The Zus occurrence is located near Zus Mountain in the Cassiar Mountain Range, approximately 108 kilometres north of the community of Dease Lake.

Regionally, the area is underlain by Permian ultramafics, gabbroic rocks and gabbroic to dioritic intrusive rocks and Mississippian basaltic volcanic rocks, all of the Upper Paleozoic Slide Mountain Complex (Sylvester Allochthon).

Locally, an arc-shaped, north-trending body of serpentinite (Slide Mountain Complex) is exposed over a length of 4.5 kilometres and a width of 0.5 to 1.3 kilometres structurally overlying Upper Paleozoic Sylvester Allochthon metasediments and metavolcanics. Cross-fibre chrysotile occurs in veinlets, generally less than 2.5 millimetres in width and commonly less than 1.0 millimetre. The veinlets are widely scattered and strike in all directions, with a slightly dominant northwest trend. The serpentinite body is cut by numerous rodingite dikes.

At the Rockslide zone, located approximately 0.9 kilometre south-southwest of the of the Zus (Sun Creek) occurrence, loose rockslide rubble is exposed over an area of at least 50 by 400 metres and contains fibres of asbestos up to 25 millimetres long in layers up to 4 metres thick.

In 1982, drilling on the zone yielded up to 5.6 per cent asbestos(?) over 3 metres in hole T82/14 and 3.4 and 2.4 per cent asbestos fibre over 1.5 metres, each, in hole T82/15 and T82/17, respectively, from the rubble overburden (Assessment Report 10818). Another hole (T82/9) intercepted a well-serpentinized zone in bedrock that averaged 4.8 and 8.7 per cent asbestos fibre over 10 and 2 metres, respectively (Assessment Report 10818).

The following year, drillhole P-4, located approximately 130 metres north of hole T82/9, yielded 4.7 per cent asbestos fibre over 3 metres, and hole P-21 yielded 3 and 4 per cent asbestos fibre over 4 metres, each (Assessment Report 11324).

Work History

In 1953, Canadian Johns-Manville Co. Ltd. carried out geological mapping and bulldozer trenching, and continued with magnetometer work in 1965.

In 1980, the Teslin Joint Venture (consisting of Brinco Mining Ltd., Cominco Limited and Exploram Minerals Ltd.) completed bulldozer trenching and geological mapping followed by additional trenching and diamond drilling in 1982. In 1983, the Teslin Joint Venture completed 1517.9 metres of rotary percussion drilling. In 1985, Brinco Mining Ltd. completed a further program of geological mapping, 18 percussion drill holes, totalling 1633 metres, and a 92 line-kilometre ground magnetic survey on the Tanya claims.