The exact location of the Aztec showings is not known; the showings may be the same as the Dalhousie showings (104A 041) located 733 metres southeast. The showings are assumed to be within 1 kilometre of the centre of the Tillamook claim (Lot 4926), which is located on the east side of the Bear River Ridge about 2.5 kilometres north-northwest of the junction of Bitter Creek and the Bear River, 14 kilometres north of Stewart.

The area is underlain by generally north striking, west dipping rocks of the Lower Jurassic Unuk River Formation (Hazelton Group) (Bulletin 58; 63). Near the Tillamook claim the andesitic volcanics are intruded by north-northwest to northwest trending lamprophyre and augite-hornblende-feldspar porphyry dikes. Several northwest and east-northeast trending faults are conspicuous in the area (Assessment Report 759).

Two veins have been reported on the Aztec claims. The 2.7 metre wide Iron vein, at an elevation of 701 metres, comprises quartz containing abundant pyrite and minor chalcopyrite. In 1922, a sample taken across the vein (2.7 metres?) assayed 8 grams per tonne gold ($4.80 per tonne), 27.4 grams per tonne silver and 1.37 per cent copper (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1922, page 70).

The Copper quartz breccia vein, at an elevation of 792 to 1173 metres, is 0.6 to 3.7 metres wide and is mineralized with pyrite, chalcopyrite and minor magnetite (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1922, page 70). In 1920, a sample from the 792 metres elevation assayed 2.34 grams per tonne gold ($1.40 per tonne), 78.9 grams per tonne silver and 0.3 per cent copper across 0.9 metre (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1920, page 55). At 1173 metres elevation, a 0.6 metre wide vein contains 13 per cent copper ore (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1920, page 55).

In 2019, two samples (032014 and 032015) collected from a 2-metre-long and 1-metre-wide trench in the vicinity of the Aztec occurrence yielded up to 3.39 per cent copper (Moose Mountain Technical Services [2020-08-01]: Summary of Exploration Work on the MC Project).

Work History

The Aztec group of four claims (including the Tillamook claim) was owned by Cameron, Pratt and Watt in 1920. Open cutting was conducted on the veins during 1920 through 1922. In 1925, the Dalhousie Mining Company Limited acquired the Dalhousie group (which included the Tillamook claim) from Cameron and Pratt. The fate of the other three Aztec claims (Aztec, Bellerophon and Wallaby) is not known; they may have been restaked as part of the Dalhousie group. No further work has been reported specifically on the Tillamook claim. In 1965, Canex Aerial Exploration Limited carried out geological mapping and soil sampling on the B.G. claims which were then described as the Aztec group. Mineralization was noted in several places to the west of the tongue of the glacier, about 1 kilometre east of Mount Shorty Stevenson (on the Tillamook and adjacent Alpine (104A 136) claims). Both Rich Lode Gold Corporation and Moche Resources Inc. indicated extensive gossan zones on the Tillamook claim in 1983 and 1986, respectively. In 2017 and 2019, Bonanza Mining Corp. completed programs of prospecting, geochemical (rock and soil) sampling and ground geophysical (induced polarization, magnetic and gravity) surveys on the area as the MC property.