The Welcome & Enterprise occurrences are located on the south side of St. Mary River and north of Hungry Peak at elevations of approximately 1250 to 1710 metres. Four historical Crown-granted claims, the Surprise, Welcome, Enterprise and Shrewsbury, extend south from the river up the northeast slope of Hungry Peak.
Regionally, the area is underlain by undivided sedimentary rocks of the Mesoproterozoic Dutch Creek and Creston formations and dolomitic carbonate rocks Mesoproterozoic Kitchener Formation, all of the Purcell Supergroup. To the west, the sedimentary rocks have been intruded by Cretaceous granodioritic intrusives.
The mineralized zones are reported to occur in quartz-carbonate lenses containing chalcopyrite, pyrite and locally galena associated with a shear zone. Covellite is also reported. The hostrocks are reported to be sheared limy argillites, possibly of the Middle Proterozoic Creston Formation (Purcell Supergroup).
At the 4300-level adit, located on the Welcome claim, mineralization comprises two large quartz-siderite veins or zones of quartz veining hosting chalcopyrite in a sheared and silicified limey quartz-sericite schist. The veins are reported to have been affected by folding. Another zone of quartz veining is exposed east of this adit with individual quartz veins up to 0.6 metre wide containing disseminated siderite and chalcopyrite hosted in a limey sericite schist. The hostrocks are tightly folded along a north-trending fold axis with a gentle south plunge.
The 4500-level adit is reported to be caved in. Two trenches above the adit expose quartz veins up to 0.9 metres wide cutting limey quartz-sericite schist and hosting minor chalcopyrite and siderite.
At the 4600-level (Creek) zone, located on the Enterprise claim, an area, up to 6.1 metres wide, of quartz veined limey quartz-sericite schist is exposed in the creek. Chalcopyrite mineralization occurs along foliation planes and as disseminations or massive lenses within quartz veins or siderite zones along the hangingwall of the shear. Disseminated galena is also reported along the footwall part of the shear within the schist or as massive lenses.
Historical trenches above the 5000-level, between approximately 1525 and 1710 metres elevation, are reported to expose galena, chalcopyrite and bands of massive pyrite within a quartz-sericite schist over a width of approximately 4.6 to 6.1 metres.
Two other adits exposing undescribed mineralization are reported around the 4100-level (1250 metres elevation) near the southwest corner of the Surprise L.1626 claim.
Work History
The Enterprise claim (Lot 3559) was Crown-granted to H. McCool and Wm. Millican and the Welcome claim (Lot 1389) to Geo. Urquhart in 1896. The Surprise claim (Lot 3560) was Crown- granted to Arthur Phillips in 1901 and the Shrewsbury (Lot 5584) to H.R. Thomson and associates in 1902. Development work to approximately 1904 was done in opencuts and five adits. A 0.36-tonne sample of galena mineralization was packed out to the Marysville smelter in 1904.
Newmont Mining Corporation of Canada Limited held the property in 1961 as part of an optioned group of 88 claims. Work included stripping, geological mapping and 485 metres of diamond drilling in five holes. Sampling in trenches above the 5000-level is reported to have yielded up to 1.77 per cent copper over 3.0 metres (Assessment Report 6206).
In 1973, the Bracebridge property was examined by Cream Silver Mines Ltd.
In 1976, Meridian Resources Ltd. completed a program of geological mapping, trenching, a 16.0 line-kilometre ground electromagnetic survey and five diamond drillholes on the area as the Brace Bridge property. Only the 4300-level adit was reported to be accessible at this time and was reported to have been driven along the shear zone for 9.1 metres and follow the footwall of the shear for 4.6 metres east with two crosscuts. Sampling of the north crosscut yielded 1.20 per cent copper over 3.0 metres, whereas the south crosscut yielded 2.90 per cent copper over 3.4 metres (Assessment Report 6206). Also at this time sampling of the 4600-level (Creek) zone is reported to have yielded values of up to 15.90 per cent lead, 0.26 per cent copper and 164.7 grams per tonne silver over 2.3 metres from the footwall of the shear and an average of 4.41 per cent copper with 22.7 grams per tonne silver over 4.4 metres from the hangingwall of the shear (Assessment Report 6206).
