The Fox occurrence is situated in the Duckling Creek area of the Swannell Ranges (Omineca Mountains), approximately 7 kilometres west of the Lorraine occurrence (MINFILE 093N 002) and 64 kilometres northeast of Takla Landing.
The Duckling Creek area is underlain by mesozonal plutonic rocks assigned to the Late Triassic to Early Cretaceous Hogem Intrusive Complex, which have been emplaced into volcanic rocks of the Upper Triassic to Lower Jurassic Takla Group, east of the Pinchi fault zone. The plutonic rocks form an elongate batholith, extending from Chuchi Lake north to the Mesilinka River. The structural setting of the batholith and the intruded Takla Group is one of vertical tectonics associated with graben development (Bulletin 70).
Mapping carried out in the area of the Fox occurrence in the early 1970s determined that coarse-grained, magnetite-rich diorite and fine-grained, foliated monzonite predominate in the area. Scattered dikes and irregular lenses(?) of light-coloured, fine- to coarse-grained (porphyritic) syenite, possibly related to the Middle Jurassic Duckling Creek Syenite Complex, were also described.
Widespread mineralization including malachite and pyrite with local chalcopyrite and bornite was reported to be associated with the syenite dikes, feldspar fracture filling and zones of potassium feldspar enrichment of the host intrusions. Two samples believed to be taken from showings exposed on a north-trending ridge east of the north fork of Duckling Creek assayed 1.38 and 1.55 per cent copper, respectively (Assessment Report 3860 page 3).
In 1997, Lysander Gold Corporation completed a soil sampling and drilling geochemical program, consisting of 1146.3 m of drilling over eight diamond drill holes, on the Jajay property. A total of 364 drill core samples and 497 soil samples were assayed.
In 2006, Teck Cominco prospected and mapped the ‘West Rhonda’ area at 1:10 000 scale in order to investigate high copper values in talus fines samples and the geological setting of the Fox occurrence. The West Rhonda area includes the area immediately west of the Rhonda area to the Duckling Creek valley and covers the Fox occurrence.
Mineralization at the Fox showing occurs as weak to moderate chalcopyrite disseminations in the medium-grained diorite. High copper samples in talus were collected at the base of the cliffs below the showing area. Alteration is limited to weak to moderate potassic alteration, commonly biotite alteration of mafic minerals and patchy pink potassium-feldspar flooding. Pink veins of potassium-feldspar, 1 millimetre to 2 centimetres wide, are common. At the margins of the coarse-grained Duckling diorite, the Hogem monzonite is moderate to strongly potassium-feldspar flooded.
Thirty-three soil/talus fine samples were collected at the West Rhonda target, continuing the topographic contour sampling that identified this anomalous area in 2005. Samples of talus fines to poorly developed soils were collected at 100-metre stations along an elevation contour of approximately 1700 metres.
See Lorraine (MINFILE 093N 002) for a general discussion of the Lorraine-Jajay property history, which includes the Fox and Rhonda (MINFILE 093N 005) occurrences.
