The Van occurrence is located southwest of Troutline Creek, approximately 10 kilometres east of the abandoned Cassiar townsite and 92 kilometres north of the community of Dease Lake.

Within the occurrence area, the dominant rock types are Upper Paleozoic Slide Mountain Complex andesites and cherty volcanics which are overthrust by a thick graphitically altered argillite sequence (Upper Triassic Slide Mountain Complex). Listwanite, which is a variably altered ultramafic intrusive rock, has been emplaced as major sills and lenses along many of the shallow-dipping thrust planes.

Diamond drilling in 1995 was designed to test induced polarization with coincident VLF-EM conductors. Drillhole 95Van-2, collared in argillite, intersected the listwanite thrust contact 23.6 metres downhole; the 5-metre thick listwanite was only moderately altered. The hole continued in moderately altered volcanics to 127.4 metres intersecting minor zones of disseminated sulphide (pyrite) mineralization. The interval 108.6 to 109.5 metres assayed 2.08 grams per tonne gold over 0.9 metre. Hole 95Van-3 was designed to test coincident low resistivity, moderate chargeability anomalies and intersected a similar stratigraphic package to that encountered in 95Van-2. The thrust contact was intersected 99.8 metres downhole followed by a thin, poorly developed listwanite. A weakly pyritic zone in the volcanics immediately below the contact yielded 0.6 gram per tonne gold over 2.4 metres. A narrow quartz stringer intersected between 151.9 and 152.0 metres assayed 114.9 grams per tonne gold over 0.1 metre. Drillhole 95Van-4 designed to test an induced polarization anomaly transected the same package as the previous two holes; no significant sulphide mineralization was noted. The hole did, however, intersect a 2.4-metre argentiferous polyphase quartz vein between 100.2 and 102.6 metres downhole that yielded 0.5 gram per tonne gold and 38.5 grams per tonne silver over 2.4 metres. In drillhole 95Van-5, a white quartz veinlet intersected 8 metres below the listwanite contact between 99.0 and 99.2 metres yielded 52.2 grams per tonne gold over 0.2 metre (1.4 metres true width). The hole also intersected several narrow zones of disseminated pyrite, the best of which yielded 1.64 grams per tonne gold over 3.1 metres between 189.9 and 193.0 metres downhole (Assessment Report 24379).

Work History

The area has been explored in conjunction with the nearby Taurus (MINFILE 104P 012) occurrence and a completed regional and property exploration history can be found there.

In 1976, the Van claim was located for Newcoast Silver Mines Ltd. Two short adits, numerous pits and trenches and the remains of a gravity feed mill of unknown provenance are located in the eastern portion of the property. Newcoast carried out preliminary soil sampling, mapping, magnetometer and electromagnetic surveys in 1976. Follow-up work was done in 1979 leading to diamond drill testing of four veins in the eastern portion of the property in 1979 and 1980. A total of 740 metres of BQ drilling in 8 holes was done on these targets.

Erickson Gold Mines Ltd. completed a soil geochemistry survey over the claim in 1985 and electromagnetic surveying in 1989 in order to define the argillite/volcanic thrust contact. In 1995, Cusac Gold Mines Ltd. conducted diamond drilling on their Table Mountain Gold property; five BQ diamond drill holes were completed totalling 875.1 metres.

In 2005, Cusac Gold Mines Ltd. drilled a total of 2444 metres in 13 drillholes on their Taurus II property, in three areas: the Backyard system (MINFILE 104P 121), with six holes totalling 1140.1 metres; the Somerville system (MINFILE 104P 016), with six holes totalling 1122.5 metres, and the Porcupine East (MINFILE 104P 077), with one hole totalling 181.4 metres.

In 2006, Cusac Gold Mines Ltd. conducted a soil geochemical survey (2720 samples), LiDAR survey (139 square kilometres), trenching program (eight trenches for a combined length of 530 metres), and diamond drilling program (21 holes for a combined depth of 3280.3 metres; 843 core samples) on the Taurus II area of their Table Mountain Gold property.

During 2008 through 2010, Hawthorne Gold Corp., later China Minerals Mining Corp., completed regional programs of geological mapping, geochemical (rock and soil) sampling and 11,657 line-kilometres of airborne magnetic, radiometric and electromagnetic surveys on the area as the Cassiar Gold property.

In 2019, Margaux Resources completed a program of prospecting, geological mapping and rock sampling on the area as the Cassiar Gold property. In 2020, Cassiar Gold Corp. completed a program of regional photogeological interpretation, prospecting and rock sampling on the Cassiar Gold property.