The Storm King (Lot 3625) is located at 2150 metres elevation at the head of Goat River, approximately 3 kilometres south of the summit of White Grouse Mountain and 45 kilometres north of Creston.
Regionally, the area is underlain by siltstones, quartzites, dolomites and phyllites of the Proterozoic Aldridge, Creston and Kitchener formations of the Purcell Supergroup, intruded by a small quartz monzonite stock, possibly Cretaceous. Buff dolomites, white-grey quartzites and minor argillites of the Kitchener Formation have a northward strike and dip moderately to steeply west. The Lower Creston Formation consists mainly of laminated to thickly bedded argillites and siltites with minor fine-grained quartz wackes. The rocks are waxy green to olive in colour with tan-weathering surfaces, wavy bedding and abundant mudcracks. Rocks of the Upper Aldridge, underlying an area to the east, consist of a relatively homogeneous unit with occasional thin interbeds of light grey quartzite and laminated light and dark grey argillaceous quartzite. The intrusive stock consists of medium- to fine-grained massive biotite monzogranite. The sediments adjacent to the intrusion have been altered to produce concentric zones of biotite hornfels and siliceous siltstone.
Host rocks are Kitchener Formation dolomitic siltstones (Middle Proterozoic Purcell Supergroup); the sediments strike north and dip moderately to steeply west. The occurrence area is located 1.5 kilometres from the southeast corner of the Bayonne Batholith, an early Cretaceous granodiorite. The intrusive rocks are medium to coarse-grained and contain pink feldspar and minor black tourmaline.
Regional metamorphism is biotite facies of greenschist grade; one small area of diopside, possibly a contact metamorphic effect, is reported. Quartz veining is common in the area, occurring in large swarms that are subparallel to the stratigraphy and up to 50 metres wide. Individual veins are up to 1 metre wide and locally contain fine-grained carbonate; the mineralized veins are bound by weathered brown sericite alteration up to 1 metre wide.
A shaft was sunk on mineralized quartz; the dump contains a small pile of sorted ore heavily mineralized with pyrite, tetrahedrite, galena, and a little chalcopyrite and arsenopyrite. Efforts to find extensions of the zone in trenches do not appear to have been successful. Small occurrences of arsenopyrite north of the Whiskey Jack claim contain scheelite.
In 1952, a selected sample rich in galena and tetrahedrite assayed 0.31 per cent tin (PF521032); recent samples of such material yielded assays of up to 4.5 grams per tonne gold and 310 grams per tonne silver, but barren quartz veins, host dolomites and granodiorite contain no precious metals.
Work History
The Superior claim, owned in 1901 by W.J. Garbutt, was apparently located in this vicinity. A considerable amount of work was done in 1901 and several tons of ore were packed out for 48 kilometres to make a smelter test. In 1952, Leech mentions a water filled shaft and trenches on the Storm King property, which may be the old Superior working. The Golden King (Lot 3624), Storm King (Lot 3625), Gem (Lot 3631), and Annie G (Lot 6339) claims were Crown-granted in 1905 to J.A. Gibson, Pugh Sutherland, H.H. Nell and C.R. Holmes.
In 1980, the area was prospected as part of the White Grouse property by Gerhardi Holdings Ltd.
The area was explored as the Whiskey Jack claim by Lacana Mining in 1985 for its precious metal and tin potential; mineralization was found to be restricted to local areas within extensive quartz veining, with no interesting values obtained from either the altered wallrocks or in barren-looking quartz veins. No samples yielded positive tin assays, but local high-grade antimony assays may be of further interest. A sample (LWR-002) of mineralized material from the historical shaft area assayed 0.59 per cent copper, 0.14 per cent lead, 0.64 per cent zinc, 0.010 per cent antimony, 0.07 per cent bismuth, 261.6 grams per tonne silver and 4.10 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 14125).
In 2006, Aeroquest Limited carried out an airborne geophysical survey on the area as the Storm King property, owned by Jasper Mining Corporation and held under option by Dynamic Exploration Limited. In total, 96.2-line kilometres of electromagnetic, magnetic and radiometric surveys were flown over the property.
In 2010, Kootenay Gold Inc. conducted a minor program of prospecting and rock sampling and the area as the Slocanny Granny property. Fjordland Exploration Incorporated optioned the property later that year. A rock sample (SK10-349) of quartz-magnesite-barite veins with galena and chalcopyrite from old workings located approximately 600 metres north-northwest of the Storm King occurrence yielded 0.83 per cent lead, 0.31 per cent zinc and 7.9 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 32262).
In 2011, Bethpage Capital Corp. conducted an airborne geophysical survey of the Hall Lake area including the occurrence. The survey identified five anomalous features. Also at this time, Fjordland Exploration completed a program of soil sampling immediately to the north on the South Slocanny Granny property.
In 2013, Eagle Plains Resources Ltd. conducted a program of geological mapping and geochemical (rock, silt and soil) sampling on the Hall Lake property. A dump sample (AHHLR002) yielded 0.36 gram per tonne gold, 115 grams per tonne silver, 0.13 per cent lead, 0.39 per cent copper and 0.12 per cent antimony, and float boulder and subcrop samples (GCHLR001 and JKHLR003) of malachite-stained quartz hosting chalcopyrite, taken approximately 4 kilometres to the south-southeast of the occurrence assayed 0.86 and 0.91 per cent copper with 1.0 and 33.9 grams per tonne silver, respectively (Assessment Report 34463).
