The Zeus showing, also known as the Wishbone Zone, is located near the headwaters of Palmer Bar Creek, approximately 13.5 kilometres west of Cranbrook.
Regionally, the area is central to the Purcell Anticlinorium, a broad, generally north-plunging structure in southeastern British Columbia. that is cored by Middle Proterozoic Purcell Supergroup rocks and flanked by Late Proterozoic Windermere Group or Paleozoic sedimentary rock. The Purcell Supergroup comprises an early synrift succession, the Aldridge Formation, and an overlying, generally shallow water post-rift or rift fill sequence that includes the Creston and Kitchener Formations and younger Purcell rocks.
The area is within a broad area between the Moyie and Perry Creek faults that is cut by numerous north-northeast–trending faults sub-paralleling the regional faults. Some zones of isoclinal folding occur along these structures. One of the more significant faults of this north-northeast type is the Palmer Bar Fault, a west-dipping normal fault with 300 to 400 metres of movement on it. Crossing the Palmer Bar and other faults is the east-west-oriented Cranbrook Fault, a north-dipping normal fault juxtaposing Lower Creston rocks against Middle Aldridge. The core of the exploration activity has focused efforts along the Cranbrook Fault on the Bar (082GSW068) and Zeus properties. The Zeus mineral potential seems to occur more around the intersection of the Palmer Bar and Cranbrook faults.
The Wishbone zone is a structurally controlled hydrothermally-emplaced deposit of quartz, sulfides and syenite dikes within an envelope of argillic, chloritic, silicic, and carbonate altered wallrock. The known part of the deposit consists of a northwest-oriented ‘West Limb’ syenite dike and an east to northeast-oriented ‘North Limb’ syenite dike. The two limbs coalesce in the northwest part of the deposit and on surface they form a wishbone-shaped, fold-like feature which verges to the northwest. The West Limb of the deposit dips steeply to the east and the North Limb dips moderately to the north, producing a deposit similar in shape to a recumbent fold with a northwest-striking, northeast-dipping axis. The axial trace of the deposit rakes steeply to the northwest (Assessment Report 24635).
In 1984, Chapleau Resources Ltd. conducted prospecting, trenching, and geochemical sampling. Trenching on quartz veins and silicified zones mineralized with pyrite and minor amounts of galena. A grab sample (QP-1) from the ‘Quartz Pit’ trench assayed 11.3 grams per tonne gold and 137 grams per tonne silver. A grab sample (HV 1) of massive galena from the ‘Horseshoe Vein’ assayed 57.6 per cent lead and 562 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 14061).
In 2007, the one drill hole (Z-07-1) to test the Wishbone Zone, close to the intersection of the Palmer Bar and Cranbrook faults, intercepted a mineralized interval of highly altered, brecciated quartz-feldspar with abundant pyrite and chalcopyrite. This zone is interpreted as an area of highly altered and tectonized sediments replaced by quartz and feldspar (albite) that have been brecciated several times. The best interval returned values of 0.63 per cent copper, 3.8 grams per tonne silver, and 87 grams per tonne Bismuth over 57 metres (Assessment Report 29657).
In 2008, diamond drilling intersected 8 metres of silicified breccia with pyrite and local chalcopyrite yielding 0.307 copper over 8 metres and 0.019 per cent cobalt over 91 metres in Hole Z-08-1. Another drill hole, Z-08-2, intersected 17 metres of quartz breccia yielding an average of 0.17 per cent copper (Assessment Report 30946).
Work History
In 1990, Chapleau Resources undertook an airborne geophysics survey, covering an area west of the Bar showing (082GSW068).
In 1996, Abitibi Mining Corporation, a 131-metre drillhole (Bar 96-1) intersected the Cranbrook Fault which hosts a 4- to 5-meter wide syenite dike with associated minor gold mineralization present within altered sedimentary rocks on both sides of the dike (Assessment Report 24635).
In 2001, Peter Klewchuk conducted a VLF_EM survey in the area south of the Zeus showing (Assessment Report 26625).
In 2004, Chapleau completed some regional work, covering the Zeus but focused most of their efforts to the east on their Bar option (082GSW068).
In 2005 and 2007, Ruby Red Resources Inc. conducted geologic mapping, rock and soil geochemistry, ground VLF-EM surveying, and diamond drilling (Assessment Reports 28249, 29657, 29717). In 2008, Ruby Red Resources completed a soil geochemistry survey, 6 kilometres to the east of the Zeus, near the Running Wolf (082FNE059) (Assessment Report 30586); and 2 follow-up drill holes (Z-08-1, Z-08-2) (Assessment Report 30946).
In 2011 and 2012, PJX Resources Inc. had airborne electromagnetic and aeromagnetic surveys conducted over their Eddy North target area, part of their larger contiguous Purcell Block (Assessment Reports 32924. 33667). Some 561.8 line-kilometres of survey data were recorded and compiled over the claim group. MINFILE occurrences encompassed by the survey included Running Wolf (082FNE059), Skay (082FSE175), Aug (082FSE176), Zeus (082GSW071) and Zeus (Gold Zone) (082GSW078).
In 2013/2014, PJX Resources Inc began a large program of gravity and magnetic geophysical surveying to detect dense subsurface features (Assessment Report 34937); surveying continued into 2016 (Assessment Reports 34082, 34937, 35416). The gravity survey extended 10 kilometres beyond the West Basin property claim boundaries encompassing several MINFILE occurrences including the Zeus and Zeus (Gold Zone) (082GSW078) (Figure 8, Assessment Report 34082).
Refer to Zeus (Gold Zone) (082GSW078) for related geological and work history information.
