The Briton Prospect is an exceptionally pure, stratiform hematite deposit occurring on the north flank of Chromium Creek valley, 1.2 kilometres southeast of Perkins Peak, 23 kilometres southwest of the community of Kleena Kleene. The Briton occurrence is hosted in a unit of andesitic and basaltic breccia and tuff, interbedded with minor sedimentary rocks. The occurrence is 3.5 kilometres northeast of the contact with a large granodioritic intrusion of the Jurassic to Tertiary Coast Plutonic Complex. The intervening rocks are rich in pyrite, locally including well-developed, altered shear zones marked by pyritic and sericitic schist.
Most of the Chromium Creek valley, including the Briton Prospect location, is predominantly underlain by massive dark grey to green-grey intermediate volcaniclastic rocks, which were mapped as undifferentiated rocks of the Upper Triassic Mosley Formation. They consist of repetitive variations of dominantly ash, crystal, lapilli (and lithic) tuff, and rarely block tuff. Interbedded with the monotonous dark greenish-grey volcaniclastic deposits are conspicuous stratigraphic intervals of maroon, to reddish-brown volcaniclastic beds, several metres to several tens of metres thick. Reddish muddy siltstone beds indicate epiclastic deposition. Indications of bedding are widespread, as variations of clast size and composition, or as subtle foliation, and they indicate consistent moderate to steep southerly dips, widely reflected by consistent south-dipping joint development and consequent narrow easterly trending ridges with cliffs and steep slopes.
The Cloud Drifter Formation underlies the north part of the Perk-Rocky claim block area (early 2020s) and consists of arkosic and quartz sandstone, siltstone and minor dark grey to black shale, with minor discontinuous conglomerate lenses. The formation is generally tightly folded, with fold vergence to the north although in the Miner Lake valley, immediately north of the project area, the structure is a broader anticline. Along the steep north-facing slope of the Colwell Lake – Miner Lake valley, in the vicinity of the Commodore and Bluebell prospects, Bouma sequence deposition is exposed along road cuts and indicates deep water conditions, possibly as turbidites.
Larger intrusions are restricted to discrete areas in the north and south areas of the claim block, with younger dikes scattered throughout the mapped area. The oldest intrusion is an equigranular medium-grained tonalite (quartz diorite?), shown by mapping to be restricted to the south part of the claim block where it is separated from the other lithologies by thrust faulting. This intrusion is weakly magnetic, although in places near contacts, the black amphiboles have undergone some biotite alteration. Granodiorite porphyry occurs only north of Perkins Peak, where it was mapped as two small stocks and as dikes intruding sedimentary rocks of the Cloud Drifter Formation. Along the steep north-facing slope in the Mountain. Boss-Commodore area, granodiorite sills “climb” up Cloud Drifter Formation stratigraphy along strike. At three localities along ridges southwest of Perkins Peak, exposed small outcrops of thin 2 to 5 metre dikes of cream-coloured quartz feldspar porphyry were mapped. Abundant dikes and sills of grey to greenish-grey, fine-grained microdiorite have been observed throughout the Mosley Formation, and generally have the appearance of late intrusions. See the outcrop geology map shown on Figure 5 of Assessment Report 38794.
The project area was strongly affected by north- northeast directed compression resulting in an extensive imbricate array of moderately south- dipping thrust faults. These are believed to have formed at lower greenschist grade conditions between about 90 million years and 70 Million years. Field evidence indicates minor reactivation along some of the thrust faults.
Strongly foliated and schistose quartz-sericite-pyrite alteration is widespread along the many thrust fault planes, and has weathered to a limonite colour anomaly visible along the south side of the valley. Silicified zones with abundant pyrite permeate the wall rock away from the fault planes, up to tens of metres in places, indicating significant hydrothermal fluid transport along the thrust fault array. The presence of several back thrust faults with steep dips, has important implications for fluid pathways. Much younger east-west dextral faulting with steep dips overprints the thrust faults, as do the late, steep north-trending extensional normal faults. These steep-dipping intersections with thrust fault planes may be important channels for fluid path flow and even for intrusions at greater depth. At least a half dozen north-northwest trending, and north-trending subvertical normal faults were identified in the mapping along South Ridge.
