The Paradise occurrence is located in the North Thompson River Valley, approximately 60 kilometres south of the town of Valemount.

The showing is underlain by Proterzoic Horsethief Creek Group metasedimentary rocks and derived gneisses. Medium to coarse crystalline sovite and beforsite carbonatite sills intrude the Horsethief Creek rocks.

In British Columbia, carbonatites are found in a broad zone parallel to and encompassing the Rocky Mountain Trench, extending from the Elkford area northward to Williston Lake. Occurrences within this belt have been subdivided into three sub-belts. Most carbonatite occurrences are found in the central belt, which is predominantly within the Omineca Belt of the Canadian Cordillera and hosts most known stratiform carbonatites in the area between Revelstoke and Valemount. Within this northwest-trending belt, a number of carbonatite layers containing anomalous strontium, niobium, tantalum and rare earth elements occur within the Semipelite-Amphibolite division of the Hadrynian Horsethief Creek Group in the Monashee Mountains near Blue River (Fieldwork 1984). All of these carbonatites have sodic pyroxene and amphibole-rich fenitic margins and are associated with nepheline and sodalite syenites, urtites to meltergites. The time of emplacement of these carbonatites appears to be prior to the deformation and metamorphism associated with the Jura-Cretaceous Columbian orogeny and, in part, related to extension and/or rifting along the western continental margin. A third major extensional event at the end of the Devonian (circa 350 Ma) resulted in the intrusion of carbonatites. Carbonatites and surrounding metasedimentary rocks have been regionally metamorphosed to upper amphibolite grade (kyanite to sillimanite zone; Open File 1987-17; Bulletin 83).

The Paradise carbonatite is similar in texture and composition to the Verity carbonatite prospect (083D 005), 4.5 kilometres to the west-southwest. The Paradise carbonatite is approximately 30 metres thick, striking approximately north and dipping 30 degrees west. It is presumed to be the eastern extension of the Verity-Paradise Carbonatite Complex. Exposures of carbonatite occur with high-grade metasediments on the north face of Paradise Mountain, immediately south of Paradise Lake and along the ridge to the northwest, on both sides. Zones of significant tantalum-niobium-phosphate mineralization tend to be concentrated in narrow, discontinuous horizons. Carbonatite composition varies somewhat from outcrop to outcrop and within a single outcrop. Most consist of sovite and lesser local beforsite occurring as sills within quartz-hornblende-mica schist of the Semipelite-Amphibolite division of the Hadrynian Horsethief Creek Group.

The beforsite and sovite-fenite gneiss are generally separate units but they locally intrude each other and continuous horizons grade from beforsite to sovite. Beforsite crystals were observed floating in a sovite matrix, indicating the sovite was later. Similar observations were made in drilling at the Verity prospect. A biotite sovite phase is unique to the Paradise showing and occurs as pods and segregations associated with nepheline syenite and feldspar-hornblende gneiss. Calcite, biotite, apatite and magnetite comprise the major constituents of this phase (Open File 1987-17). Carbonatite outcrops are in contact with fenite containing pyrochlore crystals. Gneisses show an increase in amphibole nearing the contact with carbonatites. A banded texture caused by layering of the accessory minerals apatite, amphibole, olivine, magnetite, biotite, pyrite, pyrrhotite, pyrochlore, columbite and zircon is common in the sovite unit and less developed in the beforsite unit.

Chip samples over 5 metres across beforsite assayed 0.013 per cent tantalum, 0.032 per cent niobium and 4.56 per cent phosphate (Assessment Report 10274). A sovite sample was analyzed and contained 0.36 per cent strontium (Open File 1987-17).

Another zone of carbonatite, referred to as the Roadside zone, is located south of the Paradise zone.

In 2009, a channel sample yielded 0.0082 per cent tantalum and 0.0375 per cent niobium over 1 metre, while the upper 5-metres of the Roadside carbonatite had 5 continuous chip samples that averaged 0.1373 per cent niobium and 0.0101 per cent tantalum (Chong, A., Postolski, T. (2011-01-31): NI 43-101 Technical Report - Blue River Ta-Nb Project).

Work History

The property was acquired by Commerce Resources Corporation in 2000 and was grouped together in 2002 with the company’s other carbonatite projects in the area to form the Blue River property. In 2001, approximately 5000 metres of line-cutting, gridding and ground magnetic surveys were performed. A 2001 drilling program focused on the Verity carbonatite to the west. From 2002 to 2010, extensive exploration programs were carried out on the Fir (083D 035) and Bone Creek (083D 036) occurrences to the south.