The Del East property is underlain by a northwest trending thrust panel of Cambrian to Devonian stratigraphy. Oldest to youngest, the rocks are limestone and phyllites of the Cambrian to Ordovician Kechika Group, overlain by shales, silty limestones, siltstones and dolomites of the Ordovician to Devonian Road River Group. These are overlain by siliceous shale and mudstone of the Devonian to Mississippian Earn Group.

Bedded barite and galena (the "Main Zone") is hosted in a horizon of shales within the Silurian siltstone unit of the Road River Group. The mineralization, 25 metres in width, contains a 0.35 metre section that grades 6.6 per cent lead (Assessment Report 14177).

Two shale-barite horizons, Main (Del East (094F 026)) and West Horizons (Del (094F 018)), occur. The easternmost or Main Horizon is hosted by black shale of the Road River Group and contains the Main Barite Kill Zone. The West Horizon is hosted by black shale of the Earn Group and is characterized by the West Barite Kill Zone.

The Main Horizon has been traced for 2.5 kilometres, but current work concentrated on a 1.8-kilometre strike extent with associated lead in soil anomalies. The Main Barite Kill Zone, situated at along the Main Horizon, consists of massive barite spread over a 20 by 35 metre zone and hosted by black shale. A large ferricrete zone at the north of the zone drains the Main Horizon. Laminar pyrite beds are hosted by the black shaley siltstones at this locality.

The western barite-shale horizon, hosted by shale of the Earn Group, is represented by the West Barite Kill Zone (Del (094F 018). The barite, here, is more distal in character than in the Main Barite Kill Zone (at the Del East (Main and is limited in extent. No further work was recommended for the Main Horizon due to size restrictions posed by a shallow synformal closure.

Work History

The Del barite showing was originally staked in 1980 by Cominco who conducted geological mapping and silt, rock and grid soil sampling, from 1981-1985 (Assessment Reports 9672, 11557, 14177). Two baritic horizons were delineated in the property area. The easternmost, Del East (or Main Barite Horizon), is the most extensive with coincident lead, zinc silver anomalies. In 1985, chip sampling the Main Barite Kill Zone is reported to have yielded 6.6 per cent lead over 0.35 metre, while four rock samples (1-2A, 1-2B, 1-3A and 1-3B) yielded values from trace to 0.09 per cent lead, trace to 0.83 per cent zinc and 0.10 to 2.10 per cent barium (Assessment Report 14177).

In 1994, a total of 21 man days were spent on the DEL property of Teck Corporation. Work consisted of a 7.7-line kilometre soil survey and detailed 1:2000 scale mapping with concurrent rock sampling along the Main shale-barite horizon (Del East). The 1994 soil survey yielded values up to 0.82 per cent lead, 0.65 per cent zinc and 7.2 grams per tonne silver; Maximum values obtained from rock were 0.2 per cent zinc and 0.05 per cent lead (Assessment Report.23676).

Megastar Development Corp acquired its interest in the area in 2006 upon entering into an option agreement with 747080 B.C. Ltd. whereby it acquired an interest in 38 mineral claims comprising over 18000 hectares. At the time, widely-spaced samples taken from the rocks of both the Gunsteel and Road River terrains detected weak lead and zinc mineralization in one of the sampled areas and generally low-to-background values elsewhere (Assessment Report 28995). The highest values were obtained from the central part of Claim 522602, which contained both the Del (MINFILE 094F 018) and Del East (MINFILE 094F 026) occurrences and yielded up to 0.287 per cent zinc and 0.213 per cent lead (Assessment Report 28995).

In 2007, Rio Grande Mining Corp. conducted a program of geochemical sampling, gravity geophysical surveys, prospecting and geological mapping on the area as part of the Kechika property. The following year, Rio Grande completed an airborne magnetic survey on the area.

See Del (MINFILE 094F 018) for details of that nearby zone.