The Energite occurrence is situated on the south side of Birk Creek, approximately 8 kilometres from the western tip of North Barriere Lake and 46 kilometres northeast of Barriere.
The property is underlain by Devonian to Permian Fennell Formation rocks in the west and Mississippian Eagle Bay Formation rocks consisting of phyllites, siltstones and sandstones in the east. Fennell Formation rocks consist of bedded chert, chert breccia, phyllite, rhyolite, gabbro and/or diorite and mafic volcanics. Underlying the area to the east are dark, locally recessive argillite, siltstone and grey phyllite and minor limestone of the Eagle Bay Formation. A thrust fault striking 150 degrees and dipping steeply has sheared and silicified the metasediments and separates the two formations. The rocks generally strike 160 to 170 degrees and dip 50 to 90 degrees to the west, displaying rusty carbonate alteration in places. To the east is a Mississippian limestone unit.
Mineralized quartz vein and shears are confined to the contact zone between gabbro and/or diorite to the west and dark phyllites to the east. Mineralization consisting of galena, pyrite and lesser sphalerite and chalcopyrite occurs in several quartz veins within a northerly-trending zone that measures approximately 200 by 120 metres. Individual veins and lenses vary from a few centimetres to several metres wide and vary in orientation, although northerly strikes and moderate (40 to 50 degrees) easterly dips predominate. Blebs and knots of massive sulphides are carried within the quartz veins. High-grade quartz veins on the southern portion of the property occur on both sides of a schist-shale contact that strikes northeast. Gold-bearing intervals encountered in a 2004 drillhole corresponded to quartz veins near an argillite-felsic volcanic contact.
In 1924, the original claims were staked by Nick Forsberg, Oscar Bolin and Carl E. Johnston, a group of prospectors from Barriere. Between 1924 and 1939, skid roads, trails and bridges were constructed and several exploration trenches, open-cuts and short adits were developed. The trenches and adits were exploring for high-grade quartz veins carrying pyrite, chalcopyrite, galena and sphalerite. In many instances, gold and silver values were encountered along with base metals. Two prominent showings were identified. The South showing, with high-grade massive sulphide quartz veins, was the focus of much of the exploration work completed at this time. At the North showing (MINFILE 082M 064), replacement-type minerals were found in limestone contacts.
The claims were eventually allowed to lapse and were restaked in 1968. In 1972, the claims were acquired by Kam Creed Mines Limited. Several surface exploration programs, including bulldozer stripping, trenching, geophysical and geochemical surveying and diamond drilling, were completed between 1969 and 1985. In 1981, an exploration program of line cutting, geochemical soil sampling and electromagnetic geophysical surveying was completed over the central portion of the property. In 1984, two diamond drill holes totalling 205.1 metres were completed, as were three diamond drill holes totalling 176.17 metres. Two holes, BC 84-4 and BC 84-5, were drilled near a short adit to test the continuation of sulphide-bearing quartz shear zone; one hole, BC 84-3, was drilled to test a conductive zone delineated in the 1981 geophysical survey. The claims were allowed to lapse in 1989.
In 1974, Daniel Rabbitt completed trenching on the B & T claims to the immediate south of the Energite claims.
By 1990, Larry Ovington and Bryan Elliot had staked the Enarg claim group over the area. Samples were collected from various high-grade showings on the property, particularly from the area around the adit where the 1972 smelter shipment was mined. Boxes of unsplit and unsampled core were found in the debris of a trailer crushed by a fallen tree. The core, believed to be from the Kam Creed Mines 1984 drill program, was removed from the debris, examined, split and sampled. The following year, historic drill collars on the property were located and mapped.
By 2002, the Goldcreek 1 to 3 claims had been staked over the Energite showing and the Slate Creek area to the south. The Enargite occurrence was situated in the northwestern portion of the Goldcreek 2 claim. In 2002, Navasota Resources Limited completed grid placement, soil sampling and ground magnetometer geophysical surveying on the Goldcreek 1 claim to the south. By 2004, the company’s focus had begun to shift northward. That year, Navasota collected 15 rock samples from exposed quartz vein subcrop and outcrop and 25 soil samples from the Slate Creek grid. Based on the survey results, the Slate Creek grid was extended to the northwest to cover the Energite showing. Soil sampling and mapping were completed over the extended grid. Six diamond drill holes totalling 883.2 metres were completed. Hole GC-04-04 was drilled at the Energite showing and extended beneath the existing upper adit.
Between 1936 and 1972, 36 tonnes of ore were mined from a short, hand-mined adit, yielding 3.732 kilograms of silver, 1.581 kilograms of copper, 1.341 kilograms of lead and 0.651 kilogram of zinc (Assessment Report 27890, page 2).
In 1972, Kam Creed Mines Limited shipped a 4.5-tonne (5-ton) bulk sample mined from a polymetallic quartz lens to the Cominco smelter in Trail. The sample yielded 5.49 grams per gold, 708 grams per tonne silver, 27.4 per cent lead, 13.3 per cent zinc and 0.25 per cent copper (Assessment Report 21711, page 3).
The most significant results from the 1984 drill program were hole BC 84-5 returning 0.61 metre of 0.58 gram per tonne gold, hole BC 84-3 returning 0.91 metre of 1.99 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 13766), and hole BC 84-1 returning 0.24 metre of 5.69 grams per tonne gold and 0.3 metre of 13.95 grams per tonne gold and 4.11 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 12774, page 4).
The best result obtained from 1990 historic core assays was hole BC 84-1 returning 4.8 metres of 0.48 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 21711, page 8).
From the 2004 program, drillhole GD-04-06 returned 0.45 metre of 0.645 gram per tonne gold and 1 metre of 0.96 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 27890, page 3). Rock sample GK-04-009, taken from a galena- and sphalerite-bearing quartz vein, returned 6.14 grams per tonne gold, 640 grams per tonne silver, 29 per cent lead and 12.1 per cent zinc (Assessment Report 27890).
