The Chopper showing is located approximately 203 kilometres northwest of Lillooet and 2 kilometres northeast of Homathko Peak. The showing is part of the Homathko property, which also contains the Hom showing (MINFILE 092N 023).
The area of the Chopper showing is underlain by Late Jurassic tonalite and quartz diorite of the Homathko Peak tonalite body which is thrust north over the Eastern Waddington thrust belt imbricate zone which in turn are thrust north over basalt rock of the Ottarasko Formation. The Discovery Creek prospect is located just south of the thrust fault forming the Ottarasko-East Waddington boundary; the Chopper showing occurs at the same thrust boundary about 750 metres to the east-northeast.
Locally, the property is underlain by the tonalite, massive to pillowed mafic volcanics, pyritic mudstones, graphitic argillites, siltstones, quartz feldspar porphyry and altered mafic volcanics.
Mineralization occurs as patchy disseminated chalcopyrite, arsenopyrite and pyrite within a quartz carbonate vein in quartz-feldspar porphyry.
WORK HISTORY
In 1964, a reconnaissance team lead by James McDougall of Falconbridge landed on the north slope of Mt Homathko to investigate an exposure of rusty quartz veining located at the base on a retreating ice field. Rocks collected during this stop returned highly elevated values of gold in grab samples from rock outcropping on the property.
In 1965, a party returned to stake the property and conduct a 3-week program of prospecting and sluice trenching. The work conducted during the early summer of 1965 identified a broad zone of auriferous quartz/carbonate veins hosting values up to 377.15 grams per tonne gold (11 ounces per ton) (Assessment Report 11770).
In 1974, the site of the Falconbridge discovery was visited and staked by Gerhard von Rosen as the "11 Ounce” mineral claims who observed that most of the trenches exposed by Falconbridge had been buried. Assays taken from near the sloughed trenches “were confirmed to contain gold”.
In 1983, the F&S claims owned by R.R. Dion encompassed the original "11 Ounce" discovery showing of quartz sulphide veins carrying gold. Dion instructed Gerhard von Rosen to perform an airphoto fracture density analysis which was conducted by D.A. Chapman (Assessment Report 11770).
In 1989, Golden Rule held the discovery showing within the Kor claim group and conducted a 3-day property, collecting 30 grab samples which returned gold values up to 64.46 grams per tonne. (Assessment Report 18977).
Records of these activities conducted by Falconbridge did not become publicly available until 2007, after private company records were donated to the BC Department of Mines and made available to the public.
In 2010, Transition Metals Corp. staked the property and completed prospecting and mapping. Highlights of the prospecting include rock sample E241886, which assayed 0.88 gram per tonne gold and 2.0 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 32197). They also confirmed the location of the historical occurrence and traced an altered and mineralized mesothermal gold system over 1.5 kilometers of exposed strike on the north slope of Mount Homathko (Assessment Report 33110).
Further prospecting and mapping work was completed in 2011 and 2012 by Transition Metals in areas not previously evaluated and in areas proximal to the Discovery occurrence. Thirteen rock samples were collected for assay (Assessment Report 34198).
In 2015 a lineament and hyperspectral study was conducted by the Company using satellite imagery (Assessment Report 35546). In 2017, on the Homathko property 9 rock samples were collected by operator Shamrock Resources and owner Transition Metals Corporation in the Discovery Creek prospect area (Assessment Report 37245).
