The Quartz Silver occurrence is located on the south side of the Nelson River, about 27 kilometres north-northwest of Terrace.
The area is underlain by argillites and minor sandstones of the Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous Bowser Lake Group. The sediments are cut by felsite dikes and feldspar porphyry intrusive rocks of the Cretaceous to Tertiary Coast Plutonic Complex.
Locally, the contact zones of felsite with argillite are commonly altered to clay, sericite and silica and have associated sulphide-bearing quartz veins. One such quartz-sulphide vein, striking roughly 155 degrees and dipping 70 degrees to the west, contains galena, sphalerite and chalcopyrite. Pyrite, arsenopyrite, galena, sphalerite and bornite are present in minor amounts as veinlets and as disseminations within the felsite dikes.
A 60-centimetre chip sample assayed 7.74 per cent lead, 15.38 per cent zinc, 78.9 grams per tonne silver and 0.34 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 13455).
Another mineralization zone, referred to as the Blood occurrence, is reported approximately 2.7 kilometres to the south east.
Work History
The original discovery was made by John Apolczer in 1968 who exposed a well mineralized quartz-sulphide vein during road building for logging operations. The Quartz Silver claims were located by Mr. Apolczer and a Mr. Bates to cover the showing. Subsequent trenching and blasting were undertaken and several other zones were identified. The first record of work on the Quartz Silver claims was carried out by W.M. Sharp for Atlantis Mines in 1969. This consisted of preliminary geological mapping and sampling, primarily along the road cut. In 1970, Mr. Apolczer and Mr. Bates had the property returned to them and completed two pack-sack diamond-drill holes in the vicinity of the quartz-sulphide vein. No record of the results was found.
In 1985, Imperial Metals acquired an option on the property and conducted geological mapping and soil sampling. The bulk of this work was carried out in the vicinity of the main showing. A 3.5-kilometre grid was established and approximately 112 hectares was mapped on a scale of 1:5000. A total of 132 soil samples were collected and analyzed. Some weak coincident gold-lead soil anomalies were reported from this work; however, no follow up was implemented.
In 1987, the ground was held by Mount Allard Resources through an option agreement with the Kalum Mining Group. The work was carried out by OreQuest Consultants Limited and the program included geological mapping, soil and rock geochemistry, prospecting, VLF-EM and magnetometer surveying. Cut lines were established over two zones on the property for survey control. A total of 828 soil samples, 90 silt samples, 8 rock chip samples, and 14 rock samples were collected. Soil and silt geochemical surveys outlined a number of weak to moderate gold-silver-lead-zinc-copper anomalies.
By 2003, Eagle Plains Resources Ltd. had acquired the 500-unit Kalum property to cover the Allard stock, a 4 by 11 kilometre intrusion that has been mapped west of Kitsumkalum Lake. The Kalum property encompasses several historically documented occurrences referred to in their 2003 Assessment Report 27417: Kalum (103I 019), Burn (103I 211), Allard (104I 151), Misty (104I 213), Chris (104I 174), Martin (104I 020) and Hat (104I 173). Several new discoveries were also described.
In 2004, Eagle Plains Resources Ltd. continued exploration for an intrusion-related gold deposit on its Kalum property. The program comprised a 1500-line kilometre airborne geophysical survey, on-the-ground evaluation of targets and the drilling of 19 holes, totaling 1958 metres. The geophysical survey recovered magnetic and time-domain electromagnetic data.
In 2005, Eagle Plains Resources completed a program of soil, silt and rock sampling and geological mapping on the area.
In 2007, Mountain Capital Inc. optioned the property and in 2008 undertook a program of soil and rock sampling, a 4.1 line-kilometre induced polarization survey and 11 diamond drill holes on the Burn (MINFILE 103I 211) occurrence area. The option was terminated in May of 2009.
In 2009, Windstorm Resources Inc. entered into a Letter of Intent with Eagle Plains to earn a 60 per cent interest in the property and completed a program of prospecting, geochemical sampling and an induced polarization survey on the area.
In 2010, a program of geological mapping and six diamond drill holes, totalling 419.11 metres, were completed on the Tuppie-Cirque (MINFILE 103I 228) occurrence.
In early 2012, Clemson Resources Corp. entered into an Option Agreement with Eagle Plains Resources to acquire a 60 per cent interest in the property.
