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When visited, very little exploratory work had been done, and
only a few scattered outcrops could be seen. These indicated that the
claims are underlain by a sill-like body of serpentine intruding blue-~
grey Permian limestone. The sill contacts are apparently along zones of
shearing and brecciation. The serpentine in these shear zones has been
altered to buff, quartz-carbonate-mariposite rock and is mineralized with

Cinnabar.

When examined, the only showing was a mineralized zone about
3 feet wide exposed in a trench. Within it most of the cinnabar was con-
centrated in a width of 3 inches and consisted of bright red cinnabar as~
sociated with veins of chalcedonic quartz in quartz-carbonate-mariposite
rock. Further discoveries are since reported to have been made.

Kwanika Group

The Kwanika group of claims is on the west side of Kwanika Creek
and is accessible by trail, about 3 miles long, from Tsayta Lake. The lake
is 130 miles by water and road, or 90 miles by air, from Fort St. James.
The claims were staked by the Rottacker Brothers and associates in the sum-
mer of 1941, and were acquired under option by Consolidated Mining and
Smelting Company in the autumn of the same year. Following a program of
surface exploration and diamond drilling the option was relinquished, in
1942.

A belt of northerly trending Permian limestone crosses Kwanika
Creek at a’ sharp bend 2 miles above its mouth, and upstream diverges to
the west. Thinly-bedded, Upper Triassic greywacke, argillite, and tuff
are exposed along the creek above the bend. Tongues of the granodiorite-
diorite batholith lying east of Kwanika Creek cut Upper Triassic and
Permian rocks exposed along the creek. The Pinchi fault zone crosses
Kwanika Creek at the bend. The limestone in the fault zone has been
partly brecciated and altered to a buff-coloured, dolomitic limostone.
North of the bend the fault zone is covered by at least 25 feet of drift,
but probably marks the contact between Permian rocks on the west and :
Upper Triassic rocks on the cast. One diamond drill hole crosses this
fault contact. Jurassic sandstone, greywacke, and tuff outcrop west of
the Permian-Triassic fault contact, in the southwest part of the Kwanika
group on Trump Nos. 1 and 2 claims, Although no contacts are exposed,
diamond drilling indicates that these Jurassic rocks occupy © triangular
shaped fault block in the Permian limestone.

A little cinnabar was discovered on Kwanika Creek, about 4% miles
from its mouth. It occurs in a dolomite stringer, + inch wide, traversing
Upper Triassic argillite. fhe stringer lies about an inch from the con-
tact of a narrow granodiorite sill that strikes north 5 degrees west and
dips nearly vertically, and is exposed for 6 feet on the west bank of the
creek, Surface work failed to uncover more cinnabar. Approximately
% mile farther upstream, dolomite stringers, 4 inch wide, containing
realgar, native arsenic, and pyrite, occur in Upper Triassic argillite
and preywacke. Qne-quarter mile above this showing another dolomite
stringer contains specks of cinnabar. Arquerite, cinnabar, and native
gold can be panned from the gravels of Kwanika Creek.

A boulder of carbonatized serpentine and limestone containing
cinriabar in commercial quantities was found on Trump No, 1 claim. It is
at least 8 feet in diameter. Extensive diamond drilling in the vicinity
of the boulder has encountered carbonatized serpentine, carrying a few
specks of cinnabar, that may represent the source rock of the boulder.
The altered serpentine lies between beds of Jurassic and Permian age and
probably follows a fault contact.