The Tasco, or MASSENA, gold showing is situated 7.2 kilometres southeast of Mount McClure, approximately 41 kilometres northwest of Gold Bridge and 148 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake, B.C.
The property occurs within Late Cretaceous quartz-hornblende diorite of the Coast Plutonic Complex, approximately 7 kilometres southwest of the contact with Upper Cretaceous volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks of the Powell Creek Formation.
The Massena showing consists of a series of small parallel, gold- and silver-bearing quartz veins within a north-trending feldspar porphyry dike, 150 metres wide and 1500 metres long, which cuts quartz-hornblende diorite. The porphyry is iron stained and oxidized, and contains small nodules of cerrusite within a 30-centimetre-wide clay-altered section of the dike. As of 2010, the showing had not been actively explored.
Between 1964 and 1965, Phelps Dodge Corporation conducted a regional exploration program in the area that focused on large tonnage, low-grade copper mineralization. One 57-metre diamond drill hole was completed on the Copper Zone claim area (MINFILE 092O 025) to the south. From 1969 to 1972, Victor Mining Corporation held the Copper Zone area as the NW and Bill prospect. During this time, four diamond drill holes and four percussion drill holes were completed by Victor Mining.
In 1975, United Gunn Resources Limited staked the Copper Zone claims (MINFILE 092O 025) to the south. Between 1980 and 1982, the company drilled and blasted two open-cut trenches in an area of malachite-stained outcrop, carried out geological mapping, soil, rock and core sampling, and completed five diamond drill holes totalling 977 metres. One drillhole intersected 289 metres of copper and molybdenum mineralization (Assessment Report 10455, page 5).
The area covering both the Copper Zone (MINFILE 092O 025) and Massena (Tasco) showings was later restaked as the Grizzly claims by Paul Reynolds and the MAPLE syndicate. In 2000, exploration work on the Grizzly claims consisted of prospecting and grid preparation.
The showing area was staked, along with the former Copper Zone claims (MINFILE 092O 025), as the Tasco property by J.A. Chapman and KGE Management Limited in 2004. In November 2006, an advanced spaceborne thermal emission and reflection radiometer (ASTER) image analysis conducted on the property by Cal Data Limited outlined a northwest-trending linear alteration feature. In 2007, Hi Ho Silver Resources Incorporated optioned the property and retained Aeroquest International to carry out an airborne electromagnetic and magnetic survey over the property before dropping the option the following year.
In 2010, Highpointe Exploration Incorporated optioned the property and conducted limited prospecting, geological mapping and rock sampling. Geotech Limited carried out an airborne geophysical survey over the property. Later that year, Highpointe Exploration released an NI 43-101 technical report on the Tasco property. In 2011, two diamond drill holes were completed on the Copper Zone occurrence to the south. Both drillholes intersected long sections of copper-molybdenum-silver mineralization. Highpointe Exploration later became Oxford Resources Incorporated. As of 2014, Oxford Resources Incorporated still held an option on the Tasco property.
A sample taken across 41 centimetres of oxidized rock assayed 157 grams per tonne silver and 7 grams per tonne gold (Minister of Mines Annual Report, 1922).
During 2014 through 2019, Amarc Resources Ltd. completed programs of geological mapping, geochemical (talus fines, rock chip and stream sediment) sampling, 163.6 line-kilometres of induced polarization surveys, 1069 line-kilometres of airborne magnetic surveys and 18 157 metres of diamond drilling on the area as part of the IKE project. The majority of the drilling (15 455.34 metres in 26 holes) was completed on the IKE (MINFILE 092O 025) occurrence.
