The CHAMPAGNE occurrence is located on the eastern flank of Mt. Mullen at the northern headwaters of Ottarasko Creek, 5 kilometres southwest of Razorback Mountain, 39 kilometres south-southwest of the community of Tatla Lake on Highway 20, and 189 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake, BC.
Interest began with the discovery of highly anomalous gold and copper values in quartz-rich float and talus in the area (up to 89 grams per tonne gold, Assessment Report 13150); overall, however, in situ mineralization may contain high assays but are erratic. The Champagne occurrence encroaches on similar showings approximately 20 kilometres west of Tatlayoko Lake, covered by the Lori (092N 047) HW (092N 058) and Sugar Bowl (092N 094) occurrences.
The area is underlain by Cadwallader terrane and overlap assemblage rock near the northeastern margin of the Jurassic to Tertiary Coast Plutonic Complex, within a complex belt of folds and imbricated, gently southwest-dipping thrust sheets which also involve the overlap assemblage (Geological Survey of Canada Open File 1163, Map 1713A). The northeast-directed thrusting placed Upper Triassic (Carnian) and Lower Cretaceous volcanic and sedimentary rocks over Lower Cretaceous (Hauterivian) sedimentary rocks (Geological Survey of Canada Open File 1163, Papers 88-1E, 89-1E; Geology 1991). The thrusting took place in the Late Cretaceous because the thrusts are cut by a quartz diorite intrusion dated at 68 million years by the uranium-lead method on zircon (Geological Survey of Canada Papers 88-1E, 91-2).
The Late Triassic to Cretaceous Eastern Waddington thrust belt imbricate zone host rock was formed from slices of 6 units the most significant being the Lower Cretaceous Cloud Drifter Formation (lKCD) consisting of sandstone, siltstone and minor conglomerate and the Lower Cretaceous Ottarasko Formation lKCD) consisting of basalts, andesites and rhyolite flows, tuffs and breccias. The other 4 units include, uTrMo, uTrlm, uTrsv and uTrMM units (see MapPlace geology).
Most of the area around the occurrence is covered by talus, snow or ice. Where exposed, bedrock consists of volcanics and, locally, silicified and strongly pyritic siltstone and mudstone (Property File - Berniolles, L.M., 1991; Assessment Reports 13150, 17392, 18250). Volcanics in the region are typically andesitic (Geological Survey of Canada Open File 1163). A large dike of unspecified composition intrudes the volcanics. Bedding generally strikes north and dips gently to moderately west. Fracturing is common and locally intense; most fractures trend northwest, with some east-southeast, and dip steeply.
The Champagne showing consists of subhorizontal auriferous quartz veins up to 1 metre wide and a 150 metre strike length in volcanic rocks. Gold is associated with arsenopyrite. The best assay value obtained is 24.1 grams per tonne gold (Property File - Berniolles, L.M., 1991).
WORK HISTORY
From 1987 to 1994, Mr. (Louis) Berniolles conducted several prospecting campaigns, through Blackhorn Gold Mines predecessor organizations. These campaigns were successful in uncovering a number of new mineral occurrences including: copper-nickel sulphides related to mafic intrusives in the Atwood area (south of Ottarasko Mountain) numerous areas of copper-rich quartz float; and auriferous quartz veining of “The Stack” in the HW area, the Milk Can Showing on the Blackhorn trend and the Champagne Vein in the Feeney area. In 1988, a program of bulk sampling and 10 short drill holes, totalling 15 metres, were completed on the area as the J.J. claims.
In May of 1987, the area originally outlined by Homestake was restaked in part as the Loot l-2 claims. Equinox Resources Ltd. and Canada Orient Resources then carried out prospecting and stream sediment sampling programs over the next two summers (Assessment Report 18250). Their work confirmed Homestake’s results and the presence of gold-bearing float down slope from the Champagne vein, but again, the source of the anomalies was not located. In the fall of 1987, the core area around the Blackhorn Vein was later re-staked as the J.J. #1 and #2 claims”
During September of 1997, Blackhorn Gold Mines Ltd. carried out a small, detailed exploration program whose purpose was to determine the significance of the main mineral prospects outlined in a technical report (authored by G. R Peatfield, (P. Eng)). The exploration program consisted of geological mapping, prospecting and rock sampling (Assessment Report 25551). General mapping and prospecting were carried out at a scale of 1:10,000 for the whole region. Detailed mapping and sampling were conducted at scales ranging from 1:100 to 1: ,000 for the Blackhorn Vein, Champagne Vein and Galena and Milk Can showings. A total of 163 rock samples were collected for analysis.
Work in the Blackhorn East Property by Adam Travis as part of (undocumented) 2007 work by Skeena Resources included reconnaissance prospecting and sampling up-slope of the Feeney and Champagne Vein areas in an area now termed “Three Ounce Valley” (after Homestake's 1983 Sample returned 89,000 parts per billion gold). This work returned vein float sample results up to 51.43 grams per tonne gold (as reported in Assessment Report 31382). Most of the area around Three Ounce Valley” is covered by talus, snow or ice. In 2009 Travis (with Cazador Resrouces Ltd.) explored the “Blackhorn East” claims about 4 to 5 kilometres east of the Blackhorn property at the Lori showing (092N 047), the Champagne vein (092N 059) and surrounding area (Assessment Report 31382). Sampling was focused on the origin of previous mineralized float samples.
In 2018, DSM Syndicate Holdings Ltd. collected 25 rock samples on their New Strike property. Three occurrences occur on the New Strike including the Homestake (092N 035), Champagne (092N 059) and Lori (092N 047) (Assessment Report 37866).
Kingfisher Metals Corp. conducted extensive rock, soil and talus fine sampling as well as geophysics over their large Goldrange property from 2020 through 2022. Geological mapping and the collection of 9 rock samples was done to the east (downslope) of the Champagne occurrence in 2021. The area was found to have anomalous copper values with 4 rock samples returning greater than 0.18 per cent copper. The highest gold value obtained was 0.264 gram per tonne from a dacite subcrop, which also contained 0.822 per cent arsenic (Assessment Report 39734). No ground work in the Champagne area was conducted in 2022, but structural interpretations were made from airborne data collected in 2020 over the large Goldrange project area.
