Regional and local geology

The property area geology consists of several accreted terranes, including the Cache Creek terrane, which is bounded to the west by the Mount Michie thrust. The ultramafic rocks in the Cache Creek terrane are characterized by two main compositions, pyroxenite and harzburgite to dunite. The typical ultramafic rocks are exposed near fault contacts and are commonly altered to listwanite (alteration product of ultramafic rocks to carbonate minerals), while serpentinite is commonly found near these fault boundaries where it is locally brecciated. Pyroxenite is typically non-magnetic, medium grained and dominantly composed of clinopyroxene. The large harzburgite-dunite bodies in the eastern part of the Michie Creek map area are coarse grained and contain abundant magnetite. Typically, olivine crystals are completely replaced by serpentine. Veins of antigorite and serpentinite occur throughout these bodies and also in some areas that are intruded by pegmatite (AR 096916).

Mineralization and results description

Small amounts of chrysotile fibre occur in serpentinized peridotite. A chromite-magnetite lens 3.7 m thick and of unknown length assayed 39.4% Cr2O3 and 5.7% Fe (AR 060006).

The ultramafic rocks of the Cache Creek terrane are potentially host asbestos, chromite, nickel-copper-cobalt sulphide mineralization, platinum group element mineralization, and gold in listwanite. Chromite occurrences exist throughout ultramafic rocks of the Cache Creek terrane. Gold occurrences associated with veins and shear zones in ultramafic rocks do occur in Cache Creek rocks (AR 096916).