The Sharon Copper prospect is located at an elevation of approximately 770 metres on the western side of the Copper Canyon area of the Chemainus River, approximately 3.2 kilometres southeast of Mount Brenton.
Several past-producers are located on Mount Sicker in the Cowichan uplift, one of three geo-anticlinal uplifts that expose Paleozoic Sicker and Buttle Lake Group rocks on Vancouver Island. Cretaceous sediments of the Nanaimo Group unconformably overlie the Paleozoic rocks; the contact is marked by a basal conglomerate containing volcanic fragments derived from the Sicker Group. The local stratigraphy is disrupted by folding, faulting (pre-Triassic as well as Paleogene–Neogene) and the intrusions of diabase and gabbro sills (called the Mount Hall Gabbro) that are coeval with the Upper Triassic Karmutsen Formation (Vancouver Group). The target of exploration activity has been the volcanogenic, polymetallic massive sulphides that are hosted within felsic volcanic tuffs of the Middle to Upper Devonian McLaughlin Ridge Formation (Sicker Group) and restricted to a belt running from Chipman Creek to Mount Richards, in the hangingwall of the Fulford fault.
There are four main units underlying the Sharon area: andesitic feldspar porphyry, tuff breccia and rhyolite porphyry of the McLaughlin Ridge Formation intruded by a dike or sill of metadiorite. The stratigraphic sequence is poorly exposed. Textures and assemblages indicate that the area has undergone regional greenschist metamorphism.
Most of the original rock textures and structures have been obliterated by late shearing and extensive faulting. Structural styles are different between the lower volcanics and the upper sediments of the Paleozoic rock. The volcanics exhibit polyphase deformation, resulting in cataclastic schists. Adjacent sediments, interbedded cherts, siltstones and cherty tuffs, appear undeformed with only tilting or broad open folding. A major portion of the volcanic rocks exhibit strong, steeply dipping axial plane cleavage. Severe alteration has removed most indications of bedding, but isoclinal folding can be inferred from fold structures and extension joints perpendicular to lineations. An additional phase of folding, or a continuation of the first phase, is shown by small, tight isoclinal folding of axial plane cleavage. A possible third phase is indicated by box folds displayed by well foliated units in Copper Canyon.
Sulphides are hosted by extremely sheared chlorite-sericite schist. Slabbed and polished rock surfaces have revealed that the schists were coarse lapilli tuffs. The sulphides are concentrated in two 10-metre wide horizons, forming the core of an antiform. Adjacent to the chlorite schists is the intrusive quartz-albite porphyry, which appears to be conformable. Sulphides, pyrite with very minor chalcopyrite, are generally semi-massive to coarsely disseminated. The sulphides are recrystallized after deformation but appear to have undergone some later shearing. Similar sulphides are also encountered in fractures and quartz stringers in chlorite schist and in white quartz veins in gabbro.
Drilling has indicated that mineralization extends at least 300 metres northwest along strike the historical Sharon adit.
Work History
The Sharon prospect is believed to have originally been covered by the Pauper Crown grant (Lot 31G), a Crown grant that was issued in 1903. Underground development during the early 1900s consists of three parallel adits that are 46, 1.5 and 11 metres in length. The longest adit also has two crosscuts, totalling approximately 23 metres. The crosscuts averaged 1.45 per cent copper over 11 metres, 0.71 per cent over 7 metres and 0.92 per cent over 5.5 metres (Property File - Sharon Copper Mines, Plan of workings and drill holes, 1963).
In 1977, Imperial Oil Ltd. completed a program of geochemical (silt and soil) sampling and a 30.0 line-kilometre ground magnetic and electromagnetic survey on the area as the Holy Group. In 1978, Esso Resources Canada Limited completed six diamond drill holes, totalling 448.0 metres, on the Brent, Oak, QQ and VV claims. A drillhole (CHEM No.1), located approximately 550 metres west of the main Sharon adit, intersected a series of quartz-eye and quartz chlorite schists with disseminated to massive pyrite yielding 0.192 per cent copper, 3.8 grams per tonne silver with 0.14 gram per tonne gold over 3.0 metres (76.2 to 79.2 metres down hole) and 0.393 per cent copper, 5.5 grams per tonne silver with 0.07 gram per tonne gold over 0.3 metre (88.85 to 89.15 metres down hole; Assessment Report 7323).
