The Brunswick prospect is located on Rocher Deboule Mountain near the head of Red Rose Creek, 13 kilometres south of New Hazelton. The Red Rose occurrence (093M 067) is located about 1200 metres to the northwest. The property was originally located in 1912 and there were two adits developed.
The claims are underlain by hornfelsed argillites and greywackes of the Middle Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous Bowser Lake Group which are intruded by dikes of feldspar porphyry, and a small diorite plug and the Rocher Deboule porphyritic granodiorite stock located one kilometre to the east. The Rocher Deboule stock is part of the Late Cretaceous Bulkley Plutonic Suite and has been dated at 72 million years (Geological Survey of Canada Open file 2322).
The vein mineralization is mainly quartz carrying sphalerite, galena, chalcopyrite, tetrahedrite and pyrite. It is believed that there are two vein systems present, as illustrated by the lower adit vein and the lower adit fault vein. The adits follow a complex post-ore faulted vein-silicified shear system which contains significant silver, lead, zinc and copper.
The vein in the lower adit is up to 1.8 metres wide, strikes 060 degrees and dips 55 to 80 degrees northwest. It is mineralized with arsenopyrite and pyrite and carries low silver values.
The upper adit vein is faulted and 0.45 metre wide. A sample (#9476) from the upper adit assayed 3.65 per cent lead, 4.05 per cent zinc, 1288.93 grams per tonne silver and 0.446 gram per tonne gold (Property File - Cochrane, D.R., 1973). A composite sample taken from 30 bags of selected ore from the upper adit assayed 1.0 gram per tonne gold, 3802.4 grams per tonne silver, 1.91 per cent copper, 17.27 per cent lead and 28.4 per cent zinc (Geological Survey of Canada Memoir 223).
In 2006, Crucible Resources Ltd. visited the Brunswick and described the workings as follows. The Brunswick prospect has been developed by two adits, along with several open cuts. The adits were driven into the steep hillside above the eastern bank of Balsam Creek. A spur road from the Red Rose mine road leads across Balsam Creek and switchbacks up the hillside to the two adit locations. The adits have caved at the portals, but their locations are clear from the road landings and from the mineralized dump material present. There is considerable quartz float in Balsam Creek, accumulated in the level area where the road crosses. Much of this quartz shows narrow bands of galena and sphalerite. At the lower adit location, a small opening was still evident through the talus that has accumulated in front of the adit. About 5 metres to the west, a quartz vein is exposed along the steep bank above the creek. A chip sample (CR60814-1) was taken across this vein and an adjacent band of clay gouge. The vein material is massive quartz with iron staining, but no visible sulphides. The upper adit is completely caved, and its location was assumed to be at the upper switchback in the road. Just below the road at this location there is a small dump, which includes numerous large (0.3-1.3 metre diameter) pieces of mineralized quartz, presumably from the vein followed by the upper adit. A substantial chip sample (CR60814-2) was taken from a well mineralized quartz boulder on this dump. The boulder consisted of milky white quartz containing substantial bands and patches of sphalerite and galena (Assessment Report 29082).
Work History
In 1925, John Miller worked on the Brunswick. No.1 tunnel and was driven 20 metres; nine tonnes of ore was mined. The No.2 tunnel was run 52 metres to meet the downward extension of No.1 tunnel. A short aerial tram conveyed the ore. In 1927, J. Miller continued work on the Brunswick property. In 1931, J. Miller conducted assessment work on the Brunswick group of claims.
In 1951, Skeena Silver Mines Ltd. restaked the property adding additional claims to the Brunswick group. A property visit was made with view to installing mining equipment. In 1952, Skeena Silver Mines Ltd. conducted 69.5 metres of drifting along the Brunswick vein which was displaced by a fault. The faulted segment was later found by four short diamond-drill holes and one longer drillhole.
In 1973, the Brunswick was optioned to Arcadia Explorations. Underground to surface transit surveying and a topographic plan was completed. Geological mapping of the showing was performed and seven grab samples were collected. An electromagnetic survey line over the adit vein and a self-potential survey on five cross-lines was completed; a bulldozer excavated Trench 1 and Trench 2.
In 1987, Catoosea Resources relocated old workings and prospect for new targets on the Brian Boru (093M 064)/Killarney (093M 114). Mapping was completed on the Brunswick, Balsam, No. 4, Kaslo and Betty veins (all part of 093M 066) (Assessment Report 16012).
In 2006, Crucible Resources Ltd. completed an option on the Brunswick and Jupiter (093M 065) from D. Warkentin. Two days were spent on the property in 2006. The first day consisted of a visit to the Slater claim (#532105), while the second day was spent exploring along Red Rose Creek, including the Red Rose tailings and the Brunswick prospect. This work covered parts of both the Armagosa (093M 068) and Bnunswick claims. In these investigations, some historical workings were identified, including the Brunswick adits, and the Red Rose tailings. In total, four rock or chip samples were collected. In addition, one tailings sample was collected along Red Rose Creek, and one stream sediment and three soil geochemical samples were collected in and around Slater Creek.
