The Regal prospect occurs on the southeast side of Deer Valley Creek, near its confluence with Allison (One Mile) Creek, 4 kilometres northeast of Princeton.
This area in the vicinity of Mount Miner (Baldy Mountain, Allison Mountain) is underlain by the eastern facies of the Upper Triassic Nicola Group, consisting of mafic augite and hornblende porphyritic pyroclastics and flows. These rocks are intruded by small dioritic bodies that may be coeval with the volcanics. A fault striking northeast along Dear Valley Creek (Deer Valley fault) juxtaposes the volcanics against coal-bearing sandstones and shales of the Eocene Princeton Group to the northwest.
Abundant malachite and azurite occur in an area trending west-northwest for 340 metres in a gravity slide block that overlies Princeton Group rocks. This slide material appears to have originated from an area of copper mineralization (G.E., 092HSE203), higher up on the northwest slope of Mount Miner, about 600 metres northeast. The slide is comprised of broken and weathered Nicola Group tuffs, breccias and andesites. These rocks exhibit strong chlorite and carbonate alteration, with lesser epidote and zoisite. A trench in the lowermost (western) edge of the deposit exposes unconsolidated gravel, overlain by coal fragments, followed by broken volcanic debris. A hole drilled near the east end of the deposit (hole DH 1) encountered oxides in the first 12 metres and ended in coaly material at 91 metres.
This copper oxide mineralization is accompanied by fair amounts of gypsum, iron oxide and manganese. Some of the volcanic fragments exhibit chalcopyrite and chalcocite when broken. Underground workings have encountered sulphides at depth. Chalcopyrite is found to occur in blocks of quartz, in one instance at the bottom of a shaft. Sulphides encountered in a tunnel assayed 1.87 to 2.8 per cent copper and 2.5 grams per tonne gold equivalent for combined gold and silver (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1918, page 214). The slide material is reported to contain several hundred thousand tonnes of oxide-sulphide mineralization grading about 0.50 per cent total copper (Geology, Exploration and Mining in British Columbia 1974, pages 117, 118).
Work History
This prospect was initially explored by United Empire Company Ltd. in 1908, while developing its underground coal mine (United Empire Colliery, 092HSE218) nearby to the north. At this time 135 metres of mine shafts were driven for coal exploration in which the company encountered a ‘diorite flecked with bornite’.
Minor trenching, tunnelling and drilling occurred in 1918 and 1929 on the Regal zone and included a 45-metre long and 7.5-metre deep open-cut which was continued as a tunnel for another 15 metres.
During 1951 through 1962, Granby Consolidated Mining held the area and conducted programs of diamond drilling, trenching, geochemical sampling and electromagnetic and magnetic surveys on the Regal and Granby zones. Also in 1959, Kennco Explorations Ltd. completed a program of geochemical sampling, geological mapping and airborne and ground geophysical surveys on the Miner Mountain area.
In 1962 and 1963, Climax Copper Mines Ltd. completed programs of trenching, geochemical sampling, induced polarization surveys and percussion and diamond drilling on the Granby, Regal and South (MINFILE 092HSE204) zones. A total of 10 diamond drill holes, totaling 1,078 metres, were completed finding native copper, chalcopyrite and pyrite in several holes, but no assays were reported.
Granby re-optioned the Property in 1965 and drilled 41 percussion holes, totaling 1782 meters, in the area of the Granby trenches.
In 1968, Great Slave Mines completed an induced polarization survey on the Regal zone which indicated that the zone was a slide block.
In 1970, Joy Mining Ltd. optioned the Regal area and completed a program of stripping and 152 metres of trenching. Saracen Mines Ltd., on the behalf of Joy Mining, attempted to recover copper oxides exposed in trenches after constructing a leaching plant in 1971. This method of copper production was unsuccessful. Also, at this time a program of geological mapping, soil sampling, a 37 line-kilometre induced polarization survey and three diamond drill holes, totalling 457 metres, was completed on the Regal zone.
In 1973, Bethlehem Copper Corp. optioned the property from Joy Mining and completed five diamond drill holes on and off the property.
In 1977, Quintana Mining completed an induced polarization survey on the B.T.U. claims covering the Regal and Granby zones.
In 1979, K.W. Livingston drilled four percussion holes on the property, but they were abandoned in overburden. In 1981 and 1982, programs of rock chip and soil sampling were completed.
In 1988, Mingold optioned the property and completed programs of soil sampling that year and in 1989. In 1995, Douglas Hopper completed a soil sampling program north and south of the known workings.
In 1997, Big I Developments Ltd. (subsequently Nustar Resources Inc.) completed five diamond drill holes, totalling 717 metres, on the Granby zone.
In 1999, a program of lineament and structural analysis was completed.
In 2000, Nustar Resources completed five diamond drill holes, totalling 565 metres, on the Granby zone and a magnetometer and electromagnetic (VLF) surveys on the western half of the property.
In 2002, Nustar Resources completed four short diamond drill holes, totalling 296 metres.
The most recent attempt at the property did not take shape until 2006, when J. Paul Stevenson, who had formed Sego Resources the year before, took an interest in the property. The company started with soil sampling, bulldozer trenching, a Titan 24 induced polarization survey and limited drilling to corroborate earlier exploration, and possibly reinterpret findings. In 2007, a program of geological mapping was conducted.
In 2008, a program of soil sampling, 5306 metres of trenching and ten drill holes, totalling 1039.9 metres, were completed on the Regal, Granby and South zones. Three holes were completed on the Regal zone, while the other seven holes were completed on the Granby zone. The drill holes on the Regal zone all had very poor recovery of strongly oxidized landslide rubble or till. Hole 08-03 bottomed in carbonaceous mudstone of the Princeton Group. These three holes confirmed the result of 1963 work by Climax Copper Co. Ltd., which indicated that the oxide layer at Regal is landslide material that rests either on till or directly on tertiary sediments (www.segoresources.com).
In 2009, a Titan 24 induced polarization survey was completed on the property. This survey located a total of 25 anomalies classified by priority into four high priority, three mid-high priority, nine middle priority, two low–mid priority, and seven low priority. Also, at this time a program of trenching was performed on the South zone and three diamond drill holes, totalling 496.45 metres, were completed. Two of the holes were completed on the South zone, while a single hole was completed on the Granby zone.
In 2010, a geomorphological study of the property was done by Dr. Selina Tribe, P.Geo., of Carta Explorations. The emphasis was on analyzing the mass wastage events to determine possible source areas of the high-grade Regal slide block. The study was successful in delineating the history and located several potential slide routes, which Sego began testing in 2010 by trenching and seven diamond drill holes, totalling 1001.1 metres, on the slopes above the Regal zone and in the southwest corner of the Granby zone. Trench 96 successfully located excellent grade mineralization above drill hole MM-10-19 on the Granby zone, while trenches 97 and 98 located a zone leached gossanous rock that could not be penetrated by the excavator and extended at least 150 metres to the east of trench 96.
In 2011, exploration work was completed consisting of 102 percussion drill holes, totalling 7268 metres. The program of such drilling was designed to test a broad east-west zone across the southern part of the Granby zone, which is underlain by a chargeability anomaly, and to penetrate underneath the leach cap encountered in trenches 97 and 98 in 2010.
In 2012, eight diamond drill holes, totalling 1622 metres, were completed to confirm previous percussion holes that intersected significant copper-gold values.
In 2013, Sego Resources completed a 288 line-kilometre airborne geophysical survey on the Miner Mountain property.
