Regional Geology

The Referendum Property lies within the Kootenay Arc, in a sequence of volcanic and sedimentary strata (Rossland Group), which have been intruded by several stocks and apophyses of the Nelson Batholith.

The Rossland Group (Hoy and Andrew, 1988) comprises a basal succession of dominantly fine-grained elastic rocks of the Archibald Formation, volcanic rocks of the Elise Formation and overlying elastic rocks of the Hall Formation. The rocks are Early Jurassic in age, bracketed by Sinemurian fossils in the Archibald and Pliensbachian and Toarcian fossils in the Hall.

The Ymir Group underlies the Elise Formation in the Nelson area. Based on lithologic similarity and superposition, the upper part of the Ymir Group is correlated with the Archibald Formation, and its lower part with the late Triassic Slocan Group exposed on the north side of the Nelson Batholith.

The Rossla. nd and Ymir Groups are intruded by numerous small stocks that are probably correlative with the Middle to Late Jurassic Nelson Batholith, by many Tertiary rhyolite and lamprophyre dykes, and by Coryell alkalic intrusions of Eocene age.

Property And Economic Geology

Mapping provided by Hoy and Dunn shows that the Referendum Property is underlain by rocks of the Early Jurassic Elise Formation comprised of mafic flows, pyroclastic breccias and mafic to intermediate tuffs. Several exposures of mid to early Jurassic Nelson Intrusions are located in the area of the property, comprised of porphyritic granite, granodiorite, quartz monzonite, tonalite, minor diorite, porphyry and breccia.

The area of interest covered in this report contains abundant outcrop exposures within the forested areas, and along logging access roads. The majority of exposures are lithic tuff, comprised of 1 or 2 cm rounded fragments, to lapilli of greater than 10 cm. The rocks are generally propyllitic altered to a greenish colour. Mapping conducted in 2005 is shown on Figure 4.

The main outcropping of interest, located central to the area worked in 2005, is comprised of sheared feldspar-quartz porphyry. This outcrop has very similar characteristics to Jurassic Silver King intrusive rocks mapped further to the northeast of the property. The outcrop contains approximately 4% copper and is highly malachite stained. Thin section analysis show that the rock contains up to 1% bornite (see attached study in appendices). The outcrop indicates a possible strike of the porphyritic Silver King rocks of 125 ° with dip of 68° west.

Several chloritic zones of highly cleaved shearing trend at approximately 120 ° to 130° along the hillside through the area of interest. These zones are shown to contain various amounts of malachite staining. Samples of malachite stained chloritic sheared volcanic returned values of up to 1.3 % copper.

Geochemistry

In 2005, Acrex conducted a program of soil sampling over the area where results were provided from the work completed by Formosa from 1988 to 1990. Several lines were designed to overlap the Formosa survey in order to verify their results. Rock samples were obtained within the grid area from outcrop exposures of interest. Other areas of survey were conducted to extend the soil geochemical results and to infill areas of interest. Procedures and results from soil and rock sampling are discussed below. A total of 136 soil samples and 22 rock samples were obtained from the grid area.

Soil Sampling Procedure

Soil samples were taken from the '13' soil horizon whenever possible, and were collected using a mattock or shovel. Sample sites were labelled with fluorescent flagging with the station number recorded on it, and soil was placed in correspondingly labelled Kraft soil bags. These samples were then shipped to ACME Labs Ltd. in Vancouver for analyses. In the laboratory, samples were dried, sieved to —80 mesh and the fine fraction analyzed for gold by the wet geochemistry method and for 30 elements by the ICP method.  

Soil Sample Results

Figure 3 shows the location of the 2005 soil and rock sampling program, and has been compiled with the results of previous soil sample surveys on Figures 5 to 7. The maps provide grid location, as well as contoured copper, gold, and silver values.

Results of soil geochemical analysis indicates that the area of interest, surrounding the Silver King intrusive outcropping containing high percentage malachite staining, is within an area of elevated copper in soil geochemistry. Several elongate lobes of higher values of copper in soil are evident from the survey results. These lobes occur along the east facing slopes on the property, and may be related to a source that strikes for a minimum distance of approximately 2 kilometres north-south through the area of the grid.

The silver value plot indicates that there may be an aureole of slightly elevated silver in soils surrounding the copper features. The gold plot indicates that there are weakly elevated values in the range of 40 to 50 ppb in soils throughout the area of the grid.

Rock Sampling Procedures and Results

At total of 22 rock chip or grab samples were collected during the 2005 exploration program. Chip samples are continuous samples collected perpendicular to bedding or mineralized structures. Each sample consists of numerous 2 to 3 centimetre rock chips. In areas where chip samples could no be collected, grab samples were taken. Grab samples consist of 2 or 3 fist sized rock pieces representing a certain lithology or mineralization type. All sample sites were marked with flagging marked with the sample number. Rock chip samples were placed in poly bags labelled with the corresponding sample number and were shipped _to ACME Labs Ltd. in Vancouver for analyses. In the laboratory, samples were crushed to minus 200 mesh and fire assayed for gold, plus geochemically analyzed for 32 additional elements by the ICP method.

Table II summarizes the results of the rock sampling program. Rock ample locations are shown on Figures 3 and 4.

Table II - Rock Sample Results