Ag Zinc Lead Au Copper

Virtual Museum ID: 19-BCGS-Buck-1

Specimen Summary


Silver is an important precious metal. It is still highly valued today and has many important uses, as well as being used for jewellery. Silver has the highest electrical and thermal conductivity and reflectivity of all metals and is widely used in electronics and industrial chemistry. It is also used to make mirrors, photographic and x-ray film and collectible coins. Silver has natural antiseptic properties, therefore, has many different medical applications. Silver can occur in its elemental form as metallic silver, or in compounds and minerals with other elements like gold and lead. Silver has a distinct silver-grey colour and is soft and malleable, meaning it can be easily worked and shaped.

Sphalerite is the main ore mineral for zinc, and although relatively common, finding it in commercial amounts is somewhat rarer. The zinc will give the mineral a yellow or red hue, but iron can replace the zinc in the atomic structure, making the crystals black. Rarely, cobalt finds its way into the structure, and produces green crystals. Although sphalerite is a relatively soft mineral, it can be cut (faceted) into attractive gems, which are used for mineral displays.

Galena is the main ore mineral for lead. Because of its relatively low melting temperature it can be easily smelted and has been used as a source of lead since ancient times. Galena has a cubic crystal system and can often be found as cubes or octahedra. Its shiny grey metallic lustre and heavy, dense nature make it easy to recognize. Galena often contains small amounts of silver, which add to its economic value.

Gold is a valuable, highly prized mineral used in everything from jewellery to electronics and dentistry. Gold is desirable due to its special properties, such as malleability and resistance to tarnishing. Gold is commonly microscopic or embedded within or around sulphide grains. Free visible gold occurs as disseminated grains, or rarely as crystals. Crystals of gold commonly form within or around quartz. In its natural mineral form, gold is commonly alloyed with silver. Gold is distinguishable by its characteristic golden yellow colour and extreme heaviness.

Native Copper is a form of copper that occurs as a natural mineral. It is uncombined. Copper rarely occurs in a native form as it usually occurs mixed with other elements or in oxidized states. Most of the copper that is produced is extracted from sulfide deposits. It is metallic, has an opaque diaphaneity, is soft and has an isometric crystal system. Copper is used as a conductor of electricity, specifically as wiring. It is also a conductor of heat and used to make cooking utensils. Copper is used to make alloys as well.

Specimen Data

 

The information listed below relates to the current holding location or collection that the sample is from, and whether the item is viewable at that location or is part of a private collection. Coordinates are given as guides, and we remind you that collecting specimens from these locations is not allowed. Caution is advised visiting such sites and Below BC assumes no responsibility for any injuries or trespassing charges that may occur as a result of the viewer entering these sites.

Collection Details

Original Collection:

British Columbia Geological Survey (BCGS)

Sub Collection:

-

Collection ID:

Buck-1

Virtual Museum ID:

19-BCGS-Buck-1

Accessibility:

Date Added to VM:

2019-05-07

Location Information

Sample Origin:

120km SW of Vanderhoof, B.C.

Specific Site:

Buck Property

UTM Easting:

362314

UTM Northing:

5896070

Datum:

10 (NAD 83)

Coordinate Accuracy:

Specimen Details

VM Category:

Ore Sample

Primary Features:

Ag Zinc Lead Au Copper

Primary Mineral Formula:

Ag · Pb · Zn · Cu

Primary Category:

native element

Secondary Features:

Advanced Geological Information

 

The following section provides geological data relating to the specimen or the site it was collected from, when available. Information has been obtained from various sources including private and government datasets but may not be up to date. Any geological time periods or ages listed often relate to the primary geology of the area, and may not be the actual date of an event such as mineral formation.

Geological Formation:

Hazelton Group (Naglico Formation)

Geological Period:

Middle Jurassic

Stratigraphic Age:

174.1 -163.5 Ma

Geological Belt:

Intermontane

Geological Terrane:

Stikine

Minfile ID:

093F 050

Site Details:

The Buck property comprises 80 claim units that straddle Fawnie Creek and the Kluskus-Ootsa forest service road about 120 kilometres southwest of Vanderhoof.

