A northwest trending, 1830 by 1340 metre intrusive-extrusive acidic complex of the Tertiary Sloko Group Age is cored by quartz feldspar porphyry and includes plagioclase porphyry, felsite and breccia. The complex appears to have intruded the contact between pre-Upper Triassic metasediments and volcanics, and porphyritic andesite, rhyolite and tuff of the Upper Triassic Stuhini Group.
The acid complex, its few satellites and peripheral rocks are extensively pyritized, hydrothermally altered and locally mineralized. Alteration minerals include sericite, epidote, saussurite, muscovite, jarosite, kaolinite, hematite, and carbonate minerals.
Mineralized shear zones occur in the intrusion contain tetrahedrite, enargite, pyrite, and stibnite, which occur as disseminations and in narrow quartz veins.
The Camp Creek Zone is a prominent, siliceous shear zone, striking northeast along the northern wall of Camp Creek. The 60 metre wide zone extends discontinuously over the width of the intrusive complx. Parallel but shorter and narrower zones occur on the south side of Camp Creek. Hydrothermal alteration, visible as limonitic staining, silicification and bleaching of the intrusion, envelopes all zones. Within the main zone, two parallel 1 to 10 metre wide bands of mineralization contain irregular pods of pyrite, tetrahedrite and minor enargite and stibnite. Sampling returned silver assays to 336 grams per tonne and gold assays to 6.9 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 15897).
The F Zone lies on the steep northern slope of Camp Creek, immediately north of the Oban breccia pipe. A bright jarosite gossan extends for several hundred metres along this canyon, hosting a number of quartz-sphalerite-pyrite-galena-enargite veins. Three major sub-parallel veins have been recognized within the F Zone: the Glenlivet vein extends along strike to the northeast through the F Zone for at least 275 metres; the Jim Beam vein lies approximately 30 metres northwest of the Glenlivet; and the Knockando vein lies 40 metres northwest of the Jim Beam.
The Glenlivet vein crops out discontinuously for 275 metres from the western end of the F Zone to where it disappears under Camp Creek. The Glenlivet Vein is hosted within a 4 to greater than 10-metre-wide fault/vein zone comprised of sheeted pyrite-enargite veins filling fractures in clay-sericite altered porphyry.
The Jim Beam vein comprises a 10 to 40-centimetre wide, planar grey silicified vein with abundant very fine-grained disseminated pyrite (locally up to 30 per cent) and locally minor enargite. It is hosted within a 2 to 6 metre-wide, strongly sericitized, fault zone that trends north east-southwest and generally dips steeply to the northwest.
The Knockando vein comprises a 10 to 20 centimetre-wide, vuggy, siliceous planar vein but locally bifurcates into up to five separate veins. It typically contains 5 to 20 per cent fine-grained disseminated pyrite but locally changes character along strike to a massive pyrite-enargite vein. The vein has been identified over a strike length of at least 110 metres.
The M Zone was first described by Julian Mining in 1964 and was relocated by prospecting during 2003. The zone is located on the north side of Camp Creek, approximately 500 metres to the west- southwest and comprises a resistive siliceous vein within strongly sericitized porphyry hosting 10 per cent pyrite and 5 per cent sphalerite. This vein is up to 20-centimetreswide and is oriented at 334 degrees with a dip of 64 degrees northeast.
The L Zone was first described by Julian Mining in 1964 as a group of angular precious metal-rich boulders located beside Camp Creek and south of the M zone. Subsequently in 2002, these were traced uphill a few metres to a 45-centimetre-wide fault/vein zone with pods of massive pyrite-tetrahedrite.
WORK HISTORY
During 2000 through 2004, sampling of the veins yielded values of up to 7.04 grams per tonne gold, 748 grams per tonne silver and 4.73 per cent copper over 0.7 metre from the Glenlivet vein, 4.56 grams per tonne gold, 389 grams per tonne silver and 0.31 per cent copper over 1.2 metres from the Jim Bean vein, 10.45 grams per tonne gold, 305 grams per tonne silver, 0.166 per cent copper, 0.391 per cent lead and 0.645 per cent zinc over 0.5 metres from the Knackando vein, 6.36 grams per tonne gold, 295 grams per tonne silver, 0.224 per cent copper, 0.572 per cent lead and 3.57 per cent zinc over 1.00 metre from the L zone and 2.85 grams per tonne gold, 1215 grams per tonne silver, 1.07 per cent copper, 2.26 per cent lead and 5.14 per cent zinc from a select sample on the M zone (Baker, D. (2010-10-28): 2010 Technical Report on the Thorn Property).
