The Northeast Copper Zone (Fortuna) occurrence is located on Mount Sicker, approximately 4.5 kilometres west of Westholme.

The area is located within the Cowichan uplift and is underlain mainly by andesitic to rhyolitic volcanics of the McLaughlin Ridge Formation, Sicker Group. The local stratigraphy is disrupted by folding, faulting (pre-Triassic as well as Tertiary) and the intrusions of gabbro and diabase sills and dykes (informally known as the Mount Hall Gabbro) that are coeval with the Upper Triassic Karmutsen Formation, Vancouver Group. The showing lies 2 kilometres east-northeast of the Lenora-Tyee (Twin J) volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit (092B 001).

Locally, a sequence of quartz-sericite-pyrite and chlorite altered rhyolitic tuffs of the McLaughlin Ridge Formation are mineralized by pervasive disseminated pyrite and by conformable lenses of massive pyrite accompanied by lesser chalcopyrite. The mineralized area measures approximately 12 by 5 metres. In 2010, grab samples assayed up to 1.59 per cent copper and 9.6 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 31677).

About 50 metres to the northwest of the zone is what is thought to be the old Fortuna adit which was driven into a package of interbedded chert and variably sericitized and chlorit felsic ash tuff contains abundant stockwork chalcopyrite mineralization. By 1898, a 40-metre adit was reported to have been excavated, cutting up to 2 metres of copper ore. In 2010, grab sampling yielded values up to 1.8 per cent copper and 4.6 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 31677).

A second shaft, located approximately 250 metres to the east of the Fortuna adit, exposes quartz-sericite-pyrite altered quartz-feldspar phyric rhyolite contains abundant pyrite and trace chalcopyrite mineralization in the form of disseminations (1 to 2 per cent) and stringers up to 15 centimetres in thickness. Massive pyrite with trace chalcopyrite was found in the mine dump below this shaft. In 2010, samples of this material contained up to 0.39 per cent copper, 5.7 grams per tonne silver and 0.82 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 31677).

About 100 metres east of the Fortuna adit, sericite altered, grey-green felsic ash tuff contains blebby chalcopyrite and pyrite stringers, as well as disseminations. In 2010, grab samples assayed up to 1.01 per cent copper and 3.4 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 31677).

Work History

In 1972, Duncanex Resources completed a program of prospecting, geological mapping and a ground electromagnetic survey on the area as the CF Group. From 1978 through 1980, S.E.R.E.M. Limited completed programs of geological mapping, ground geophysical surveys and soil sampling. Selected specimens assayed as high as 2 per cent copper and 10.28 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 7875). From 1988 though 1990, Minnova completed programs of geochemical sampling and one diamond drill hole, totalling 172.5 metres. In 2008, Westridge Resources completed a program of airborne geophysical surveys on the area. In 2010, a geological mapping and rock sampling program was completed.