The Golden Fraction (Lot 3289s) prospect is located 3.75 kilometres west of the summit of Goat Peak and 3.25 kilometres south of Beaverdell, British Columbia (Assessment Report 16772).
Initial prospecting began in the Beaverdell area in the late 1880s. The first ore was shipped in 1896. The major producing mines in the Beaverdell silver-lead-zinc vein camp, from west to east, were the Wellington (082ESW072), Sally and Rob Roy (082ESW073), Beaver (082ESW040), and Bell (082ESW030), with numerous other small workings throughout the area.
The first recorded work on the Golden claim group was in 1936, owned and operated by Wallace Mountain Mining Co. Ltd. The Golden claim group consisted of the Golden (Lot 1433s), Golden Fraction (Lot 3289s), Reco (Lot 3288s) and Rico Fraction (Lot 3839s) Crown grants. In 1938, R. Cheyne was reported the operator. Since 1946, work has been intermittent and ownership has changed several times: 1946 - Silver Bounty Mines Ltd., 1958 - Sheritt-Lee Mines Ltd., 1963 - Ruby Silver Mines Ltd., 1971 - Copper Bounty Mines Ltd. and 1983 - Walmont Precious Metals Corp. The occurrence is currently owned by IGF Metals Inc. Past development has centred on three parallel shear zones within 15 metres of each other. The main workings consisted of a 46-metre long opencut on the south shear zone near the east boundary of the Golden Fraction, a 16-metre adit from the west end of the opencut driven along a 100 degree trend, and a shaft. The adit was driven to intersect the central shear zone also hosting an andesite dike. The shaft was driven down 15 metres on a shear zone 61 metres southwest of the opencut. A 76-metre adit was also driven along this shear zone. Two short cuts and a short adit were also made above 'Dry' Creek.
Granodiorite of the Westkettle batholith underlies most of the area. It has been intruded by small quartz monzonite porphyry stocks including the Eocene Beaverdell, Tuzo Creek, Eugene Creek and Carmi stocks. Other granitic porphyry stocks that intrude the Westkettle batholith are the Eocene Beaverdell porphyry. The Westkettle batholith has been correlated with the Nelson intrusions that have been dated by potassium-argon and uranium-lead methods as Middle Jurassic. The Westkettle batholith contains remnants of pendants and/or screens of metamorphosed Wallace Formation. The Wallace Formation is believed to be correlative with the upper (Permian) section of the Carboniferous to Permian Anarchist Group. Lithologies include metamorphosed andesitic tuffs and lavas, hornblende diorite porphyries, olivine gabbro and hornblendite, hornfels and minor limestone. The contact between the Wallace Formation and the Westkettle batholith is sinuous, trending north with gentle east dips. These are unconformably overlain by Oligocene tuffs and conglomerates and Miocene plateau basalts. Westkettle granodiorite or Beaverdell quartz monzonite are the dominant hostrocks. Mineralization rarely extends into the Wallace Formation to the east. A series of dikes, ranging in composition from quartz latite and quartz monzonite porphyries to hornblende andesite porphyries, are found throughout the area. In the Beaverdell camp, fine-grained, brown andesite dikes, referred to as Wellington-type dikes, are believed to be pre-mineralization. Quartz latite dikes are referred to as Idaho-type dikes and thought to be syn or post-mineralization.
Beaverdell silver-rich veins are found in a 3.0 by 0.8 kilometre belt, referred to as the Beaverdell silver, lead, zinc vein camp. The mineralized veins are fissure-hosted, formed along east-trending faults in the west portion of the Beaverdell camp, and northeast- trending faults in the east portion of the camp. Faults have been classified into five types based on their orientation, with each type having common orientation, kind of movement and age relationship. The northeast-striking, high angle normal faults pose the greatest obstacle to systematic exploration and mining, as these faults are commonly spaced a few metres apart dividing veins into short segments in a northwest-downward direction.
Vein-type mineralization of the Beaverdell camp is characterized by a high silver content. Mineralization is composed of galena, sphalerite and pyrite with lesser amounts of arsenopyrite, tetrahedrite, pyrargyrite, chalcopyrite, polybasite, acanthite, native silver and pyrrhotite. The gangue minerals in veins are mainly quartz with lesser amounts of calcite, fluorite and sericite with rare barite.
The Golden Fraction (Lot 3289s) adjoins the Hidden Treasure claim (082ESW193) to the west. The property is underlain by granodiorite of the Westkettle batholith which hosts five subparallel to parallel shear zones striking approximately 280 degrees, dipping 70 to 80 degrees northwest and ranging from a fissure to 61 centimetres wide, with an average of 15 centimetres. Three of these five shear zones have been developed by workings.
Galena, sphalerite, pyrite, chalcopyrite, tetrahedrite and native silver of variable proportions occur in quartz-calcite veins with wallrock within the shear zones. A 4.3-metre section, 20 centimetres wide, contained considerable light-coloured sphalerite. The shear zones are locally siliceous and iron-stained. An andesite (Wellington-type) dike trends east and occurs in and closely follows the central shear zone.
A sample of dump material from the opencut taken in 1936 yielded 0.34 gram per tonne gold, 8468 grams per tonne silver, 26.5 per cent lead, 22.3 per cent zinc and 0.1 per cent copper (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1936, page D31). Another sample was taken from the south end of a shear zone 17 metres vertically above the central opencut and adit. The sample yielded 0.34 gram per tonne gold, 3860 grams per tonne silver, 5.9 per cent lead and 0.8 per cent zinc (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1936, page D31). In 1987, sample #46 yielded 2000.91 grams per tonne silver and 0.17 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 16772). The sample was a 0.35-metre channel sample from a shear zone with thin banding of iron staining and gouge on the hangingwall, silicification, galena and pyrite.
In 1938, production from the Golden Fraction occurrence was reported as 9 tonnes from the Rico Fraction (Lot 3839s), from which 17,978 grams of silver, 353 kilograms of lead and 502 kilograms of zinc were recovered.
