The Guichon (Quilchena) occurrence is located near a small pond, west of Quilchena Creek and approximately 2 kilometres southeast of the creeks’ mouth on Nicola Lake.
The area is underlain by Upper Triassic Nicola Group volcanics consisting mainly of either fine-grained, porphyritic or amygdaloidal green to reddish andesitic and basaltic flows. Calcite and epidote alteration is widespread and locally intense. In the southwest corner of the property the volcanics are intruded by a 3-metre wide feldspar porphyritic dike which strikes northwest and is nearly vertical. Trending north-northeast across the property is the Quilchena fault, a major near-vertical shear zone with an apparent strike-slip displacement of up to 3 kilometres. Associated with the fault are numerous northwest- and, less commonly, northeast-trending fractures and joint sets.
Locally, mineralization is erratically distributed in a number of quartz and quartz-carbonate vein shears. These zones strike northwest and dip 40 to 85 degrees to the northeast. Quartz and calcite stringers and lenses range in thickness from 5 centimetres to 1 metre. They are erratically mineralized with bornite and chalcopyrite with associated gold and silver values. Flakes of specular hematite and native copper have both been reported (1949) as well as molybdenite and chalcocite. Malachite and azurite are exposed at the surface.
On the Ensign (L.3836) Crown-granted claim, two main veins, the No. 1 and the Fence veins, have been identified associated with a northwest-trending shear zone that cuts through the centre of the Crown grant. The No. 1 vein is described as being up to 1.2 metres wide with an average of 0.6 metre wide and has been traced for greater than 6.6 metres along strike. The vein is mineralized with bornite. The Fence vein is located approximately 180 metres southeast of the No. 1 vein and has been explored by two historical shafts, approximately 18 and 12 metres long. The Fence vein comprises similar mineralization to the No. 1 vein and dips steeply (80 degrees) northeast. The Fence vein has been traced for approximately 48 metres along strike and has an average width of 0.5 metre. Both veins are reported to be complicated by faulting and may represent one semi-continuous vein system. A third vein, referred to as the No. 2 vein, is reported near the southeast corner of the Crown grant and has been investigated by three short tunnels. The vein trends northwest with a dip of 80 degrees northeast and has been traced for approximately 48 metres with an average width of 0.5 metre.
On the Ingersoll (L.3835) Crown-granted claim, located adjacent to the south of the Ensign (L.3836) Crown-granted claim, three veins (No. 3, 4 and 5) have been investigated by two tunnels. The veins vary from 0.3 to 0.6 metre wide with northwest strike and are associated with a porphyry dike hosting chalcopyrite, bornite and pyrite.
On the Camperdown (L.4789) Crown-granted claim, located adjacent to the south of the Ingersoll (L.3835) Crown-granted claim, two veins (No. 6 and 7) have been investigated by trenching, three historical (pre-1947) drillholes and a short adit(?). The veins are reported to occur on either side of a north-trending fault and are reported to host a grey copper mineral.
Two other veins (no. 8 and 9) are reported to the northwest of the No. 1 vein on or near the Quilchena (L.4790) Crown-granted claim. The veins range in width of 0.1 to 0.3 metres and strike north 55 degrees west with a steep southwest dip. The veins have been traced for a length of approximately 27 metres along strike in outcrops and opencuts and comprise lenses or stringer zones of quartz and potassium feldspar with disseminated specular hematite, pyrite and chalcopyrite.
In 1922, two samples from the No. 1 vein are reported to have yielded 23.9 and 10.9 grams per tonne gold with 23.9 and 37.6 grams per tonne silver, respectively, whereas a sample of the Fence vein from a shaft yielded approximately 16.8 grams per tonne gold, 10.6 grams per tonne silver and 2.93 per cent copper across 0.45 metre (Assessment Report 8074). Also at this time, sampling of the No. 2 vein from outcrop and tunnels yielded from 1.4 to 21.9 grams per tonne gold with 13.7 to 95.8 grams per tonne silver, whereas a 0.45-metre wide and 6.0-metre long channel sample yielded 14.0 grams per tonne gold and 69.4 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 8074).
In 1946, a select sample (379-B) over 0.1-metre from the no. 5 vein yielded 20.3 grams per tonne gold and 3 per cent copper, whereas a representative 0.3-metre sample (378-B) from the no. 6 vein assayed 12.9 grams per tonne gold (Property File - 10508).
A pre-1947 drillhole (no. 14) located on the Ingersoll claim to test the no. 5 vein is reported to have assayed 23.97 grams per tonne gold, 0.15 per cent copper and 137.0 grams per tonne silver over 2.53 metres of drillcore sludge (Assessment Report 8074).
In 1949, sampling of the mineralized veins and zones is reported to have yielded up to 1.7 grams per tonne gold, 17.1 grams per tonne silver and 0.47 per cent copper over 0.50 metre from an adit on the No. 1 vein; 39.0 grams per tonne gold, 123.1 grams per tonne silver and 0.98 per cent copper over 0.3 metre from an adit on the No. 2 vein; 14.4 grams per tonne gold, 88.9 grams per tonne silver and 0.15 per cent copper from an opencut on the No. 4 vein; 31.1 grams per tonne gold and 160.7 grams per tonne silver over 0.1 metre at 46.5 metres from an adit portal on the No. 4 or 5 vein; 13.0 grams per tonne gold, 44.5 grams per tonne silver and 0.94 per cent copper over 0.3 metre from a pit exposing the No. 7 vein and 16.4 grams per tonne gold, 13.7 grams per tonne silver and 0.43 per cent copper from a 3-metre long and 0.2-metre wide channel sample on the No. 8 or 9 vein (Property File - 673633).
