Reviewed by Mila PereraOct 27 2022
Westhaven Gold Corp. has announced the commencement of drilling at its 2,784-hectare Skoonka Creek Gold Property in British Columbia’s prospective Spences Bridge Gold Belt (SBGB).
Westhaven Property Map. Image Credit: Westhaven Gold Corp.
The Skoonka Creek property is located in south-central British Columbia, roughly 10 km north of the Trans-Canada Highway, between the cities of Lytton and Spences Bridge. Drilling from 2005 to 2007 yielded significant gold intersections from several epithermal gold sites. Here are two historical examples:
JJ Vein System
- 7.48 g/t gold over 4.10 m (SC05-006)
- 26.80 g/t gold over 3.31 m (SC05-007)
- 20.20 g/t gold over 12.80 m (SC05-008)
Deadwood Vein System
- 3.39 g/t gold over 4.67 m (SC07-038)
- 6.43 g/t gold over 1.20 m (SC07-039)
Westhaven’s 2022 drilling on the Skoonka Creek property will be targeting the JJ Vein Zone, one of a number of low sulfidation epithermal vein systems previously drilled by Strongbow Exploration between 2005 and 2007. The JJ Vein Zone comprises a single east-northeast trending quartz vein system that has been traced by drilling over a 750 m strike length.
Peter Fischl, Exploration Manager, Westhaven Gold Corp.
Peter Fischl adds, “This year’s drilling will confirm continuity of the higher-grade portion of the vein in the vicinity of the original JJ showing and step-out to the west to test the zone down-dip from the previous shallow drilling. The JJ West target will be tested as well for the possible southwest extension of the vein zone in a down-faulted block that may have preserved the entire vein zone.”
A magnetic low with coincident high-level pathfinders such as mercury and arsenic on trend with the JJ Vein Zone suggests the zone may have been preserved here at JJ-West.
Peter Fischl, Exploration Manager, Westhaven Gold Corp.
2022 Drill Plan
The initial drill program at Westhaven will include 13 holes (3000 m) targeting the JJ vein system and its probable expansion at JJ-West. Drilling will examine the continuity of bonanza-style gold mineralization by shallowly infilling the eastern JJ high-grade shoot. It will also investigate deeper facets of the known JJ structure, signs of a second underlying zone, and JJ West.
The JJ vein system consists of two major quartz veins (traced on the surface for 175 m) located inside an alteration envelope ranging in thickness from 4 to 20 m. Earlier drillings examined the zone along a 750 m strike length and to a depth of 250 m locally.
Further soil monitoring, rock sampling, and prospecting 900 m southwest of JJ have shown anomalous pathfinder elements and quartz veining in float and outcrop in a region known as JJ-West. The high-level pathfinders at JJ-West correlate with an airborne magnetic low of comparable amplitude and strike directly from the JJ vein zone.
These findings point to a probable continuation of the JJ vein system in a down-dropped fault block that might have retained the upper sections of a gold-silver epithermal system.
Additional Targets for Follow-Up
On the Skoonka Creek property, additional targets of possible interest include well-defined soil anomalies, undrilled gold/silver mineralization in outcrop, linear aerial and ground geophysical features striking parallel to the JJ vein system zone, and the potential extension of JJ eastward about 2.5 km under a thin veneer of cover rocks to the as-yet undrilled Bermuda zone.