The Peavine Creek prospect (Vine property) is underlain by clastic and carbonate sedimentary rocks of the Meso-Proterozoic Purcell Supergroup. These sedimentary rocks are primarily of the Middle and Lower Aldridge Formation and gabbro intrusions known as Moyie Sills or the Moyie Intrusions. Several marker units have been identified on the Vine property indicating a relative stratigraphic depth to the Middle and Lower Aldridge Formation contact (LMC) across the property.
Geophysical work from 2013 to 2016 revealed a gravity anomaly centred about 1.5 kilometres north of the Vine 1 developed prospect (pjxresources.com/vine-and-west-basin-zinc-lead-silver-potential-dr-trygve-hoy.pdf). The gravity anomaly trends north-northwesterly, within and parallel to the trend of the Vine graben and to several parallel extensional or growth faults. It is restricted to the south by the Moyie fault. The anomaly is 3 to 4 kilometers in length and approximately 2 kilometers in width. From 2014 to 2020 (inclusive), a total of 22,975 metres were drilled mostly within the gravity anomaly, the most significant intersections were located roughly 1200 metres northeast of the Vine 1 developed prospect, and east of Peavine Creek. A new MINFILE prospect called "Peavine Creek" represents the mineralization reported in the drill results. One hole (VA19-37) was also drilled about 700 metres to the east of the Vine 1 MINFILE developed prospect (082GSW050).
Drilling on the Vine property intersected mineralization of predominantly sphalerite within a wide deformation zone (The Deformation Zone(?)) along the trace of the Moyie Fault. Drill hole VA17-33 intersected the sphalerite mineralization at 888.5 metres depth which extended to 896.5 metres. Sample analysis of the zone indicated concentrations of zinc up to 362 parts per million over 1 metre (Assessment Report 39466). In addition to the zinc mineralization in the deformation zone, a new zone of massive sulphides was intersected in drill hole VA19-48 that appears to be conformable to bedding with rounded sulphide clasts indicative of tectonic processes like those found within the Sullivan mine.
VA15-02 was the second hole drilled in the Vine program in 2015 and intersected a second gabbro sill at 23.3 metres with an intersection length of 470 metres (Assessment Report 35806). Below the gabbro was a sequence of typical lower Aldridge siltstones and argillites. The sediments were truncated by a phyllitic zone in the hanging wall of the Moyie fault with an interval length of 132 metres followed by a mylonitic fault. The mylonitic fault is believed to be a splay of the Moyie fault zone. Below the splay fault is a brecciated and altered quartzite interval where mineralization is generally absent. This quartzite unit is considered to be the attenuated FWQ. (During the exploration of the Vine vein (082GSW050), drilling by Cominco and Kokanee Exploration intersected quartzites down-section from the LMC (Lower/ Middle Aldridge Contact) which are believed to be correlative with the Footwall Quartzite (FWQ) unit that lie beneath the Sullivan ore body.) The Moyie fault lies at the bottom of the quartzite interval at 911.5 metres and is a 16-metre interval cutting the core axis at 67 degrees. Beneath the Moyie fault is a set of Devonian aged limestones and dolomites and the characteristic Peavine conglomerate at the end of the hole. In the immediate hangingwall of the phyllitic zone is a 100-metre-long interval of weak disseminated sphalerite with the zinc mineralization also occurring in bands of albite. At the base of the sphalerite mineralization (604.8 metres) a 5-centimetre layer of massive pyrrhotite and sphalerite lies within the phyllitic alteration zone. Below that at 708.5 metres are several 2- to 30-centimetre-thick albite bands parallel to the phyllitic foliation that host mainly pyrite, with lesser galena and sphalerite.
VA15-04 was drilled 135 metres to the east of VA15-02 and intersected similar units. The thick gabbro sill package begins at 27 metres and continues to 471 metres with some short sedimentary and intrusive rocks intervals. The phyllitic zone intersection in VA15-04 is 138 metres long beginning at 561 metres. In the hanging wall of the phyllitic zone is a brecciated silty quartzite with sericite alteration throughout. This unit appears to be the attenuated FWQ. At the base of the quartzite is a 10-metre-long interval of sheared and altered siltstone at 873 metres. Altered siltstone lies within the footwall of the shear and is followed by the thick Moyie fault zone at 909.6 metres. The remainder of the hole is comprised of Devonian carbonates and conglomerates and Van Creek Formation dolomitic silty argillite and siltstones at the end of the hole.