In 1982, Esso Resources Canada Ltd. completed ground magnetic and electromagnetic surveys on the Brent 1 claim. In 1984, Esso Resources conducted a program of geological mapping and geochemical (rock and soil sampling) on the Brent 1 and Oak 1-3 claims. Kidd Creek Mines Ltd. optioned the property in late 1984 and completed an airborne electromagnetic survey.
In 1985, Kidd Creek Mines Ltd. completed a program of ground electromagnetic and magnetic surveys, an induced polarization survey and seven diamond drill holes, totalling 1534 metres, on the Brent 1 and Oak 1-3 claims. Drilling intercepts yielded up to 0.55 per cent copper over 9.2 metres (4.6 metres true width; 136.2 to 145.4 metres down hole), with up to 1.44 per cent copper over 2.0 metres (Hole CHEM-7-85; Assessment Report 14411). This hole was located approximately 300 metres northwest of the historical Sharon workings.
In 1986, Kidd Creek Mines Ltd., on behalf of Esso Resources Canada Ltd., conducted 72.0 line-kilometres of combined ground magnetic, electromagnetic and induced polarization surveys on the Chip, Holyoak 1-3 and Brent claims.
In 2006 and 2007, Laramide Resources, for Treasury Metals Inc., completed a program of comprehensive data compilation, airborne geophysical surveys, totalling 500.1-line kilometres and drillcore resampling on the Lara property, located immediately to the west. Also at this time, the area immediately southwest was prospected by Le Baron Prospecting. In 2008, Westridge Resources completed a 440.3 line-kilometre airborne geophysical (magnetic and electromagnetic) survey on the area immediately southeast as part of the Fortuna property. In 2009, Treasury Metals completed a program of structural mapping and whole rock geochemical sampling on the Lara property. Also at this time, Le Baron Prospecting conducted a minor program of rock and stream sediment sampling on the area as the Copper Canyon property.
In 2010 and 2011, Rock-Con Resources completed a program of prospecting and rock sampling on the Mount Sicker property. In 2012, Le Baron Prospecting prospected the Copper Canyon property. Four rock samples (no. 1 to 4) of rhyolite schist hosting massive sulphides, taken from the area of the Sharon adits, yielded from 0.79 to 5.52 per cent copper (Assessment Report 34063).
In 2013 and 2014, Conarry Ventures Inc. conducted programs of prospecting and rock sampling on the area as the Mount Sicker property. In 2013, three grab samples (E5123802, E5123803 and E5123806) of 0.1-metre wide specular hematite boxworks and alteration in a quartz-eye rhyolite, located approximately 650 metres to the southwest of the plotted location of the Sharon occurrence, yielded from 0.214 to 0.287 per cent copper (Assessment Report 34604). The following year, an outcrop chip sample (21527) from 10 metres inside the Sharron adit yielded 1.48 per cent copper (Assessment Report 35316).
Also in 2014, Treasury Metals completed a further program of structural mapping, whole rock geochemical sampling and environmental baseline studies on the Lara property.
In 2016, Le Baron Prospecting conducted a further program of prospecting and rock sampling on the Copper Canyon property. A rock chip sample (J677992) from a massive sulphide body located at the entrance to the Sharon adit assayed 26.6 grams per tonne silver and 0.91 gram per tonne gold, and two rock chip samples (J677948 and J677949) taken from zones of massive sulphides from within the Sharon adit yielded 0.938 and 0.836 per cent copper with 3.4 and 5.6 grams per tonne silver, respectively (Assessment Report 36445).
In 2018, Treasury Metals conducted an airborne LiDAR survey covering 6388.0 hectares on the Lara property.
In 2020, 911 Mining Co. conducted a program of prospecting and geochemical (rock and silt) sampling on the area as the Mount Sicker property in 2021, Le Baron Prospecting conducted a further program of prospecting and rock sampling on the Mount Brenton property (formerly Copper Canyon property).
In 2021 and 2022, Scenc Resources Corp. completed a minor program of geological mapping, rock sampling, a 1.8 line-kilometre ground electromagnetic survey and four backpack drill holes, totalling 14.9 metres, on the Mount Sicker property. Later in 2022, Sasquatch Resources Corp. completed a program of prospecting, geological mapping, drillcore and rock sampling and a 418.2 line-kilometre airborne electromagnetic survey on the Mount Sicker property.
