The Black Warrior area is underlain by limestone of the Lower Cambrian Badshot Formation and metasediments of the Cambrian to Devonian Index Formation (Lardeau Group) consisting of schist, phyllite, quartzite, slate and limestone.
Initial activity on the Black Warrior group, which consisted of Black Warrior (Lot 10646), White Star (Lot 11330) and Eva May (Lot 10647), was directed to a mineralized quartz vein in schists and included surface and underground work on both sides of McDonald Creek. Later, the Blue Jay group (082KNE079) was staked on the northeast side and may have investigated some of the same showings.
The first report of the activity of the Black Warrior group was in 1898-99 although considerable work was done before and after that periord for a total of 228 metres of underground tunneling. The workings on the northwest side of the creek apparently included an adit and several opencuts. On the southeast side of the creek 4 adits were driven between elevations of about 1615 and 1980 metres.
A quartz vein, 60 to 90 centimetres wide, occurs in schist some 18 metres southwest of, and approximately parallel to, the mineralized limestone band of the Blue Jay. As exposed by the workings, the vein locally contains sparsely disseminated galena. The exception was a small lens of sulphides found on the hanging wall side of the vein at the 1920 metre elevation over a width of 76 centimetres and a similar length. At a depth of 9 metres, this lens was reduced to a few stringers of sulphides. The sulphides were mainly galena and chalcopyrite with a little pyrite and tetrahedrite. A sample taken across 60 centimetres in 1924 gave the following assays: gold, 9.60 grams per tonne; silver, 2441.16 grams per tonne silver; lead, 57.3 per cent and zinc, 7.8 per cent (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1924, page 211).
From 1958 to 1960, J. Main of Ferguson did some repairs to the trail and to some of the workings in order to aid in property examination.
The area was largely inactive until 1980s when a number of the old working came into the possession of Jack and Eric Denny through purchase or staking. The two rehabilitated many of the access trails and workings in the area of Galena Creek and to the east (to Marsh Adam Creek) and north. Some of the historically documented mineral occurrences were found and examined during this period but the mineralization was examined more as a whole than as individual showings.
The following summarizes the ownership of and general work done in and around the property in question. The Dennys commissioned geologist Gordon Turner to investigate the "Horne Ledge" and the Ellsmere zones and the first report on the area was written. In 1985, the large claim group was optioned briefly to Nakusp Resources Ltd. who did claim staking, mapping, collected 86 rock and 64 soil samples, excavated 18 metres of trench and conducted an electormagnetic survey. They referred to their project as the Silver Horn. In 1987, the Dennys optioned the property to Golden Range Resources Ltd. who conducted 150 kilometres of airborne VLF-EM resistivity and magnetic surveys and, geological mapping and sampling throughout their Black Warrior and Silver Leaf groups. In 1988, Golden Range investigated the Silver Leaf Crown-grant and area, unsuccessfully attempting to relocate the workings. The property reverted to the Dennys in 1989. In 1991, the property was optioned to Jopec Resources Ltd. who conducted mapping and collected 30 samples.
Refer to Assessment Reports by Golden Range (18845), 1988 and by Jopec (22917), 1993 for further details on the Black Warrior.
During 2006 through 2009, Mineral Mountain Resources Ltd. completed programs of prospecting, geochemical (soil, silt, talus fines and rock) sampling and an airborne geophysical survey on the area as the Kootenay Arc property.
In 2007, a sample (RJF7004) from a 10-centimetre wide sub-horizontal massive sulphide vein within a small adit located to the north east of two larger caved adits assayed 8.304 grams per tonne gold, 3513 grams per tonne silver, 13.49 per cent lead, 0.27 per cent zinc, 0.91 per cent copper and 2.99 per cent antimony, while nine other samples from the area yielded from 0.119 to 8.270 grams per tonne gold, 100 to 3486 grams per tonne silver, 0.11 to 16.62 per cent lead, 0.36 to 55.47 per cent zinc, 0.06 to 17.95 per cent copper and less than 0.01 to 0.923 per cent antimony (Fingler, J. (2010-01-25): Technical Report on the Kootenay Arc Property).
