The Watson Bar prospect is located on Second Creek, a tributary of Watson Bar Creek, in the Camelsfoot Range. The showings are approximately 8 kilometres west of the Fraser River and 33 kilometres west of Clinton, B.C.
A north-northwest trending splay of the Fraser fault system transects the property bringing Lower Cretaceous Jackass Mountain Group arkose, greywacke and minor siltstone, on the west, into contact with Eocene volcanic rocks, on the east. Sedimentary rocks are intruded by a granodiorite stock and feldspar porphyry dikes of Late Cretaceous to Early Tertiary age. A "quartz eye" porphyry dike may be considerably younger.
Six zones of intense silicification have been identified on the property. In two instances, silicic zones are parallel to the greywacke-intrusive contacts. Quartz-carbonate-(barite) veins are drusy, banded and commonly chalcedonic and trend both northwest and northeast. Pyrite typically occurs as disseminations in the wallrock while chalcopyrite, stibnite and galena are restricted to quartz veins and fractures. Sphalerite, arsenopyrite, cinnabar, realgar, native gold and scorodite also occur.
Later work (Fieldwork 1997, 21-1-14) has suggested at least five different mineralization styles:
1. Widespread (500+ by 1000+ metres) reddish brown weathering zones marked by iron carbonate alteration with local development of chalcedony, sericite and clay alteration and anomalous arsenic, antimony, mercury and gold.
2. Thrust hosted quartz sulphide mineralization with tectoclasts of mineralized and unmineralized wall rock and veins encorporated in carbonaceous gouge matrix.
3. Intrusion hosted gold bearing quartz sulphide veins cut porphyry sills and adjacent sandstone.
4. Narrow, high angle, gold bearing pyrite and arsenopyrite quartz veins with sharp boundaries.
5. Weakly to moderately auriferous zones in hosting sandstone beds.
A full description of the zones can be found in Assessment Report 28073; while a location map can be found in Assessment Report 30401.
In 1988, a select sample (1-01) of malachite stained chalcedonic quartz from Zone III assayed 1.52 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 17473).
In 1989, during an initial drilling programme, drillhole 89-1 intersected five metres grading 19.89 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 19777). This hole was drilled to evaluate the downdip extension of a surficial zone exposed by trenching that graded 6.17 grams per tonne over 40 metres.
In 1993-94, a 90-tonne shipment with an average grade of 39.74 grams per tonne gold (bulk sample) from Zone V was processed at the Premier mill (MINFILE 104B 054).
Logging in 1995-96, in an area east of Second Creek, has exposed a large area of pyritization and quartz veining with arsenopyrite, realgar and stibnite (T. Schroeter, personal communication, 1996).
Drillhole 97-03 from diamond drilling in 1997 intersected Zone V at 243 metres depth. Assay results across 4.66 metres yielded 7.7 grams per tonne gold (George Cross News Letter No.76 (April 21), 1997).
Stirrup Creek Gold Ltd. announced a geologic reserve estimate for Zone V of 282,187 tonnes grading 8.13 grams per tonne gold at a 1.7 grams per tonne gold cutoff (Information Circular 1998-1, page 27). Drilling in 1997 has traced mineralization in Zone V 400 metres downdip; the zone has a strike length of 80 metres and a width of 3 metres. Geological reserves are also reported as 136,962 tonnes grading 14.33 grams per tonne gold (Exploration in BC 1998, page 63).
In 2004, a 2 metre sample (3052) from a trench exposing Zone V assayed 118 grams per tonne gold, 122 grams per tonne silver and greater than 1 per cent lead. Another sample (3053) taken 47 metres north- north west of the most westerly previous known part the zone assayed 14.5 grams per tonne gold, 52.3 grams per tonne silver and 0.724 per cent lead over 1.0 metre (Assessment Report 27541).
In 2005, a bulk sampling program was performed on a high-grade portion of Zone V yielding:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Batch Type Gold Silver Arsenic Lead Total Gold Gold Recovery Processed Recovered Recovered (No.) (g/t) (g/t) (%) (%) (Kg) (g) (g/t) (%) 1 concentrate 1020.0 1460.0 19.2 10.0 5.7 15.1 37 1 midlands 111.0 162.0 14.9 2.3 1.3 1 tails 25.4 60.0 8.7 1.1 462.6 2 concentrate 279.0 550.0 13.0 3.3 1.7 8.0 31 2 midlands 318.0 340.0 15.8 3.4 0.4 2 tails 17.7 N/A 5.8 N/A 260.6 3 head 9.3 N/A 3.2 N/A 3 concentrate 489.0 580.0 4.9 3.1 0.6 10.6 54 3 midlands 21.9 34.0 3.4 N/A 0.05 3 tails 8.8 N/A 2.7 N/A 57.1 0.0 4 head 114.0 104.0 8.4 1.8 4 concentrate 2910.0 1500.0 19.6 12.0 3.3 57.8 74 4 midlands 366.0 352.0 15.6 4.4 0.6 4 tails 20.1 32.0 4.7 N/A 68.1 0.0 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
(Assessment Report 28073)
During 2007 through 2009 bulk sampling programs on Zone V yielded:
----------------------------------------Year Tonnes Gold (g/t) (g) 2007 239.1 29.84 6467.7 2008 363.8 16.12 5293.1 2009 339.2 15.78 4894.5 Total 942.1 19.55 16,655.3 ----------------------------------------- |
(Assessment Report 31391)
In 1981, E&B Explorations completed a program of rock, soil and silt sampling on the area as the Carolyn 1 claim. In 1987, a program of geological mapping and silt and soil sampling was completed on the area as the Second claims. In 1988 through 1991, Cyprus Metals completed a program of geological mapping, rock and soil sampling and 20 diamond drill holes, totaling 3043.1 metres. During 1996 through 1998, Stirrup Creek Gold completed a program of trenching and diamond drilling (36 holes totaling 5998.5 metres) on the area.
During 2004 through 2009, Durfeld Geological Management Ltd. completed programs of geological mapping, trenching, geochemical sampling, bulk sampling and an induced polarization survey. From 2011 through 2013 continued programs included airborne and ground magnetic surveys, geological and alteration mapping, geochemical sampling (silt, soil, rock), bulk sampling and induced polarization surveys. Durfeld Geological continued exploration efforts through 2018 (geochemical sampling, drill core compilation, geological mapping, prospecting) and 2019 (spectral analysis and geochemical sampling). Similar work was conducted from 2021 to 2023.