Sedimentary and volcaniclastic rocks are nearly everywhere altered to a moderate biotite hornfels, which resists erosion, in the cliff-forming south-dipping beds of the Chromium Creek valley. The most visible alteration at Perk-Rocky is widespread limonite which extends along most of Chromium Creek and covers at least 13.5 square kilometres. As a product of weathered pyrite, this colour anomaly widens abruptly to the west, while to the east; it narrows along axis before disappearing into vegetation cover. The pyrite is mostly found in the abundant sericite-quartz-pyrite schist bands, which trace numerous thrust faults, and which are most visibly exposed along the steep south side of the valley as the rusty colored north flank of the South Ridge. Dissolution of abundant pyrite has resulted in deposition of ferricrete ledges over a distance of nearly 2,500 metres along the valley on both sides of Chromium Creek. Widespread patchy and veined epidote accompanied by albite, chlorite, quartz, and minor calcite, as a propylitic assemblage, was mapped along the main ridges (North Ridge, South Ridge, Perkins Ridge) over an extensive region. In places (western Perkins Ridge, Northwest Ridge, West Ridge, and part of South Ridge) this assemblage is accompanied by magnetite veining considered to be hydrothermal, which produces an airborne magnetic response. One sample (X517903) located at the head of Chromium Creek on the south margin of the colour anomaly is a skarn assemblage of epidote-garnet with minor chalcopyrite-pyrite.
The Briton iron deposit is currently the most substantial known mineralization on the claim block and was originally explored between approximately 1915 and 1921. A 183 metre adit (now caved) and about a dozen exploration cuts tested this largely talus covered region and identified a sub-economic resource of iron ore. The 1917 Report of the Minister of Mines described massive fine-grained bands of specular hematite up to two metres thick, with reported iron grades between 48.9 per cent and 57.6 per cent iron. Continuity of these bands is unknown, but they are spatially associated with advanced argillic altered protolith as described below. Whereas most of the argillic alteration is devoid of sulphide, a number of limonitic blocks from the adit dump contain 15 to 25 per cent disseminated pyrite with massive pyrite bands several centimetres wide that contain minor chalcopyrite. These may indicate possible hidden hydrothermal fluid feeders for the argillic alteration. The lithological context of the specular hematite is maroon silty and muddy ash tuff stratigraphy with some of the muddy beds containing significant amounts of very fine-grained specular hematite: in places, these muddy tuffaceous beds with specular hematite show soft sediment deformation.
The host rocks strike 070 degrees and dip 20 degrees south. The Briton hematite deposit itself is in a bed of tuff between 3 and 9 metres thick, but it occupies a large surface area (at least 90 by 90 metres) because it is roughly a dip slope, and has been disrupted by rockslides. The tuff is locally completely replaced by dark red to almost black hematite, and is cut by small veins of quartz and specularite. Granite and granitic pegmatite dikes, probably emanating from the main intrusion to the south, are closely associated with the mineralization; the dikes are strongly altered to kaolinite and chlorite. The deposit is adjacent to a wide shear zone trending east-northeast and south dipping. The iron deposit has been interpreted as of contact metamorphic origin, formed by the irregular metasomatic replacement of "argillite" (probably tuff) inclusions or enclaves within the granitic bodies by iron-bearing hydrothermal solutions (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1916). Distinctive, soft, beige orange to pale bluish grey alteration is intimately associate with the hematite. The beige material contains local radiating masses of pyrophyllite up to a centimetre in diameter. X-ray diffraction shows it to consist of quartz, pyrophyllite, minor andalusite, and possibly zussmanite. A soft beige vug filler in the hematite is nacrite. The pale bluish alteration is harder and was reported to be andalusite with corundum, quartz, pyrophyllite and minor nacrite. The hematite is 81.7 per cent iron oxide.
Advanced argillic alteration is present at the Briton prospect as pervasive soft clay minerals. Intense, massive silica replacement occurs as scattered lens-shaped zones of white quartz and limonite (jarosite), usually in close association with sericite-quartz-pyrite schist which acted as hydrothermal fluid conduits. The protolith textures have been obliterated by quartz replacement which is weakly vuggy. One of the larger silica replacements is located in the central part of the Chromium Creek valley, immediately south of the Briton access road. Other substantial large silica replacements (several metres wide) were mapped east and west of Northwest Ridge, and additional small (sub-metre) silica replacements associated with sericite schist, were reported in mapping along other ridgetops.
in 2019, on the dump of the collapsed Briton adit, as well as in the surrounding exploration trenches, previously identified pyrophyllite was confirmed, together with rectorite, nacrite, topaz and kaolinite. Abundant pale blue dumortierite was visually identified in many of the collapsed trenches. This may be the sam pale bluish alteration described above that was identified in earlier work as andalusite. The clay altered zone is at least 300 metres along strike and at least 200 metres from south to north. In the exploration cuts, all of which are collapsed, a repetitive pattern of massive, cream-coloured and subordinate dark bands characterizes the pervasive argillic alteration. These banded argillic zones alternate with the black fine-grained massive specular hematite, which was the focus of exploration at Briton in the early 1900s.
