The Zebra showing is located 13.1 kilometres southwest of Spences Bridge, at an elevation of 1360 metres. The property can be accessed via the Botanie Lake Road, which is along Highway 12, approximately 1 kilometre northeast of its junction with the Trans-Canada Highway. An alternative access point may be gained via the Sleetis Creek Road, which is located approximately 9 kilometres from the start of Botanie Lake Road. The Sleetis Creek and Skoonka Forestry roads are linked via a 1.5 kilometre connecting road dubbed the “JJ Connector”, which was built in 2006 to allow easier access through the property and is where the JJ showing is situated. The showing is located at the end of a branch to the right side of the road (Assessment Report 34626).

Regionally, the northwest-southeast trending Cretaceous Spences Bridge Group is part of the southern Intermontane tectonic belt of the Canadian Cordillera. The Spences Bridge Group volcanics are faulted against older plutonic and related metamorphic rocks of the Triassic-Jurassic Mount Lytton Complex. The dominant rock types within the area are subaerial andesite flows and tuffs, overlain by amygdule-rich basaltic flows. Minor felsic flows occur within these intermediate and mafic rocks, along with some sandstone, shale and conglomerate units. Stratigraphy is intruded by abundant Late Triassic and/or Jurassic to Miocene plutons. Metamorphic assemblages consist of Cache Creek Complex mélanges and Bridge River Complex metamorphic and ultramafic rocks. Quaternary sediments occur as thick drifts along the main rivers and some of the larger creeks. Major structural features in the region are steeply dipping normal faults, oriented subparallel to the western-bounding Fraser (River) fault system. The faults have two dominant trends: northwest-southeast and north-south (Assessment Report 34626).

Locally, the Spences Bridge Group is overlain by Tertiary mafic to felsic volcanics of the Kamloops and Princeton groups, which are in turn cut by small intrusions of intermediate composition. The Spences Bridge Group underlying the Skoonka Creek property is further divided into two assemblages, the Pimainus Formation and the Spius Formation. Above the basal conglomerate, the Pimainus Formation is a predominantly volcaniclastic package comprising subaerial andesite ash, crystal, and lapilli tuffs (Assessment Report 29084). These flows are poorly sorted, weakly to non-bedded, and may contain up to 50 percent amygdules. Sandstone, shale, and conglomerate units can also be found alongside the andesite flows within the Pimainus Formation. The Spius Creek Formation overlies the Pimainus Formation and comprises amygdule-rich basaltic flows. Bedding is often apparent in the fine-grained tuff units throughout the property, oriented at a northwesterly strike and dipping between 0 and 40 degrees to both the northeast and southwest (Assessment Report 28182).

Stockwork quartz veining is poorly to moderately developed in brecciated altered tuffs. Pyrite is found in the altered wallrocks in trace (less than 1 per cent) to minor (less than 5 per cent) amounts and occurs as disseminations or rare clots. Limonite is locally present along fracture margins of stockwork veinlets (Assessment Report 29084). Silica alteration occurs as pervasive to localized zones associated with thin quartz veinlets or stockwork veining mineralization (Assessment Report 29084). Clay alteration is usually weak to moderate in intensity. Hematite alteration is present, but likely not related to hydrothermal processes. There are two styles of gold mineralization and alteration: (1) multi-stage massive, banded veins with associated breccia zones and intense proximal silica to distal argillic alteration and (2) narrow stockwork veinlets with disseminated pyrite and moderate silica, minor carbonate, limonite and clay alteration. The second style is more common in the Zebra showing (Assessment Report 34626).

The Zebra showing is defined by an 1100 metre by 700 metre area of anomalous soil and bedrock samples that have returned elevated gold and silver values, along with high concentrations of silver, arsenic, mercury, antimony and molybdenum. Grab samples assayed from 0.4 to 1.2 grams per tonne gold (Maps 7 and 9; Assessment Report 29084).

Work History

The Zebra showing was discovered in the 2006 field season following prospecting and detailed soil grid sampling. During that time, a total of 1624 samples were collected over the property, including 152 samples collected for whole rock lithogeochemical studies. Five ground magnetic surveys were completed between April 2 and September 24, 2006, contributing to a total of 33.7 line-kilometres. Strongbow’s 2007 exploration program consisted of property and detailed mapping, grid and trench soil sampling (2262 samples), surface to trench rock sampling (783 samples), mechanized and hand trenching (432 metres), ground geophysics (33.9 line-kilometres of magnetometer surveying), airborne geophysics (580 line-kilometre DIGHEM V survey), diamond drilling (3147 metres in 13 holes; 1129 core samples assayed) and road construction (1.46 kilometres). The property-scale mapping (1:10 000) focused on the contact between the Spius and Pimainus formations while detailed mapping (1:2 500) was conducted over the Backburn and Zebra showings. The airborne magnetic, electromagnetic and radiometric surveys covered the 2006 airborne survey area.

In 2013 and 2015, Strongbow completed programs of geological mapping, prospecting and geochemical (rock and soil sampling) on the Skoonka property.

In 2017 and 2018, Westhaven Ventures completed programs of geochemical (rock and soil) sampling, 2376 line-kilometres of airborne magnetic and radiometric surveys, 31.8 line-kilometres of ground magnetic surveys, a 6 line-kilometre passive seismic survey and 29 diamond drill holes, totalling 11 882 metres, on the area as part of the Spences Bridge Group (SBG) of properties.

In 2019, Westhaven completed a program of prospecting, geochemical (rock and soil) sampling, petrographic and Terraspec analysis on select 2018 drillcore samples, a LiDAR survey, 327 line-kilometres of ground magnetic surveys, a 20.3 line-kilometre DC resistivity survey and 49 diamond drillholes, totalling 21 849.3 metres, on the Spences Bridge Group (SBG) of properties.

In 2020, Westhaven completed a further program of geochemical (rock, silt and soil) sampling, various ground geophysical surveys and 102 diamond drill holes, totalling 43 268.7 metres, on the Spences Bridge Group (SBG) of properties.