The Owl Creek C zone is located at Owl Creek, to the north of Pemberton, and near the southern tip 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 volcanics are rocks of the Jurassic to Tertiary Coast Plutonic Complex varying in composition from granite to granodiorite to quartz diorite.
Copper mineralization occurs within diorite bodies which have been intruded along a major northwest trending shear zone that parallels Owl Creek. The diorite has been intensely silicified, pyritized, epidotized and chloritized and cut by numerous quartz stringers. Gypsum and calcite are also present in veinlets and patches. Chalcopyrite occurs with pyrite and separately as streaks, in patches and also in quartz veins. Molybdenite occurs separately in fractures and magnetite is sporadically distributed in irregular patches not generally associated with sulphides. A 91.4-metre drill interval from this zone assayed 0.4 per cent copper and 0.029 per cent molybdenite (Assessment Report 15597).
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. C zone has had the most exploration, culminating in a drilling program by Pine Lake Mining in 1972 that totalled 2473 metres (8113 feet) in 10 holes. All holes were mineralized. The best potential was in hole C-2, which intersected 91.4 metres of 0.4 per cent copper and 0.029 per cent molybdenum. On the east side of Little Owl Lake, Pine Lake Mining also defined an anomalous area by soil geochemistry and geophysics, named D zone (Assessment Report 32271).
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. There is potential for additional mineralization north of C zone and in the vicinity of Little Owl Lake in the area of D zone, where outcrops are scarce. Four rock samples from the C zone yielded values from 0.043 to 0.470 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).
