The Silver Pipe occurrence is located on a ridge separating Oke and Tepee creeks.
The property lies within the Helikian Creston Formation (Purcell Supergroup) on the eastern limb of the northeast plunging Moyie Lake anticline.
The showing consists of a quartz vein system 0.6 to 3.0 metres in width exposed along strike for approximately 200 metres. The vein strikes generally east, dips steeply and exhibits minor offsets due to faulting. The vein is highly oxidized on surface. Mineralization consists of galena, chalcopyrite, magnetite and quartz with some jamesonite, goethite, limonite and hematite in the more oxidized zone near surface. Chloride alteration is commonly associated.
In 1970, grab samples of gossanous material returned values up to 1.5 per cent lead, 99 grams per tonne silver, and 0.34 per cent copper (Assessment Report 10907).
In 1982, eight grab samples (15731 through 15738) of oxidized vein material assayed from 0.01 to 0.015 per cent copper, 0.01 to 0.50 per cent lead, 0.01 to 0.06 per cent zinc, and 0.7 to 13.0 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 10907).
In 1990, a sample (65578) assayed 0.04 per cent copper, 0.112 per cent zinc, 2.0 per cent lead, 19.8 grams per tonne silver, and 0.102 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 20753).
In 2005, two rock samples (SP-08 and SP-10) assayed 0.08 and 0.16 per cent lead, 25.1 and 2.5 grams per tonne silver, and 0.01 and 0.18 gram per tonne gold, respectively (Assessment Report 28069). The sample was collected from green thin-bedded argillite with some copper staining (probably malachite) and chalcopyrite with sandy interbeds.
In 2015, Kootenay Silver Inc. prospected the Yahk Mountain (082GSW072), Tepee Creek (082GSW088), and Jake Ridge (082GSW070) areas. Sample TK15-302, collected near Tepee Creek at the Silver Pipe locale, graded 0.22 per cent copper, 1.9 gram per tonne silver, and 0.071 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 35769). The sample location was described as a 30-centimetre-wide coarse-grained quartzite bed with a 15-centimetre bed (“zone”) along its hangingwall consisting of argillite and siltstone hosting disseminated chalcopyrite, limonite and malachite. This stratabound sediment-hosted copper mineralization is different from the main vein style mineralization of the Silver Pipe vein occurrence.
WORK HISTORY
The showing was discovered and staked as the Dirk property, later Teepee, during construction of a gas pipeline in the late 1960‘s. In 1969, Mercury Explorations optioned the claims and completed a program of geological mapping, trenching and a magnetometer survey. In 1971, Cominco completed an electromagnetic survey on the area. In 1982, Gulf International completed a program of geological mapping, soil sampling and prospecting on the area as the Silver Pipe claims. In 1990, Kokanee Explorations prospected the area as the Look claims. In 1993, a program of soil sampling and geological mapping was completed on area immediately west as the Erin claims. In 1994, the area immediately northwest was soil sampled and geological mapped as the Kalyn claim. In 1998, the area was prospected as the Dek 1-7 claims. The following year, a 34.0-line-kilometre combined ground electromagnetic and magnetic survey was completed. In 2005, the area was prospected as the SP claim. In 2006, Saint Eugene Mining completed 697 line-kilometres of airborne combined magnetic and electromagnetic surveys on the area. The same year Grandeur Resources completed a program geological mapping and rock and soil sampling on the area. During 2007 through 2013, Kootenay Silver completed programs of geological mapping, rock and silt sampling, a 28.0-line- kilometre combined ground electromagnetic and magnetic survey, a 500-line-kilometre airborne magnetic survey and a 500-line-kilometre seismic survey on the area as the Silver Fox property.
Work during the 2011 field season by Kootenay Silver included a reconnaissance silt geochemical program (Assessment Report 32638), additional prospecting by Kennedy (Assessment Report 33261) and geological mapping by Hoy (Assessment Report 32645). Mapping at 1:20,000 scale started at the south end of the property and continued north in 2012 and 2013 by Anderson (Assessment Report 33379 and 34631). Results by Anderson from 2013 mapping in the St. Eugene area were sufficiently encouraging to initiate a more detailed program in 2014 when geological mapping at 1:10000 scale was completed over about a 40 square kilometres area southeast from the St. Eugene Mine (Assessment Report 34965).