In 2004, a drill hole (04-35) drilled northward from the bank of Camp Creek towards the western end of the F zone in the area of the Glenlivet vein encountered a 0.11 metre massive sulphide vein which assayed 5.15 grams per tonne gold, 704.0 grams per tonne silver, 2.810 per cent copper, 0.309 per cent lead and 0.745 per cent zinc (Baker, D. (2010-10-28): 2010 Technical Report on the Thorn Property).
In 2011, Equity Explorations on behalf of Brixton Metals Corporation reported on the Camp Creek Corridor. The corridor includes several high-sulphidation vein showings that crop out along Camp Creek. These were previously described in detail but generally as isolated vein occurrences. New mapping and interpretation in 2011 linked the various showings such that the Camp Creek Corridor is now defined as a series of three concordant fault/vein structures that are continuous from the mouth of Camp Creek to at least the eastern edge of the F zone, located about 1 kilometre to the east up Camp Creek from its mouth. The showings along Camp Creek are interpreted as the along-strike equivalents of the three main structures hosted within the well-exposed F zone (as described in Assessment Report 27379). The most northerly structure includes a strongly altered outcrop, the M zone, a newly mapped narrow structure at the top of the Eye Creek cliffs and the vein zone at the top of the F zone outcrop. The middle vein/fault includes the MP vein, the L zone, newly mapped exposures at Eye Creek and the central vein at the F zone. The most southerly vein/fault includes the D zone, newly mapped outcrops near the Lagavulin vein and the previously detail-mapped Glenlivet vein and probably also includes the Tamdhu vein on the western side of La Jaune Creek. The MP vein zone assayed 3.13 per cent copper, 0.73 gram per tonne gold and 189 grams per tonne silver over 1.20 metre (Assessment Report 32769). A bright jarosite gossan extends for several hundred metres along this canyon hosting a number of quartz-sphalerite-pyrite-galena-enargite veins. Based on detailed mapping of the F zone in 2003 [a) the Glenlivet vein is now known to extend along strike to the northeast through the F zone for at least 275 metres; (b) the Jim Beam vein lies 30 metres northwest of the Glenlivet (previously unnamed but sampled in 2000 and 2002); and (c) the previously unnamed Knockando vein lies 40 metres northwest of the Jim Beam. These three subparallel veins are described as part of the F zone. A 2011, 1.05-metre drill intersection from the F zone assayed 1.59 grams per tonne gold, 21.2 grams per tonne silver, 179 parts per million copper, 0.14 per cent lead and 0.2 per cent zinc (Assessment Report 32769).
In 2013, the highest value sample which yielded 13,500 ppb Au and 81.1 ppm Ag, was located along Camp Creek, 550 metres northeast of the main Oban area (Assessment Report 34506, Figure 12).
During 2013 a structural investigation study was carried out by SRK Consulting under contract to Brixton Metals. Based on a combination of field mapping, geophysical and stereo-photo interpretation, oriented core logging, and 3D modeling, SRK identified broad, northwest plunging folds apparently affecting all strata, and numerous brittle and ductile faults separated into N-S (dextral), NNE-SSW (dextral), NE-SW (dextral), E-W (sinistral), and NW-SE (sinistral) sets. They interpreted all structures on the Thorn Property to be the result of a single D1 event characterized by northeast-southwest oriented maximum shortening. Under such a regime the N-S dextral faults are the master faults with NNE-SSW set representing P (synthetic) shears, NE-SW set representing R (synthetic) shears, E-W representing P’ (antithetic) shears, and NW-SE set representing R’ (antithetic) shears. Synthetic shears have the same sense of motion as the master fault whereas antithetic ones have the opposite sense. Outcrop scale representations of this fault geometry were observed on the property. The maximum extension direction for such a strain field would be NW-SE, leading to tensional veins striking NE-SW as has been observed for many of the mineralized veins on the Thorn Property. However, these veins vary from NE-SW to NNE-SSW and field observations suggest that many of them are fault-fill veins. It is therefore interpreted that they formed as a combination of tensional veins and fault fill veins along the favourably oriented R and, to a lesser extent, P shears.
