The P 12 copper occurrence is located near a tributary of the Gataga River in its headwaters and approximately 13.5 kilometres south of Churchill Peak in the mountainous Muskwa Ranges of the Northern Rocky Mountains (Assessment Report 2868, Map 4).
The occurrence is in a region known as the Muskwa Anticlinorium, a major north-northwest–trending structure characterized by large, folded thrust sheets that expose rocks as old as Middle Proterozoic (Helikian), as well as Paleozoic rocks (Geological Survey of Canada Map 1343A; Geological Society of America, Geology of North America, Volume G-2, page 639). All belong to Ancestral North America (Geological Survey of Canada Map 1713A).
Northeast– to (more commonly) north-northwest–trending, steeply-dipping diabase or gabbroic dikes are common in the region. These Proterozoic intrusions were structurally controlled; their presence and orientation are closely related to regionally important fault and fracture zones in the Proterozoic rocks.
The area around the P 12 showing is underlain mainly by dark-grey, locally slaty calcareous siltstone and shale of the Aida Formation of the Middle Proterozoic Muskwa Assemblage (Geological Survey of Canada Memoir 373; Geological Society of America, Geology of North America, Volume G-2, page 111). The strata generally strike north and dip gently from 5 to 30 degrees west. At least 10 diabase dikes intrude the area, striking north-northwest and dipping vertically to 85 degrees west. They average 5 metres in thickness, and some can be traced for approximately 250 metres.
Typical of the copper occurrences in the region, the P 12 is centred on a system of multiple mineralized quartz-carbonate veins in part of a broad shear or fault zone hosting a number of diabase dikes. The P 12 mineralized zone, striking approximately 340 degrees and dipping 80 degrees west, has an exposed length of 120 metres and width of 4.5 metres. The host shale and siltstone are generally altered and highly fractured giving the rock a brecciated appearance in places, and locally there is abundant malachite on fracture surfaces. Mineralization consists of blebs of chalcopyrite evenly distributed in the vein system, along with small amounts of bornite. Trenching revealed more details of the mineralization. Visual estimates of the grade ranged from 2 to 10 per copper (Assessment Report 2868).
Another, but less well mineralized, vein system (P 75, MINFILE 094K 044) is present 1.2 kilometres to the north, and is probably part of the same zone of faulting, dike intrusion and vein mineralization (Assessment Report 2868).
Work History
In 1970, Fortune Channel Mines Ltd. and Beaumont Resources Ltd. completed a program of prospecting, geological mapping, trenching and rock sampling on the area as the P property. Also at this time, Windermere Exploration Ltd. completed a program of geological mapping and rock sampling on the area immediately west of the occurrence as the Chopper claim group and Acroll Oil and Gas Ltd. completed a program of geological mapping on the area immediately north of the occurrence as the Andrew claims.
In 1981 and 1982, Coppex Syndicate completed a program of geological mapping and geochemical (rock and soil) sampling on the area as the BE and MO claim groups.
In 2005, Twenty-Seven Capital Corp. completed a regionally extensive program of geochemical (rock, silt and soil) sampling and a 9002.0 line-kilometre airborne magnetic survey on the area as the Muskwa property.
