The Grizzly Lake or Cariboo Zinc property straddles the gravel Weldwood “8400” logging road in the Grizzly Lake area about 55 kilometres northeast of Likely. Roads constructed in 1990 extend from the 8400 road to the main showings and provide rough 4-wheel drive or ATV access. The showings lie within the Cariboo Terrane of the Omineca Belt and is underlain by rocks of the Hadrynian Cunningham Formation. A short distance to the west of the property lies the Pleasant Valley Thrust. This is a major thrust fault which marks the division between the Cariboo Terrane to the east and the Barkerville Terrane to the west. The Cunningham Formation is characterized by limestone, dolostone and fine-grained marble and is in gradational contact with the underlying, dominantly clastic rocks of the Issac Formation and the overlying clastic Yankee Belle Formation. These three formations are all considered to be of the Upper Proterozoic Cariboo Group.
Previous property mapping by Teck Corporation defined a package of rocks consisting of interbedded and intercalated carbonate and pelitic sediments which are gently folded regionally, and which have been strongly affected by faulting. A large granodiorite to quartz monzonite pluton is present north of the claims and intrusions exist southeast of the property. In addition, small offshoots are found along the 8400 road. South of the 8400 road, a threefold division of units can be traced across the property. A thin phyllite unit is sandwiched between an underlying dolomitic carbonate and overlying massive to well bedded limestone. The limestone forms prominent ridges. All units dip moderately to steeply to the north. Lead-zinc mineralization is associated with the dolomitic carbonates adjacent to the phyllite unit. The carbonates are designated as the Hadrynian Cunningham Formation (Cariboo Group). The dolomitic carbonate unit was locally subdivided into a lower brecciated limy dolomite and an overlying cream dolomite. It is not clear whether this represents a mappable stratigraphy or more likely local variation within the unit. North of the 8400 road the ridge-forming upper limestone appears to be present. Most of the area west of Grizzly Lake is underlain by a complexly intercalated pelite-carbonate unit which appears to underlie the dolomite. The pelitic sediments in this unit consist of muscovite-biotitite schist with intercalated biotite-garnet schist and thin marble bands. Carbonates are present as metre-scale thin bedded marble beds containing isoclinally folded pale and dark grey marble bands.
Zinc-lead mineralization occurs over 8 kilometres of strike length in favourable dolomitic carbonates of the Cunningham Formation. It is mainly confined to a 200 metre wide stratabound zone trending roughly northwest, and occurs in several forms: as disseminated clots, as veins and narrow breccia zones, as zones of strong fracturing, and as irregular pods and masses with sharp replacement-type contacts. Mineralization occurs as primary sulphides and as superficial oxidized zones containing smithsonite and cerussite. Galena ranges from very fine to very coarse grained, and ductile deformation textures seen locally suggest that it is pre-regional deformation. Sphalerite is generally medium to coarse grained, ranging in colour from honey yellow to yellow-green to reddish orange. Very little pyrite generally accompanies mineralization. Quartz veins are widespread, and locally attain widths well in excess of one metre. Locally quartz and quartz-carbonate veins contain significant galena and sphalerite.
In 1969, Canex Aerial Explorations Ltd. completed silt sampling on a creek on the east side of the property and follow-up soil sampling outlined a large anomalous zone. In 1972, Canadian Superior Explorations extended the Canex work to the west and outlined several induced polarization, electromagnetic (EM) and soil anomalies, and the occurrence of some high grade lead-zinc float and vein-type mineralization. Three drillholes were completed totalling 353 metres. Between 1969-72, Cream Silver and Morocco Mines? conducted geochemistry and hand trenching in the DeBasher Lake area and drilled 4 holes totalling 600 metres near Flipper Creek (central portion of present property); some scattered remnant core appears to be largely phyllite or argillaceous carbonates. In 1989, R.E. Mickle completed prospecting and “Zinc-Zap” testing which revealed an 8-10 kilometre long, northwest trending carbonate-hosted zinc trend. The area is seen to contain in excess of 65 separate? mineral occurrences, some of which display considerable aerial extent as revealed by surface stripping. Galena was found to be present in many locations throughout the property. In 1989-90, T.S.A. and Teck Corporation enter a joint venture on the Mickle claims. Teck assumes initial management and funding and undertakes a large soil and rock geochemistry program, rock trenching and stripping, geological mapping, limited VLF-EM, four shallow Winkie-drill holes and completes a reclamation program. In 1990, Cariboo Highland Metals option the former Canex and Canadian Superior ground where shallow trenching revealed numerous lead-zinc occurrences. In 1992-93, Golden Kootenay Resources Inc. completed an EM orientation survey followed by a detailed VLF-EM and magnetometer program. Between 1994-97, Golden Kootenay Resources completed 9 AQ diamond-drill holes totalling 763 metres. During 1996 a limited gravity survey was done. In 1998-99, Golden Kootenay Resources and Excellerated Resources Inc. drilled 2 XRP drill holes totalling 57 metres, 2 AQ holes totalling 45 metres, and 2 NQ holes for 304 metres. Following the 1999 program no further work was documented and the ground eventually came open. The property was acquired by on-line staking by J. Bradford and J. Fleishman in January 2006, and 100 per cent ownership transferred to Paget Resources Corp. In 2006, Paget Resources completed geological mapping and rock sampling on parts of their expansive Cariboo Zinc property claims.
