The Belle showing is located along McClair Creek, 4.4 kilometres above its confluence with the Toodoggone River (Assessment Report 10347). The prospect is 310 kilometres north of Smithers. It lies within the Omineca-Cassiar Mountains in the north-central portion of the Toodoggone gold camp.
The showing is situated within a Mesozoic volcanic arc assemblage which lies along the eastern margin of the Intermontane Belt, a northwest-trending belt of Paleozoic to Tertiary sediments, volcanics and intrusions bounded to the east by the Omineca Belt and to the west and southwest by the Sustut and Bowser basins. Permian Asitka Group crystalline limestones are the oldest rocks exposed in the region. They are commonly in thrust contact with Upper Triassic Takla Group andesite flows and pyroclastic rocks. These Takla rocks have been intruded by plutons and other bodies of the mainly granodiorite to quartz monzonite Early Jurassic Black Lake Suite and are in turn unconformably overlain by or faulted against Lower Jurassic calcalkaline volcanics of the Toodoggone Formation, Hazelton Group.
The dominant structures in the area are steeply-dipping faults which define a prominent regional northwest structural fabric trending 140 to 170 degrees. In turn, high-angle, northeast-striking faults (approximately 060 degrees) appear to truncate and displace northwest-striking faults. Collectively these faults form a boundary for variably rotated and tilted blocks underlain by monoclinal strata.
The Belle showing is underlain by volcanics of the McClair Member of the Toodoggone Formation. They consist mainly of altered and non-altered dacitic porphyry flows, rhyolitic tuff and rhyolite which are repeatedly intruded by northwest-trending syenite porphyry dikes (Assessment Report 12966). In several locations thin beds of agglomerate crop out and appear to be intercalated with the flows (Assessment Report 12966). The Toodoggone volcanics at the Belle showing are described by Diakow, as heterogeneous lapilli and block tuff, andesitic flows, and numerous cogenetic dikes and subvolcanic plugs. These volcanics are in fault contact with a Jurassic, porphyritic, granodiorite to quartz diorite stock, immediately to the east.
The showing consists of a series of en-echelon north-northeast-trending shears and fracture zones. Where these zones show intense shearing, they are commonly accompanied with intense silicification, moderate epidote alteration and contain disseminated pyrite (Assessment Report 12966). No other sulphide mineralization was noted.
Work History
In 1973, Amax Potash Ltd. completed a program of geological mapping and geochemical (rock, silt, soil and water) sampling on the area as the Dew claims. Two rock samples (RGDT-9 and -11) from the area yielded 0.560 and 0.620 per cent copper with 4.5 and 1.0 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 4497).
The Belle 1 and 2 claims were staked in April 1980 for Golden Rule Resources Ltd. Work carried out in April 1981 consisted of 44.6 kilometres of airborne VLF-EM and magnetic surveys. During the summer of 1981, ground follow-up consisted of helicopter-supported geological mapping and geochemical sampling.
In 1981, three rock samples taken from this showing were anomalous in gold and silver. Sample DT14 analysed 3.1 grams per tonne silver and sample DT6 analysed 0.59 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 10347). Also at this time, two samples (MC-18 and -24), taken approximately 1.5 kilometres to the southeast, assayed 0.190 and 0.210 gram per tonne gold, respectively (Assessment Report 9995).
In 1982, a rock sample (PMX-04-82-06) from a zone of andesite crystal tuff, located approximately 2.7 kilometres to the south-southeast, yielded 0.285 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 10694).
In 1983, Taiga Consultants Ltd (on behalf of Golden Rule Resources) excavated a total of nine manually dug trenches completed on the Belle 1 claim (see Belle North (094E 126)). A total of 49 channel samples were collected from the trenches at one metre intervals. Semi-detailed geological mapping, prospecting, and sampling were carried out over the Belle 1 and 2 claims. A total of 24 rock samples were collected during this program and 368 soil samples were collected on a grid. The Belle 4 claim was staked in September 1983. Taiga continued their work in the summer of 1985. This program consisted of prospecting, geological mapping, grid-controlled soil geochemical sampling and trenching on the Belle 1, 2, and 4 mineral claims.
Work continued in 1986 as Golden Rule conducted a program of geological mapping, lithogeochemical sampling and grid-controlled soil sampling. In 1987, Golden Rule Resources Ltd. investigated previously outlined anomalous showings, with a limited program of lithogeochemical sampling and sampling from hand trenches.
In 1988, Golden Rule Resources (on behalf of Manson Creek Resources Ltd) carried out an exploration program on the Belle 1 claim (see Belle South (094E 096)). Twelve trenches totalling 378 metres were excavated. This was a follow-up to encouraging results obtained in 1987. A linear feature with strike length 150 metres that is associated with gold/silver mineralization was delineated.
The Belle showing was later encompassed by an expansion of the JD property.
Recent work on the JD property included rock and large scale soil sampling in 2012 by Tower Resources and aeromagnetic surveying by Duran Ventures in 2008. However this work did not extend to the Belle showing.
Refer to JD (Finn) (094E 171) for further JD property work history and geological details.
