The G.E. prospect (now Miner Mountain) is located on the northwest slope of Mount Miner (Baldy Mountain, Allison Mountain), 5 kilometres northeast of Princeton.
The area in the vicinity of Mount Miner is underlain by the eastern facies of the Upper Triassic Nicola Group consisting of mafic augite and hornblende porphyritic pyroclastics and flows. These rocks are intruded by small dioritic bodies that may be coeval with the volcanics. A fault striking northeast along Dear Valley Creek (Deer Valley fault) juxtaposes the volcanics against coal-bearing sandstones and shales of the Eocene Princeton Group to the northwest.
Copper oxide-sulphide mineralization occurs over an area 500 metres long and 500 metres wide, underlain mostly by pyroxene microdiorite. Andesitic tuffs, flows and breccias, with minor limestone and felsite outcrop to the south, near the summit of Mount Miner.
The strongest zone of mineralization is in the northeastern portion of the 500 by 500 metre area of copper oxides and sulphides. Here, chalcopyrite and pyrite occur as disseminations and fracture fillings in medium-grained, magnetic, saussuritized microdiorite. Malachite accompanies these sulphides on surface exposures. Minor magnetite and bornite are also reported. Trenching and drilling suggests that 540,000 tonnes of ore grading 0.25 to 0.30 per cent copper are contained in a 30-metre-wide zone trending northwest for 90 metres, to a depth of 76 metres (Property File - S. Holland, 1974). The best intersection averaged 0.27 per cent copper over 71 metres (Property File - V.A. Preto, 1974, Figure 5, hole DDH 73-4). This zone narrows to the northwest but remains untested to the southeast.
Weaker mineralization is found in two zones of intensely broken, altered and deeply oxidized Nicola Group volcanics in the southern part of the area of copper sulphides and oxides. These fault zones are situated 90 to 240 metres southwest of the zone of microdiorite-hosted mineralization. They strike northwest for up to 500 metres and are 50 to 100 metres wide. Mineralization consists of malachite and azurite. Rock sampling has encountered gold values of up to 0.805 gram per tonne (Assessment Report 17715, page 1).
A few scattered copper occurrences in microdiorite are exposed in trenches in the northwestern part of the mineralized area.
This prospect was discovered by Granby Mining Company Ltd. in 1951 while exploring for the source of mineralized slide debris to the west (Regal, 092HSE078). Various operators conducted geological, geophysical and soil surveys, stripping and trenching between 1951 and 1990. Granby Mining completed 1792 metres of percussion drilling in 41 holes in 1965, and Bethlehem Copper Corporation drilled two holes in 1973. The property was most recently explored by Mingold Resources Inc. between 1987 and 1990, which conducted soil and rock sampling.
In 2007, Sego! Resources Inc. acquired the property and conducted a multi-faceted exploration program.
In March 2011, Sego began a phased program of percussion drilling designed to determine the extent of the mineralization encountered in trenches 95 and 96 and diamond drill hole MM-10-19 and to penetrate below the leached cap encountered in trenches 97 and 98. A phase 1 program of 34 holes totalling 2002 metres was completed, with five holes containing significant results. The best phases 2 and 3 percussion holes were PDH-68, which contained 26 metres grading 0.842 per cent copper and 0.834 grams per tonne gold, and PDH 94, which contained 82 metres to EOH grading 1.006 per cent copper and 0.576 grams per tonne gold (www.segoresources.com).
Eight diamond drill holes totalling 1622 metres were drilled in February 2012. The purpose of 2012 HQ-size core holes was to confirm percussion holes that intersected significant copper-gold values and to compare diamond drill results with percussion results by twinning holes. The best intersection was in vertical hole MM12-DDH-21, which contained 100.39 metres averaging 0.95 per cent copper, 0.55 grams per tonne gold and 3.47 grams per tonne silver (including 35 metres from 10.06 to 45.11 metres averaging 2.46 per cent copper, 1.357 grams per tonne gold and 8.9 grams per tonne silver). Long intersections of reasonable grade were also obtained from diamond drill holes 24, 27 and 28 (www.segoresources.com).
In 2013, Sego Resources completed a 288 line-kilometre airborne geophysical survey on the Miner Mountain property.
In 2017 and 2020, Sego completed drilling and geological work on the property. The 556-metre drilling program in 2017 intersected 18 metres of 0.29 per cent copper, 0.36 gram per tonne gold, and 3.0 grams per tonne silver; and 105 metres of 0.3 per cent copper, 0.08 gram per tonne gold and 2.23 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 37420.
