The SPIDER VEIN is located 200 metres southwest of the Perkins workings (Minfile 093H 037) on a southwest ridge of Mount Burns, 9 kilometres southwest of the village of Wells.
The showing occurs within the Barkerville Terrane of the Omineca Belt. The Barkerville Terrane is in thrust contact with Triassic Quesnellia Terrane rocks to the west and Hadrynian to Lower Paleozoic Cariboo Terrane rocks to the east. The Barkerville Terrane in this region is underlain by the dominantly metasedimentary rocks of the Hadrynian to Lower Paleozoic Snowshoe Group. In this area the Snowshoe Group comprises limestone, phyllite and quartzite. These rocks have been regionally metamorphosed to greenschist facies.
Rocks consist of foliated, gritty to fine-grained quartzites +/- sericite and finely laminated siltstone and phyllite +/- sericite. Spotty chloritic alteration is common and silicification is apparent adjacent to fault structures. Carbonaceous and calcareous siltstones have also been observed.
The gold-bearing Spider Vein was likely worked by Beedy in the 1880'sand is exposed in the Beedy pits. It was discovered near the Arrastra Tailings and 90 metres west of the Beedy shaft. The vein is 8-12 inches wide, strikes 190 to 200 degrees and dips steeply to the west.
Gemco Minerals Inc. acquired Mount Burns claim group from Firstline Recovery Systems Inc in 2006. The property extends southeast from Mount Nelson, across Lightning Creek to Mount Burns and Mount Amador and west to Grub Mountain. An aggressive trenching and prospecting program followed up with and supported by geophysics was conducted over several areas of the large property.
The 2010 program concentrated on trenching and geochemical sampling of rock exposures and old mine sites on Mount Burns. Thirty-seven of 236 rock samples collected assayed greater than 1 gram per tonne gold. Persistent anomalous values were obtained from the Spider Vein, Perkins, Cohen Incline and Textbook showing areas on Mount Burns. Grab sample 189084 from the Spider Vein assayed 16.2 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 32340).
Further trenching in 2011, along with self potential surveys in the Mount Burns area, exposed three rock samples with greater than 1 gram per tonne gold to the northeast and west of the Cohen Incline, approximately 650 metres northeast of the Spider Vein, and several specimens contained visible gold in quartz veins.
In 2012, Gemco Minerals Inc. conducted a Phase 1 bulk sample testing of the Perkins workings to determine whether the old tailings could be further processed economically. The on-site processing successfully created a fine pyritic concentrate with an estimated 90 per cent recovery (Assessment Report 34431).