The Bow occurrence is located about 2.5 kilometres west of the Bowron River and 1.2 kilometres south of Fourteen Mile Creek, approximately 31 kilometres north of the community of Wells.
The Bow claims were staked to cover showings of massive sulphide boulders in a geological environment suitable to host volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits. The claims are underlain by volcanic rocks of the Mississippian Antler Formation of the upper Paleozoic to Lower Triassic Slide Mountain Group. Rocks are mainly an intermediate to mafic sequence of volcanic flows and tuffs. Chert horizons are commonly found in the sequence.
On the Bow 1 claim, an area 500 by 250 metres contains in excess of 50 small boulders that exhibit features typical of volcanogenic massive sulphide mineralization. The principal sulphide is pyrite, however, some boulders contain up to 10 per cent chalcopyrite. The rock is 90 to 95 per cent sulphides and shows well-banded lineations. Copper grades vary from 1 to about 3 per cent (Assessment Report 25133). Also apparent are several rusty zones of ferricrete.
In 1993, Martin Peter prospected the Prince George-Wells area because of its similarity to rocks in the Finlayson Lake area of central Yukon where volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposits were being discovered. Peter’s prospecting in 1993 located minor copper-bearing float in the Westpass Lake area but he didn’t return to the area until 1996. In August 1996, he located the Bow massive sulphide float. The Bow float is located 4 kilometres east of Slender Lake. The float is mainly fist-sized or smaller ferricrete boulders within glaciofluvial gravels (not till). Some samples of the thinly bedded massive sulphide did assay up to 3.1 per cent copper (and 0.25 gram per tonne gold) but were more normally much lower grade. In late 1996 and 1997, Peter carried out magnetometer and soil surveys in the vicinity but no source was found. The second float location, the Tow, was found in 1997, approximately 5 kilometres to the south of Bow. Here, only minor float was found but the copper grade was up to 6.96 per cent along with 4.72 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 26842). Peter carried out some grid soils and trenching but no source of the float was found. Eureka Resources optioned the Bow-Tow area from Peter in 1997. In 1998, the company conducted an airborne electromagnetic (EM)/magnetic survey over the claims and followed up with ground geophysics and geochemistry. Numerous conductors were outlined, some with coincident soil anomalies, and drilling was recommended but no further work was carried out. Prospecting the general area of the Antler Formation in 1998 by Eureka led to the discovery of the Lottie float area (about 18 kilometres south of the Bow), consisting of several boulders and cobbles of massive sulphides containing 10–24 per cent copper. This led to the staking of the Lottie claims.
Hudson Bay Exploration and Development Co. Ltd. (HBED) examined the property in September 1999 and signed an option agreement with Eureka Resources Inc. in early 2000. Systematic till and moss mat sampling surveys covering the claims and adjoining areas were initially undertaken along with bedrock and surficial mapping and an airborne EM/magnetic survey. This was followed by detailed till sampling on prospective geochemical targets and linecutting/ground geophysics on the airborne EM targets. The season was completed with trenching (mainly in the Lottie area) and a six hole (709 metre) diamond drill program testing the area of the Lottie float and EM conductors. No significant bedrock mineralization was encountered and HBED dropped the option in early 2001.
The 2001 field program of Eureka Resources was carried out over the Bow-Lottie property. Prospecting, linecutting and ground geophysical surveys were carried out property wide on various targets left over from the 2000 program.
A rush of exploration in the 1980s and 1990s focused on the search for Besshi-type volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits in the Antler Formation. A downturn in mineral exploration caused a large area in the Wells-Barkerville region to become open after being claimed by a number of parties for more than a decade. The properties acquired by Eastfield Resources Inc. in early 2014 share characteristics with the deposits in Barkerville such as quartz-iron carbonate alteration and an association with base metal sulphides, with peripheral zones of strong iron-carbonate alteration. Eastfield Resources Ltd. staked three gold prospects north of Wells and Barkerville and cover the Bow (Antler) showing; fieldwork commenced later in the year. Gold mineralization was first discovered on the Antler property in 1981 by Esso Minerals while following up a government regional geochemical survey. A rubbly outcrop of pyritic, iron-carbonate-altered volcanic rock yielded an assay of 12.3 grams per tonne gold across a 1.1 metre sample width associated with elevated arsenic. A soil sampling grid over this area outlined a 500 metre long arsenic anomaly with the mineralized outcrop at the south end of the anomaly. The 2014 work program by Eastfield focused on two targets. The Antler target is outlined by the 500 metre long arsenic-in-soil anomaly and the second target, called 14 Mile Creek, is located where a number of massive sulphide float boulders were discovered with many having cores of fine-grained pyrite with lesser chalcopyrite (Press Release - Eastfield Resources Ltd., August 28, 2014).
Refer to Lottie (093H 156) for further Bow-Tow-Lottie details.
