The Deadwood showing is located 11.7 kilometres southwest of Spences Bridge, at an elevation of 1300 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.

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). The Deadwood, Ember, Discovery and Backburn gold showings define a 3-kilometre-long corridor of low-grade gold mineralization (Assessment Report 34636).

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 Creek 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).

The initial discovery in the area was a series of quartz stockwork veinlets with a few steeply dipping north-south veins, associated with pervasive to local silica and limonite alteration. The second discovery was of a flat-lying quartz vein, striking 270 degrees and dipping 30 degrees to the north, with associated minor stockwork veining and silica alteration in the eastern zone of Deadwood. The Deadwood showing consists of narrow, closely-spaced quartz veins within andesitic crystal tuffs. It occurs within a 200 by 200 metre area that exhibits intense silica alteration within veins and minor clay alteration along fractures. 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 but individual clay mineralogy is not discernable and occurs pervasively with silica. 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 prevalent in the Deadwood showings (Assessment Report 34626). Hematite alteration is present, but likely not related to hydrothermal processes.

Detailed rock and soil sampling in 2008 defined a 200-metre-long zone striking east-west that contained up to 13.8 grams per tonne gold in rocks and 6193 parts per billion gold in soils (Assessment Report 29084). Two rock samples taken in the Deadwood area that year assayed gold values of 7278 (sample 41638) and 14,065 parts per billion (sample 42033), and anomalous geochemical results clustered around these areas (Assessment Report 29084). A total of 38 rock chip samples were collected and returned 3.0 grams per tonne over 6.0 metres in the western zone and 9.22 grams per tonne gold over 2.5 metres in the eastern zone (Assessment Report 29084). Results from detailed soil trenching are highly anomalous, with seven samples returning in excess of 1 gram per tonne gold, including three consecutive soil samples that returned 1876, 3698 and 7257 parts per billion gold (Assessment Report 29084).

Work History

Deadwood was discovered during the 2006 field season by Strongbow Exploration Inc. following prospecting and detailed soil grid sampling, with a total of 1624 soil samples and 152 rock samples collected. Five ground magnetic surveys were completed in the northern half of the property between April 2 and September 24, 2006. The surveys contributed to a total of 33.7 line-kilometres and were set up over areas that contained the most anomalous gold in soil results and/or rock samples: JJ extension, Discovery, Deadwood, Ember and Backburn. In 2008, 260 samples were collected within a 1.5 by 1.0 kilometre grid along with the high-grade rock samples mentioned above. Strongbow’s 2007 exploration program consisted of detailed and reconnaissance mapping (1:10,000 and 1:2,500 scale), 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). Summer surface work focused on developing the Ember, Deadwood, Backburn and Zebra showings as drill targets for a fall program. The airborne magnetic, electromagnetic and radiometric surveys tie onto the 2006 airborne survey area. The fall diamond drilling program tested the Deadwood (six holes), Ember (two holes), Backburn (four holes), and JJ (one hole) zones. Strongbow Exploration Inc. has done all work on the Deadwood showing since its discovery.

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.