The STANDARD occurrence is one of a group of gold-silver showings which occur in a small area 6 kilometres northeast of Cloud-Drifter Peak, 10 kilometres west of the south end of Tatlayako Lake, 46 kilometres south of the community of Tatla Lake on Highway 20, and 183 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake, BC. Other showings in this group are covered by the Langara (092N 036) Argo (092N 038) and Cloud Drifter (092N 095) occurrences. Gold was discovered in 1911, although the area was not explored properly until the mid-1930's, and again in 1987 and 1988.
Mineralization along the Cloud Drifter trend and throughout the roughly 500 square kilometre Goldrange project/property is closely associated with, and largely hosted by, a complex of quartz diorite and diorite intrusions of the Late Cretaceous to Paleocene Bendor suite, emplaced into sandstone of the Lower Cretaceous Cloud Drifter Formation. The area consists of overlap assemblage occurring between the northeastern margin of the Coast Plutonic Complex and the Tchaikazan fault to the northeast and is characterized by a complex belt of folds and imbricated, gently southwest-dipping thrust sheets.
The area of economic interest covers several square kilometres immediately south of Enchantment Creek which flows east-northeast into Ottarasko Creek. The northern part of this area is underlain by a quartz diorite intrusions of the Bendor Suite. To the south of the intrusion are Lower Cretaceous siltstone, sandstone, greywacke and conglomerate of the Cloud Drifter Formation. These rocks contain isoclinal minor folds locally; bedding is obscure and rather irregular. The area also contains numerous small mafic dikes.
The contact between the intrusion and the sedimentary rocks is irregular due to dike-like projections and small stocks of quartz diorite, but generally it trends east-northeast for at least 3 kilometres. The adjacent sedimentary rocks have been strongly altered and hornfelsed by the intrusion for a width of 200 to 300 metres, and it is this zone that contains the most important mineral showings.
The hornfelsed and altered zone is characterized by silicification, pyritization and quartz veining. Fine pyrite and arsenopyrite are pervasive in trace amounts; chalcopyrite is less common. Locally oxidation has produced conspicuous limonitic zones. Quartz veins occupy fractures that cut both the quartz diorite and the sedimentary rocks. The veins are generally between 5 and 10 centimetres thick but may be up to 1.5 metres thick; some display epithermal textures. Some veins trend subparallel to the quartz diorite contact but these are much less mineralized than those that trend between northwest and north-northeast, which may be strongly mineralized with arsenopyrite and pyrite, with minor chalcopyrite and rare malachite.
The Standard occurrence is centered on a short adit in silicified and mineralized siltstone and sandstone, although it is about 500 metres south of the main silicified and pyritized aureole of the quartz diorite intrusion. Arsenopyrite and pyrite mineralization is associated with quartz-filled fractures trending 160 degrees, or it is disseminated in the host rocks, and is traceable for 75 metres over a width of 1 to 2 metres. Some of the mineralization is massive and described as a replacement in argillite; this was assayed at 15 grams per tonne gold and 20.6 grams per tonne silver over 2 metres (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1935). A 4-centimetre-thick quartz vein was analyzed at 19.2 grams per tonne gold and 9.8 grams per tonne silver; another sample contained 0.3 per cent copper (Assessment Report 17980).
The Standard, Essential, and Waterfall Zones occur along north trending fold corridors that project under talus cover towards the Cloud Drifter Zone. Mineralization is focused along gentle to moderately east-dipping veins and local sulphide-cement breccia along the fold hinge.
In 2020, rock grab sample 3691632 assayed 82.1 grams per tonne gold, 47.6 grams per tonne silver, 40.2 per cent arsenic and 0.99 per cent copper. Back-pack drill hole BP-ST-20-1 intersected 9.6 metres of vein and breccia-hosted quartz-sulphide mineralization in siltstone at the Standard prospect. Arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite, pyrite and pyrrhotite were the dominant sulphide minerals. From 0 to 8.9 metres, the average assay was 8.43 grams per tonne gold, 9.59 grams per tonne silver, 9.93 per cent arsenic, 0.19 per cent copper and elevated bismuth and antimony values. From 0.54 to 4.0 metres, the average assay was 16.57 grams per tonne gold, 19.5 grams per tonne silver, 13.51 per cent arsenic, 0.36 per cent copper.
In 2020, Kingfisher Metals Corp. conducted a property-wide LiDAR survey was completed to aid in mapping the structural geology on the district-scale project. High-resolution (50 metre line spacing) airborne magnetics and radiometrics were completed over the Cloud Drifter Trend. Prospecting, mapping, rock sampling (33 samples) and 1 back-pack drill hole were completed in the Standard occurrence area. Westward extensions of the Standard zone were discovered in 2020; the Essential, 230 metres west and the Waterfall, 500 metres west of the Standard adit. Both are included in the Standard prospect. The Essential zone yielded a sample grading 17.1 grams per tonne gold and the Waterfall zone yielded a rock sample grading 63.9 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 39459).
Kingfisher Metals conducted limited rock sampling at the Standard prospect in 2021, but a soil sampling program showed moderate gold anomalies becoming higher closer to the Standard prospect. No ground work in the Standard area was conducted in 2022, but structural interpretations were made from airborne data collected in 2020 over the large Goldrange project area.
Refer to Cloud Drifter (MINFILE 095) and Langara (092N 036) for common geological and work history details.