In 1982, the area, known as the Rocks claims, was investigated by BP Minerals Ltd. They conducted geological mapping, soil and rock geochemistry and trenching focussing on sulphide-bearing ankeritic breccias. There was no recorded work on this ground between 1983 and 1990. The claims were re-staked in 1991, and are currently owned by Western Keltic Mines Inc. In 1992, exploration consisted of geological mapping, prospecting and geochemical sampling. New zones of sulphide mineralization, including the Rutt zone, were discovered. In early 1994, the company completed a program that included soil sampling, mapping, prospecting, and magnetic and VLF surveys.

The Buck claims are underlain by Middle Jurassic Hazelton Group (Naglico Formation) felsic to intermediate flows and lapilli tuffs and fine to coarse-grained, locally fossiliferous volcaniclastics (Fieldwork 1994). Regionally, these units are broadly folded. On the property, bedding typically strikes north-northeast and dips gently to the east. Post-Early Jurassic intrusions crop out in the south and northeast parts of the property.

The main area of interest is underlain by a mixed succession of Hazelton Group mafic and felsic volcanic and sedimentary rocks that generally strike northerly with gentle to moderate easterly dips. Exposures of pyritic, rusty weathering, dark grey argillites and siltstones are conformably overlain by rhyolitic tuffs and tuff breccias that resemble those that occur west of the Fawn (093F 043) property. However, the breccias on the Buck property contain abundant clasts of the underlying argillite and siltstone as well as clasts of rhyolite and porphyry. Fine to coarse-grained clastic sedimentary rocks conformably overly the rhyolite package. Dikes and sills of augite-phyric andesite cut the sedimentary and felsic volcanics and may be feeders to augite-phyric andesite flows that are exposed up-section on both the Fawn and Buck properties.

The Rutt zone crops out discontinuously and is exposed in several hand-excavated trenches along a northerly trend for about 450 metres. Mineralization occurs in clay, sericite, chlorite and silica-altered lapilli tuffs, tuffaceous siltstones and argillites that overlie flow-banded rhyolite. Disseminated sphalerite, pyrite and pyrrhotite are present within the altered tuff; traces of chalcopyrite were also noted. Sphalerite also occurs as a cement or matrix to discrete layers of lapilli. The width of the mineralized horizon is not known but a 3.0-metre chip sample within the zone yielded 2.01 per cent zinc and 0.0306 per cent copper; precious metal values were negligible.

Float boulders, containing conformable bands of disseminated pyrrhotite and sphalerite, are exposed in a roadcut along the Kluskus-Ootsa forest service road. They are presumably derived from the west-facing hillside west of the Rutt showing (West Slope) and expand the size of the exploration target.

The L14S Trench zone is centred about 1 kilometre due south of the Rutt zone and consists of ankerite breccia with weakly anomalous zinc, lead, copper, gold and silver geochemical values.

The Christmas Cake showing, discovered during the 1994 exploration program, is approximately 300 metres southeast of the Rutt zone. It consists of stockwork and semi-massive to massive sulphide mineralization exposed in two shallow trenches. Mineralization consists of intergrowths of sphalerite, pyrite, chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite and galena that are the matrix for angular clasts of rhyolite tuff. The same sulphides are disseminated throughout vuggy fine-grained milky white quartz-flooded zones. A grab sample from one of the trenches assayed 541 grams per tonne silver, 7.38 per cent zinc and 2.25 per cent lead (Assessment Report 23513). Outcrop exposure is poor in the area of the showing and the trend of the mineralization is not known. The Christmas Cake showing is less than 100 metres west of a quartz feldspar porphyry intrusion. Its genetic relationship to the intrusion and to the Rutt zone is unknown.

WORK HISTORY

In1981, BP Minerals Limited staked the Range claims to cover silver-lead-zinc geochemical lake sediment anomalies following the discovery of the Capoose silver occurrence 10 km to the northwest.