The main work on the deposit was done early in the century, consisting of at least 8 open cuts and a 183 metre-long tunnel, all now largely caved in. One cut contained about 2 metres of massive hematite which assayed 47.6 per cent iron over the 2 metres (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1916); other samples assayed up to 57.6 per cent iron (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1921). Apparently, samples from underground workings were inferior to the grades from the surface. The deposit has been estimated to contain about 90,000 tonnes of hematite (Geological Survey of Canada Summary Report 1925A).
WORK HISTORY
The showings, mainly on the Briton and Monarch claim, were staked by Sam Colwell prior to 1913. Peter Wallace and associates, of Vancouver, acquired the property and incorporated the Hematite Mining Company, Limited, in January 1913. Additional staking was done to a total of 13 claims. Development work was carried in each summer until 1916; this work consisted, of open cuts and a 183 metre crosscut adit,. The open cuts, with a depth of 1.2 to 1.5 metres and length of from 3 to 15 metres, were mainly in slide-rock. The tunnel shows practically no iron ore, with the exception of a little near the portal, which is, however, of a poor grade and much inferior to that seen in the surface cuts. At a point 12 metres into the tunnel a winze is down 5.5 metres following an irregular contact between argillite and granite, but hematite of commercial grade was found. The tunnel continues through granitic rock for some distance, when another band of argillite was encountered and crosscut through. Beyond this the tunnel continues through 60 metres to 90 metres of granite to where a schistose rock was encountered. The tunnel was continued on into this schistose rock for some distance, and this is the same rock as at the face of the tunnel. This schist carries a considerable percentage of iron pyrites.
Thirteen claims, the Briton, Belchor 1-8, Iron Crown No. 7, Monarch, Heather, and Blue Bell (Lots 1062-1071, 1076, 1083, and 1084, respectively) were Crown-granted to the company in 1918. An additional 70 claims were staked in 1920. No further work was reported. The company underwent a reorganization in 1917 and was re-incorporated under the same name; the company charter was surrendered in 1939.
Kleena Kleene Gold Mines Ltd., incorporated in 1968 as a subsidiary of Hunter Point Explorations Ltd., which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chromex Nickel Mines Ltd., acquired the Crown-grants. Airborne magnetic, electromagnetic, and radiometric surveys were carried out in 1970.
In 2016, the Perk claim series were owned 100 per cent by 281142 BC Ltd. while the Rocky claims are owned 50 per cent by 281142 BC Ltd. and 50 per cent by Douglas Leishman. In this year a number of modest geochemical and prospecting programs consisting of reconnaissance soil, silt and rock sampling and rudimentary geological mapping was conducted on the Perk (Assessment Reports 36341, 36349, 36354, 36338) and Rocky group of claims (Assessment Report 36694) on behalf of 1026452 BC Ltd. The Perk and Rock group encompass Mountain Boss and Bluebell except on the north. The exploration program was reported to comprise the collection of 33 stream and lake sediment samples, 29 soil samples, 15 talus samples and 60 selected rock samples all of which were analyzed. Work focused on the Perk, Perk 2, Perk 3, and Rocky claims and covered a total area of 330 ha. In the southeast corner of the Perk claim copper values are elevated in silts, soils and some rock samples where malachite staining was observed. Gold and arsenic values are relatively higher in silts draining at the southeast side relative to rock and soil values. On Perk 3 (west side), Perk 3 and Rocky claims, arsenic values in silt samples are highly anomalous and copper values are moderately anomalous. In the same area, three float samples of pyritic quartz returned gold values of 1.24 grams per tonne, 1.90 grams per tonne and 5.59 grams per tonne together with up to 0.11 per cent copper (Assessment Report 38794). Creeks sampled on the Perk 2 property returned highly anomalous copper values across a wide swath of the property (a distance of over 1200 metres). Soil samples returned moderately elevated copper values in the western portion of Perk 2, on either side of, and proximal to Chromium Creek
In 2018, a geological and geochemical exploration program collected 56 soil, 6 stream sediment, and 36 rock samples were sent for. As well, 22 rock samples studied by Terraspec. Work focused on the Perk 4 claim (Pin 1/Pin 2 targets) and Perk 5 claim (Briton area) claims, covering 95 hectares (Assessment Reports 37807 and 38303 respectively). Results included elevated and isolated spot gold in soil and clustering of moderately anomalous arsenic samples to the on the Perk 4 claim are believed to be related to the higher-level gold vein system which may include the Mountain Boss and Bluebell workings, a distance of approximately 3 kilometres. Elevated copper values were returned from talus and subcrop in from the northwestern portion of the property, with values of up to 0.75 per cent copper in malachite stained, chalcopyrite bearing brecciated andesite. Silt sampling along Chromium Creek on Perk 5 returned anomalous gold and copper. The Terraspec study confirmed a strong advance argillic alteration assemblage centred on the Briton prospect. Hematite-specularite grab rock samples from old pits and workings returned values of iron up to 49.33 per cent, 46.91 per cent and 28.51 per cent with corresponding vanadium values of 0.48 per cent, 0.61 per cent and 0.15 per cent respectively (Assessment Report 38794).
