The Beekeeper showing is located 60 kilometres northeast of Williams Lake and 10 kilometres northeast of Horsefly. The property is readily accessible from Williams Lake via paved highway to the community of Horsefly, from where public and local logging roads provide excellent access to much of the property area.
The property lies within the Quesnel Terrane of the Intermontane Belt underlain by Upper Triassic basalt correlative with the Nicola Group and intruded by the syenitic to dioritic Kwun stock of probable Lower Jurassic age. In the claims area, the northwesterly trending Kwun stock is a broadly zoned alkalic intrusive complex ranging from a syenite-monzonite core to monzonite-diorite that has intruded a section of Upper Triassic mafic and Lower Jurassic felsic volcanics and clastics.
The showing is part of the Kwun Lake-Al (093A 077) mineralized system. Mineralization comprises chalcopyrite, pyrite and pyrrhotite. Anomalous gold values occur in disseminations and fracture fillings, associated with pink potassium feldspar and calcite-epidote-chlorite alteration zones. A second period of mineralization characterized by cinnabar (up to 3,300,000 parts per billion mercury) with ankerite, fluorite and quartz appears to be superimposed on the chalcopyrite-gold mineralized zone. This mineralization is related to hornblende porphyry syenite dikes at the eastern margin of the Kwun stock.
Drilling in 1990 intersected a 15-metre zone of 0.10 per cent copper and 2.19 grams per tonne gold (George Cross News Letter No.113, June 12, 1991). Drilling in October 1996 intersected 22 metres grading 0.7 per cent copper and 0.96 gram per tonne gold (George Cross News Letter No.42, February 28, 1997). A late winter drilling program in 1996 resulted in drillholes 97-B-15 and 97-B-12 testing the western and eastern extensions to mineralization. Hole 97-B-15 intersected 3 metres which assayed 1.04 grams per tonne gold; the drillhole ended in mineralization at a depth of 183 metres (George Cross News Letter No.29 (April 29), 1997).
The Kwun-Swarm claims area has been investigated for gold and copper mineralization since the early 1970s. In 1973, staking by Dome-Newconex was performed. In 1974, an exploration program comprised of mapping, soil sampling, a magnetometer and induced polarization (IP) survey, 12 percussion holes, and 2 diamond-drill holes was completed. In 1975, 11 percussion holes were drilled. In 1980-81, thirteen diamond-drill holes were completed by Orbex Minerals. In 1984, soil sampling was conducted by Fox Geological. In 1985, soil sampling, prospecting and mapping was completed by Dome. In 1986, 17.2 kilometres of spectral IP was completed by Dome.
Eastfield Resources Ltd. staked the Swarm claim to cover the Kwun property. The Beekeeper claims were part of the Kwun property until 1980. Subsequent to 1980, the history of the property is as follows. In 1980, the claim was acquired by Imperial Metals Corp. Between 1981-86, soil sampling, rock sampling, ground magnetic-VLF surveys, and trenching were completed (gold to 0.765 gram per tonne and 0.12 per cent mercury was noted on the claims). In 1986, the property was acquired by Eastfield Resources Ltd. and geologic mapping, ground magnetics and an IP survey completed. In 1987, Lornex Mining Corp. optioned the claims and performed soil sampling and completed three drillholes. In 1990, and IP and magnetometer survey by Cominco for Eastfield Resources Ltd. was completed. In 1991, the Beekeeper 5-18 claims were staked by Eastfield Resources and the property optioned to Cogema Canada Ltd. who conducted a soil sample survey totalling 1806 samples. Claims were staked in 1994 to cover an area where previous work has identified a mineralized alkalic intrusion. The results of a 1995 reconnaissance sampling program was successful in finding new copper-gold occurrences including one outcrop from which a value exceeding 0.2 per cent copper and 1 gram per tonne gold was obtained (see Kwun Lake occurrence, 093A 077). Imperial Metals Corporation and Wildrose Resources Ltd. (formerly Eastfield Resources Ltd.) own the property. In 1996, a diamond drill program consisting of ten core holes and one overburden test hole was completed on the Beekeeper claims for a total of 1370 metres. A 1997 diamond drilling project focused on expanding the '96 zone', a previously drilled mineralized stockwork. The zone was extended a further 200 metres, with the most interesting assay of 0.439 gram per tonne gold over 36 metres (Exploration in British Columbia 1997, page 30). During the 1997 field season a two-phased diamond drill program was completed. The first phase consisted of seven holes totalling 1107.8 metres conducted in March; the second phase comprised six holes totalling 996.3 metres conducted between November and December. A highlight of the 1997 work was the identification of the "Middle Lake stock” (see also Kwun Lake, 093A 077). The Middle Lake stock, where drilled, is a highly pyritized potassic altered monzonite. This intrusion is blind and is overlain by wet, clay rich, glaciofluvial till. Holes 97-B-20, 21 and 22, drilled on 200 metre intervals over a 400-metre section intersected well altered monzonite over their full lengths. The alteration is dominantly potassic and includes abundant secondary potassium feldspar and biotite. The initial Birch property, which covers the Beekeeper and Kwun Lake showings, was acquired by staking in 2003 and has been expanded since. In 2006, an auger soil sampling survey was completed by R.M. Durfeld.
In 2008, Great Bear Uranium Corp. completed a program of compiling historical trenching, drilling, geochemical and geophysical data and later that year a field program of geological mapping, prospecting and minor geochemical sampling.
In 2010, Mountain Gold Resources Ltd. conducted a program of prospecting, geological mapping, minor geochemical sampling and a 29 line-kilometre ground magnetic survey on the area.
In 2011, Iron Tank Resources Corp. completed a 213-line kilometre airborne geophysical survey on the area.
