The Hunter occurrence is located in the upper reaches of Huntergroup Creek, 88 kilometres north of the community of Dease Lake.
Regionally, the area is underlain by limestone, slate, siltstone and argillite of the Upper Triassic Slide Mountain Complex and Pennsylvanian to Permian basaltic volcanic rocks.
Locally, a wide north-trending shear zone occurs near a contact between Upper Triassic Slide Mountain Complex argillites and Pennsylvanian to Permian Slide Mountain Complex tuffs. The tuffs have been regionally metamorphosed to greenstone.
Within the shear zone, north- to northeast-trending quartz veins are mineralized with tetrahedrite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite and gold. The veins consist of white quartz, locally graphitic and ribboned, ankerite and talcose or argillaceous inclusions. Gouge and slickensides along vein walls indicate movement subsequent to quartz deposition. The most important veins in the area are the Hunter and Theresa. The presence of listwanite at the argillite-volcanic contact, with quartz stringers in the argillite, has been observed.
The main veins are reported to strike north 30 degrees east with a steep dip and have been traced along strike for approximately 600 metres. The vein(s) are covered by overburden to the southwest and are reported to be truncated by a major east-west–striking fault to the northeast. West of the fault a vein is exposed at an argillite-volcanic contact which strikes east-west, parallel to the fault.
Assays as high as 6.86 grams per tonne gold and 13.7 grams per tonne silver are reported from grab samples, but values are erratic (Property File - Mandy, 1937).
In 1985, three chip samples (15564, 19626 and 19633) of the vein yielded 37.8, 38.4 and 20.7 grams per tonne gold over 0.1, 0.1 and 0.75 metre, respectively (Assessment Report 15214).
In 1987, drilling on the Theresa vein yielded intercepts of 1.3 and 1.9 grams per tonne gold over 2.50 and 2.50 metres in holes 87H-2 and 87H-5, respectively (Assessment Report 17613).
In 2009, a chip sample (5006019) from a quartz vein in the occurrence area assayed 1.07 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 30623).
Work History
The Hunter-Ford claims were originally staked in 1936 and were the subject of a Minister of Mines Report by J.T. Mandy dated 1937. Trenching done during this period exposed a quartz vein localized at an argillite-volcanic tuff contact; some gold values of interest were indicated by this work.
In 1979, Silver Standard Mines Ltd. staked the Hunter claim, rehabilitated the earlier trenching and conducted a geochemical soil sample survey. In 1980, additional trenching was done as a follow-up to the geochemical survey and the Ford claim was staked to the east. In 1981, the property was optioned to Clifton Resources Ltd. and a geochemical soil survey was completed that summer; this survey involved collecting and assaying 370 soil samples. In 1984, Erickson Gold Mining completed a program of prospecting, geological mapping and geochemical (rock and soil) sampling on the area immediately north of the occurrence as the Fire, Hot, Jam, Lite and Log claims.
In 1986, Consolidated Silver Standard Mines Ltd. used a D-8 bulldozer to rehabilitate and improve 6 kilometres of access road to the property and an excavator to carry out 185 metres of trenching. Fifty metres of hand trenching was carried out; 37 rock chip samples were taken and a 700- by 900-metre grid was laid out and geologically mapped. In 1987, Erickson Gold Mining Corp. entered into a joint venture with Consolidated Silver Standard Mines Ltd. and in the same year completed a diamond drilling program comprising 12 holes for a total length of 799.4 metres. Eight of these holes were drilled into the Theresa vein, which had been exposed in a summer trenching program; the other four holes were part of a fence designed to locate the Theresa vein on the east side of a strong, 010-degree–striking, steeply dipping fault.
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 2013, China Minerals Mining Corp. completed a program of rock, silt and soil sampling on the area.
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.
