The Woodcock (Orange Mountain) showing is located about 1500 metres west of Todd Creek, approximately 13 kilometres south of the confluence of Todd Creek with the Bowser River.
The area is underlain by the Lower Jurassic Unuk River Formation of the Hazelton Group (Bulletin 63). Near the showing, the rocks trend north and dip east. The rocks consist predominantly of volcanics, intruded by mafic dikes; rare limestone has been reported. The volcanics are comprised of intermediate tuff and red agglomerate. Light grey siliceous tuff, carbonate-rich tuff, volcanic breccia and carbonaceous pyritic tuff have been reported approximately 1500 metres to the south, near Fall Creek (104A 107) (Assessment Report 10404).
Three main sets of faults have been recognized: 1) a northwest-trending set dips about 60 degrees west, 2) an east-trending set dips vertically, and 3) an east-trending set dips 25 degrees north.
The volcanics are variably altered over an area of approximately 1500 by 1200 metres west of Todd Creek. In this large alteration zone, four separate areas of medium to intense alteration have been reported: Main, Camp Creek, Fault Creek and Glacier Creek zones. The Main zone, about 1000 by 500 metres in size, encompasses much of the barite mineralization and includes a jasper-barite zone.
Petrographic work indicates that the alteration coincides with a pile of trachytic volcanics. Outlying volcanics are predominantly propylitized andesites; carbonate, hematite and chlorite are typical alteration minerals. The trachytic volcanics themselves are typically variably sericitized and silicified. Kaolinite accompanies sericite in places. Silicification, possibly postdating the sericitization, is represented by: 1) fine grained matrix replacement of the trachytes, 2) coarse grained quartz lenses and veinlets, often with barite, and 3) in at least one location, banded opaline quartz (Assessment Report 13684).
Mineralization comprises pyrite, barite and galena. Pyrite is widespread throughout the alteration, mainly as disseminations, with lesser amounts along fractures or in barite veins. Much of the pyrite has been leached from the surface rocks. Abundant jarosite, in the more intensely altered rocks, suggests an original high pyrite content; limonite prevails in the lesser altered areas.
Barite is also widespread and is found mainly in the alteration zones, but barite lenses and veins do occur well beyond the alteration. Barite is commonly accompanied by minor galena and pyrite together with varying amounts of calcite, jasper and jasper breccia. The barite forms pods (up to 30 by 7 metres), veins (0.1 to 2 metres wide and typically 10 to 20 metres long) and as small concentrations 4 centimetres across.
The jasper-barite zone consists of jasper, barite, jasper breccia and minor galena and pyrite. It is characterized by convoluted banding of alternating jasper (or jasper breccia) and barite layers. Proportions of jasper and barite vary widely. Barite predominates in the western section. The jasper breccia includes fragments of jasper in a variable silica-hematite-barite matrix (Assessment Report 13684). The alteration zones are anomalous in lead, zinc, silver, arsenic, mercury and, locally, antimony. Copper and molybdenum are sporadically anomalous. The few gold analyses are low. A 0.7-metre-wide chip(?) sample at the western end of the jasper-barite zone assayed 232.5 grams per tonne silver and 12.80 per cent lead with negligible copper and zinc values.
Approximately 190 metres to the east-northeast of the showing, grab samples from a southeast trending series of barite pods assayed up to 199.5 grams per tonne silver and 27.7 per cent lead (Assessment Report 10404). About 250 metres to the northeast of the showing a grab sample assayed 0.22 per cent copper, 0.28 per cent lead and greater than 100 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 10404).
Approximately 1800 metres south-southeast of the showing, at Fall Creek, quartz-calcite veins contain chalcopyrite and pyrite (Todd Creek North Zone, 104A 106). Samples assayed up to 2.16 per cent copper and 0.41 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 10404).
In 1981, the showing was discovered during a prospecting mapping program by J.R. Woodcock on behalf of Riocanex Incorporated. This work outlined widespread barite mineralization, in places associated with jasper and galena, on the Todd 2 and 3 claims. Woodcock conducted analytical and petrographic work during 1984-85. In 1985, he dropped all the claims except two units on Todd 2. From 1986 to 1990, both Brucejack Gold Ltd. and Noranda Exploration Company Limited carried out work near the showing. No further work was reported on the showing itself. In 1987, Island-Arc Resources Corp. optioned the property.
In 2007, drilling on the OMTA – South Grid A Zone yielded intercepts of up to 1.63 grams per tonne gold and 0.41 per cent copper over 12.37 metres in hole NAZ07-01 and 1.00 gram per tonne gold over 8.41 metres in hole NAZ07-02A, while drilling on the OMTA – South Grid B Zone yielded up to 2.94 grams per tonne gold and 0.34 per cent copper over 2.58 metres in hole NEZ07-01 and 7.32 grams per tonne gold with 2.95 per cent copper over 1.01 metres in hole NEZ07-02 (Fedikow, M. (2010-04-12): NI 43-101 Technical Report: Geology, Mineralization and Exploration of the Todd Creek Property - An Update). Also at this time, sampling of sulphidized, silicified and malachite stained crystal tuff breccia with quartz-carbonate-fuchsite fillings from the ‘197’ zone, located on the west of the South grid, yielded up to 1.84 grams per tonne gold, 8.2 grams per tonne silver, 0.93 per cent copper and 5.02 per cent zinc over 1 by 2 metres of outcrop (Fedikow, M. (2010-04-12): NI 43-101 Technical Report: Geology, Mineralization and Exploration of the Todd Creek Property - An Update).
In 2017 stream sediment samples were collected from streams that drained the immediate plotted area of the plotted Woodcock. These samples included designated samples W366296, W366351, W366352 and W366353. Stream sediment sample W366351 yielded 7.38 grams per tonne, 369 grams per tonne (0.037 per cent) arsenic, 0.039 per cent copper, 00114 per cent molybdenum, 0.0536 per cent lead and 0.189 per cent zinc; all sediment samples showed elevated silver from 3.14 to 31.3 grams per tonne (Assessment Report 37268, Table 3 and Map 2a(1).
Refer to Todd Creek-South zone (104A 001) for a detailed work history of the Todd Creek property area showings.
