The Radio (L.1627) occurrence is located near Merry Widow Creek at an elevation of approximately 400 metres on an east-southeast facing slope and approximately 3 kilometres northeast of Merry Widow Mountain.

The oldest rocks in the Merry Widow camp are massive to pillowed volcanics and subvolcanic gabbroic intrusions of the Upper Triassic Karmutsen Formation (Vancouver Group). These are unconformably overlain by approximately 1000 metres of massive to bedded grey limestone of the Upper Triassic Quatsino Formation (Vancouver Group). The Quatsino Formation is unconformably overlain by the Lower Jurassic Bonanza Group which consists of andesitic ash and lapilli tuff, breccia, greenstone and well bedded tuffaceous siltstone.

The area includes two major episodes of intrusive rocks. The oldest rocks, the Keystone suite, is believed to be coeval with the Bonanaza Group and probably formed feeders to the tuffs, breccias and greenstones in that succession. Many Keystone suite dikes and sills that cut the Quatsino limestone are associated with barren and mineralized skarn. The second major intrusive episode resulted in the emplacement of the Lower to Middle Jurassic Coast Copper stock. This is mostly a coarse grained, mafic gabbro.

A distinctive sill-like body of tholeiitic basalt of unknown age intrudes the Quatsino limestone in the southern part of the camp. It is near here that the Radio skarn showing has developed. Chalcopyrite and pyrrhotite mineralization have been observed (Open File 1991-8).

In 2020, a grab sample of epidote-altered Keystone dike intruding limestone with trace pyrite and pyrrhotite proximal to the contact, located on a roadcut approximately 550 metres south of the Radio occurrence, yielded 0.32 gram per tonne gold, 0.075 per cent copper and 0.024 per cent cobalt (Assessment Report 39420).

Work History

The area has been explored in conjunction with the nearby Merry Widow (MINFILE 092L 044) mine and a complete regional exploration history can be found there.