Also at this time, samples from the veins on the Camperdown Crown grant are reported to have yielded up to 13.0 grams per tonne gold, 44.5 grams per tonne silver and 0.94 per cent copper (Assessment Report 8074).
In 1961, a drillhole (no. 2) located on the No. 2 vein yielded intercepts of 12.3 and 9.2 grams per tonne gold, 44.5 and 12.0 grams per tonne silver with 0.35 and 0.17 per cent copper over 1.5 and 0.6 metres, respectively (Assessment Report 8074).
In the mid-1960s, sampling of the mineralized zones yielded 3.45 per cent copper from an opencut on the Camperdown claim and 27.4 grams per tonne gold, 99.2 grams per tonne silver and 0.85 per cent copper from the Camperdown (No. 6 or 7?) vein and 13.0 grams per tonne gold, 109.4 grams per tonne silver and 0.50 per cent copper over 0.3 metre from an opencut on the Ensign claim (Property File - 810696). Also at this time, sampling of the no. 3, 4 and 6 tunnels yielded 10.9, 9.6 and 3.8 grams per tonne gold, 61.6, 49.6 and 27.4 grams per tonne silver with trace, 0.25 and 0.20 per cent copper over 0.40, 0.45 and 0.33 metre, respectively (Property File - 810696).
In 1966, drilling on geophysical anomalies on the Ensign and Ingersoll claims yielded 0.055 per cent molybdenite over 30 metres, including 0.099 per cent molybdenite over 6 metres in hole R-1, 0.059 per cent molybdenite over 18.9 metres in hole R-2,0.061 per cent molybdenite over 27 metres in hole no. 4 and 2.5 grams per tonne gold, 23.1 grams per tonne silver and 0.44 per cent copper over 12 metres and 0.051 per cent molybdenite over 12 metres in hole no. 3 (Property File - 810697).
In 1980, drilling yielded intercepts including 1.50 grams per tonne gold and 6.6 grams per tonne silver over 1.5 metres in hole P.H.-Q-7 located on strike between the No. 1 and Fence veins; 2.06 grams per tonne gold and 7.5 grams per tonne silver over 1.5 metres in hole P.H.-Q-6, which tested the fault extension to the east of the no. 2 vein, and 0.96 gram per tonne gold, 4.1 grams per tonne silver and 0.35 per cent copper in hole P.H.-Q-3, which tested the mineralized dike and possible related veins on the Ingersoll Crown grant (Assessment Report 8074).
In 2014, a grab sample (7627) from a shear zone hosting quartz veinlets, located on the Camperdown Crown grant, yielded 0.43 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 35198).
Work History
The area was originally staked in 1908 and by the early 1920s exploration programs of trenching, pitting and several short adits, shafts and winzes were completed primarily on the Ensign (L.3836) and Ingersoll (L.3835) Crown-granted claims. Workings on the Ingersoll claim are reported to have included approximately 99 metres of tunnelling along with numerous surface cuts and trenches; other workings included a shaft and 12.6-metre long tunnel were completed on the Camperdown claim and a 6-metre long tunnel Tete Rouge claim.
In 1945, the Guichon Mines Ltd. was formed and in 1946 and 1947 an approximately 417-metre long adit was driven to the southwest from an elevation of approximately 660 metres on the Inez 1 claim. The tunnel was driven approximately 75 metres below the surface occurrences and stopped approximately 90 metres short of the presumed mineralized zone. Four diamond drill holes, totalling 300 metres, were completed from the face of the adit to the west to test the veins on the Ingersoll Crown grant. No results of the drilling are known.
During the 1960s, Quilchena Mining and Development Co. Ltd. is reported to have completed programs of trenching, drilling and some geophysical surveys on the area.
In 1970, Quilchena Mining and Development Co. Ltd. completed a program of soil sampling and a 15.0 line-kilometre ground magnetic survey on the area as the Sunnyboy claims of the Quilchena property.
In 1973, Telstar Resources completed a program of prospecting, geological mapping and rock sampling on the area immediately south of the occurrence as the Telstar property.
In 1979, Leonard Peckham completed a program of rock sampling on the area immediately south of the occurrence as the Sunny Boy property.
In 1980, Flair Developments Ltd. completed nine percussion drill holes, totalling 555.0 metres, on the Quilchena property. Later that year, five diamond drill holes, totalling 222 metres, were completed on the property.
In 2009, a program of prospecting and sampling was completed on the area by Julia Wang as the Iota property.
In 2014, Tech-X Resources Ltd. completed a program of geological mapping and rock sampling on the area as the Augusta claims of the Nicola Lake property. The following year, a 12.0 line-kilometre induced polarization survey was completed.
