The Owl Creek B zone is located on Owl Creek, to the north of Pemberton, to the southeast of Little Owl Lake. The area is underlain by deformed and metamorphosed volcanic rocks of the Upper Triassic Cadwallader Group, consisting of andesitic breccia and tuff. Intruding the volcanic rocks is diorite of the Jurassic to Tertiary Coast Plutonic Complex.
Copper mineralization occurs within diorite which has been intruded along a major northwest striking shear zone that parallels Owl Creek. Irregularly oriented fractures in unsheared diorite are commonly filled with quartz, epidote, azurite and malachite and rare chalcopyrite and molybdenite. Disseminated pyrite is common within the diorite.
Four named zones of copper mineralization— A (MINFILE 092JSE004), B (MINFILE 092JSE006), C (MINFILE 092JSE007), and D (MINFILE 092JSE014)—, have been explored at various times. B zone has had the least exploration. Although gossanous diorite and andesite are present, only small amounts of chalcopyrite and pyrite have been noted.
In the 1990’s and 2000’s, extensive exploration for base and precious metals was undertaken in the Tenquille Lake and Tenas Creek areas, located approximately 8 kilometres north of the Owl Creek property, by Teck Corp. and Goldking Mining Ltd. Structural and lithological controls for this area are similar to the Owl Creek area.
In November 2010, a program of geological mapping and rock geochemical sampling at A and C zones has confirmed the presence of significant amounts of copper as indicated by previous exploration. Other potential exploration targets exist at the property, for example, B zone, where northerly trending faults and anomalous copper in stream sediments are apparent from past exploration. Seven rock samples (no. 011 to 017) from the B zone yielded values from 0.115 to 0.798 per cent copper (Goldsmith, L.B. (2012-02-20): Technical Report on the Owl Creek Property).
In January 2011, an airborne magnetic survey was flown over a portion of the property in the Owl Creek Valley. A subtle magnetic low signature was correlated with mapped dioritic zones known to coincide with the observed mineralization. Three dimensional modeling of these anomalies shows they are reflections of near-surface, localized bodies with a depth extent of approximately 300 metres. The magnetic signature suggests the area between mineral zones C and B might contain three parallel bands of this dioritic material (Assessment Report 32271).
Geological mapping was conducted on the Owl Creek property in August and September, 2012. Results indicate the area of magnetic highs appears to be related to unaltered basalt, andesite and fine-grained diorite. Each rock type contains variable amounts of magnetite; however, significant copper mineralization was not observed in association with the rock units (V STOCKWATCH, October 24, 2012).
