The Josh 3 occurrence is located on a north-facing upper ridge side, approximately 9 kilometres southeast of the confluence of Snippaker Creek and Iskut River in northwest British Columbia, approximately 94 kilometres northwest of Stewart.
The Josh area is underlain by a sequence of marine sedimentary and volcanic rocks of the Upper Stuhini Group. The stratigraphy has been intruded by monzodioritic to gabbroic rock of the Early Jurassic Lehto Batholith.
Locally, the claims are underlain by a succession of limestone, volcanics and related sediments. The oldest rocks appear to belong to a thick sequence of andesitic volcanic breccia which also contains minor tuff and argillite beds. A thick unit of light grey, banded, fossiliferous (crinoidal) limestone is intercalated with the andesitic breccias.
These units are intruded by elements of the Coast Intrusions in the forms of a syenodiorite porphyry and later granodiorite. The syenodiorite is characterized by 1.0 to 1.5 centimetre hornblende phenocyrsts. The main body strikes northeast across the property and locally, occurs both as sills and dykes within the layered rocks. The granodiorite occurs as near vertical dykes within the syeno-diorite porphyry. It is characterized by a fine-grained matrix with 1 to 3 millimetre biotite grains.
Mineralization on the property occurs within chalcopyrite-magnetite-sphalerite skarns (refer to Shan, 104B 023), weak quartz stockworks (refer to Josh, 104B 290) and within silicified pyrite-chalcopyrite limestone replacements. On the Josh 3 claim, massive pyrite and chalcopyrite with minor amounts of sphalerite, bornite, galena and magnetite occur within quartz vein breccia replacements in the limestone. The syenodiorite intrusions are intimately associated with mineralized zones.
In the northern part of the Josh 3 claim area gold mineralization was mapped along a northeast trending draw, marking a limestone-volcanic contact. In 1984, a chip sample taken across 1.2 metre assayed 4.2 per cent copper and 3.7 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 13321). Sulphide mineralization consisted of pyrite and chalcopyrite within an epidote-quartz-garnet skarn in a zone approximately 2.0 metres wide.
Another skarn zone, wedged between two syenodiorite masses within the northern part of the claim, hosts mineralized late quartz veins. In 1984, two trenches were blasted across this zone. The main zone consists of a 2.5 to 5.0 metre wide, resistant quartz vein with breccia fragments. Drusy and coarsely crystalline quartz lined cavities are common throughout the vein breccia. Chalcopyrite and pyrite occur with minor sphalerite, bornite and galena. In 1984, a selected sample of the trench material assayed 3.36 grams per tonne gold, 164.23 grams per tonne silver, 4.9 per cent copper, 0.34 per cent zinc and 0.07 per cent lead (Assessment Report 13321).
Alteration consists mainly of silicification and skarnification of the chemically receptive limestone near the intrusive body. Epidote is associated with the late quartz veining. Propylitic alteration is widespread and is characterized by the alteration of mafic minerals to epidote and chlorite.
A trenching and chip sampling program was completed on the Josh claim group in August 1988. Two areas of interest along the Josh 2-3 boundary were targeted for trenching and/or detailed outcrop sampling. A total of 86 chip samples and 14 grab samples were taken (Assessment Report 18077).
In 1989, trenching was done in the southwest corner of the Josh 3 claim, partially overlapping Trench #3 from the 1988 program. A total of 23 chip and 2 grab rock samples were taken from one trench (TR-R-89-1) and 39 soils were collected from three grid lines established over the area of trenching prior to blasting. Anomalous gold, silver, and copper assays were received including a weighted average 5.28 grams per tonne gold over 1.5 metres and another sample which assayed 268.80 grams per tonne silver and 1.99 per cent copper over 0.5 metre (Assessment Report 19410). These results are essentially from the same place as the one anomalous sample received from Trench 3 in the 1988 work program. Attempts to trace the quartz breccia vein along strike were not successful. Soil geochemistry revealed a single-station high for gold, silver and copper some 12 metres east of trench TR-R-89-1. An anomalous trend with coincident gold and copper over a 100 metre length is evident some 50 to 75 metres west of TR-R-89-1.
In 1994 and 1995, Guardian Resources Corp conducted work on their West Ridge and Middle Ridge area and associated these showings with the Kirk showing discovered by BC Geological Survey Branch field workers in 1989. See Shan (104B 023) for further details of the West and Middle Ridge work and for common a work history. Also see 104B 362 for information on Kirk Magnetite which Guardian places in the Josh 3 area to the immediate southwest. The Kirk Magnetite association with Middle and West Ridge in the Josh 3 showing area may be an error on the part of Guardian. Their reasons for doing this were not given.
A total of 10 rock samples and 1 stream sediment sample were collected in 2002 by Parkside 2000 Resource Corp whose BX 1-10 claims covered much of Guardian's former Wolf claim area. The hosts for the mineralization are hornfelsed Stuhini Group volcanic rocks in contact with a marble unit. Six of the ten rock samples yielded values more than 1 per cent copper; gold values are low, save in a single sample which returned a value of 1.74 grams per tonne over a width of 4 metres (Assessment Report 27193).
Limited soil sampling in 2014 by Colorado Resources Ltd. produced no significant results (Assessment Report 35184).
Rock sampling in the JOSH 3 area in 2016 revealed a 150 metre long north-south zone of gold, silver and copper mineralization 750 metres northeast of the original showing. Samples contained up to 7.9 grams per tonne Au, 226 grams per tonne Ag and 6.28 per cent Cu, associated with northeast striking quartz veins containing pyrite, chalcopyrite and malachite (Assessment Report 36761).
