The Nova showing is situated west of the Ashnola River.
The Nova showing is underlain by argillites (slate), chert and intermediate to mafic volcanics of the Ordovician to Triassic Apex Mountain Complex. These rocks are part of a eugeosynclinal suite that includes jasper, rhodonite, minor limestone and related small plutons in addition to the rocks mentioned above. Intense folding is evident in locations several kilometres east of the showing, and evidence of complex folding is seen in the showing area as well. Thin beds of impure and recrystallized limestone are evident as an isolated outcrop/subcrop between argillite, banded iron formation and chert.
Banded/massive, interbedded magnetite occurs in a chert and slate sequence. The magnetite unit is indistinguishable from the slate except for limonite and jarosite stains, which appear to be coming from fractures crosscutting this unit. Sawn specimens show variations from massive granular magnetite to delicately banded phases; the latter is more common. A thin section of this material showed interbedded magnetite and tremolite. The zone of banded to massive magnetite has been delineated over 700 metres in strike(?) and could be up to 50 metres thick in places. Its western and eastern margins seem to be bounded by block faults. Recent opinions, including those made by government geologists, suggest that this might be a banded iron formation.
During a mapping program in July 1992, four small hand trenches were discovered on some quartz veins. The workings are very old and probably date back to the turn of the 20th century, or older, and no signs of more recent work are evident. The quartz veins crosscut the slate/chert unit in a roughly east-west direction immediately above the magnetite horizon. The veins are a few centimetres to tens of centimetres thick and are separated by several metres of chert. Limonite and boxwork textures are locally present within the quartz as well as some chlorite and one occurrence of arsenopyrite. A hand trench, excavated in August 1992 between two of the old workings on some rusty and sheared chert that hosts a few quartz stringers, yielded 821 parts per billion gold over 1.5 metres. This trench was widened in October 1992 and seven more contiguous, 1.5 metre wide chip samples were collected. Two samples, adjacent to the one that ran 821 parts per billion gold, yielded 811 and 947 parts per billion gold, respectively. Three samples averaged 860 parts per billion gold over 4.5 metres; the other samples yielded values from 158 to 517 parts per billion gold, and all the samples contain highly anomalous arsenic.
The Nova claim area was first explored by John Nebocat and Harvey Klatt between 1980 and 1982. In 1980, follow-up work on stream geochemistry anomalies resulted in the discovery of a large area of massive to semi-massive magnetite mineralization. In 1982, soil sampling and geological mapping yielded a broad zone of anomalous copper, zinc and arsenic in the vicinity of the magnetite zone. The Nova claims were staked by Nebocat and Klatt in 1991 and 1993. Between 1991 and August 1992, Nebocat and Klatt established a baseline and several grid lines and conducted mapping, limited hand trenching and rock sampling. Additional grid was located and mapped and a few chip samples taken in 1993. No work was performed on the property in 1994. In May 1995, portions of the grid were re-established using pickets and intermediate lines put in at 50 metre spacings; 26 soil samples were collected at 25 metre spacings along these lines.
The Nova showing was later acquired by Ron Schneider. Velocity Minerals Inc. then optioned the claim area as part of the Ashnola claim group. Velocity Minerals Inc. carried out a prospecting and geological mapping program on the Ashnola claim group in 2010, including locating and sampling near the Prince (MINFILE 092HSE056), Kel (MINFILE 092HSE090), Soft (MINFILE 092HSE187), Woodgrain (MINFILE 092HSE188) and TO (MINFILE 092HSE248) showings covered by the claim group. Seven rock samples were collected from the Nova showing.
In 2011, Grant Crooker expanded the Hedley Gold Project claim group to the north by amalgamating his claims with those owned by Ron Schneider. The expanded property was then optioned to Westcan Uranium Corporation. Three 1:10,000-scale base maps of the property were produced and rock geochemical sampling was carried out in the central and northern portions of the property.
