The CT (Cut zone) occurrence is located on a north-facing slope, northwest of the Ospika River and approximately 15 kilometres southwest of Mount Ford.

Regionally, the area is underlain by a thick succession of Ordovician to Devonian Road River Group rocks consisting of black graphitic-graptolitic shales, black pyritic mudstones, dolomites, arenite (siltstone) turbidites and mafic volcanic flows.

Locally, mineralization forms a discreet stratigraphic horizon within the upper portion of this package. Overlain by a finely laminated baritic siltstone, the mineralization consists of a massive pyrite and sphalerite base, dolomite-pyrite-sphalerite breccia in the centre and massive barite and sphalerite at the top. The whole sequence averages 3 metres in width and can be traced for 250 metres along strike. Underlying this zone is dolomite with quartz-carbonate veins containing minor galena and sphalerite. This zone overlies a mudstone with 1-centimetre-wide sphalerite and 10-centimetre-wide pyrite lenses. Beneath the mudstone, dolomite hosts barite veins and sphalerite-galena–bearing quartz-carbonate veins. The whole sequence, from the top of the mineralized zone to the bottom of the dolomite, varies from 15 to 24 metres in thickness. Other mineralized zones, referred to as the Heavy Oxide, Main Ridge, South Ridge, West and North Ridge zones, have been traced over a strike length of approximately 2.5 kilometres.

In 1980, chip samples from a trench on the Cut zone graded 11.5 and 11.0 per cent zinc over 3.0 and 2.5 metres, respectively, whereas chip samples from the Heavy Oxide and West zones, located approximately 250 metres to the southeast and 300 metres west-southwest of the Cut zone, yielded 7.35 and 7.5 per cent zinc over 6 and 1 metres, respectively (Assessment Report 9243). The following year, chip samples from the Cut zone yielded up to 12.69 per cent zinc and 0.28 per cent lead over an unknown width, whereas other chip samples taken approximately 100 metres to the south-southeast assayed up to 10.50 per cent zinc and 0.11 per cent lead over an unknown length (Assessment Report 9900).

Work History

During 1980 through 1983, Cominco Ltd. completed programs of geological mapping, geochemical (rock, silt and soil) sampling and minor trenching on the area as the CT claims. In 1996, Cominco completed one diamond drill hole, totalling 319.5 metres on the Cut zone of the CT property. The drillhole failed to intercept the downdip extension of the Cut zone mineralization due to complications caused by a west-dipping thrust fault.

In 2007, Rio Grande Mining Corp. conducted a program of geochemical sampling, gravity geophysical surveys, prospecting and geological mapping on the area as part of the Kechika property. The following year, Rio Grande completed an airborne magnetic survey on the area.