The Sweet Spot or Canam showing is located approximately 40 kilometres east of Creston and 1 kilometre north of the border with the United States.
The area is underlain by clastic metasediments of the Aldridge Formation, which is part of the mid-Proterozoic Belt-Purcell Supergroup. The Aldridge Formation is intruded by a number of gabbro-diorite sills and dykes which are considered to be syndepositional. Structurally, the area is within the Moyie anticline, a broad north-plunging fold structure. The property is near the crest of the fold along the eastern limb.
Mineralization occurs as disseminated galena and sphalerite, often occurring as stratabound lenses within clean quartzite and biotite-garnet–chlorite–altered quartzite.
WORK HISTORY
In 1989, Cominco Ltd. staked the Canam claims (now the Sweet Spot claims) and completed a UTEM geophysical survey.
In 1990, Cominco Ltd. completed line cutting and a geochemical soil survey consisting of 396 samples. Anomalous values for lead, zinc and arsenic were found, with reported lead values up to 0.084 per cent and zinc values up to 0.21 per cent (Assessment Report 20733).
In 1991, Cominco Ltd. completed a UTEM geophysical survey and three diamond drill holes totaling 868.9 metres. Drillhole C-91-1 intersected intermittent, very weak, disseminated sphalerite and minor galena with occasional narrow quartz veins or fractures carrying galena, sphalerite and pyrite.
In 1992, Cominco Ltd. completed UTEM and HLEM geophysical surveys on the property. In 1993, the company completed a UTEM geophysical survey on the property. In 1994 the company completed a single vertical drillhole with a depth of 132.32 metres. In 1998, Cominco Ltd. optioned the property to Abitibi Mining Corp. In 2000, Abitibi Mining Corp. completed a single 540-metre-deep diamond drill hole.
In 2009, Darlene Lavoie staked the Sweet Spot claims (which encompass part of the old Canam claims) and optioned the property to Kootenay Gold Inc., who completed preliminary prospecting on the property. Highlights include subcrop samples MK09-79 and MK09-80, which assayed 0.2 per cent lead and 0.44 per cent zinc and 0.7 per cent lead, 0.24 per cent zinc and 17.4 grams per tonne silver, respectively, and float sample MK09-83, which assayed greater than 1 per cent lead, 0.42 per cent zinc and 25.7 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 31661).
In 2010, Kootenay Gold Inc. completed prospecting in the area. In 2012, Kootenay Gold Inc. changed their name to Kootenay Silver Inc. and completed an exploration program of geological mapping, rock sampling and biogeochemistry. Highlights include rock sample SK12-8, which assayed 0.57 per cent lead and 13 grams per tonne silver, and sample SK12-7, which assayed 1.28 per cent zinc (Assessment Report 33481).
In 2013, Kootenay Silver Inc. completed a program of geological mapping on the Sweet Spot property. In 2015, Craig Kennedy prospected the property, and later that year Teck Resources Ltd. completed a program of re-logging and XRF analysis of 1991-era drill cores. The following year, Teck completed a program of geological mapping and rock sampling on the property. Two samples (2767161 and 2767162) of middle Aldridge Formation quartzites hosting disseminated sphalerite, galena, pyrite, and hematite assayed 0.625 and 0.680 per cent zinc, 1.530 and 0.221 per cent lead with 5.2 and 2.5 grams per tonne silver, respectively (Assessment Report 36308).
In 2017, Teck completed a 5.1-line-kilometre ground electromagnetic survey on the property. The following year, a program of geological mapping, geochemical (rock and soil) sampling, a 64.0-line-kilometre gravity survey and a 270-line-kilometre airborne magnetic and radiometric survey on the Sweet Spot property. In 2019, Teck completed two diamond drill holes, totalling 1371.0 metres, on the property.
In 2018, Teck collected 469 soil samples and 20 rock samples on their Sweet Spot property (Assessment Report 38379). Soil sampling results confirmed the zinc-lead anomaly extent in historic surveys, and identified a zinc-lead-cadmium-manganese-thallium anomalous zone in the southwest of the property in the hanging-wall of the Lower-Middle Aldridge Contract (LMC).
In 2019, Two diamond drill holes, totaling 1371 metres were drilled to test for stratabound zinc-lead mineralization in Middle and Lower Aldridge rocks (Assessment Report 38785). The drilling aimed to 1) test a conductivity anomaly near the Lower-Middle Aldridge Contact (LMC) identified by a magnetotelluric (MT) survey in 2017 and 2) test the potential for mineralization at depth from a multi-element soil anomaly identified in 2018 located approximately 300m up section of the LMC. No major zones of stratabound mineralization were observed in hole Hole SWE-19-01 to explain the MT anomaly targeted. Hole SWE-19-02 also did not intersect any significant mineralized intervals, though elevated zinc-lead in siltstones from 100 – 279 metres may explain the elevated multi-element soil anomaly observed on surface.
In 2021, Kootenay Resources Inc. contracted Salt Spring Imaging, Ltd. to record and analyse magnetotelluric data on the Moyie anticline (Assessment Report 40348).
