The Kajun occurrence is located in the centre of the Pongo property, approximately 500 metres immediately south of East Barriere Lake, approximately 25 kilometres northeast of Barriere and 75 kilometres northeast of Kamloops.
The property is underlain by Late Devonian Eagle Bay Formation rocks consisting of dark grey phyllites, siltstones and limestone of Eagle Bay Group Formation (Map 56).
The lead-zinc-silver-gold–bearing sulphide occurrence is hosted within grey-white-black mica-phyric, dark green calcareous and fragmental schists of the Eagle Bay Formation. The showing lies along a northerly trending contact between dark grey phyllite and siltstone and overlying Tshiniakin limestone. The contact dips east at 15 to 25 degrees and is highly sheared and faulted. The Pongo discovery trench is overthrust with limestone and/or dolostone that has been recrystallized to marble with banded textures. Also present on the Pongo property is quartzite with minor muscovite-sericite, phyllite, graphitic schist and phyllite, sericite-quartz phyllite. Hostrocks on the property have developed a low-grade metamorphic assemblage, including a micaceous fabric in schists and phyllitic hostrocks. Massive sulphide mineralization is closely associated with a secondary muscovite-sericite-ankerite-calcite±graphite alteration assemblage.
On the Pongo property, mineralization occurs as 1 to 5-metre-wide zones of massive and semimassive galena, sphalerite, pyrite, chalcopyrite, tetrahedrite, rare chalcocite, pyrrhotite and electrum. At the Kajun occurrence, a concordant lens of fine-grained siliceous rock, generally less than 1 metre thick, occurs within the limestone. Extensive copper, lead-zinc and silver mineralization occurs within quartz veins at the contact between the shale and the overlying limestone. Mineralization occurs within a thickened siliceous zone at the crest of a recumbent southwest-verging fold and is flat-lying to dipping gently eastward. Mineralization consists of galena, sphalerite, chalcopyrite and pyrite within pods and lenses of quartz, calcite and dolomite. Strongly silicified graphite generally contains higher precious metal values than weakly silicified graphite.
Irregular and discontinuous lenses of mineralized vein quartz also occur within the underlying metasediments. This mineralization is most common near the fault contact and is exposed in widths up to 8 metres.
Documented exploration began on the property in 1973, when Western Mines Ltd. completed 11.2 kilometres of line cutting, conducted 212.4 kilometres of airborne magnetic and electromagnetic geophysical surveys and collected 122 rock and 354 soil samples. In 1983, Primont Resources Ltd. carried out geological mapping, rock-chip sampling and ground magnetic and very low-frequency electromagnetic surveys. Later in 1983, the area surrounding the Kajun showing was restaked by Whopper Holdings Ltd. as the Sobs and Adon claims. Titan Resources Ltd. optioned the property in 1984 and, between 1984 and 1986, conducted geological mapping, rock-chip sampling of trenches, soil sampling surveys and maximum-minimum electromagnetic and magnetic geophysical surveys, and completed three NQ-size diamond drill holes totalling 118.9 metres. The drillholes were directed toward mineralization that had been exposed during trenching. During this time, trench mapping and sampling was conducted over the Kajun showing. Twenty-five rock samples were collected for analysis. In 1987, Runaway Resources Ltd. completed a program of line cutting, soil sampling, induced polarization and very low-frequency electromagnetic and magnetic geophysical surveys.
In 1999, claim owner Larry Ovington conducted backhoe trenching on the western extension of the discovery trench. The following year, Inmet Mining Corporation evaluated the Pongo property. Samples were collected from recently exposed outcrops and trenches west of and adjacent to the original Kajun trench. Some samples returned promising results from galena-rich semimassive sulphides in a structurally controlled quartz vein and a veinlet zone in a graphitic argillite but, due to structural complications and a lack of continuity, an option on the property was not pursued.
In 2001, Verdstone Gold Corporation and Molycor Gold Corporation entered into a joint option on the property. Exploration work completed on the property that year included geological mapping, diamond drilling, backhoe trenching and rock and soil geochemistry surveying.
Several chip samples over a strike length of 40 metres across the mineralized zone averaged 52.1 grams per tonne silver, 0.9 gram per tonne gold, 2.38 per cent lead and 1.18 per cent zinc (Assessment Report 12733). Sample widths, although not specified, are likely to be from 1 to 4 metres.
A showing at the faulted contact of argillite and limestone units consists of quartz veins and lenses containing variable amounts of galena, sphalerite, chalcopyrite and pyrite. A grab sample from this showing assayed 0.021 per cent copper, 0.395 per cent lead, 0.4 per cent zinc, 0.885 gram per tonne gold and 720 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 13334).
Significant results from samples collected by Inmet Mining Corporation in 2000 include 9.42 grams per tonne gold, 285 grams per tonne silver, 0.46 per cent copper, 13 per cent lead and 6.77 per cent zinc; 4.89 grams per tonne gold, 39.3 grams per tonne silver, 0.21 per cent copper, 0.28 per cent lead and 8.39 per cent zinc; 2.55 grams per tonne gold, 98.4 grams per tonne silver, 0.1 per cent copper, 1.86 per cent lead and 5.01 per cent zinc; 2.7 grams per tonne gold, 54.6 grams per tonne silver, 0.11 per cent copper, 1.25 per cent lead and 8.85 per cent zinc; and 2.16 grams per tonne gold, 94.5 grams per tonne silver, 0.17 per cent copper, 3.96 per cent lead and 1.15 per cent zinc (Property File, Burge, 2000). Drilling in 2001 encountered sections of mineralized graphite schist in several drillholes, including 7.96 and 14.74 metres in Drillhole 5, 4.11 metres in Drillhole 6, 6.46 metres in Drillhole 7 and 11.38 metres in Drillhole 8 (Press Release Verdstone Gold Corp., October 15, 2001).
