The Delta 166 occurrence is located immediately north of a small valley glacier itself located about 2.5 kilometres north of Frank Mackie Glacier. The area is underlain by rock of the Middle Jurassic Salmon River Formation Siltstone Sequence, Hazelton Group. The sediments have been folded into synclines and anticlines with north trending fold axes. Small Eocene feldspar porphyry intrusions occur near mineralized zone.
A mineralized altered zone was located on the eastern bank of the westernmost creek draining into the valley glacier. The zone, of undetermined width, trends for several hundred metres in a north-northwest direction parallelling the eastern wall of the creek.
Reported mineralization includes very minor galena and sphalerite. A 2.44 metre wide sample taken across the zone near the glacier contained 0.48 per cent zinc, 0.18 per cent lead, and 52.80 grams per tonne silver. Another sample from this zone taken about 600 metres to the north contained 0.62 per cent copper, 0.69 per cent lead, 0.76 per cent zinc, 1.23 grams per tonne gold, and 10.97 grams per tonne silver. The highest silver value obtained was 95.32 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 14607).
Work History
Teuton Resource staked the surrounding ground in 1982 as the Feld, Delta and Alpha.
Geochemical stream sediment and rock character sampling carried out in 1985 by Teuton Resources Corp resulted in the discovery of a number of samples highly anomalous in gold and silver.
The property was optioned to Territorial Petroleum in 1986. Territorial drilled 5 short holes in the Delta Northeast showing area (104B 289) (also called the "M" zone) to test for extensions of a native gold occurrence noted the previous year on the topland in the northeastern quadrant of what was later staked as the Best Bet 17 claim. This program failed to uncover any economic mineralization. A soil geochemistry survey along 30 metre topographic contours, sample interval 25 metres, disclosed a number of distinct greater than 400 parts per billion gold anomalies (with roughly coincident silver, lead, and zinc anomalies), located in the western half of the Delta claim [covered later by Best Bet 17 claim]. Rock sampling in the center of one of the anomalies provided samples of up to 6.8 grams per tonne in a silicified tuff.
The property was re-optioned to Canarc Resources Corp. in 1989. In 1989 the Delta and Alpha had be allowed to lapse by error. During 1989 and 1990 Canarc carried out a comprehensive exploration program consisting of prospecting, sampling, trenching, geological mapping, geochemical surveys and both airborne (140 kilometres and ground geophysical surveys (Assessment Report 20731). Several targets were located as a result of this work including two prominent IP-resistivity anomalies (with coincident Mag/VLF trends) in the "M" and "J" zones (Assessment Report 22891). Canarc dropped the option in early 1991 and the property reverted to Teuton. In 1991, Teuton carried out a program of geochemical soil sampling over the "J" zones. This program disclosed a sharp gold-silver-lead-zinc geochemical anomaly coincident with the geophysical anomalies detected during the 1990 Canarc survey. The following year a small program was also undertaken to extend and fill-in the grid sampled in 1991.
In 1994, a small work program was undertaken in the southwest corner of the Bast Bat 17 claim, an area which had previously been only lightly explored. Reconnaissance geochemistry rock sampling uncovered a number of argillite float boulders carrying anomalous gold values ranging up to 13.89 grams per tonne gold (as reported in Assessment Report 24267). The source was not located.
The 1995 work on the Hot Tip claim was conducted in order to trace to source gold-bearing argillite boulders found in 1994 just outside the Hot Tip claim boundary on the Best Bet 17 claim. At this time 19 rock samples were collected, 15 of which were float samples. Two of the outcrop grab samples were anomalous in lead, zinc and silver. No strong correlation between the samples taken during the 1995 program and the targeted high gold-bearing samples from the 1994 program.
In 2007, Hathor Exploration had an airborne electromagnetic, magnetic and radiometric survey conducted on several claim blocks in the 104B mapsheet area including the Delta, Gracey, BJ, Knip, Pearly, Hawlison, Macgold, Flory, Quillan, Sun and King Creek. The survey totalled 5611 kilometres of flight lines (Assessment Report 30282). The Delta claims covered the Delta, Gamma (Fairweather) (104B 169) and Theta showings (104B 169).
In 2009, (owner) Halthor Exploration and (operator) Max Minerals Ltd conducted wide ranging exploration program on their Pac (104B 310) , Delta, Griz and New claim blocks (Assessment Report 31162). Work was done on the Max deposit, Rock and Roll prospect, Fairweather (104B 168), Delta Northeast (104B 289), Gracey Creek area (104B 117), Collagh (104B 352) and the Divelbliss Creek area. In total, 287 rocks, 28 silt and 997 soil samples were collected. In 2009, two showing areas were investigated on the Delta claim group; the Fairweather (MINFILE 104B 168) and Delta Northeast zones (MINFILE 104B 289).
In 2010, MAX Minerals Ltd targeted precious metal-rich quartz-carbonate veining on its Delta block of claims and discovered a new zone of mineralization named the Ptuck. Contour and ridgeline soil sampling was carried out in 2010 on the Delta claims. A ridgeline traverse was completed on the ridge between the Delta MINFILE occurrences (104B166, 104B 202, 104B 241, 104B 242, 104B 289, and Delta) to the north and the Fairweather showing to the south. The western end of the line exhibits gold plus/minus arsenic plus/minus copper plus/minus cobalt plus/minus nickel plus/minus lead plus/minus antimony plus/minus zinc anomalies extending approximately 500 metres east. However, the end of the zone is also marked by a change in lithology from Hazelton Group sedimentary rocks to volcanic rocks. Mapping and prospecting in this area did not uncover any significant mineralization.
See Gamma (Fairweather) (104B 168) for further details.
