Location
The road accessible Dewdney Trail Property is located 30 km northeast of Cranbrook, British Columbia and covers more than 10,000 hectares (100 Km²) over a 15 km strike length of favourable geology with gold, copper, cobalt, zinc, lead and/or silver deposit potential.
History
IIn 1864, placer gold was discovered in Wildhorse Creek and started a gold rush to the Cranbrook area. Anecdotal information suggests at least 1.5 million ounces (46.7 million grams) of gold have been recovered from the creek; however, no corresponding lode gold deposits of any size have been discovered in the rock, suggesting the Wildhorse Creek Area has undeveloped potential for gold deposits. The Dewdney Trail Property is located upstream from placer deposits in Wildhorse Creek and may host the source of the placer gold.
Since 2010, PJX has consolidated 100% ownership of the mineral rights to claims comprising the Dewdney Trail Property.
In December 2010, RIT Minerals Corp. completed a 43-101 Technical Report (the “43-101”) on the Dewdney Trail Property for the PJX. A copy of the Technical Report was filed on SEDAR in 2011 and is available in the Company’s filings on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).
PJX has since compiled historical data and infilled data gaps with prospecting, mapping, geochem soil, silt and rock sampling, geophysics, and targeted trenching and drilling to help identify the most promising areas to host potential gold and base metal (copper, cobalt, zinc, lead) deposits.
In 2021, PJX optioned the right to acquire a 100% interest in the historical Estella Mine from Imperial Metals over a 5-year period. The Estella Mine closed in the 1960s. The mine produced zinc, lead and silver in concentrate from a vein. The small Estella Mine Property is located within the outer boundary of PJX’s large Dewdney Trail Property.

Exploration Potential
Exploration has identified 3 target areas with the potential to host large deposits.
• Estella Bains target area - intrusive related gold-copper-silver-molybdenum deposit potential.
• Lewis Ridge target area - Sullivan type (zinc, lead, silver), and/or Black Butte or Mt. Isa copper-cobalt deposit potential.
• Tackle Basin target area - Orogenic and/or intrusive related gold deposit potential.
Property map shows PJX’s target areas in the Sullivan Mining District and Vulcan Gold Belt, including Estella Basin, Lewis Ridge and Tackle Basin.
Dewdney Trail target areas all occur within the hinge and/or limb of a large regional north-south oriented overturned anticline fold structure.
Mineralization also occurs in sediments similar in age (Proterozoic) and/or type (turbidites, quartzites) to other deposits such as Telfer, and Sukoi-log.
Sediments have been intruded by felsic intrusives (syenite/alkalic) possibly similar in age (Cretaceous to possibly Eocene) to deposits such as Pebble in Alaska or the Butte mining district in Montana.
PJX contracted Expert Geophysics to fly an 895 km airborne survey with a tight flight-line spacing of 100m to be able to identify and define shallow and deep targets across the entire Dewdney Trail Property. The survey has helped identify numerous potential intrusive related and sediment hosted type deposit targets to test.
Estella Basin, Lewis Ridge and Tackle Basin Target Areas
Estella Basin target area (approximately 2.5 km x 3 km). Possible magmatic center with multiple phases of porphyritic syenitic/alkalic intrusions that are believed to be Cretaceous to possibly Eocene in age.
• Gold, silver, and copper mineralization occur in multi-phased, variably altered, and veined syenitic/alkalic porphyritic intrusions. • Vancouver Petrographic (Van Petro) analyzed thin and polished sections of porphyritic intrusions (syenite to granodioritic porphyries, felsitic rhyolite, trachylatite), breccias, meta-sediments, carbonates, plus quartz-filled veins from the Estella Basin. • Van Petro determined that typical porphyry deposit alteration assemblages (Ca-Mg-Fe-carbonates, pyrite, epidote, sericite, chlorite) as well as disseminated and vein copper minerals were identified and are similar to those that characterize alkalic porphyry copper-gold deposits. • Photo A is of an intrusive phase containing disseminated pyrite and chalcopyrite in the groundmass. A separate grab sample (numbered MS22-57) of this intrusive phase with quartz veining analyzed 6.9 g/t gold, 447 g/t silver and 1.108% copper (Estella Basin Geology Map and Table 1) • Hydrothermal breccias occur throughout the basin Photos B to D. Three grab samples from the margin of a brecciated and quartz flooded area contained 8.79 %, 3.35 %, and 2.01% copper (see Table 2). • Geophysical airborne survey has identified magnetic highs and donut shaped magnetic anomalies that are known to be geophysical signatures for intrusion related, such as porphyry, copper-gold type deposits (Figure 1). • Ring features (5 km across) in airborne magnetic and Mobile-MT (EM) surveys outline the possible margins of collapsed plutons at depth. Copper-gold porphyry type deposits are known to occur along pluton margins. (Figures 2, 3) • Gold, copper, silver, molybdenum, arsenic and other elements occur in soils in vicinity of mapped intrusions and magnetic anomalies (Figures 4-9).
