GOLD HILL
Old reports suggest that from 1864 to the 1930’s the Wild Horse River pay streak produced over 1.5 million troy ounces of gold.However, newspaper interviews conducted in the 1920’s with some of the original placer miners, state that most of the gold recovered from the placer operations on the Wild Horse River was smuggled into the United States where it was sold for higher prices that the British were paying.
Stinger Resources believes it’s claim host the primary source of the gold found in the Wild Hourse River
The Gold Hill Property is an 836 hectare block consisting of 4 continuous mineral claims approximately 25 Km North East of Cranbrook, BC, and 11 Km North East of Fort Steele.
Stinger Resources has 100% ownership of the property that encompasses the majority of the Boulder Creek watershed, which is believed to be the load source for the Wild Horse River Gold Rush.
Fort Steele mining district
In 1864, gold fever struck in the south Kootenays east of Cranbrook, British Columbia as placer gold was discovered in the Wild Horse River. What followed was everything one can imagine from a mining town springing to life on the western frontier. From shoot outs to smuggling schemes, Fort Steele and Fisherville had every element of a wild west gold rush.
As word spread about the bonanza, including the discovery of gold nuggets up to 36 ounces, the Fort Steele Region placer goldfields grew to become the fourth largest in Canada with the Wild Horse River producing more than 1.5 million ounces of gold between 1864 and the 1930’s. The gold was collected from a pay streak approximately 6 km long that began at the confluence of Boulder Creek and the Wild Horse River.
Placer mining on the Wild Horse River and Boulder Creek continues today and the question still remains: “Where did all that placer gold actually come from….where is the lode source?”
After 150 years of placer mining on the Wild Horse River, the mystery of where all that gold originated from still remains unanswered. As the vast majority of the gold was recovered from the 6 km stretch of river immediately below the confluence of Boulder Creek, and placer gold is still being recovered from Boulder Creek itself. It makes logical sense that the primary lode source is located somewhere within the Boulder Creek watershed. The majority of historical gold showings are located within the Stinger boundary.
Even with the significant historic discoveries of bonanza grade lode gold being made in the Boulder Creek drainage, the Gold Hill property has only seen sporadic, intermittent exploration over the last 150 years.
The Big Chief and Gold Hill/Midas are significant mineralized showings and are geologically associated. The property has tremendous potential to host a significant high grade gold/silver deposit.
The first empirical data sets from exploration on gold hill come between 1934 and 1956. All previous exploration had the limitations of the technology available in the late 1800’s and results were largely what you could see visually under a magnifying glass. Between 1934 and 1937 a small exploration program, by a pair of prospectors (Nagel & Myrene) was done on what became the No. 3 Tunnel. A sample taken from the program assayed 587 g/tonne gold. The results caught the attention of CM&S Co. (now part of Teck Resources) and an expanded program was launched in 1937. The results are in the table below.
In summary:
Car Samples- The assay results indicate:
– 13.7 meters of 15.1 g/t Gold, 16.4 g/t Silver and 2.3% Lead
Face Samples- The assay results indicate:
– 6.7 meters of 82.1 g/t Gold, 74.2 g/t Silver and 6.1% Lead
The economics of gold fell out of favor and the property was eventually let go in 1945. In 1950 logging roads were built on the property, which brought with them the return of Nagel and Myrene back to the property, accompanied by a third party identified only as Steve. They stock piled 2-3 tons of material which they intended to sell for a profit. A 4.5 Kg sample was sent off and assayed resulting in 13.7 g/t gold, 41.2 g/t silver and 1.4 % lead. Again, weak prices in the precious metals discourages the group from pursuing the venture further.
Hammond Resources held the property from 1984 to 1996. During that period a small sampling program was conducted, highlighted by sample number RNOC 13, which assayed 23 g/t gold and 1155 g/t silver.
Between 1999-2014 David Javorsky acquired claims encompassing the bulk of the Boulder Creek Watershed. It was then acquired by American Resources in 2015 and spun out into Stinger Resources in 2021.
Very little exploration has been done on the property in the past 50 years. The work done on it in the first half of the century was done with the technology of the time. The property, as outlined in the Geological Report [27,713], contains coarse gold which needs to be screened and assayed for metallics. He goes on to state:
“A good example of the problems of assaying is sample #11654 which ran 0.863 ounces gold per ton. A piece of the same rock labelled Sample #11655 ran 12.9 ounces gold per ton and the plus-140 mesh screen material ran 160.75 ounces gold per ton.
“American Creek Resources might have found the Wild Horse River motherlode on its Gold Hill property.”
-Jillian Clark, Canadian Mining & Energy
2016 Exploration Highlights
American Creek conducted initial mapping and sampling on the property in the summer of 2016. All historic adits were located and assays confirmed historic accounts of elevated gold and silver on the property. During the exploration of the existing adits new gold veins were discovered.
Highlights include:
• Specimens taken from the Guggenheim adit graded up to 25.14 g/t gold.
• A discovery where a fallen tree had exposed a new vein with gold (6.15 g/t), silver, and lead in quartz.
• A 3.71 g/t gold specimen 150 meters upslope of Long Tunnel in the same quartz structure as Long Tunnel.
• A 14.47 g/t gold float specimen in drainage directly below Long Tunnel.
• A discovery upslope from the Middle Adit where a 30cm quartz vein sampled 22.32 g/t gold.
