The Minerva Fr. occurrence is located on east facing slopes, north of June Creek.
The area is underlain by the Upper Triassic Vancouver Group, Quatsino Formation limestones which have been intruded by granodiorite related to the Late to Middle Jurassic Island Plutonic Suite.
At the occurrence, Upper Triassic Vancouver Group Quatsino Formation limestone is interbedded with andesite flows and fine- grained tuffs, striking west and dipping 45 degrees north. These rocks are in contact with an early intrusive phase consisting of dikes, sills and stocks of dark green hornblende diorite, and a later phase of more felsic rocks consisting of fine-grained granodiorite to light grey to white feldspar porphyry and aplite. The intrusive rocks belong to the Jurassic Island Plutonic Suite.
Limestone and volcanics near the intrusive contact have been epidote-chlorite-garnet-tremolite-actinolite altered. Mineralization consists of a 0.6 to 1.2 metre wide zone of massive sphalerite, magnetite, pyrite and pyrrhotite in crushed country rock and garnetite, exposed by trenching over a strike length of 20 metres and a depth of 3 metres. The zone strikes 090 degrees and dips 45 degrees north to 68 degrees south.
An assay of 11.0 per cent zinc and 0.2 per cent copper over 1.37 metres is reported; while a grab sample of dump material assayed 46.6 per cent zinc (Assessment Report 502, Figure C; Minister of Mines Annual Report 1916).
In 2019, a 1.0-metre chip sample (39717) of massive magnetite, pyrite, sphalerite and minor chalcopyrite assayed 9.02 per cent zinc, 0.11 per cent copper and 6 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 38642).
Work History
In 1963, Consolidated Exploration completed a program of soil sampling, geological mapping and a ground magnetometer survey on the area. In 1968, Alice Lake Mines completed a program of airborne geophysical surveys on the area. In 1989 and 1990, Equinox Resources, on behalf of Alice Lake Mines, completed programs of geochemical sampling on the area. During 2017 through 2019, Harco Holdings Ltd. completed minor programs of prospecting, geological mapping and rock sampling on the area as the Pilgrim property.
