Property Summary
The Arlington Au-Cu-Ag Property is located in the West Kettle River Valley in southern British Columbia; it is 17 km north of the community of Beaverdell and 65 km south of Kelowna B.C., within the Greenwood Mining Division (see Figure 1).
Historic work in the area was driven by the early success and discoveries made in the Beaverdell and Carmi Mining Camps during the late 1890s. Most of the production in the district was from the Beaverdell Camp, which was mined from 1913 to 1991 and produced approximately 35Mozs silver and 16.5Kozs gold. The Buckhorn Mine, located 60km to the south of the property in northern Washington state, is also considered a possible exploration analogue. The Buckhorn mine was operated by Kinross from 2007 to 2017, producing 1.3Moz gold from 5Mt ore.
The property was explored as early as 1888, with modern exploration occurring in several stages from the early 1970’s to 1996, and most recently from 2015 to 2022. Thirteen historic mineral occurrences are identified on the claims, although more recent prospecting and reconnaissance work has identified several additional undocumented historical shafts, adits and trenches in the northern part of the claims that reflect significant historical exploration and some mining activity on the property over time. The claim position has been steadily expanded since initial staking by the vendors in 2015 and now totals nine claims for a total of 3,583.89 ha.
Figure 1 - Arlington Property Location
Property Geology
The property covers geologically prospective ground just north of the historic Beaverdell Mining camp and the past producing Carmi mine and hosts 13 Minfile Occurrences associated with structurally controlled Polymetallic Ag-Cu-Pb-Zn +/-Au veins. In this deposit style, veins can occur in virtually any host and form steeply dipping, narrow tabular to splayed veins and commonly occur as sets of parallel and offset veins. Individual veins may vary from a few centimeters up to several meters wide and can be traced from a few hundred meters to more than a kilometer in length. Locally the veins may widen to tens of meters in stockwork zones.
The Jurassic to Cretaceous aged Okanagan Batholith is the most prominent unit in the region, bordering nearly all other rock types. Diorite and quartz diorite of the Nelson Plutonic suite is genetically related to the Okanagan Batholith and is the dominant lithology underlying the claims. The oldest unit in the district belongs to the Carboniferous to Permian aged greenstone and quartz biotite chlorite schist of the Anarchist group which occurs as north-south trending bands along the west side of the property. The youngest unit on the claim is the Eocene Marron Group. Chalcopyrite, sphalerite, galena and molybdenum mineralization with values in gold and silver are found in shear hosted quartz veins cutting altered diorite and quartz diorite intrusive rocks and Anarchist Group stratigraphy.
Figure 2 - Property Geology
Exploration Summary
Work on the Arlington property by the vendors includes surface reconnaissance rock chip and grab sampling, several phases of soil sampling and targeted VLF and surface magnetic geophysical surveys over the resulting geochemical anomalies. Sampling successfully confirmed the high-grade nature of the known mineral occurrences in the northern claims, returning strongly anomalous gold, silver and copper results including:
- 11.7g/t Au, 211g/t Ag and 3.22% Cu (grab)
- 6.8g/t Au and 2.0g/t Ag (grab)
- 1.3g/t Au, 31g/t Ag and 1.2% Cu (grab)
Work in the more recently staked southern claims has identified a broad Au-Ag-Cu anomaly, extending approximately 2,000m in a N-S direction and 1,000m in an E-W direction. Gold values range from 15 – 2,300 ppb, with associated anomalous values of As, Bi, Te and As. Targets in this area include gold-enriched epithermal-styled veins and Au/Cu-enriched disseminated to massive magnetite replacement bodies. Historic Au-placer deposits were mined in the main drainage transecting the soil anomaly.
An additional Cu-Mo-Ag soil anomaly was identified just 750m to the northeast of the Au-Ag-Cu anomaly and extends over 500m of strike-length and is open laterally to the northeast. The anomaly is spatially associated with strong argillic alteration in the host lithologies, possibly representing an additional porphyry-related target at depth for further follow-up and exploration.
Figure 3 - Gold and Silver Soil Sampling Results from 2022/3
Figure 4 - Copper and Molybdenum Soil Sampling Results from 2022/23
Exploration Plans for 2024/25
The Arlington property represents an exploration opportunity within an historic mining district with a geological setting and observed styles of mineralization which are geologically analogous to known productive mineral deposits within the region. Recent exploration on the property has greatly expanded its prospectivity with the identification of two new polymetallic surface soil anomalies extending over a 3.0km in cumulative strike length.
Three separate targets have been identified on the property for immediate follow-up:
1. High-grade Au-enriched poly-metallic quartz veins (potentially analogous to veins at the Beaverdell Mine);
2. Au-Cu magnetite skarn deposits (potentially analogous to the Buckhorn Mine); and
3. a Cu-Ag-Mo porphyry system
Initial work on the project by Equity will include detailed soil sampling, geological mapping, prospecting and potentially trenching toward further refinement of the known targets to be followed by initial drilling in 2025.