The Bar occurrence is located on a ridge separating Palmer Bar and Kiakho creeks, approximately 11.5 kilometres southwest of Cranbrook.
The area is underlain by metasediments of the Middle Proterozoic Purcell Supergroup, Creston Formation. The rocks are intruded by rocks of the mid-Cretaceous Bayonne plutonic suite. In addition to the numerous typically granodiorite intrusives representing the Bayonne plutonic suite, much more alkaline syenite and quartz syenite intrusives (stocks and dykes) occur in this area.
The mineralization on the Bar property is situated (on surface) within a zone up to 60 meters wide followed for at least 1000 meters along strike. The widest portion of this mineralized zone extends for about 300 meters and apparently corresponds to the intersection on the east-west trending Cranbrook Fault (marked by syenite dykes and/or apophyses) and another-west-northwest trending fault zone. The mineralized zone has a minimum vertical extent of roughly 100 meters, identified in exposures at least 100 vertical meters apart.
The widest portion of the mineralized zone has been exposed by 1990-1991 trenching. Mineralization consists of auriferous quartz, quartz-pyrite, and lesser quartz-pyrite-galena-bearing stockwork, vein, breccia and dissemination zones occurring in syenites and surrounding metasediments. Especially intense mineralization is found in and close to the northern contact zone of the larger east-west trending syenite body. This contact is tectonic in origin and is manifested by a several meters thick zone of intensely limonitic, oxidized fine gouge.
In 1983, the area incorporating the Bar 19 claim mineral showing was staked by J. Leask and associates (Assessment Report 12930). In 1985, Noranda Exploration Company optioned the whole (Bar 1-19) property and drilled (Bar 85-1) 4.5 kilometres to the south (Assessment Report 14548), but also conducted a limited soil grid sampling (49 samples) over the Bar 19 claim (Assessment Report 14823). In 1988, Goldpac Investments Ltd. completed one diamond drill hole (Bar 88-2), 3 kilometres to the south-southeast (see Vine 55 (082GSW049) and Assessment Reports 17886, 18407).
In 1990, Swift Minerals Ltd. drilled a 293-metre hole (B-90-1) in the area of previous 1988 drilling by Chapleau Resources Ltd., 3 kilometres to the south of the Bar 19 claim (Assessment Report 20274). Drill hole B-88-20 intersected 0.57 per cent copper over 50.5 metres.
In 1990 and 1991, White Knight Resources Ltd. and Therm Exploration Ltd. conducted a soil geochemistry program and outlined a large area of anomalous soil geochemistry in both gold and lead. Follow-up trenching uncovered strongly altered, gold-bearing, quartz syenite dykes. Highlights of the trenching included: 4.52 grams per tonne gold over 26.0 meters, including 7.42 grams per tonne gold over 11 meters; 3.08 grams per tonne gold over 18.0 meters; 2.09 grams per tonne gold over 16.0 meters; and 1.54 grams per tonne gold over 30 meters (Assessment Report 22186, and as reported in Assessment Report 27264). The gold mineralization has been traced in trenches for 280 metres along strike and remained open-ended. In addition, a soil geochemistry survey was conducted to the west of the trenches indicating further extension of the mineralization in this direction.
By 2002, only the Bar 19 claim remained in good standing; the Bar 1-18 claims having lapsed. Late in 2002, Chapleau Resources Ltd. entered into an option agreement to acquire a 70% interest in the Bar 19 property. The 2002-2003 exploration program involved the drilling of 15 diamond drill holes of HQ and NQ size, totaling 3153.72 meters (Assessment Report 27264). Access involving clearing/reestablishing an old road, bridge re-construction and establishing the new roads and drill pads was done. In addition, an extension of the mineralized structure further west and east was confirmed by surface rock sampling establishing a total strike length of the mineralized structure in excess of 1 kilometre. Highlights of reported assays from the first eight holes include 7.23 grams per tonne gold over 1 metre in hole B-03-03A, and 5.2 grams per tonne gold over 1.06 metres in hole B-03-04A (Assessment Report 27264 and Exploration and Mining in BC 2003, page 42). The property was returned to the vendor before the end of 2003.
Chapleau Resources reports that the Bar (Bar 19) prospect drilled by Chapleau in 2002-2003 and the Lookout prospect cover the Bar (082GSW068). The Lookout prospect is also known as Belleville, Hamilton vein, or Nord (082GSW001), 2 kilometres to the southeast.
In 2013/2014, PJX Resources Inc began a large program of gravity and magnetic geophysical surveying to detect dense subsurface features on their West Basin and Vine properties (Assessment Report 34937); surveying continued into 2016 (Assessment Reports 34082, 34937, 35416, 36347). The gravity survey extended 10 kilometres beyond the West Basin property claim boundaries encompassing several MINFILE occurrences including the Bar prospect (Figure 8, Assessment Report 34082). Post processing and modeling of the gravity data was conducted in 2017 to further constrain the prospective area for drilling (Assessment Report 37242).