Further extensive diamond drilling through to 2020 was conducted in two key areas on the Vine with intersections of two sulphide zones intersected, the Deformation zone and the New Massive Sulphide (NMS) zone. Drill hole VA19-48, 800 metres to the northwest of VA15-02, contained an interval of zinc mineralization 1.4 metres thick grading 0.45 per cent zinc in a larger interval with 0.11 per cent zinc over 6.5 metres (Assessment Report 39466).
WORK HISTORY
In 2013/2014, PJX Resources Inc. began a large program of gravity and magnetic geophysical surveying to detect dense subsurface features (Assessment Report 34937); surveying continued into 2016 (Assessment Reports 34082, 34937, 35416, 36347). The gravity survey extended 10 kilometres beyond the claim boundaries encompassing several MINFILE occurrences in the region (Figure 8, Assessment Reports 34082). Geophysical interpretation of the gravity data suggested a single massive sulphide body at the base of the FWQ to the northeast of the Vine vein. Mineralization intersected, by former operators, approximately 750 metres below surface at the base of the FWQ lies along the western edge of a gravity anomaly referred to as the Eastern Gravity anomaly. In 2014, PJX Resources Inc. continued exploring the Vine property after some encouraging targets were resolved in the gravity survey analysis.
The 2015 Vine property was an amalgamation of three adjoining properties known as the Vine, the Vine Extension, and the Vine East. The combined land package consisted of 127 mineral tenures, including 15 grandfathered two post claims, covering an area of 10,161 hectares. All the mineral tenures on the Vine property were owned and operated by PJX Resources Inc. At this time the Vine property was contiguous with the company's adjacent Eddy and West Basin properties to the west and southwest respectively (Assessment Report 35806, Figure 1).
From 2014 into 2015, work completed by PJX Resources Inc on their Vine property consisted of 4500 metres in 15 NQ diamond-drill holes, geological mapping over 420 hectares, 6.5 kilometres of ground magnetic geophysical surveying and 10.6 kilometres of ground electromagnetic surveying (Assessment Report 35806). Thirteen of the holes were drilled in the vicinity of the Peavine Creek prospect. Two holes were drilled about 2.5 kilometres to the northwest the Peavine Creek prospect.
The base of the FWQ is about 300 metres stratigraphically below the LMC and was the focus of diamond drilling in 2014 to 2015. Drilling in the 2014 – 2015 program identified the FWQ, and potential mineralization appeared to be deformed in the hanging-wall zone of the Moyie Fault (Assessment Report 35806). Additional drilling and gravity geophysics was conducted in 2016/2017 and more accurately defined the geometry of the FWQ and Moyie Fault (Assessment Report 36347). In 2017, nine diamond drill holes were newly collared and three previously drilled holes were extended to depth for a total of 7124.78 metres (Assessment Report 37242). Mineralization was encountered in the drilling within the Moyie fault attenuation zone that was characteristic of sediments proximal to a sulphide deposit. Two additional drill targets were tested on the Vine property in the same program (op. cit.) with sulphide mineralization encountered at both sites. Analysis by PJX of the geological data supported the inference of synsedimentary faulting and anoxic sulphide deposition in the Proterozoic sediments that was later deformed by movement of the Moyie Fault.
From 2018-2019 magnetotellurics and borehole EM survey were conducted over 21.9 kilometres by PJX Resources Inc. on the Vine property (Assessment Report 38884).
In 2020, PJX Resources Inc. completed a 4-year exploration project launched in 2017 from which 19 diamond drill holes were completed in 2020 on the Vine property totaling 11,350.45 meters (Table 1, Assessment Report 39466). A biogeochemistry survey was conducted (from late 2019 to April 2020) on the Vine property to establish vectors to deep seated mineralization. A total of 457 samples were collected from 3 contiguous grid areas centered around the known mineralized zone of the Vine Vein. Two separate VLF-EM/ Magnetic geophysical surveys over 41 line-kilometre. Results of the soil geochemistry survey indicated a north trend coincident with a fault where lead, zinc and silver concentrations were anomalous.
Refer to the Vine 1 developed prospect (082GSW050) for related geological and work history details.
