The Mayflower showing is located 1.1 kilometres west of the Lillooet River and 3 kilometres northwest of the village of Skookumchuck.
The first gold discovery in the area was made in the 1800s as placer miners travelled through to the Cariboo Gold Fields. In 1904, the original Mayflower Group was staked and owned by Mayflower Mining and Milling Co. A 48-metre-long adit was driven into the zone and a mill constructed. In 1929, the ground was restaked as the Dandy claim group. Little work was done, and the ground was restaked again in the 1970s by G. Nagy as the Moneymaker. Limited geological and geophysical surveys, and exploration drilling were done before the claims lapsed. The area was restaked as the Easy claim group in 1981 and several anomalies were discovered. In 1988, an extensive drilling program was conducted on the anomalies along the southern border of the Mayflower claim, with encouraging results. At the request of Tyme Resources Ltd. in 1989, B.K. Geological Engineering Ltd. conducted an exploration program.
The area surrounding the Mayflower showing is underlain by the Jurassic Harrison Lake Formation and the overlying Lower Cretaceous Fire Lake Group. These rocks form a roof pendant, northwest of Harrison Lake, composed of three distinct stratigraphic units. The basal section consists of granulite, andesite, conglomerate, limestone and quartzite. The central unit consists of dark slates, shales, argillite and greywacke. The upper unit consists of clastic feldspathic greenstone, chlorite schist and minor conglomerate.
The occurrence is hosted in the fourth (uppermost) member of the Lower Cretaceous Brokenback Hill Formation, Fire Lake Group. The member consists of lapilli tuff with minor rhyolite, andesite and volcanic breccia and is locally altered to schist in the vicinity of the Harrison Lake fault zone (Lillooet River fault). Fractures are well developed in closely spaced sets striking 006 degrees and dipping 75 degrees east and 062 degrees dipping 25 degrees southeast.
The showing consists of a gossanous, elliptical zone of brecciated rhyolitic schist which outcrops over a 60 by 40 metre area. The breccia is comprised of soft, buff coloured, felsic fragments, 1 to 3 centimetres in diameter, that contain up to 20 per cent disseminated pyrite. A matrix of vuggy white quartz, minor calcite and 2 per cent pyrite comprises 20 per cent of the breccia zone. Rare blebs of sphalerite and galena are also present within the matrix. The alteration features including intense bleaching and clay alteration and chalcedonic silica indicate an epithermal mineralization style.
Twenty-two chip samples, taken in succession over a 44-metre length in an adit, assayed from 0.41 to less than 0.069 gram per tonne gold, but a sample of mill tailings assayed 10.6 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 9326, page 4).
The main trench, in the southwest corner of the Mayflower claim, is about 100 metres long. The trench was excavated along a contact between ultramafic rocks and limestone. Trace sulphides were noted but sampling in 1990 failed to yield anomalous results.
Two trenches were excavated over anomalous zones discovered in 1988, along the south-central claim boundary of the Dandy Gold claim in 1989. Trace galena was observed in Trench 1. The trench was 30 metres long exposing a sequence of thinly bedded siltstones and interbedded calcareous beds striking 275 to 300 degrees and dipping 36 to 49 degrees to the north. Three samples (1079 to 1081) were taken perpendicular to bedding but yielded negligible results. Trench 2 was excavated 6 metres stratigraphically above Trench 1 over 45 metres. A faulted contact between ultramafic and underlying quartzites was exposed. Four samples were taken at 10 metre intervals. Sample 1075, across 1.1 metres, yielded 0.35 per cent lead, 0.30 per cent zinc, 1.71 grams per tonne silver and 0.14 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 20104).
