The Vertebrae Ridge (Crest, Barrel) copper occurrences are located on the northeastern slopes of Vertebrae Ridge, approximately 2.5 kilometres northeast of Stovepipe Mountain.
Regionally, the area is underlain by a northwest-trending series of limestone, dolomite, marble, siltstone, shale and coarse to fine clastic sedimentary rocks of the Middle to Upper Cambrian Sullivan, Arctomys, Waterfowl, Stephen, Mount White, Mistaya, Bison Creek and Lyell formations.
Locally, two zones (Crest and Barrel) of extensive structurally controlled copper mineralization are reported in outcrops and talus.
The Crest zone has been identified over a strike length of approximately 4000 northeast, with widths of 5 to 10 metres. These mineralized zones are related to a shear zone in limestone, dolostone, dolomitic shale, and argillite-hosting quartz veins, stockworks and breccias with pyrite, chalcopyrite and bornite mineralization and malachite-azurite alteration. These zones are cut by non-sulphide–bearing calcite-dolomite-siderite veins. The zones are hosted by limestone, dolomite and dolomitic shale.
The Barrel zone, located several hundred metres west of the Crest zone and running approximately parallel to it, is not as extensive or as strongly mineralized as the Crest zone. The zone has been traced along strike for approximately 1500 metres and varies in width from 2 to 5 metres. The mineralized zone is concentrated over a single cross-cutting quartz carbonate vein system with minor finely disseminated grains or blebs of chalcopyrite-chalcocite-pyrite hosted in strong and pervasively oxidized argillaceous sediments and limestone. Minor to moderate malachite-azurite staining is intermittently present in veined outcrop throughout this zone, with local silicification and rare frothy textures due to the intense oxidation of some argillaceous outcrops.
In 2020, 18 grab samples from an outcrop and debris in the Crest zone (zone 1) yielded values of up to 4.13 per cent copper with 3.4 grams per tonne silver (sample 148598), whereas five samples from the Barrel zone (zone 2) yielded an average of 0.2 per cent copper (Assessment Report 39434). Also at this time, one sample collected from a previously undocumented occurrence of galena-malachite-azurite mineralization reported 2.72 per cent copper, 28.6 per cent lead, 4.74 per cent zinc and 360 grams per tonne silver (sample 148631; Assessment Report 39434).
In 2021, 9 samples collected over a 370-metre strike length of the Crest zone yielded an average of 9.47 per cent copper and 45.3 grams per tonne silver, whereas 13 samples from the Barrel zone yielded an average of 0.87 per cent copper and 4.2 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 40241). Also at this time, a sample (141747) of brecciated galena-chalcocite-carbonate veins assayed 1.71 per cent copper, 17.40 per cent lead, 1.19 per cent zinc and 201 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 40241).
Work History
In 2014 and 2015, the area was prospected by Rogers Wallis. In 2020, Pegasus Resources Inc. completed a program of geological mapping and rock sampling on the Vertabrae Ridge property. The following year, a further program of geological mapping and rock sampling along with a 590.8 line-kilometre airborne magnetic survey and four short backpack drill holes, totalling 37.0 metres, were completed on the property.