In 2008, Duncastle Gold Corp. collected 51 rock and 53 silt samples in the Brunswick, Jupiter, Armagosa and Brian Boru areas (Assessment Report 30431). Rock samples yielded up to 1.30 grams per tonne gold, 2566 grams per tonne silver, 11.08 per cent lead, 18.94 per cent zinc and greater than 1.00 per cent copper (Hanson, J. (2018-04-03): National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report on the Cobalt Mountain Property).
In 2010, Dunham Gold Corp. completed a 495 kilometre airborne geophysical survey on its Porphyry Creek property which covered numerous showings including the Brunswick (Assessment Report 31728).
The Porphyry Creek project consists of 13 mineral claims covering an area of 4811 hectares (ca. 2017). The claims overlap a small group of Crown-granted claims that surround the past-producing Red Rose tungsten mine (093M 067) and it is assumed that this area is fully excluded from the property.
The Porphyry Creek property contains eight separate MINFILE occurrences listed as: Armagosa (093M 068), Balsam (093M 059), Big Thing (093M 062), Brian Boru (093M 064), Brunswick (093M 066), Jupiter (093M 065), Sultana (093M 061), and Tina (093M 060). The Brunswick mine had some minor production from two adits driven to 20 and 52 metres, respectively and possibly from open cuts, prior to 1950. Development occurred mainly in the 1920s, and the total amount of ore produced is unknown, but ‘thirty bags’ of handpicked ore are reported from a later operator in 1954. Other occurrences that are reported to have some old development workings include the Armagosa and the Brian Boru, consisting of small open cuts and short adits. The Sultana prospect has had more extensive past exploration, including substantial trenching (essentially small-scale mining) and limited drilling on a high grade silver vein. This prospect was the main focus of an exploration and drilling program in 2010 and 2011 that identified extensive low grade copper and molybdenum mineralization below and to the northwest of the historical workings.
Beginning in 2008, Duncastle Gold Corp. carried out geochemical and geophysical surveys over wider areas of the Porphyry Creek property, which was significantly larger than the current property area. This was followed by drilling in the Sultana area. Areas on the west side of the property were prospected and a stream sediment geochemical survey was conducted in 2008. A property-wide airborne geophysical survey was carried out in 2010 that included magnetic, electromagnetic and radiometric measurements. Short site visits were also made to the MT showing (093M 063), the Big Thing showing and various areas of geophysical interest around the Tina showing.
During May to July, 2011 six core holes totalling 2594.44 metres were drilled on the Sultana prospect part of the Porphyry Creek property, 100 per cent owned by Duncastle Gold Corporation of Vancouver, British Columbia. The 2011 drilling cut a weak to moderately sericite-chlorite+/-epidote altered medium-grained granodiorite indicative of the phyllic-propylitic alteration zone surrounding a porphyry-style deposit. Fracturing and vein density intersected in the drilling was insufficient to increase the copper-molybdenum grade much above the 0.1 per cent range over any significant lengths in drill core. The best grades encountered in the six hole drill program was from drillholes PC11-004 (324.00-375.00 metres) grading 0.11 per cent copper and 0.021 per cent molybdenum over 51.0 metres, PC11-005 (388.00-424.20 metres) averaging 0.11 per cent copper, 0.029 per cent molybdenum and 1.53 grams per tonne silver over 36.2 metres, PC11-006 which assayed 0.14 per cent copper and 0.022 per cent molybdenum over 29.00 metres (141.00-170.00 metres), and PC11-007 which intersected a 25.4 metre interval (317.90-343.30 metres) assaying 0.14 per cent copper, 0.0025 per cent molybdenum and 1.23 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 32636).
In July of 2014, operators Kyler Hardy, Tim Johnson and Crucible Resources Ltd. conducted an exploration program in two areas of the Porphyry Creek property, including rock sampling, mapping and prospecting in the Brunswick area, and soil sampling and site reclamation work in the Sultana area.
In 2015, operators Kyler Hardy, Tim Johnson and Crucible Resources Ltd. conducted a limited ground exploration program of prospecting, rock, soil and stream sediment geochemical sampling in the Red Rose Creek area, Slater Creek area and Sultana/Boulder creeks areas. A total of eight rock samples, twelve soil and silt geochemical samples, and three tailings samples were collected
In 2016, operators Kyler Hardy, Tim Johnson and Crucible Resources Ltd. conducted prospecting and rock sampling in the Brunswick mine area as well as in-fill soil and talus samples to the north and east of the old Sultana workings, and the Red Rose Creek area.
In February of 2017, the owners of the Porphyry Creek property agreed to option the claims to Lansdowne Holdings, a private company seeking a Canadian Securities Exchange listing. The work completed in the same year consisted of prospecting and soil sampling in the Sultana area and the Ridge Target in the Red Rose area of the property. The purpose of the work was to systematically follow up on geophysical anomalies identified by an airborne geophysical survey completed in July of 2010.
In 2018, Lansdown Holdings completed a minor program of prospecting and soil and rock sampling on the area.
Refer to Sultana (093M 061) for further details of the Porphyry Creek property work history, of which the Brunswick was part of.
