The Cap prospect is a silver-rich, barite-dominated system that contains locally elevated concentrations of zinc, lead, and gold. Base and precious metal mineralization is hosted within veined and brecciated, intensely quartz-sericite-pyrite (“QSP”) altered basalt, which is crowded with amygdules.  The basalt is capped by a bed of massive pyritic barite, hence the name of the prospect.  Mineralized seams, veins and layers (0.1 - 4.2 m thick) of massive barite +/- chert, and massive to semi-massive pyrite occur throughout the section of QSP-altered basalt.  The veins and the matrix to the breccia within QSP-altered rocks consists primarily of barite, quartz, pyrite, and sericite.  The veins commonly have irregular, ‘wormy’ forms, and they are typically zoned, with pyritic margins and quartz-barite cores.  Sulphide minerals include pyrite, sphalerite, and galena, as well as acanthite/argentite, with possible pyrargyrite inclusions.  There is a positive correlation between metal values and barium concentration. Highlights of the four holes drilled at the Cap prospect are listed in Table 4.  Within the core of the QSP-alteration zone at the Cap prospect, the basalt is completely replaced by quartz, sericite, and pyrite, and the amygdules remain the only identifiable primary texture left in the rock.  Amygdules are filled with quartz and also contain minor barite and sericite.  Locally, the amygdules are cored by sphalerite and galena.  Drillhole data indicates that the pervasive QSP alteration has a thickness of at least 110 m, and it appears to grade at depth into rocks containing chlorite, sericite, calcite, pyrite, epidote and magnetite.

The size, longevity and intensity of the alteration zone at the Cap prospect, and the common occurrence of precious metal-rich barite lenses along the flanks of other massive sulphide ore bodies suggests that the prospect may be on the margin of a large massive sulphide system.  Both surface and drill data suggest that the hydrothermal system is diminishing in strength along strike to the northeast, but down-dip (northwest) and to the southwest (below the ice) it maintains its intensity and remains untested.

Drill hole highlights from the Cap Prospect.
True widths are interpreted to be 90% to 100% of reported widths. 

CAP PROSPECT