A prominent north striking fault juxtaposes Thorn Stock against Stuhini Group strata just downstream from the confluence of Camp Creek and La Jaune Creek (Figure 5. Assessment Report 35192) The apparent offset of Thorn Stock suggests dextral displacement. The Camp Creek Corridor which is host to numerous mineralized veins (F Zone, L Zone, MP Vein and Glenfiddich) represents three parallel NW striking fault zones. These are continuous from the north striking dextral fault described above all the way to the F Zone, northeast of the Oban breccia. The Camp Creek Corridor is considered to be a set of R shears between the north striking dextral fault near the confluence of La Jaune and Camp creeks and an inferred north striking dextral fault northeast of the F zone. Similarly, the Talisker and remaining NW striking veins are also considered to represent R shears (and dilational veins as described above) controlled by an overall north striking dextral system. The Lagavulan vein is interpreted as a P shear to the same system. The La Jaune Fault is favourably oriented to have been reactivated as an R’ shear to the same event. This is supported by the limited evidence suggesting sinistral shear.
In 2013, Brixton Metals drilled 35 diamond drill holes during a two-phase exploration program for a total of 6,078 metres at the Oban 104K 168), Talisker (104K 133) and Glenfiddich (104K new) zones. They also collected 1,368 soil samples and 13 rock samples, conducted a specific gravity survey on drill core, and carried out reclamation and physical work (Assessment Report 34506). Brixon also contracted SRK Consulting Canada Inc. to perform detailed structural analysis on the Thorn Property. The resulting report can be found in Appendix A of Assessment Report 34506. Structural geology maps and three-dimensional (3D) fault models are presented, and the related structural pattern is discussed. Discussion focused on several prospects including Oban, Talisker, B zone, Glenfiddich, I zone (104K 170), Lagavulin (104K 172), MP and D zones. The Camp Creek Corridor (104K 168) is a lengthy northeast-trending fault system/trend up to 2 kilometes which includes a number of poorly defined high-sulphidation vein showings not given MINFILE status, such as MP, B, D, F, L, M and Glenlivet. Published details for “showings” in this corridor are lacking and/or evolving. Glenfiddich occurs in the corridor, but it merits its own MINFILE status as it has its own inferred resource. The I zone and Lagavulin may be considered the same occurrence by SRK (Figure 1.2, Appendix A, Assessment Report 34506), but other publication discuss the Lagavulin as a showing at a discrete area near La Jaune Creek, 2 kilometres south from the I zone along the same fault/vein trend. The trend itself appears to be called the Lagavulin by some.
In 2014, Brixton Metals drilled 8 holes totalling 1,287.46 metres at the Outlaw zone, collected 16 soil samples and completed further reclamation and physical work. During this field season, sediment-hosted gold observed in drill core collected from the Outlaw Zone (THN-14-128) returned 59.65 meters of 1.15 gram per tonne gold and 5.64 grams per tonne silver from a depth of 76 meters (Assessment Report 35192). This interval also included 9.00 meters of 3.08 grams per tonne gold and 10.77 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 35192). Through diamond drilling, mineralization observed at the Glenfiddich Zone was also extended along strike and at depth.
Additionally, Brixton Metals established an inferred resource estimate, compliant with NI-43-101 standards of 21.5 million ounces of silver equivalent (7.4 million tonnes, grading at 89.75 grams per tonne silver equivalent), for the Oban (104K 168) , Glenfiddich (NEW) and Talisker Zones (104K 133).
In 2016, Brixton Metals carried out a two-phase exploration program at the Thorn Property. During this time, 2303 soil samples and 247 rock samples were collected, a 15.49 line-kilometer Titan-24 DCIP geophysical survey was conducted over the area of the new Chivas Zone, and 9 diamond drill holes were drilled at the Outlaw and new Aberlour zones, totalling 1,644.91 meters (Assessment Report 36638). At the Chivas Zone, a new gold-in-soil anomaly was identified and corresponded with a near surface IP chargeability high, measuring 3.5 kilometers long and 1.9 kilometers wide, and remains open (Assessment Report 36638).
In 2017, Brixton Metals Corporoation collected a total of 517 soil samples and 56 rock samples from their Thorn Property. The majority of rock and soil samples were collected from the new Chivas Zone. Samples were also collected at the Cirque and Son of Cirque zones, as well as in unexplored areas located north of the Sutlahine River, and northeast and south of the Chivas Zone.
In 2020, Brixton Metals Corporation completed a program of geochemical (rock and soil) sampling, a 12.5 line-kilometre ground induced polarization survey, a 715 line-kilometre airborne magnetic and electromagnetic survey and 19 diamond drill holes, totalling 5292 metres, on the area of as part of the Thorn property. Drilling was performed on the Outlaw (MINFILE 104K 176) occurrence area.
See also Thorn (104K 031) for complete work history of the Thorn property prior to 2013. Also see Drill Creek (104K 018 and Oban (104K 168).
