The Upper Cave Creek area is underlain by sedimentary rocks and minor volcanic rocks from the Upper Triassic Stuhini Group. The zone is located near the southwestern end of the Limpoke pluton (Texas Creek Plutonic Suite), a two-phase stock with a biotite hornblende quartz monzonite outer phase and medium-grained hornblende monozodiorite inner phase. Leucocratic potassium feldspar megacrystic syenite dikes intrude the eastern and western borders of the pluton and surrounding Stuhini rocks.
The Pond Zone is located at the head of Cave Creek in Goat 9. A sample from siltstone adjacent to a west-trending, altered shear zone graded 0.86 grams per tonne gold, 1.2 grams per tonne silver and 0.058 per cent copper across 1 metres (Sample 101960, Assessment Report 20988). The other sample site is in weakly mineralized siliceous limestone; that yielded 1 per cent zinc over 2.5 metres; gold was only 50 parts per billion and silver was 0.8 grams per tonne (Sample 101969, Assessment Report 20988). This limy horizon contains diffuse "replacement" stringers of sphalerite (up to 5 per cent) and is likely skarn related. This showing is in proximity to northwest shearing.
At the Glacier anomaly, a spectacular gossan dominates a 58 metre by greater than 200 metre zone of quartz-carbonate-albitized crackle breccia, probably within andesite tuff. The zone contains up to 5 per cent fracture-smeared pyrite and pyrrhotite. All 1990 samples returned negative results even though silt sampling in 1988 had produced up to 2500 parts per billion gold from that drainage basin. The Glacier zone/anomaly is about 600 metres southwest of the Upper Cave Creek (Pond) zone (Figure 4, Assessment Report 20988).
Work History
The area was originally explored by Teck Explorations and Dupont in the early 1980’s, with work centering on the Tuff and New Limpoke occurrences (MINFILE 104G 121 and 104G 024). Between 1988 and 1992, Integrated Resources explored the area as the Goat and IR claims and completed programs of geochemical sampling, geophysical surveys, geological mapping. In 2002, Newcastle Resources and Viceroy Resources staked the area as a part of the Target 1-4 claims and completed a prospecting program.
In 2014, Divitiae Resources spent 2 weeks on its Big Red property which covered 18 MINFILE occurrences. Divitiae collected 12 rock samples in the southern portion of the property. Selective samples ran above 1 per cent copper (Assessment Report 35466).
By 2017, Divitiae had expanded their Big Red claim group extending it 5 kilometres more to the west, covering the Poker (104G 149) occurrence. Divitiae changed the property name from Big Red to River of Gold and undertook an airborne magnetic and radiometric survey in late September that covered all of the River of Gold claims totalling 536 line-kilometres. In October of 2017, preliminary prospecting was completed on high probability anomalies generated by previous ASTER analysis, and the new airborne geophysics. At this time 64 rock samples were collected. Work on the northern portion of the property failed to find any samples to be assayed. The complete airborne geophysical survey report is attached as an appendix within assessment Report 36930).
In 2019 and 2020, Libero Copper and Gold Corp. completed programs of geological mapping; geochemical (rock, soil and talus fines) sampling; a 549 line-kilometre airborne electromagnetic (ZTEM) survey; three diamond drill holes, totalling 610.0 metres, and 24 reverse-circulation drill holes, totalling 3527.5 metres, on the area as the Big Red property.
See Ridge (104G 208) for details of a common work history.
