Orientation Geochemical Survey over the Jake Gold Prospect , Clearwater ( NTS 092

Min eral de pos its in Brit ish Co lum bia usu ally have a com plex sur face geo chem i cal ex pres sion re flect ing bed rock ge ol ogy, the style of min er al iza tion, the type of surficial sed i ment and char ac ter is tics of the sec ond ary en vi ron ment such as drain age, to pog ra phy and cli mate. Ori en ta tion sur veys are there fore nec es sary to as sess how these fac tors con trol el e ment dis per sion. Past case his to ries have shown lo cal i ties where geo chem i cal sur veys may have been un able to de tect min er al iza tion be cause the in flu ence of the near-sur face en vi ron ment on el e ment mi gra tion was not fully ap pre ci ated. For ex am ple, at a min eral prop erty on Van cou ver Is land, the high clay con tent of a con sol i dated till in hib ited Cu and Zn dis per sion in B-ho ri zon soil from bur ied sul phide min er al iza tion, giv ing rise to a spo radic pat tern of B-ho ri zon soil anom a lies which were un re lated to the bed rock source. How ever, more co her ent Cu and Zn B-ho ri zon soil anom a lies were formed over a more per me able till (Smee, 1987). An ori en ta tion geo chem i cal survey was carried out by the authors in 2006 in an area west of Clearwater, BC, around the Jake prospect, to identify • the main types of gla cial sed i ment and their dis tri bu tion, • geo chem i cal sam ple me dia most suit able for de tect ing min er al iza tion, and • the source of re gional stream sed i ment – wa ter geo chem i cal anom a lies.