The Stowe occurrence is a copper-mercury showing, 4 kilometres west of the centre of Chilko Lake. It is 3 kilometres southeast of the similar and significant Alexis occurrence (092N 045) and is part of the same broad zone of alteration and mineralization, although it was not discovered until several years after the Alexis, and has not been explored by industry to date (Bulletin 81). Although the Stowe is a minor showing, it is interesting because it extends the zone of known mineralization.

The Stowe area lies within the Tchaikazan fault zone, a regional northwest-striking strike-slip fault (Geological Survey of Canada Map 5-1968, Paper 68-33, Open File 1163). It is located in a Cretaceous overlap assemblage, 25 kilometres northeast of the main margin of the Jurassic to Tertiary Coast Plutonic Complex (Geological Survey of Canada Open File 1163, Map 1713A). The fault zone is a series of subparallel faults, several kilometres wide, and was probably active in the early Tertiary (Geological Survey of Canada Open File 1163). The Alexis occurrence (3 kilometres north of the Stowe) is hosted in a narrow, fault-bound package of Upper Cretaceous rocks of the Powell Creek Formation. A northwest-trending fault-bound belt consisting of the Lower Cretaceous Tchaikazan River succession (volcanic facies) hosts the Stowe showing occurs a few kilometres to the southwest of the Powell Creek package. TheTchaikazan River succession is reported to consist of andesitic volcanic breccia, lapilli tuff and ash tuff; mafic to intermediate volcanic flows; and various sedimentary rock types.

There are numerous smaller transverse, northeast-striking faults. The mineralized zone is adjacent to a small stock of diorite (Bulletin 81). Locally bedding strikes northwest and dips moderately southwest.

Little direct information on the Stowe occurrence is available, but it is reportedly similar to the Alexis occurrence, so it is presumably characterized by strong and pervasive carbonate alteration, brecciation and veining, and geochemical anomalies in several metals. These characteristics have been interpreted to fit the upper zone of the British Columbia epithermal model, related to fracturing and metal-rich hydrothermal activity in the Tchaikazan fault system (Bulletin 81; Assessment Reports 9535, 13892).

Copper and mercury mineralization is reported at the Stowe showing; although not specified, the minerals are probably malachite, azurite and cinnabar since these are prevalent at the Alexis occurrence. Lithogeochemical analyses from the Stowe include 3.4 grams per tonne silver, 0.12 per cent copper, and over 0.1 per cent mercury in one sample, and 0.445 grams per tonne gold in another sample (Bulletin 81). The latter is higher than any gold value reported to date from the Alexis.

See Alexis (092N 045) for related geological and work history information.