The Gut zinc prospect is situated on the boundary between the Chodi 11 and 12 claims, on the Gataga River, 19 kilometres southwest of Churchill Peak in the mountainous Muskwa Ranges of the Northern Rocky Mountains (Assessment Report 9540, Plate 6). The subordinate Falls showing is 300 metres to the northwest.

The occurrence is on the western edge of the Muskwa Anticlinorium, a major regional structure characterized by thrust faulting and moderate folding. Exposed in the structure are Middle Proterozoic clastic and carbonate rocks of the Helikian Muskwa Assemblage, and unconformably overlying Cambrian and younger Paleozoic rocks (Geological Survey of Canada Map 1343A; Geological Society of America, Geology of North America, Volume G-2, pages 111, 639). All belong to Ancestral North America (Geological Survey of Canada Map 1343A).

Regional geological mapping would place the Gut showing within the Gataga Formation of the Muskwa Assemblage, which is dominated by carbonaceous mudstone and siltstone (Geological Survey of Canada Map 1343A, Memoir 373). Property mapping, however, indicates that this and the nearby Red and Goat showings (MINFILE 094K 028 and 094K 056, respectively) occur near the contact between a Cambrian dolostone unit and an overlying unit of quartz sandstone, shale and argillite, and limestone (probably all Atan Group; Assessment Report 9540). Given the regional setting, though, this succession is perhaps more compatible with the contact between the Gataga Formation and dolomitic rocks of the underlying Aida Formation; this suggestion is tentative. Stromatolites and cryptalgal laminae are reported from the dolostone. The strata are gently to moderately folded, and strike approximately 320 degrees and dip 35 degrees southwest. Argillaceous rocks are well cleaved.

Mineralization is generally confined to the uppermost 10 metres of the dolostone and dolomitic breccia unit. It consists of pyrite and sphalerite in two mineralized bands; the larger one 2 to 3 metres thick and parallel to bedding in the dolostone, which here strikes approximately 324 degrees and dips 30 degrees southwest. Fine-grained pyrite occurs in massive lenses up to 20 centimetres thick, and in vertical stockwork zones. Sphalerite, usually yellow or pale red-brown (indicating a high zinc/iron ratio), occurs as disseminated grains and massive pods up to 2 centimetres across, or in coarse-grained bands alternating with bands of pyrite. Pyrite and sphalerite may also locally contribute to the matrix in dolomitic breccia.

From the textures and the association of the sulphides with recrystallization in the dolostone, it has been proposed that the mineralization is a carbonate-hosted, replacement-type massive sulphide deposit (Assessment Report 9540).

Chip sample 9126, taken obliquely through the thicker band, assayed 6.25 per cent zinc over 3 metres, while at the Falls showing, 300 metres to the northwest, a chip sample (91217) assayed 0.96 per cent zinc over 3.5 metres (Assessment Report 9540, Plates 9 and 10).

Work History

1981, Asarco Exploration Co. of Canada Ltd. completed a program of geological mapping, soil sampling and 20.3 line-kilometres of combined ground magnetic, electromagnetic and induced polarization surveys on the area as the Chodi property.

In 1994, Ecstall Mining Corp. completed a minor soil sampling program on the area as the Chodi claims.