The Bud (South Zone) occurrence is located about 0.8 kilometre southwest of August Lake and 5.5 kilometres southeast of Princeton.
This area along the west flank of the Darcy Mountains is underlain to the west by volcanics and related sediments of the Upper Triassic Nicola Group and to the east by granodiorite of the Early Jurassic Bromley batholith.
The prospect is underlain by fine to medium-grained tuff, agglomerate and minor limy sediments that are often altered to garnet-bearing skarns. Minor feldspar and/or quartz porphyritic volcanics are also present. These rocks are intruded from the east by fine to coarse-grained porphyritic granodiorite, locally grading to granite or tonalite. The intrusives contain at least 10 per cent quartz, with alkali feldspar being more abundant than plagioclase.
All rocks are highly fractured in places and are cut by dykes of fresh porphyry and gabbro. Areas of fracturing are most effected by alteration, exhibiting calcite, chlorite, quartz, sericite, epidote, pink orthoclase, secondary (?) biotite and secondary (?) magnetite.
Patchy copper mineralization occurs in the volcanics, porphyry dykes and intrusive rocks in the vicinity of the contact between the Nicola Group and the Bromley batholith. The volcanics and dykes are generally mineralized with minor chalcocite, chalcopyrite and bornite, with abundant chrysocolla. Pyrite, malachite, azurite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, galena, bornite (?) and bismuthinite (?) are associated with a limonitic quartz vein and orthoclase alteration in a surface exposure of tonalite/granodiorite. A sample of this mineralization contained greater than 0.5 per cent copper, approximately 1.7 grams per tonne gold, approximately 446 grams per tonne silver, and anomalous molybdenum, lead, zinc and bismuth (Assessment Report 16256, page 10, sample 7872). A chip sample, 6.1 metres long, assayed 0.62 gram per tonne gold, 3.8 grams per tonne silver and 1.11 per cent copper (Assessment Report 12736, South zone geology map, sample 4126).
An angled drill hole collared 100 metres west-northwest of the area of surface mineralization intersected 11.6 metres of intercalated fine-grained light green volcanic (tuff?) and unaltered fine to medium-grained intrusive, containing quartz stringers and calcite, hematite and pyrite along fractures. This section graded 0.184 per cent copper, 0.33 gram per tonne gold and 8.7 grams per tonne silver over 10.7 metres (Assessment Report 16256, Appendix 2, Hole 87-3, 85.3-96.0 metres). A lower section of fine to medium- grained tonalite/granodiorite exhibiting chlorite, epidote and orthoclase alteration, graded 0.149 per cent copper, 0.121 gram per tonne gold and 3.2 grams per tonne silver over 4.6 metres (106.7-111.3 metres). Mineralization in this zone consists of quartz stringers with minor chalcopyrite and pyrrhotite. A few molybdenite blebs are also noted.
This prospect was first trenched in 1980. Pacific Seadrift Resources Ltd. conducted prospecting, sampling and soil surveys between 1983 and 1986. G. & V. Explorations Ltd. carried out geological and geophysical surveys, and 212 metres of diamond drilling in three holes in 1986 and 1987. The deposit was explored by Gold Brick Resources Inc., with the completion of soil and geophysical surveys in 1988 and 1989.
Big I Developments Ltd. and Golden Kootenay Resources Inc. drilled the area in 1997. A mineralized skarn-porphyry zone returned values of up to 0.24 per cent copper and 0.4 grams per tonne gold (GCNL #121(June 24), 1997).
