The Meindl copper occurrence is located on a ridge west of a major tributary of Toad River in the mountainous Muskwa Ranges of the Northern Rocky Mountains, 55 kilometres south of Muncho Lake (Assessment Report 3216, Map 2).
The occurrence is in the hangingwall of a large thrust, the Gataga thrust, which lies along the western margin of the Muskwa Anticlinorium, a north-northwest–trending regional structure characterized by folding and thrust faulting. Like the main part of the anticlinorium to the east, the Gataga thrust sheet consists of Middle Proterozoic (Helikian) rocks of the Muskwa Assemblage, along with unconformably overlying 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 1713A). Proterozoic diabase or gabbroic dikes are common in the region.
The area is hosted in the Aida Formation of the Muskwa Assemblage, closely associated with basic dikes (Geological Survey of Canada Memoir 373, Paper 67-68). The Aida Formation comprises pale grey slaty argillite, and siliceous and argillaceous dolostone (Assessment Report 3216). The southwest of the property is underlain by the overlying Gataga Formation and the Cambrian Atan Group. Bedding strikes north-northwest and dips moderately west. Faults in the area trend northwest or east (Geology, Exploration and Mining in British Columbia 1971). The basaltic or diabasic dikes range in thickness from 1 to 30 metres. Most strike north and dip steeply west, but some strike northeast and dip northwest. Slight contact metamorphism and alteration, namely sericitization and silicification, is present for approximately 1 metre from the dike margins. In addition, dike margins are generally faulted or sheared.
Copper mineralization is in quartz veins, which primarily occur along the northwest margin of a steeply dipping, northeast-striking dike that transects a number of north-trending dikes. Veins also occur in fault zones a short distance from the dikes. The veins form discontinuous lenses from 15 to 90 centimetres in width and up to 25 metres in length. Less significant veins occur on the southeastern margin of the dike. Locally, septa of sedimentary rock intervene between the veins and the dike. The overall strike length of the mineralization is approximately 730 metres.
The veins range from almost entirely quartz to quartz and carbonate (possibly ankerite), to a mixture of quartz and inclusions of strongly altered, mainly dolomitic sedimentary rock. Mineralization consists of chalcopyrite, with minor pyrite, bornite, malachite and rare erythrite. Chalcopyrite forms clusters or small lenses in the veins and appears to be preferentially concentrated in or next to the sedimentary wallrock or inclusions, even replacing that material. Generally, however, copper mineralization is erratic in continuity and grade. Small high-grade zones, marked by strong alteration and oxidation, yielded the best assay results. A 1.3-metre chip sample from a quartz vein, on which the occurrence is centred, was assayed at 14.8 per cent copper (Assessment Report 3216).
Work History
In 1971, Canadian Superior Exploration Ltd., on the behalf of Windermere Exploration Ltd., completed a program of geological mapping and rock sampling on the area as the Meindl claims.
In 1979 and 1980, Halferdahl & Associates Ltd. completed a regional program of soil sampling on the area as the Tuchodi property.
In 2005, Twenty-Seven Capital Corp. completed a regionally extensive program of geochemical (rock, silt and soil) sampling and a 9002.0 line-kilometre airborne magnetic survey on the area as the Muskwa property. A float sample (B374223) of massive and semi-massive chalcopyrite with quartz, located in a creek approximately 1.5 kilometres south of the occurrence, assayed 24 per cent copper (Assessment Report 28281).
Also in 2005, Action Minerals Inc. and Aries Resource Corp. completed a program of prospecting on the area as the Talus claims of the Trident Copper project.