In 1982, geological mapping, geochemical soil and stream sediment sampling and bulldozer trenching were performed during 1982. Coincident lead-, zinc- and arsenic-in-soil anomalies were delineated within an area about 2,400 metres by 900 metres across within the current Buck and Buck 2 mineral claims. A siltstone crosscut by quartz veinlets contained 86 ppm zinc, 0.7 parts per million silver and 395 parts per billion gold; felsic tuff or silicified siltstone assayed 4,305 parts per million zinc, 1.8 parts per million silver and 10 parts per billion gold; and, dacite breccia assayed 210 parts per million zinc, 2.1 parts per million silver and 90 parts per billion gold (Assessment Report 10899). Additional 1982 geochemical soil sampling was performed on the Rocks claim, located along the western side of the BP Minerals Limited property area; this area is now covered by the Buck 2 mineral claim. Soils were found to contain anomalous concentrations of lead, zinc and silver (Assessment Report 10787); this work expanded a geochemical soil anomaly outlined earlier by BP Minerals uphill to the east. The Rocks and the Range claims were later allowed to lapse.

In 1991, the Buck 1 - 4 claims were staked over the area. 1992: Western Keltic Mines Inc. did geological mapping, prospecting and soil sampling on the Buck1-4 property in 1992. The geochemical soil anomalies were confirmed, and stratabound pyrrhotite-sphalerite mineralization was traced for 450 metres along strike within a clay-, chlorite-, sericite- and silica-altered lapilli tuff. This mineralization was named the Rutt Zone; assays ranged up to 2.73 per cent zinc (Assessment Report 222569).

In 1994, Western Keltic Mines Inc. continued work on the Bucks 1-4 property by geological mapping, prospecting, soil sampling and VLF-EM and magnetic surveying in 1994. A massive sulphide showing, the “Christmas Cake”, was discovered. Breccia fragments of felsic volcanic rock and pyrite here occur within a sulphide matrix; select samples assayed up to 7.38 per cent zinc, 2.25 per cent lead and up to 541.7 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 25531).

In 1996, Blackstone Resources Inc. completed six diamond drill holes totaling 1,176 m at the Buck 1-4 claims in 1996. These holes tested the Rutt Zone, the Christmas Cake breccia and coincident geophysical and geochemical soil anomalies. Drill results from the Christmas Cake breccia indicated that the breccia is structurally controlled, and assays of drill core were lower than surfaces samples from this occurrence. An intercept of 1,295 parts per billion gold across 4.0 metres was cut near the bottom of hole BCK96-01. Geophysical conductors were determined to be caused by epithermal style alteration zones (Assessment Report 245497).

In 1998, Pacific Star Resources Inc. completed seven diamond drill holes near the Rutt zone totaling 918.2 metres at the Buck 1 – 4 claims in 1998. Five of these holes tested VLF-EM conductors and geochemical soil anomalies from 1994 work on the property; only weak mineralization was intersected within these holes. In addition, two holes were drilled to test the up-dip projections of the 1.3 grams per tonne gold across 4.0 metres intercept within the feldspar porphyry in hole BCK96-01. The extension of this mineralization was not intersected by the 1998 drill holes. The best result from the 1998 drilling was 1.16 per cent zinc across 1.5 metres, from 4.6 metres to 6.1 metres depth in hole BCK98-06 (Assessment Report 25774).

In 2010, Silver Quest Resources Ltd. conducted a small geochemical rock sampling and prospecting program on the Buck claims in 2010. Four geochemical rock samples were collected from the Buck and Buck2 claims. Analytical results showed that these rock samples contained low metal concentrations (Assessment Report 31732).

In 2011, four holes totaling 1083 metres were drilled at the Buck property. Weakly mineralized, well banded rhyolite ash tuff, quartz feldspar porphyry, argillite and andesite were intersected. The best assay was 0.038 gram per tonne gold and 17.4 grams per tonne silver across 0.6 metre in drill hole BCK-11-08 (Assessment Report 32537).

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