The Surprise Crown grant, held as a mineral lease by D.C. Jackson, was under option to Meridian Resources Ltd. in 1977 and 1978. The company also held a lease on the Welcome Crown grant. In 1985, two diamond drill holes, totalling 29.3 metres, were completed on the north side of the St. Mary River at an elevation of approximately 1310 metres.
In 1987 and 1988, South Kootenay Goldfields Inc. prospected the area as the Copper 1-2 claims of the Enterprise property. Two rock samples (3595 and 3596) taken from or near an area of historical workings at approximately 1250 metres elevation and near the southwest corner of the Surprise L.1626 claim yielded 2.23 and 3.29 per cent copper, 2.19 and 0.06 per cent lead with 99.5 and 75.6 grams per tonne silver, respectively, whereas another sample (3597) taken from the Creek zone assayed 52.10 per cent lead with 478.8 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 18258).
In 1990, a 2.4 line-kilometre ground electromagnetic survey was conducted on the lower slopes of the Bracebridge property. In 1994, Pacific Mariner Explorations Ltd. conducted a program of prospecting, geological mapping, soil sampling and a 5.4 line-kilometre ground magnetic and electromagnetic survey on the Welcome property. In 1996, Pacific Mariner Explorations Ltd. completed four diamond drill holes, totalling 306.3 metres, on the property.
In 2007, Ruby Red Resources Inc. prospected and rock sampled the area as the Bracebridge property.
In 2012, Rokmaster Resources Corp. completed a program of prospecting and geochemical (rock, silt and soil) sampling on the area as the Big Copper property. A chip sample (BC12A-09) across a malachite-stained shear zone in limy quartzite-sericite schist at approximately 1350 metres elevation yielded 1.03 per cent copper and 15.2 grams per tonne silver over 2.75 metres, and a select grab sample (BC12A-08) taken from a nearby adit portal assayed 1.31 per cent copper and 22.8 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 33347).
In 2021 and 2022, Rokmaster Resources Corp. conducted minor programs of rock sampling petrographic analysis on the property. Two dump samples (BCU22-05 and -06) from the Creek zone yielded 2.94 and 0.62 per cent copper, 0.88 and 11.74 per cent lead, 84.7 and 287.0 grams per tonne silver with 0.17 and 0.10 gram per tonne gold, respectively, and a dump sample (BCU22-04) from the 4500-level adit assayed 0.76 per cent copper and 12.4 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 40962). Also at this time, two outcrop samples (BCU22-01 and -02) from the lower workings (4300-level) on the Welcome claim yielded 0.69 and 1.11 per cent copper with 13.1 and 15.2 grams per tonne silver, respectively (Assessment Report 40962).
Also in 2021 and 2022, DLP Resources Inc. conducted programs of prospecting, rock sampling and a 233.7 line-kilometre airborne magnetic and electromagnetic survey on the area as the Hungry Creek property. A rock sample (C0146665) from a phyllite hosting carbonate lenses/beds, up to 0.15 metre thick, with pyrite-pyrrhotite-sphalerite and minor chalcopyrite, located at approximately 2380 metres elevation on the north face of Hungry Peak, assayed greater than 1.00 per cent zinc with 12.8 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 41925).
In 2023, Rokmaster Resources Corp. completed a minor program of prospecting and geochemical (soil and rock) sampling on the Big Copper property. Samples (P304662 and 4060469) from the 4300- and 4600-level adit trenches yielded 0.85 and 0.31 per cent copper, trace and 1.53 per cent lead with 16.7 and 49.1 grams per tonne silver, respectively (Assessment Report 42035).
In 2024 DLP Resources Inc. conducted a regional reconnaissance prospecting program on the Hungry Creek property.
