The Spirit showing is located near Tackle Creek, a tributary of the Wildhorse River, approximately 32.5 kilometres northeast of Kimberley.
Regionally, the area is contained within Mesoproterozoic siliciclastic rocks belonging to the Purcell Supergroup, specifically the Fort Steele, Aldridge, and Creston formations. They are intruded by Late Cretaceous epizonal dikes, sills, and stocks, most notably the Estella Stock.
Locally, the area consists primarily of Fort Steele, Aldridge and Creston formations deformed into a large, east-verging, overturned, asymmetric anticline. The fold, termed here the Lewis Creek anticline, is detached above the Lussier thrust fault. Alteration occurs as a creamy buff to orange weathering colour, is pervasive, and is observed the entire width and length of the Spirit quartzite host.
Mineralization consists of pockets of visible gold associated with hematitic alteration, as well as anomalous gold values throughout a 75- to 100-metre-thick succession near the top of the Aldridge formation. This unit consists of immature quartz-wacke (sandstone) that has been pervasively altered and fractured. The unit is described as uniform, having a steep westward dip, and as occurring between less permeable and less brittle argillaceous units.
The veins have a preferred orientation perpendicular to bedding, are typically a few millimetres up to a centimetre wide, centimetres to a metre in length, and spaced at centimetre to decimetre scales. These are typically filled with hematite and (or) limonite, quartz, and pyrite, ±copper oxide and magnetite. Vein formation was recurrent, demonstrated by cross-cutting relationships.
In 2005, a sample (SD05-2) assayed 18.310 grams per tonne gold and 14.8 grams per tonne silver (Thompson, R.I. (2011-06-16): Amended and Restated NI 43-101 Technical Report - Geology, Exploration Programs and Results from the Dewdney Trail Property with Recommendations for Further Exploration).
In 2008, a sample (SD08-30) assayed 10.000 grams per tonne gold (Thompson, R.I. (2011-06-16): Amended and Restated NI 43-101 Technical Report - Geology, Exploration Programs and Results from the Dewdney Trail Property with Recommendations for Further Exploration).
Work History
In 2001 preliminary prospecting was conducted on the Spirit Dream property, which at the time was owned by G. Ewonus, B. Kostiuk, D. Lavoie, and G. Rodgers. The program discovered zones of quartz-sulphide (plus/minus gold) veins with associated iron-oxide, sericite, and carbonate alteration in thick sequences of massive orthoquartzite. The following year forty-six rock samples were retrieved from the property, nine of which contained greater than 1 gram per tonne of gold with two of those assaying greater than 10 grams per tonne gold. At this point the quartzite units were recognized as having potential to host large-tonnage, low-grade gold deposits. In 2003 a small program of contour line soil geochemistry was conducted as a follow up to the previous year’s work. A northerly trend of anomalous gold in soils was delineated that mirrored the north-south striking sequence of underlying quartzites.
In 2004 Ruby Red Resources conducted a mapping program to the southeast of the Spirit area as ownership issues prevented them from working on the showings discovered in 2001. Additional prospecting on the main Spirit Dream showings took place in 2005 with similar results to the 2002 sampling. After Ruby Red Resources took ownership of the Spirit Dream property (2006) a program of contour and grid soil geochemistry was completed. During 2005 through 2010, Ruby Red Resources Inc. completed programs of rock and soil sampling, geological mapping, trenching and a 4.5 line-kilometre ground electromagnetic (VLF) survey on the area. In 2008, Ruby Red collected with rocks for assay which graded greater than 10 grams per tonne gold with the next most significant grading 1.77, 0.9 and 0.91 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 30757). In 2008 trenching, trail construction, and rock geochemistry were conducted around the main showings. To this point no documented geological mapping had been done over the trenching area in 2009 the trenched area was mapped at 1:1000 scale revealing significant brecciation and carbonate alteration within a quartzite unit.
In 2010, Ruby Red collected 164 soil samples along contour soil sample lines along a NW-SE trending ridge immediately north of the Spirit showing (082GSW095) (Assessment Report 32176). The lines were roughly centered on a band of upper Aldridge Formation quartzites and siltstones that were known to host gold mineralization to the south (Assessment Reports 30757 and 31441). Most of the elevated gold values are on or close to this band of quartzites. Five values are greater than 100 parts per billion gold with the highest value 922 parts per billion gold. The widespread anomalous gold detected demonstrates that gold mineralization continues to the north of the areas trenched and sampled in 2008 and 2009.
In 2010 and 2011, the area was explored as a part of the Dewdney Trail Gold project of PJX Resources Inc. Past exploration efforts on the showing included prospecting, soil geochemistry, rock sampling, VLF-EM, magnetic surveys, IP surveys and hand trenching (Assessment Reports 32758, 32868).
In early 2011, PJX Resources collected 62 rock samples from the area of trail construction and trenching done earlier in the year. A grab sample (PKDT-04) from a fault zone consisting of crushed siltstone with thin quartz vein up to 3.5 centimeters in width, graded 2.74 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 32923). The UTM coordinates for this sample are about 300 metres northwest of the Spirit occurrence MINFILE plot (082GNW095). In late 2011, PJX initiated a diamond drilling program to test for gold in a small area about 300 by 400 metres in size located about 300 metres southwest of the Spirit occurrence MINFILE plot (082GNW095). Four holes were drilled totalling 796.46 metres. The highest gold values were 0.56 grams per tonne over 2 metres and 0.61 gram per tonne gold over metre (Assessment Report 32758). In 2011, PJX Resources collected 660 rock samples in the Lewis Creek and M1 area.
In 2012, work by PJX included geological mapping, soil sampling, and limited rock geochemistry on the Lewis Creek and M1 (Spirit) areas (Assessment report 33811 and 35582). Focus of the M1 area was 1 kilometre by 1.8 kilometres which was roughly centred on the Spirit showing.
In 2014, prospecting was carried out in the Lewis Creek area by PJX who collected 45 rock samples for analysis. Several outcrops hosting galena are marked on the “Lewis Creek Prospecting Map” (Assessment Report 35582). A biogeochemistry survey and a soil survey were conducted over the M1 target area over the Spirit showing. 140 pine bark and 142 Ah soil samples were collected. All samples of pine bark yielded gold concentrations below the detection level. Values in Ah soils ranged up to 324 parts per billion gold with a median concentration of only 0.7 parts per billion.
In 2016, PJX Resources Inc. conducted geological mapping and rock geochemistry sampling on the Dewdney Trail Property (Assessment Reports 36649).
See also Palmayra (082GNW010).
