The showing is situated just below a receding tongue of ice to the south of the Copper King Glacier. Apparently this showing has only recently been exposed from the ice.
The deposit is situated within Upper Triassic to Lower Jurassic volcanic and sedimentary rocks. The main host lithology is dacitic ash tuff. These rocks may be correlative with the Hazelton Group or the Stuhini Group. This area is situated in the Boundary Ranges within the Intermontane Belt.
Mineralization consists of massive pyrite, chalcopyrite, galena, arsenopyrite and sphalerite in a stockwork of epigenetic hydrothermal quartz veins. Although the mineralization is exposed in scattered outcrops in a snowfield, the zone is at least 600 metres long and 5 metres thick.
Sphalerite, pyrite, chalcopyrite, malachite and azurite deposits occur at the High Grade and Ice showings, which occur about 100 metres apart. Samples yielded 1.2 per cent copper and 5.76 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 20736). The most encouraging trench samples obtained 8.71, 5.9 and 11.01 grams per tonne gold over widths of 1 metre each. Breccia clasts within the matrix were primarily dacitic.
In 2016, Garibaldi reported on Showings A and B. Showing A (three chip samples) yielded zinc values of 55.9 per cent and 42.4 per cent from strongly disseminated to massive chalcopyrite, sphalerite and pyrite in two samples from different sections of a zoned sulphide lens, while the third sample from adjacent wallrock in disseminated sulphides assayed 1.2 per cent zinc. Copper grades ranged from 1 per cent to 7.2 per cent copper in the three samples, while silver values ranged from 11 grams per tonne to 56 grams per tonne silver. Highly anomalous gold is also present in all three samples (Garibaldi Resources Corp, press release, October 28, 2016).
At Showing B, a gold-bearing quartz-carbonate breccia zone 100 metres west-southwest of showing A, had assays from nine samples, all but one from outcrop, which ranged from anomalous to 7.4 grams per tonne gold (four samples greater than one gram per tonne gold), anomalous to 0.94 per cent copper and highly anomalous to 3.7 per cent zinc (Garibaldi Resources Corp, press release, October 28, 2016).
WORK HISTORY
Work was carried out in 1988 and 1989 when British Columbia Geological Survey Branch field crews mapped the property on a regional basis (Open File 1989-10) and reported mineralization at the Colagh Showing. The showing was discovered by C.W.P. Russell during a reconnaissance mapping traverse in 1988.
The property was staked for Ecstall Mining Corp. and Omega Gold Corp in 1988 to cover prominent gossans and the Colagh showing. An exploration program in 1989 on the MacGold South property (MacGold 1-9) held jointly by Ecstall Mining Corp. and Omega Gold Corp. Work consisted of prospecting and the collection of 132 rock and 10 silt samples. One 24 metre long trench was excavated. This work led to the discovery of several massive sulphide showings and precious metal occurrences within a volcanogenic setting. These included the High Grade, Ice and JR showings. In 1989, a series of four blast trenches were excavated on the Ice and High Grade Showings. The blast trenches also coincided with those areas of high chargeability which were outlined by the I.P. survey. The four trenches were blasted to a depth of 0.5 to 1.0 metres with a width of 1.0 metre and lengths varied from 3 metres to that of 8 metres.
The 1990 program included geological mapping of the property, including 1:2500 grid mapping of the southern glacial bowl (containing the High Grade and Ice Showings) and a UTEM geophysical survey 11.375 kilometres in length was done. A total of 378 samples were taken from the MacGold South claim block for geochemical analysis. The samples included 358 rock samples, 3 stream sediment samples, and 17 soil samples.
In 2006 and 2007, Hathor Exploration Ltd. completed a 7228.7 line-kilometre airborne geophysical survey on the area as the Macgold claims of the Iskut project. In 2008, Max Minerals Ltd. examined the property.
In late 2016, Garibaldi Resources Corp reported that recent regional sampling of several sulphide and precious metal occurrences yielded exceptionally high zinc values and highly anomalous gold and copper at the new Brass Hill target (formerly called Colagh, (104B 352)) within Garibaldi Resources Corp's expanded E&L project. Brass Hill is 2.7 kilometres northeast of the E&L deposit. Garibaldi is now referring to Brass Hill as E&L East.
In 2017, Garibaldi Resources announced that a recently completed helicopter-borne versatile time-domain electromagnetic (VTEM) and magnetics surveys over the E&L property revealed multiple conductive anomalies with scale and signatures highly prospective for the discovery of new areas of nickel-copper-rich massive sulphide mineralization (Garibaldi Resources Corp., Press Release, May 25, 2017). The survey covered an area of 47 square kilometres over 508 line kilometres. This survey outlined numerous conductors over a 6 kilometre strike length, including the E&L East showing, which is approximately 3 kilometres northeast of the E&L prospect in the middle of the anomalous trend (Assessment Report 37934).
See E&L (104B 006) for information work history and geological detail.
