The Astro 34 occurrence is located at an elevation of approximately 1300 metres on a south-southeast–facing slope separating Mckay and Yellowlake creeks (tributaries of Keremeos Creek).
The area lies along the western margin of a fault-bound basin of Eocene Penticton Group volcanic rocks. To the west, the property is underlain by the Carboniferous to Triassic Shoemaker Formation, consisting mainly of blue-grey chert, minor limestone and greenstone that have been intruded by pyroxenite, hornblendite and serpentinite. Silicification is widespread in greenstone. The contact between chert and greenstone is gradational over widths of up to 10 metres. Bedding strikes northeast with moderate to steep dips to the southeast. The Springbrook Formation lies to the east, at the base of the Penticton Group volcanic succession, and consists of massive, unsorted, polymictic conglomerate and breccia with lesser sandstone and tuff. The matrix of the conglomerate and breccia is silty and green. Clasts are dominantly volcanics (45 per cent) and chert (35 per cent) with lesser metamorphic rocks (10 per cent), sediments (5 per cent) and intrusions (5 per cent). This is overlain by trachyandesite and andesite flows with conspicuous glomerophenocrystic clots of feldspar of the Kitley Lake member. Highly vesicular, pyroxene-rich basaltic andesite of the Kearns Creek member overlies the Kitley Lake member. Several north-trending faults also cut through the area.
Locally, an argillic-altered and silicified system was discovered on the Astro 34 claim in biotite porphyritic andesite of the Marron volcanics. The argillic (limonite and pyrite) alteration zone is up to 20 metres wide over a strike length of 140 metres. The argillic alteration envelopes a silicified core, up to 3 metres wide. Reverse-circulation drilling indicates a depth of 47 metres and a widening of silicification to 14 metres true width at depth. This may be the result of the merging of two zones at depth. The zone appears to dip vertically or very steeply. Alteration appears to be controlled by north-trending faults.
In 1989, anomalous gold (up to 0.705 gram per tonne), silver (up to 14.8 grams per tonne) and molybdenum (up to 0.15 per cent) values over 3-metre sections from reverse-circulation drill hole PDL-89-RC-2 were found associated with chalcedonic veinlets in argillically altered Kitley member volcanics of the Marron Formation (Assessment Report 18527).
Work History
The Astro claims were staked by Pacific Petroleum Ltd. (Petro Canada Ltd.) in 1977 and 1979. Exploration for uranium was conducted in the area.
In 1988 and 1989, QPX Minerals Inc. conducted a comprehensive exploration program on the PDL and Astro claims. Five reverse-circulation drill holes, totalling approximately 250 metres, and five trenches, totalling 150 metres, were completed in the new showing area on the Astro 34 claim. Magnetometry and very low frequency electromagnetic surveys on 25- to 50-metre–spaced lines were completed over a 400- by 400-metre area. Three very well-defined conductive lineaments with corresponding magnetic lows were identified; only a small (50- by 100-metre) portion of one of these anomalies was tested by trenching and/or drilling.
In 1993, the owner of the Astro 34 claim, Petro Canada Ltd., did not perform any work and let the claim lapse.
In 2003, A. Travis staked the Astro 1-6 claims to cover the Astro 34 area, completed prospecting and took 10 soil and 4 rock samples.
