the Cat showing, sulphides are concentrated within the matrix of a crackle breccia. The mineralization is lensy in nature over 9 by 5.5 metres. Assays from this showing averaged 1.37 grams per tonne gold and 0.7 per cent copper (Property File - South Pacific Gold Corp., June 1988).
Mineralization in the Kena property area was first described in a report by G.M Dawson in Geological Survey of Canada Annual Report for 1888-89. Little is known about exploration on the claim area prior to 1973. Post-1973 exploration, however, has identified old prospect pits and trenches, as well as several old adits indicating periods of exploration activity in the early part of the century. Numerous exploration companies carried out geological, geochemical, geophysical surveys, trenching and drilling on the property from 1974-91. These companies explored the Elise Formation volcanics for gold and copper mineralization and discovered the Kena Gold zone (082FSW237), Kena Copper zone (082FSW332) and the Shaft/Cat zones (this description). The Kena Gold zone underwent the most thorough exploration with the Kena Copper and Shaft/Cat zones only being tested minimally. No additional work was done until 1999 when Sultan Minerals Inc. acquired and amalgamated several properties under the name Kena property. Recent exploration work and data compilation by Sultan Minerals have identified four gold-bearing zones on the Kena property. These are: the newly discovered Gold Mountain (082FSW379), Kena Gold, Shaft/Cat, and South Gold soil anomaly located about 1000 metres south of the Kena Copper zone.
In 1984, Lacana Mining Corporation completed an exploration program including geochemical surveys, trenching, sampling, and an airborne magnetic-electromagnetic survey.
In 1987 to 1988, South Pacific Gold completed mapping, geochemical soil sampling, magnetic, and induced polarization surveys. Six drill holes were completed totalling 762 metres. Significant results were highlighted as a drill section of magnetite rich volcanic breccia graded 5.04 grams per tonne gold, and 0.72 percent copper over 5.64 metres (Giroux, G., Grunenberg, P. (2012-04-30): Technical Report on the Kena Property, Nelson, BC).
In 1989, Golden News Resources Inc. and Noramco Explorations completed magnetic VLF-EM surveying over the property containing the occurrence.
In 1990, Noramco Mining Corporation completed a small drilling program on the Shaft property in the area of the occurrence. The only significant results were at the Princess showing grading 11.3 grams per tonne gold across 1.5 metres (Giroux, G., Grunenberg, P. (2012-04-30): Technical Report on the Kena Property, Nelson, BC).
In 1999, Sultan Minerals Inc. resampled trenches from earlier programs. In the Shaft trench 12 metres graded 5.6 grams per tonne gold and 0.95 percent copper, and in the Cat trench 10.25 metres graded 1.14 grams per tonne gold and 0.66 percent copper (Giroux, G., Grunenberg, P. (2012-04-30): Technical Report on the Kena Property, Nelson, BC).
In 2012, Eagle Mapping Ltd. conducted an airborne LiDAR survey over a 15.3 square kilometre area of the Kena Property.