In 2012, 96 soil samples and 11 rock samples were collected in the Ward Creek area of the property where an area of anomalous copper and lead with some coincident silver values was partially defined (Assessment Report 34086). Sampling occurred just west of the North Ward showing (082GSW089) to almost 2 kilometres northwest and southwest of the occurrence.
In 2013, 28 kilometres of ground electromagnetic (VLF) and magnetic surveying were completed by Kootenay Silver over three grids on their Silver Fox claim block (Assessment Report 34146). Grid 1 covered an area over the Jake Copper occurrence (082GSW070), Grid 2 covered and area immediately east of the Silver Pipe occurrence (082GSW058) and Grid 3 data was acquired in area between the Jake Copper and Silver Pipe occurrences. Evidence of significant zones of high electrical conductivity from the three areas was found.
In 2014, Kootenay Silver conducted more detailed geological mapping on its Silver Fox claim block (Assessment Report 35034). Work was focused on three principal areas, two of these being to the south around Ward and Gilnockie creeks, with the third being at the St. Eugene mine. Additional mineralization was not identified in the 2014 mapping, excepting the weak mineralization located within the fault complex in North Ward. Detailed geology is shown around Jake, KRL (Sarah, 082GSW087), Silver Pipe (082GSW058), and Sara-Ann zones.
In 2015, Kootenay Silver Inc. continued mapping in the Jake Ridge (082GSW109), KRL (Jake (082GSW070) and Snake), Oke Creek areas; the Middle block which included Yahk Mountain to Haller Creek; and the South block which included the Gilnockie (creek) to North Ward (082GSW089) area (Assessment Report 36022). Prospecting and mapping identified some alteration zones where sufficient outcrop enabled recognition to the north at Silver Pipe (082GSW058), KRL (Sarah, 082GSW087), and Jake Ridge (082GSW109). Copper mineralization was previously recognized at Jake Ridge (082GSW109), Yahk Mountain (082GSW072), Haller Creek north (082GSW103), and Ward Creek (082GSW105). Also in 2015, Kootenay Silver collected 229 rock samples and conducted prospecting. Prospecting was focused on three areas during the program, from north to south they were the Jake Ridge (082GSW109), Yahk Ridge (082GSW072), and Ward Creek (082GSW105) areas (Assessment Report 35769 and 36064). Several small copper showings were documented and subsequently added to MINFILE (see 082GSW099 to 110).
In 2016 Kootenay Silver Inc. collected 304 rock samples and conducted geological mapping, a 94-kilometre ground magnetic survey and a 38-kilometre ground electromagnetic (VLF) survey in the Yahk Mountain and Ward area. Rock sampling occurred in the Barkshanty Creek, 2.7 kilometres northeast of North Zone (082GSW086), along Yahk Mountain ridge (082GSW072), the Ranger Lake/Gilnockie Creek area, and the Ward area southeast of the North Ward showing (082GSW088) (Assessment Report 36545). Rock sampling indicated an enrichment of copper in the Ward Creek. Samples from the Ranger Lake area indicated widespread copper with some elevated lead and silver in thin quartzitic intervals. The Barkshanty area shows an enrichment for copper and lead within a relatively thick quartzitic sequence. Fracture copper mineralization (chalcopyrite/bornite) was found south of the Sunrise Creek Fault in association with northwest trending quartz veins which cut mauve quartzites, argillites and siltstones. Geological mapping was continued in 2016 by Kootenay Silver covering an area near the headwaters of Farrell Creek (Golden Burp showing (082GSW085) (northwest end of the Silver Fox property), southeast over the Tepee Creek area occurrences and further south covering Burrow Pit (082GSW073) and North Ward (082GSW089) occurrences.
In 2017, Kootenay Silver Inc, completed 2727 metres of diamond drilling in five drill holes on the property across a distance of approximately 26 kilometers (Assessment Report 37418). Drilling was intended to target the down-dip stratigraphic extension of surface showings of low-grade copper-silver-lead mineralization in the Middle and Upper Creston Formations near the Tepee Copper (082GSW088), Jake Copper (082GSW070), Sarah (082GSW087), Yahk Mountain (082GSW072), Burrow Pit (Gilnocke Creek drillhole) (082GSW073), and North Ward (082GSW089) areas.
In 2018 a program consisting of geological mapping/prospecting and pXRF soil sampling was completed along the basal member of the Middle Creston Formation for approximately 17 kilometres from north of Barkshanty Creek to south of the headwaters of Tepee Creek (Assessment Report 38925).
