The Dry Hills (L.1548) occurrence is located on or near Merry Widow Creek, approximately 600 metres southwest of the Creek mouth.

Regionally, the area is underlain by basaltic volcanic rocks of the Upper Triassic Karmutsen Formation (Vancouver Group), which are overlain sequentially by limestone of the Upper Triassic Quatsino Formation (Vancouver Group), limestone, mudstone and siltstone of the Upper Triassic Parson Bay Formation (Bonanza Group) and mixed volcanic and sedimentary rocks of the Lower Jurassic LeMare Lake volcanic unit (Bonanza Group). The volcanic and sedimentary rocks have been intruded by diabase and basaltic intrusive rocks of the Upper Triassic to Lower Jurassic Bonanza Group to the south and gabbro to quartz diorite of the Lower to Middle Jurassic Island Plutonic Suite to the west.

The occurrence lies in faulted Upper Triassic Vancouver Group Quatsino Formation limestone near its eastern contact with Lower Jurassic Bonanza Group tuffs and agglomerates, 2 kilometres east of the Jurassic Island Plutonic Suite Coast Copper stock. The fault zone strikes 315 degrees and dips 45 degrees northeast. About 1.5 metres from the fault, in the hangingwall, cobaltite and chalcopyrite occur with garnet alteration. Cobaltite is oxidized to erythrite. Skarn alteration minerals include epidote and serpentine. Silicification, pyrite and graphite are present.

In 2020, a channel sample from the Road zone, located approximately 230 metres southeast of the plotted location of the Dry Hill occurrence, yielded 0.19 per cent copper over 6.5 metres of volcanics hosting disseminated pyrite and chalcopyrite possible related to the Old Sport Horizon (Assessment Report 39420).

Work History

The area has been explored in conjunction with the Merry Widow (MINFILE 092L 044) deposits since the early 1900’s. In 1968, Quatsino Copper Gold completed a program of airborne magnetic and radiometric geophysical surveys on the area. In 1970, Alice Lake Minerals completed an aeromagnetic survey. During 1989, through 1992, Taywin Resources completed programs of geological mapping, trenching and surface sampling on the area. During 2005 through 2012, Grande Portage Resources completed programs of rock, silt and soil sampling, geological mapping, airborne electromagnetic and magnetic surveys and a ground magnetometer survey on the area. In 2016 and 2017, Bridgeland Minerals completed a radar satellite and LiDAR orthophoto geological interpretation program on the area as the Blue Gold/Merry Widow property. In 2019, Mirva Properties Ltd. completed a rock sampling program on the Merry Widow property. In 2020, Roughrider Exploration Ltd. completed a program of rock, silt and soil sampling on the area as the Empire Mine property.