The Pluto occurrence is located on the banks of Pluto Creek which flows into Thane Creek, 11 kilometres northwest of Uslika Lake and approximately 59 kilometres north-northwest of the community of Germansen Landing.
The occurrence lies centrally within the Omineca Belt in the Quesnel Terrane. Upper Triassic Plughat Mountain Formation (Takla Group) andesitic and basaltic volcanic rocks host copper and gold mineralization. Numerous faults, fractures and shears occur within the Takla rocks adjacent to the contact with quartz monzonitic rocks of the Early Jurassic Hogem Plutonic Suite.
The fracture zones, up to one metre wide and healed with quartz-carbonate mineralization, locally contain lenses up to 3 metres in width and 15 metres in length of massive arsenopyrite, pyrite, magnetite, specularite and minor chalcopyrite. The fractures dominantly strike 290 degrees and dip 70 degrees north. In 1954, a grab sample of an arsenopyrite-bearing massive sulphide lens assayed 13.7 grams per tonne gold (Geological Survey of Canada Memoir 274, page 224).
The showing appears continuous with the Thane occurrence (094C 020), 2.2 kilometres south.
The Thane group of four claims was apparently staked sometime during the period 1927-1940 by prospectors working for the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada, Limited (Cominco). In the 1940s, Cominco carried out prospecting and trenching of the Pluto occurrence. The Dave 1-18 claims were acquired by Pechiney Development Limited and appear to be immediately west of the Pluto occurrence. During 1973, geological mapping, a geochemical survey comprising 340 soil samples over 22.54 line-kilometres and 22 rock samples from gossan areas were collected. Work during 1974 included a magnetometer survey over 11.27 line-kilometres, a geochemical soil survey (175 samples) over 11.27 line-kilometres, and 31 metres of diamond drilling in three holes on the Dave 18 claim which was about 1.6 kilometres west-northwest of the Pluto occurrence.
In 1980, Golden Rule Resources Ltd. completed two days of helicopter-supported geological mapping, geochemical sampling, and ground VLF and magnetic surveying on a small grid. Only partial geochemical and geophysical coverage was obtained over the whole grid area on the Pluto prospect. In 1982, Taiga Consultants Ltd. under contract to Golden Rule Resources Ltd., carried out one day of helicopter-supported soil sampling and reconnaissance stream sediment sampling. An anomalous trending zone of silver-in-soils paralleling a weak northwest trending conductive zone outlined by VLF resulted from this work program. In 1984, Taiga Consultants Ltd. under contract to Golden Rule Resources Ltd., completed extensive chip sampling over five sulphide lenses on the Pluto prospect. Arsenic values were very high (up to 97,000 parts per million), gold values up to a maximum of 2.74 grams per tonne and silver values up to a maximum of 4.2 grams per tonne (Assessment Report 13583). In 1985, Suncor Inc. expended eight man-days of work in performing 1.2 kilometres of grid extension VLF surveying, soil sampling and 5.4 line-kilometres of ground magnetic surveying. Three man-days were spent in re-sampling trenches and prospecting; 17 soil samples were collected and analyzed for gold, silver, and arsenic and 12 rock samples were collected and analyzed for gold, silver, copper, and arsenic.
In 2013, a two-day helicopter-supported prospecting and soil geochemical sampling program was carried out on behalf of Canasil Resources Inc. to evaluate limited areas of the western part of the Vega property. This work covered the Pluto, Bottle (094C 110) and Ten (Northeast) (094C 134) occurrences. In 2014, Canasil Resources conducted a remote sensing survey over the Vega property covering approximately 11,407 hectares of surface area, consisting of 34 mineral tenures. The Vega property encompasses six occurrences: Pluto; Thane, 094C 020; Vega, 094C 021; MJW, 094C 108; Bottle, 094C 110; and Ten, 094C 134.
In 2014, Canasil Resources Inc. conducted a limited program consisting of one short soil contour line, and prospecting and rock sampling in two areas; this work did not generate any new areas of interest. The program did, however, locate the Vega occurrence (094C 021) located 5.4 kilometres east-northeast of the Pluto showing, which consists of a partially caved, inclined shaft, a mine dump, several possible drillhole collars, a series of trenches and two collapsed cabins along Vega Creek. A select grab sample of potassic altered andesite/latite with fracture-controlled chalcopyrite-pyrite collected from the dump below the Vega shaft graded 0.24 per cent copper, 0.36 gram per tonne gold and 3.1 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 35169).