On May 16, 2019, Ethos Gold Corp. announced it had entered into an option agreement to acquire a 100 per cent interest in the Perk-Rocky copper-gold porphyry project adjacent south of the Mountain Boss and Bluebell area. Ethos Gold visited the Mountain Boss and Commodore area to examine geology along road cuts from the upper Commodore adit road, down to the Bluebell West adit. All the adits were reported to have collapsed. Two of the drill pads show evidence of vertical diamond drilling. A total of 720 mapping stations were recorded by Ethos Gold during a three-week program and approximately 2750 hectares (27.5 square kilometres) covered by mapping in the central project area (Assessment Report 38794). A total of 89 rock samples were collected during mapping for geochemical analysis. Identification of alteration minerals was aided by spectral analysis of 87 samples using of TerraSpec Halo unit. Sixteen rock samples were submitted for a petrographic study. A total of 39 conventional stream sediment samples from drainages on the Perk-Rocky project were collected to test main drainages along Chromium Creek valley, along an unnamed creek draining into the south end of Colwell Lake, along the bottom of several drainages draining into Colwell Lake and Colwell Creek, and a single drainage immediately west of Perkins Peak. The company also collected 500 coarse talus samples from slopes and ridges on the Perk-Rocky project to explore, on a broad property scale, a large portion of the distinct Perk colour anomaly which runs east to west along Chromium Creek (mainly on the south side) and which continues for at least 3.5 km further west before disappearing into vegetation and glacial cover. Geotech Ltd., on behalf of Ethos Gold, performed 643 line-kilometres of helicopter-borne VTEM terrain and aeromagnetic geophysical survey over the Perk-Rocky Project, covering an 82 square kilometre area. Preliminary airborne magnetic responses from vertical derivative data may suggest several small stocks clustered beneath the glacially covered region east of Briton.
In 2021, Ethos Gold collected a further 88 rock samples for analysis (Assessment Report 39282, pending release). A total of 2049.7 metres of drilling was completed in 6 diamond-drill holes (Assessment Report 39610), pending release Nov/2022). Six widely spaced diamond drill holes, across an east-west span of approximately 6 kilometres, were completed on four target areas identified during previous sampling and mapping programs and characterized by prospective surface alteration, anomalous copper and gold in grab samples (at surface) and coincident geophysical anomalies These indlude the Briton (092N 011), East IP, East Pin 2 and Chilco Cu targets. Three holes (PK21-01, 02 and 06) tested the Briton prospect (092N 011), one hole (PK21-03) tested the East IP target, one hole (PK21-04) tested the East – PIN 2 target and one hole (PK21-05) tested the Chilco Cu target (Press Release, Ethos Gold Corp., September 29, 2021). Three holes (PK21-01, 02 and 06) tested the Briton prospect (092N 011) in 2021. PK21-01 graded 0.011 per cent copper over 27.83 metres; PK21-02 graded 0.012 per cent copper over 33.60 metres; and PK21-06 graded 0.012 per cent copper over 36.67 metres and 0.013 per cent copper over 9.63 metres (Press Release, Ethos Gold Corp., September 29, 2021).
