Projects

The Project lies within the Quesnel Terrane, a prolific porphyry belt in British Columbia that is host to major deposits and long-lived mines that within the region largely consist of Late Triassic calc-alkaline and alkaline intrusions, including the Highland Valley (30 km to the northwest), New Afton (30 km to the north), and Copper Mountain (106 km to the south) deposits (Figure 1).  Regional exploration occurred in the immediate area starting in the 1960’s through to the late 1980’s as a result of the porphyry copper-molybdenum discoveries at Highland Valley. There has been at least 10 operators within the Kolos Project area since the 1960’s that defined 6 significant copper and gold occurrences that have been named the Ace, Kirby, Lodi, Rea, Helmer, and Clapperton occurrences (Figure 2). Intermittent historical work at these occurrences includes rock and soil geochemical sampling, trenching, and EM geophysical surveys. 

Figure 2. Kolos Project boundary with known copper and gold mineral occurrences annotated with select historical rock grab samples.

Ace

The area around the Ace and other occurrences is regionally underlain by volcanic and sedimentary rocks of the Upper Triassic Nicola Group, with volcanic rocks consisting of andesitic and basaltic flows, augite porphyry, agglomerate, breccia and tuff. These units are interbedded with minor argillite, conglomerate and limestone that define an asymmetric, south-plunging anticline with its axis passing through Swakum Mountain. This portion of the Nicola Belt is bounded to the east and west by the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic Nicola and Guichon granodiorite batholiths, respectively, indicative of significant long-lived magmatic activity in the area.

Historical geological mapping from 1988 identified older trenches with exposures of andesite tuff, andesite feldspar porphyry, quartz-sericite schists, phyllites and a quartz monzonite hosting quartz-carbonate veins and variable amounts of malachite, chalcocite and chalcopyrite.

Kirby

Rare outcrop at the Kirby occurrence consists of epidote-chlorite–altered volcanics cut by dioritic dike with north-trending fractures hosting disseminated chalcopyrite and pyrite with malachite staining. A rock sample (013) taken from the discovery of the Kirby occurrence in 2014 assayed 4.24 grams per tonne gold, 11.3 grams per tonne silver and 0.516 per cent copper (Assessment Report 35097).

Another zone of historical mineralization is noted ~500 metres east-southeast of the Kirby occurrence near the Coquihalla Highway, with exposures of andesite tuff and diorite hosting quartz-carbonate veins with pyrite, chalcopyrite and malachite. In 1988, four rock samples (128744, 128742, 128696 and 128699) taken from this outcrop exposure yielded 0.14, 0.60, 0.89, 0.22 grams per tonne gold across a 400 metre north-south trend (Assessment Report 118042). 

Lodi

Locally the Lodi occurrence contains andesite hosting crosscutting fracture zones along the north-trending Fanta fault with narrow quartz carbonate veins, up to 0.25-metre wide, and weak to trace malachite ± chalcocite, chalcopyrite and pyrite mineralization. Magnetite is also reported in the area with a rock sample collected in 1988 (128748) yielding 0.60 gram per tonne gold, 4.8 grams per tonne silver and 0.233 per cent copper (Assessment Report 18042). Another zone of mineralization is located ~1 kilometre east of the main occurrence, near the Coquihalla Highway, and comprises an andesite to diorite breccia and granodiorite dikes hosting calcite stringers, pyrite and weak malachite where another outcrop rock grab sample from 1988 (239796) yielded 0.425 gram per tonne gold, 1.8 grams per tonne silver and 0.415 per cent copper (Assessment Report 18042).

Rea

At the Rea occurrence a 5-centimetre wide quartz-carbonate vein is hosted within hematitic andesite mineralized with pyrite, sphalerite, galena and malachite. The only known historical work consists of a rock grab sampling program in 1988 with one sample (239692) taken from rare outcrop that yielded 4.75 grams per tonne gold, 144.0 grams per tonne silver, 0.52 per cent zinc and greater than 1.00 per cent lead and copper; whereas another sample (102853), taken approximately 900 metres west of the previous sample, yielded 0.63 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 18042).

In 2004, a rusty diorite boulder (float) sample (23888), located approximately 1.1 kilometres west-southwest of the occurrence, yielded 4.84 grams per tonne gold, 14.3 grams per tonne silver, 0.202 per cent copper and 0.126 per cent lead (Assessment Report 27476).

