The Pins occurrence is located in northwest British Columbia in the headwater region of Snippaker Creek, 24.5 kilometres southeast of Bronson Airstrip on Iskut River, and approximately 82 kilometres northwest of Stewart, in an area termed the Bronson Corridor.

The Pins West area is underlain by an undivided Jurassic to Triassic Hazelton Group (Unuk River Formation) or Stuhini Group volcanic and sedimentary sequence comprised mainly of andesite, rhyolite or latite, tuff and argillites. General chlorite-epidote-pyrite alteration with resultant bleaching and the development of secondary clays, masks original textures and makes field identification of these rock units difficult. All rock units are crosscut by diorite porphyry and andesite porphyry dikes.

Hydrothermal alteration is characteristic of each rock unit with abundant secondary chlorite, epidote, silica, pyrite, carbonate, and base metal sulphides. Where carbonate alteration is more intense, similarly pyritization is more intense except in areas of diorite porphyry where epidote is rare, but chlorite and sericite are abundant.

Numerous galena-sphalerite quartz veins occur within northwest trending shears on the Pins Ridge. A 10 to 15 centimetre wide zone of sericite-carbonate alteration occurs alongside the mineralized shear.

Chalcopyrite, malachite and limonite occur as fine disseminations or as coarser blebs and veinlets in andesite altered to clay, sericite and chlorite. Quartz veins and veinlets are abundant containing chlorite and pyrite with some hosting chalcopyrite, galena and sphalerite. In 1984, prospecting showed two east-west striking gossans hosting lead and zinc bearing quartz veins in siltstone and volcanic rocks. Selected grab samples from these veins assayed 1 to 2 per cent lead, 2 to 3 per cent zinc, 5 to 100 grams per tonne silver and less than 0.1 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 14972).

In 1987, the mineralization on the Gossan 25 claim was described as consisting of small (5 to 10 metres squared) pods of 0.1 to 1 per cent pyrite with lesser amounts of sphalerite, minor galena and chalcopyrite. The pyrite occurs as fine-grained disseminations, while the sphalerite and galena occur as coarse-grained, 1 to 2 millimetre aggregates.

Two samples taken from the Pins West zone in 1983 assayed 0.08 gram per tonne gold, 8.4 grams per tonne silver, 1.95 per cent lead, 2.55 per cent zinc and 0.07 gram per tonne gold, 5.5 grams per tonne silver, 1.76 per cent lead, 2.46 per cent zinc, respectively (Assessment Report 11332, part 1).

In 1987, a grab sample, taken from the Pins zone, consisting of silicified and chloritized tuffaceous siltstone with pyrite, sphalerite and chalcopyrite assayed 0.05 gram per tonne gold, 5.0 grams per tonne silver, 0.0672 per cent zinc, 0.0387 per cent lead, 0.0142 per cent copper. Another sample taken from Pins Ridge which consisted of chlorite, epidote, silica, clay altered andesite tuff with disseminated and coarse aggregates of chalcopyrite and pyrite assayed 0.03 gram per tonne gold, 1.4 grams per tonne silver, 0.051 per cent copper (Assessment Report 16892).

The 1989 Aerodat airborne electromagnetic survey outlined several conductors on the central portion of the Pins Ridge. In 1990 several lines of reconnaissance soil samples and VLF-EM electromagnetic survey were completed as preliminary follow-up. This work outlined several EM anomalies one of which was associated with marginally anomalous gold (greater than 15 parts per billion Au).

In 1990 the Pins area was surveyed by VLF-EM on three lines. The anomaly strengths suggest that relatively good conductors exist. Airborne EM anomalies also show good conductivities but are not definite regarding anomaly axes. Soil sampling done in 1990 yielded a few marginally anomalous Au, Zn, Ag and As values. The most notable result is a northwest trending 15 parts per billion Au anomaly in the centre of the grid area.

Work History

The Kim 1-36 claims were held by Great Plains Development Company of Canada, Ltd. Work during 1972 to 1974 included reconnaissance geochemical soil and silt surveys, geological mapping, and a geochemical soil survey (98 samples) over 6.4 line-kilometres covering Kim 13-22, and 26.

Exploration in the Pins showing area (104B 111 and 115) located in the southern portion of property was first recorded in 1972 by Cobre Explorations. This work consisted of prospecting, geological mapping, soil geochemical surveys, magnetometer surveys and ground electromagnetic surveys.

The Pelican property was staked in 1982 by Mr. Chris Graf as part of the larger Gossan Property which extended a further 10 kilometres to the northwest. In 1983, Lonestar Resources Ltd. completed an extensive prospecting, regional mapping, silt sampling and soil sampling program over the entire Gossan Property (Assessment Report 11332). This program delineated five significantly anomalous areas.

In 1985, Western Canadian Mining Corporation signed an option agreement with Mr. Graf whereby Western Canadian could earn a 60 per cent interest in the Gossan Property. In 1987, Western Canadian completed a geological mapping and a sampling program over portions of the Pelican Property; this including 903 soil, 23 silt and 304 rock samples (Assessment Report 16931).

In August 1988, Cathedral Gold Corporation signed an option agreement whereby Cathedral Gold Corporation could earn Western Canadian's 60 per cent interest in two separate portions of the Gossan Property. In 1988, Cathedral Gold completed a rock chip sampling-prospecting program during which 237 rock chip and 383 soil samples were taken. The results returned from this program include: 0.5 metre wide quartz vein the area within the present Southeast Grid which returned a gold value of 6 grams per tonne, a float sample from the Snow Grid area which returned 11 grams per tonne gold and mineralized float near the Pelican Grid samples of which returned gold values of up to 3 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 21365).

In 1989, Aerodat Ltd. was contracted to complete an airborne electromagnetic and magnetometer survey over the entire property. This survey totalled 386 kilometres in flight length and outlined several electromagnetic and magnetic anomalies worthy of follow-up.

In 1990, Cathedral Gold Corp explored Pelican (Gossan) property, including the Southeast, Sericite - SJ (104B 318), Pins (104B 111 and 115), Snow (104B 117) and Lake (104B 028), Pelican (104B 214). They collected 494 soil and 240 rock samples and conducted 23.9 kilometres of ground electromagnetic surveying (VLF) and 1.1 kilometre of Induced Polarization (IP) surveying.

In 2006 and 2007, Hathor Exploration Ltd. completed a 7228.7 line-kilometre airborne geophysical survey on the area as the Georgia claims of the Iskut project. In 2008, Max Minerals Ltd. examined the property.

In 2014, Colorado Resources Ltd. explored the Pins area as part of the larger KSP project. Rock sampling over an 8 square kilometre area around Pins and Pins East (MINFILE 104B 115) continued to report elevated amounts of precious and base metals. Float sample 1724084 taken at Pins reported 0.627 gram per tonne gold, 184 grams per tonne silver, 0.99 per cent copper, and 0.15 per cent zinc (Assessment Report 35184).

In 2017 field crews collected 19 rock samples on the western portion of Pins Ridge. Many of the samples returned favorable results for gold, copper, zinc, and silver which was associated with sulphide bearing quartz veins (Assessment Report 37604).