The Dago occurrence outcrops along a west-facing slope, east of Kidd Lake and approximately 2 kilometres northwest of the north end of Miner Lake.

The deposit is located along the western margin of an area of hilly upland situated in the centre of the Aspen Grove copper camp, known as the Fairweather Hills. The Fairweather Hills region is underlain by the Central volcanic facies of the Upper Triassic Nicola Group, comprising intermediate, feldspar and feldspar augite porphyritic pyroclastics and flows, and associated alkaline intrusions. The intrusions vary in composition from diorite to monzonite and are thought to be comagmatic with the Nicola Group, ranging in age from Upper Triassic to Lower Jurassic.

Locally, the area is underlain by red and green laharic breccias, augite andesite porphyry and minor sediments of the Nicola Group (Central Belt, Bulletin 69). The units generally strike north-northwest and dip east. This sequence is broken up into a series of tilted fault blocks trending north.

Copper mineralization occurs in green laharic breccia, limestone and graphitic argillite near the north-northwest-striking contact with red laharic breccia to the east. This mineralization is accompanied by brown-weathering carbonate alteration and consists primarily of disseminated and fracture-controlled chalcopyrite, bornite and chalcocite, often with malachite and azurite. Chalcopyrite and malachite are also occasionally found in narrow shear zones. Small areas of quartz carbonate skarn contain chalcopyrite and bornite. Trenching and diamond drilling have intersected narrow sections of copper mineralization in a zone trending north-northwest for approximately 1000 metres.

In 1972, an angled drillhole (72-5) intersected a 15.8-metre section (15.3 to 31.1 metres down hole) of limestone with chalcocite, chalcopyrite, bornite and native copper assaying 0.83 per cent copper, whereas a second vertical hole (72-7), drilled approximately 115 metres south of Hole 72-5, intersected zones of graphitic argillite with chalcopyrite, assaying 1.40 and 0.78 per cent copper over 9.0 and 7.5 metres (28.5 to 37.5 and 61.5 to 69.0 metres down-hole), respectively (Assessment Report 3789). A third drillhole (72-2), located a short distance west of hole 72-7, yielded 0.37 and 1.45 per cent copper over 10.5 and 4.5 metres (15.0 to 25.5 and 91.5 to 96.0 metres down hole), respectively, in a leucocratic diorite porphyry breccia and andesite breccia hosting chalcopyrite and bornite (Assessment Report 3789). The later intercept also included a 1.5-metre section yielding 3.97 per cent copper, 27.4 grams per tonne silver and 2.4 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 3789). Also at this time, a grab sample of quartz carbonate skarn with banded chalcopyrite from trench R9 on the Dago-Open zone, located approximately 700 metres south-southeast of hole 72-7, assayed 1.74 per cent copper (Assessment Report 3789).

In 1977, a percussion drill hole (PH77-2), located several hundred metres west-northwest of the previous (1972) drillhole 72-7, intercepted an andesite and limy tuff hosting quartz veins and chalcopyrite yielding 0.21 per cent copper over 6.0 metres (15.0 to 21.0 metres down hole; Assessment Report 6642).

In 1989, resampling of old drillcore yielded values of up to 0.79 gram per tonne gold, 28.8 grams per tonne silver and 4.35 per cent copper over 1.5 metres, respectively (Assessment Report 19591, page 8).

Work History

White River Mines Ltd. drilled 14 holes, totalling 1926 metres, in 1972 after completing programs of geological mapping, geophysical surveys, soil sampling and 1824 metres of trenching. Additional drilling was conducted by Tri-Power Minerals Corporation, with the completion of five percussion holes, totalling 225 metres, in 1977. Assays were only reported for one hole (PH77-2).

During 1981 through 1985, D.R. Morgan completed programs of geological mapping on the area as the Ox 1-3 claims. In 1989 and 1990, Rise Resources Inc. completed a program of geochemical (historical core) sampling and a 3.4 line-kilometre ground magnetic survey on the area as the Cat 1-4 claims.

In 2008, Christopher James Gold Corp. completed a 1113.5 line-kilometre airborne magnetic-radiometric survey on the area as the Big Kidd property.

In 2011 and 2012, Xstrata Copper Canada Corp., on the behalf of Jiulian Resources Ltd., completed programs of prospecting, geochemical (rock and soil) sampling and a 56.8 line-kilometre induced polarization survey on the Big Kidd property.