Helmer

The Helmer area is underlain by undivided volcanic rocks of the western volcanic facies of the Late Triassic Nicola Group that has been intruded by Late Triassic to Early Jurassic dioritic rocks to the east. Locally, historical trenching has exposed narrow, up to 1-metre wide, silicified zones and/or quartz calcite veins in altered and sheared andesitic and tuffs hosting pyrite, minor galena, chalcopyrite, and sphalerite mineralization together with limonite and malachite oxidation. The veins trend northwest with a steep dip. Historical rock grab sampling from trench exposed outcrop is reported to have yielded up to 1.425 grams per tonne gold and 11.4 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 18042). In 2007, a chip sample (675428) of mineralized outcrop yielded 1.26 grams per tonne gold, 7.0 grams per tonne silver, 0.178 per cent copper, 0.410 per cent lead and 1.450 per cent zinc over 0.4 metre, whereas a grab sample (675426) from another historical trench assayed 0.37 gram per tonne gold, 163.0 grams per tonne silver, 1.860 per cent lead and 6.500 per cent zinc (Assessment Report 30006).

Clapperton

The Clapperton area is underlain by a dioritic phase of the Early Jurassic Nicola Batholith intruding Late Triassic Nicola Group andesitic to basaltic flow rocks and volcaniclastics to the west. At the main occurrence the diorite has been subdivided into hornblende diorite, biotite diorite and quartz-biotite diorite, with gradational contacts between them. The diorites have a variably strong foliation striking southeast and dipping 50 to 75 degrees to the south. A distinct shearing and jointing is oriented at 020 degrees and has a steep west dip. Biotite is a retrograde metamorphic product of hornblende in parts of the area. The diorite is weakly chloritized along shear zones and one major zone of chloritization and kaolinization occurs along the southwestern contact of the diorites with the country rock. The diorites are intruded by plagioclase porphyry, aplite and pegmatite dikes paralleling the fracture and/or foliation directions.

Locally, scattered quartz veins, up to 15 centimetres in width, contain minor calcite, epidote, chlorite and hornblende hosted within a chloritized and kaolinized biotite-hornblende diorite. The veins parallel the shear direction, trending approximately 020 and 120 degrees, and contain minor amounts of chalcocite, chalcopyrite, bornite, malachite and rare molybdenite as disseminated blebs.

In 1975, other zones of chalcopyrite and malachite mineralization were reported several hundred metres north-northwest, 600 hundred metres northeast, 400 metres south, and 1000 metres east-southeast of the main zone. This indicates a multi-kilometre scale to copper porphyry-style mineralization.

The Coquihalla Highway separates the two main lithologies encountered on the Kolos Project. West of the highway and in the northeast section of the property andesitic rocks of the Late Triassic Nicola Group predominate, consisting of andesite hornblende porphyry as well as andesitic tuff, lapilli tuff, agglomerate and volcanic breccias. Within the northern portion of the property Nicola Group volcanics are intruded by a fine-grained diorite that is apparently a subvolcanic equivalent of the andesite and is gradational to andesite even on the outcrop scale. East of the highway a Jurassic granodiorite batholith of the Coast Intrusive Complex intrudes and is largely in fault contact (Fanta Fault) with the Nicola Group volcanics. A foliated Late Triassic to Jurassic coarse-grained diorite to quartz diorite to monzonite intrusion is also exposed on the northeast portion of the property and along the western margins of the granodiorite batholith; historically this intrusion has been identified as similar in age and composition to the Iron Mask Batholith, which hosts porphyry style copper-gold deposits south of Kamloops.

A major north trending structural corridor (Fanta Fault) is exposed along the Coquihalla Highway and for the most separates Nicola Group volcanic and sedimentary rocks to the west from the batholith to the east. The fault is characterized by brecciation, pyritization, carbonate and epidote alteration, local clay alteration and variable silicification. Multiple subsidiary structures cut across the Fanta Fault trending 125 degrees and are typically pyritic, silicified zone with local clay alteration. This northwest-southeast trend is associated with mineralization and intrusive orientations in the northern portion of the project area at the Helmer and Clapperton occurrences.  Other fracture and shear orientations include northeast to easterly.

Highly prospective mineralization consists of locally abundant pyrite that is disseminated within host volcanics as well as concentrated within north-trending fault structures that separate the underlying Late Triassic Nicola Group rocks from Late Triassic granodiorite to quartz monzonite intrusions. Elsewhere throughout the project area localized occurrences of malachite with rare chalcopyrite also occur within host Nicola Group volcanics, associated with increased fracturing together with carbonate alteration and quartz-carbonate veinlets. These veinlets carry malachite, pyrite ± chalcocite that together with observed alterations styles is suggestive of the upper level of a large-scale copper porphyry system with near-surface exposure.