The Big Canyon occurrence is located near Vulcan Creek about 20 kilometres northeast of the community of Atlin. The Atlin Ruffner past-producing mine (104N 011) is about 1.3 kilometres to the north of the this showing.
The area is underlain by the Middle Jurassic Fourth of July Creek batholith (Three Sisters Plutonic Suite) which is a zoned, probably multiphase intrusion composed mainly of granodiorite, quartz monzonite and quartz diorite. The rocks display a relatively wide range of textural features, but medium and coarse crystalline textures prevail.
Mineralization is confined to widely spaced, silver-base metal bearing, dike/fault/shear zones hosted by granodiorites and quartz monzonites of the Fourth of July Creek batholith. The silver-lead-zinc mineralized zones strike at 060 to 080 degrees and dip steeply to moderately to the north or northwest. The Big Canyon mineralized structures ("veins") show the same attitude and follow two swarms of diabase dikes accompanied by prominent fault/shear displacements and brecciation. Zones of higher-grade mineralization range from approximately 2 to 4 metres in true width. They usually include one or two thinner lenses or layers running parallel to the wallrock contacts, and some irregular pockets of semimassive to massive mineralization of pyrite, sphalerite, galena and less abundant arsenopyrite. Chalcopyrite occurs less frequently and in minor amounts. The highest-grade mineralization shows close spatial relationships either to individual fault/shear surfaces with strong clay alteration, or to zones of strong silicification. Both Big Canyon mineralized structures (North and South) display relatively wide, low-grade mineralization halos which include commonly disseminated mineralization, sometimes accompanied by thin, strongly mineralized shear zones. The hostrock within these halo zones show various degrees of fracturing and is usually slightly to moderately altered (chlorite-epidote-silica-clay).
The main mineralized Big Canyon zone attains 7.2 metres in width, dips north-northwest at 65 to 70 degrees, and consists of a few subzones showing variable grades of mineralization. In 2007, a broad interval yielded 71.4 grams per tonne silver, 0.45 per cent lead and 0.61 per cent zinc in drillhole BC07-03 (depth interval 6.89 through 14.60 metres) and 116.4 grams per tonne silver, 0.69 per cent lead and 1.07 per cent zinc in hole BC07-04 (depth interval 9.36 through 20.80 metres) (Assessment Report 30390).
The Big Canyon South mineralized structure is associated with a complex system of fault-shear zones, mafic dikes and altered host granodiorite to quartz monzonite. The structure strikes from west-southwest to east-northeast but its dip varies from 75 to 85 degrees toward the north-northwest. The complete structure attains locally 11-16 metres in width. A trenched section and outcrops along the canyon of Crater Creek indicates that the broad mineralization zone includes two or three distinct intervals of a more intense, higher-grade mineralization which are separated by considerably less mineralized intervening rocks. The main mineralized zone known from trench C-TR1 reaches 6.4 metres width and averages 141.4 grams per tonne silver, 1.07 per cent lead and 0.28 per cent zinc. It includes a 0.66-metre interval which yielded 1107 grams per tonne silver, 9.48 per cent lead and 0.52 per cent zinc (Assessment Report 29517).
The most prominent results included 551 grams per tonne silver, 1.78 per cent lead, 0.41 per cent zinc and 0.51 grams per tonne gold over 1.14 metres true width in the Big Canyon North structure, and 4862 grams per tonne silver, 41.7 per cent lead and 1.38 per cent zinc in a grab sample from the Big Canyon South structure (Assessment Report 30390).
In late 2006, Saturn Minerals Inc. optioned the Wheelbarrow property and became the operator. During the early summer of 2007, Saturn Minerals conducted prospecting and rock sampling programs accompanied by lithological and structural observations. A total of 420 samples (including 98 chip samples taken from hand-trenched mineralized zones) were collected and analyzed. The rock sampling program was designed to test the character and grade of mineralization in several known showings and sites, as well as to prospect for extensions of the known zones and for completely new zones. The purpose of this extensive sampling program was also to select targets for subsequent mechanical trenching and, eventually, diamond drilling programs, both of which took place later on during the same field season. During mid- to late- summer 2007, Saturn conducted complementary soil, trenching and drilling programs. The soil sampling resulted in 74 soil samples taken in four distinct areas of the property. Excavator trenching resulted in 16 trenches and test pits totalling 315 metres in length. Approximately 150 rock samples from the trenches were sent for analysis. Nine diamond-drill holes were drilled to test the southern Big Canyon mineralized structure. The total length of the drillholes was 607.68 metres; 255 core samples were sent for analysis.
Global Drilling Solutions Inc. acquired the majority of the claims comprising the current Ruby Creek Project in the spring of 2016 from Adanac Moly Corporation. For the 2016 field season Global chose to target gold vein deposits structurally controlled by faulting within existing placer creeks with the main focus on Boulder Creek. In 2017, Global conducted geochemical sampling, drilling and ground geophysics on the Ruby Creek property. In 2018, Global carried out further geochemical sampling and drilling on this property. It’s mentioned that the Ruby Creek property remains of high interest for not only gold/molybdenum but also for silver and copper based on the exploration work during 2017/2018 (Assessment Report 38256).
In 2020, Stuhini Exploration conducted mapping, prospection, ground geophysics and geochemical sampling on the Ruby Creek property. In 2021, an airborne SkyTEM survey was conducted by Stuhini on the Ruby Creek property, which revealed a number of regional trends across the property.
