The Mineral Hill zone is part of the Lone Pine property, located approximately 45 kilometres southeast of Smithers or about 14 kilometres north of Houston.
The Lone Pine showing area is primarily underlain by a sequence of northwesterly striking andesitic flows and pyroclastics, with lesser rhyolite and basalts, of the Lower Jurassic Telkwa Formation (Hazelton Group). Some minor sedimentary rocks of the Upper Jurassic Bowser Lake Group have been noted to be present in discrete locales, and these are typically argillites, quartzite, and greywackes with local calcareous content. All of the aforementioned rocks are altered or hornfelsed, proximal to the contacts of intrusive rocks of the Late Cretaceous Bulkley Plutonic Suite that outcrop in the southern and western portions of the property, and which may underlie a thin veneer of hornfels elsewhere. In the northern Quartz Breccia zone (093L 335) the hornfels is chloritic, exhibiting a greenish hue, while in the Alaskite zone (093L 028) the hornfels are compact and biotitic. It was estimated (ca. 1987) that the area of hornfels alteration covers an area of approximately 2000 by 2500 metres. In 1984, a trachytic flow on the upper plateau of Mineral Hill was reported to resemble the Tertiary Goosly Lake Volcanics which have been mapped elsewhere in the general area.
On the property the principal intrusive rocks are a porphyritic quartz monzonite (referred to in the literature as “quartz feldspar porphyry”), and the lesser alaskite to the south, and finally a diorite intrusive rock is noted to the east of the Mineral Hill area which is to the east of the Alaskite zone. Local aplitic and monzonitic dikes are found in the area of the quartz monzonite stock.
A mineralized breccia (Quartz Breccia zone, 093L 335) with siderite cement has been noted to have been formed locally on the property near the northern margin of the main intrusive body. Quite often around the margins of the intrusions drillholes intersected alternating hornfels, and intrusive rocks of varying types. This pattern may be the result of dikes forming on the periphery of the intrusion, apophyses, sills, or possibly even large xenoliths (if hornfelsing can be shown to be a product of earliest intrusion) of hornfelsed sedimentary or volcano-sedimentary rock.
It has been postulated (ca. 1987) that as a result of increased brittleness due to contact metamorphism, and fracturing due to forcible emplacement by one or more phases of intrusive, the hornfels became a permissive host for fracture controlled vein emplacement and local disseminated molybdenum/copper mineralization.
The Lone Pine property is classified as a low fluorine porphyry molybdenum deposit. These deposits are characterized by stockworks of molybdenite-bearing quartz veinlets and fractures in intermediate to felsic rocks and associated country rocks.
Mineralization in the Mineral Hill zone is hosted in the quartz feldspar granite intrusion as disseminated and vein-hosted molybdenum mineralization as well as narrow, late-stage, polymetallic veins.
In the Mineral Hill zone, fifteen percussion-drill holes were completed by Moly Mine Explorations Limited. The best intersection of these was 6 metres grading 0.14 per cent molybdenum. In 1978, a drillhole intersected mineralization throughout its entire length that averaged 0.062 per cent molybdenite (MoS2) (Assessment Report 7117).
In 2009, Bard Ventures Ltd. completed drilling at the Mineral Hill zone. Highlights include drillhole BD-09-54, which intersected 0.4 metre grading 1.66 per cent copper, 4.02 per cent lead, 5.00 per cent zinc and 2400 grams per tonne silver, and drillhole BD-09-55 which intersected 3.8 metres grading 0.36 per cent molybdenum (Press Release - Bard Ventures Ltd., January 26, 2010). In 2010, Bard Ventures Ltd. completed drilling at the Mineral Hill zone. Highlights include drillhole BD-10-66, which intersected 112.4 metres grading 0.05 per cent molybdenum, and drillhole BD-10-61 which intersected 37.2 metres grading 12.51 grams per tonne silver (Press Release - Bard Ventures Ltd., May 5, 2010).
For full property history and regional geology, see Lone Pine (093L 028).
