The Mad (Adit) prospect is located on the south side of Watson Bar Creek, approximately 35 metres above the creek and 600 metres west of the junction of Watson Bar and Madson creeks.
The region is underlain by mainly sedimentary rocks of the Lower Cretaceous Jackass Mountain Group, cut by several cross faults and splays of the Fraser fault. Intruding the Jackass Mountain Group are numerous dykes and small stocks of quartz feldspar porphyry.
Epithermal gold-silver mineralization occurs in:
1) stockwork quartz-carbonate veinlets with pyrite, arsenopyrite and chalcopyrite;
2) conformable quartz veins and replacements with arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite and galena;
3) crosscutting quartz veins with pyrite, chalcopyrite and sphalerite;
4) massive sulphide veins containing pyrrhotite, pyrite, arsenopyrite, sphalerite, chalcopyrite and galena;
5) finely banded or disseminated arsenopyrite in siltstone. Anomalous levels of antimony and mercury are often associated with the mineralization.
Locally, a 12 metre adit exposes a quartz feldspar porphyry sill within a westerly trending argillite-sandstone assemblage. Mineralization consists of quartz veins with pyrite, arsenopyrite and lesser amounts of sphalerite, galena and chalcopyrite. The intrusive also hosts disseminated mineralization.
In 1987, grab samples taken from the adit area assayed up to 9.12 grams per tonne gold, 14.1 grams per tonne silver, 0.47 per cent lead, 0.45 per cent zinc and 0.33 per cent mercury (Assessment Report 17781).
In 1988, diamond drilling near the adit yielded:
-----------------------------------------------------------DDH Sample From To Width Gold (No.) (No.) (m) (m) (m) (g/t) M88-1 91563 166.85 167.52 0.67 3.45 M88-1 91557 168.77 169.77 1.00 4.29 M88-2 91582 156.36 157.15 0.79 1.72 M88-2 91586 159.80 160.41 0.61 1.34 M88-2 91589 161.18 162.06 0.88 1.21 M88-2 91590 162.06 162.64 0.58 0.80 ----------------------------------------------------------- |
(Assessment Report 17781)
In 1997, a grab sample (96RMB152) of mineralized quartz vein from near the adit assayed 10.6 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 25111).
A second mineralized section, possible a fault extension of the main zone, has been located 43 metres on strike and to the east of the adit. In 1987, a sample (1337) from this section assayed 6.38 grams per tonne gold over 0.4 metre (Assessment Report 16823).
During 1983 through 1985, Utah Mines completed programs of geological mapping, geochemical sampling and an induced polarization survey on the area as the Mad claims. In 1987 and 1988, Southern Gold Resources completed programs of geological mapping, rock and soil sampling and 3 diamond drill holes, totalling 672.1 metres. In 1997 and 1998, First Point Capital, on the behalf of BHP Minerals, completed programs of rock, silt and soil sampling. In 2006 and 2007, Durfield Geological completed programs of geological mapping, geochemical sampling and an induced polarization survey.