The HOBSON showing is located east of the upper reaches of Spanish Creek, 10 kilometres north of the Hobson Arm, Quesnel Lake, approximately 18 kilometres east of the village of Likely. Access is provided by the 1300 Spanish Lake forestry road.
The property lies within the eastern part of the Quesnel Terrane. This region is underlain dominantly by fine-grained metasedimentary rocks in contact with the Barkerville Terrane. The metasedimentary rocks are mainly dark grey phyllite and silty slate considered to be Middle to Upper Jurassic Nicola Group.
The Hobson showing is hosted in highly faulted, medium-grained, pale green quartz-chlorite schists grading to quartz-chlorite-sericite schists and greenstone (possibly metamorphosed andesite). These rocks are part of the Upper Paleozoic Crooked Amphibolite. The north-trending fault or shear zones contain carbonate-mariposite alteration zones. Mineralization consists of pockets of galena and galena with pyrite in quartz-carbonate veins. Barker Minerals Ltd. has targeted volcanogenic massive sulphide and gold vein mineralization styles (Assessment Report 33013).
Gold and base metals were targeted in the area as early as 1981 to 1983. A grab sample (#14) from the carbonate mariposite zone at Landing 3 assayed 1.0284 grams per tonne silver, 0.011 per cent copper and less than 0.1714 gram per tonne gold (Matherly et al., 1983, Prospecting Report, Hobson Claim Group). In 1988 and 1989, 4 square kilometres of soil surveying and prospecting was completed.
Between 1991 and 1993, owners S. Paterson and M. Matherly continued prospecting the property claims. From 1994 to 1996, and in 1999, reconnaissance geophysics (self-potential) and geochemical sampling was conducted. Geophysical results were indicative of buried sulphide mineralization (Assessment Report 26755).
In 2001, trenching, rock sampling and geological reconnaissance mapping was completed on behalf of owners S. Paterson and M. Matherly. This work identified greenstone-hosted quartz-carbonate veining, with gold associated with arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite or galena. A few rock samples from this program assayed between 500 and 1000 parts per billion gold or greater (Assessment Report 26755).
In 2009, the Geological Survey of Canada flew an airborne geophysics survey across the Likely area, including the Spanish Creek property. Results indicated that the property is underlain by a large broad thorium-potassium high and potassium low. Barker Minerals Ltd. interpreted these results as comparable to other global examples of gold-bearing environments (Assessment Report 33989).
In 2011, Barker Minerals Ltd. undertook prospecting and a rock sampling program on their Spanish Creek property. A 50 by 60-centimetre angular massive sulphide boulder was found 200 metres downslope from a known copper-zinc-lead-silver-gold occurrence, near airborne magnetic and conductor anomalies. Two representative samples from the boulder assayed inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer values of 15.3 and 17.6 per cent copper, 6 and 7.2 per cent zinc, 0.17 per cent lead, 158 and 183 grams per tonne silver and 11.7 and 5.6 grams per tonne gold. Fire assay reported 9.6 and 0.14 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 33013).
In 2012, Barker Minerals Ltd. conducted soil and rock sampling along the Shiny Mineral Road. Semiquantitative X-ray fluorescence analysis assayed 15 soil samples with between 6 and 9 parts per million gold and four out of seven outcrop grab samples with between 6 and 13 parts per million gold (Assessment Report 33989). Soil sampling around the Hobson showing and the B.B. showing (Minfile 093A 331) in 2014 returned extensive anomalous zinc values and two gold anomalies (Assessment Report 35717). Of 60 float-subcrop samples obtained in the Hobson area in 2016, two quartz samples were highly anomalous in gold, 11.80 grams per tonne and 12.57 grams per tonne gold. The former also had 0.10 per cent zinc. Copper was anomalous in many of the samples with up to 4.86 per cent Cu (Assessment Report 36412).
From 2011 through 2019, the Black Bear East property was prospected and soil, stream sediment and rock (float, subcrop, outcrop) samples were taken by Barker Minerals Ltd. From east to west, the property included the Hobson occurrence, Black Bear East - North (093A 333) and South (093A 334) zones, LA (093A 332), B.B. (093A 331), Big (093A 151) and Providence (093A 003).
