The Rita occurrence outcrops approximately 900 metres east of the confluence of Swanson and Rampart creeks and 20 kilometres north-northeast of Princeton.

The area along Summers Creek is underlain by the Eastern volcanic facies of the Upper Triassic Nicola Group, comprising mafic, augite and hornblende porphyritic pyroclastics and flows, and associated alkaline intrusions. These rocks are intruded by granodiorite and quartz diorite of the Middle to Upper Cretaceous Summers Creek pluton.

Locally, scattered exposures of copper mineralization occur in an area approximately 1000 metres long and 700 metres wide, in massive basaltic to andesitic flows and augite plagioclase porphyritic flows of the Upper Triassic Nicola Group (Eastern Belt, Bulletin 69), along the western margin of the Middle to Upper Cretaceous Summers Creek Pluton. The volcanics are mildly hornfelsed and propylitic-altered in the vicinity of the quartz-diorite intrusion. Secondary minerals include epidote, hornblende, actinolite, chlorite, albite, biotite and carbonate. Mineralization consists of abundant disseminated and fracture-controlled pyrite and minor fracture-controlled chalcopyrite. Malachite and azurite commonly accompany this mineralization.

Work History

In 1971, Nicanex Mines completed a soil sampling program on the area immediately south of the occurrence as the KOR claims.

In 1981 and 1982, Canadian Nickel Company Ltd. completed programs of geological mapping, geochemical (rock, silt and soil) surveys and ground magnetic and electromagnetic surveys on the area as the Rita 1-4 claims. A sample (RX 42194) of a malachite- and azurite-stained fracture zone with traces of chalcopyrite assayed 0.209 per cent copper, 0.05 gram per tonne gold and 4.7 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 10703, page 5).

Fairfield Minerals Ltd. re-staked the area in 1987 as the Swan 1-5 claims after finding anomalous gold in stream silts at the mouth of Swanson Creek. In 1989 and 1990, the company completed programs of prospecting and geochemical (rock, silt and soil) sampling in the area for vein-hosted gold deposits. A sample (H4-R6) from the occurrence area yielded 0.33 per cent copper and 3.1 grams per tonne silver, whereas samples (SWAN-R1 and H4-R3) of quartz vein material, taken approximately 1.5 kilometres north of the occurrence, yielded up to 0.059 gram per tonne gold, 5.0 grams per tonne silver, 0.048 per cent copper and 0.441 per cent zinc (Assessment Report 19468, page 11).

In 1994, Fairfield Minerals Ltd. collected 516 soil samples targeting gold mineralization and eight rock samples. A quartz vein float sample (Sawn 94-R5) with limonite boxwork assayed 2.64 grams per tonne gold and 11.6 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 23958).

In 1995, Fairfield Minerals Ltd. conducted trenching, which produced 39 rock and 10 soil samples. Three rock chip and four selected grab samples were also collected from roadcuts and old trenches. Highlights of this program included trench SW95-4, which exposed a chloritized granodiorite with thin clay-limonite shears and quartz stringers yielding up to 2.257 per cent zinc and 0.56 per cent lead over 0.45 metre, whereas trench SW95-2, located several hundred metres northwest of the previous trench, exposed a potassic-altered granodiorite(?) and silicious volcanic (andesite?) with thin clay-limonite shears and quartz veinlets that yielded up to 0.310 gram per tonne gold over 1.0 metre (Assessment Report 24120).

In 2013, DGW Consultants completed a 4.3 line-kilometre ground magnetic survey on the area as the Rita claim. In 2018, John Billingsley completed a minor program of prospecting and rock sampling on the area as the Rita property.