The Mot 15 occurrence is located at an elevation of approximately 680 metres, near the summit of a small hill southeast of the community of Barnhartvale.
Regionally, the area is underlain by mudstone, siltstone, shale and fine clastic sedimentary rocks of the Devonian to Permian Harper Range Group and basaltic volcanics, mudstone, siltstone, shale and fine clastic sedimentary rocks of the Upper Triassic Nicola Group, which are in contact with Late Triassic to Early Jurassic granodioritic intrusive rocks and are overlain by undivided volcanic rocks of the Eocene Kamloops Group.
The area is located near the contact between argillites with minor interbedded limestone and basaltic volcanics of the Upper Triassic Nicola Group and the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic granodioritic intrusive. The argillites are silicified and highly fractured and/or brecciated and in places veined with fine quartz stringers and segregations containing pyrite with minor chalcopyrite and malachite staining. Feldspar porphyry dikes hosting fine-grained pyrite and pyrrhotite with minor chalcopyrite and galena cut the argillites. The mineralized zone strikes northeast.
In 1971, six rock samples from the main trenched area are reported to have yielded from 1.53 to 106.40 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 3616).
In 1973, rock samples taken west and southeast of the trenched area yielded up to 0.51 and 0.41 gram per tonne gold, respectively (Assessment Report 4315).
In 1975, chip sampling of the main trenched area yielded values up to 20.3 grams per tonne gold over 1.8 metres of silicified sediments cut by quartz veins (sample M-8) and 107.0 grams per tonne gold over 1.8 metres of feldspar porphyry with quartz stringers hosting pyrite, chalcopyrite and galena (sample M-10; Assessment Report 8635).
In 1988, a diamond drill hole (JAG 1-88) intersected highly fractured and brecciated argillite with local zones healed with quartz-carbonate, yielding up to 8.64 grams per tonne gold over 1.5 metres, whereas another hole (JAG 4-88) intersected brecciated argillite cut by a pyritic feldspar porphyry dike containing quartz veinlets, which assayed 1.40 grams per tonne gold over 10.7 metres, including 5.99 grams per tonne gold over 1.52 metres (Assessment Report 17556).
In 2016, five grab samples taken from a mineralized zone located approximately 300 metres south of the main trenched area yielded values from 0.492 to 1.685 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 36039).
The area has been explored since the early 1900s with trenches, likely dating to this time, but there are no known records of this early activity.
In 1971, regional prospecting by Copper Range Exploration Company, Inc. discovered anomalous copper-gold values in rocks and staked the Mot 9-30 claims. Follow-up work consisted of geological mapping and soil (71 samples) and rock chip sampling. In 1973, geological mapping and soil sampling (61 samples) was conducted by Copper Range Exploration Company, Inc. In 1975, the property was restaked by R.A. Dickenson, who carried out a small sampling program. In 1979, the Carlin 2 claim was staked by R.A. Dickenson and in that year prospecting was carried out on behalf of T. Alexander.
In 1980 and 1981, Vantex Resources Inc. optioned the property and carried out a program of soil sampling and VLF-EM surveys. In 1988, a program of 31.2 kilometres of VLF-EM and magnetometer surveys, geological mapping, 21.6 kilometres of grid establishment and six diamond-drill holes, totalling 361.8 metres, were completed on the Barn claim on behalf of Jaguar Equities Inc.
During 2015 through 2019, the area was prospected and rock sampled as the Barn claim group.
In 2020, North Valley Resources Ltd. completed a program of prospecting and a ground magnetic and electromagnetic (VLF-EM) survey on the property. Samples from the Quarry zone, located approximately 300 metres south of the main Mot occurrence, yielded values of up to 1.685 grams per tonne gold (Sample B-02; Caron, L. [2021-02-06]: National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report on the Barnum Property, Kamloops Mining Division, South-Central British Columbia, Canada).