Erosion has only exposed part of the tops of the intrusions (photo E). Therefore, there is potential for deposits to occur near surface and at depth as they would not have been eroded.
Cluster of differentiated intrusions occur for more than 600 metres along strike (photo E).
Gold, copper and silver mineralization occur with alkalic intrusions that have characteristics somewhat similar to calc-alkalic systems, such as copper-gold-silver mineralization at the top of the system and the presence of breccias. (see Sillitoe calc-alkalic model, 2010, with relative locations of rocks in photos A, B, C, D).
Estella Basin is part of the Sullivan Mining District that has geological similarities to other intrusion related copper-gold mining districts, such as the Butte and Bingham Canyon districts located to the south in Montana and Utah, respectively.
• All 3 districts occur along continental scale transverse structures, the Uinta arch/lineament at Bingham Canyon, Great Falls tectonic zone at Butte, and the Vulcan tectonic zone at the Sullivan District (see Regional Geology and Deposits Map with Sullivan and Butte Mining Districts) • Sulphide rich Proterozoic age sediments in the Butte mining district are similar to the Estella Basin and across the Dewdney Trail property. Proterozoic sediments are also considered to occur at depth beneath Bingham Canyon. • Sulphide mineralization in sediments can provide a source of sulfur to assist with the formation of copper, gold, silver, and other mineralization in the intrusives. • Silty carbonate sediments on the Dewdney Trail property may be good host rocks for the formation of potential gold, copper, zinc, lead, and/or silver skarn, CRD, or other deposit types that can occur proximal to magmatic centers. • Proterozoic age gabbro sills in the area may form impermeable rock layers (aquitards) which can help enrich copper, gold, silver, and other mineralization by impeding and concentrating rising fluids that transport the metals.
Drilling is required to test mineralization in the mapped intrusions, breccias, and magnetic anomalies near surface and at depth.
Lewis Ridge target area (approximately 3 km x 2 km) Potential sediment hosted massive sulphide mineralization (zinc-lead-silver and/or copper-cobalt)
Four holes were drilled late in 2022 to test airborne Mobile-MT (EM) and Magnetic anomalies. (see Leapfrog models of geophysics and geology)
• Hole LR22-02 intersected massive sulphide mineralization consisting of fine to coarse grained pyrite that has a somewhat net-textured appearance and is fractured or brecciated possibly due to folding (Lewis Ridge Photo A). • The 1.42 m wide (drill width) zone with 60% massive sulphide in quartz-dolomite gangue was intersected from 125.87m to 127.29 m down hole, and analyzed 644 ppm (0.06%) Co, 819 ppm (0.08%) Cu, 144 ppm Ni and 2.66 ppm (2.6 g/t) Ag. • Massive sulphide and overlying locally graphitic and/or calcareous sediments are conductive.
Mineralization appears somewhat conformable with sediments that are Proterozoic in age possibly similar to Black Butte copper-cobalt deposit in Montana and possibly similar to copper mineralization with cobalt at Mt. Isa in Australia.
Lewis Ridge and Black Butte massive sulphide mineralization both occur;
•as pyrite mineralization containing Co, Cu, with anomalous Ni and Ag in quartz dolomite gangue, • with Proterozoic age black to grey locally calcareous silts or shale, • in shallow water environment on the east side of the Belt-Purcell rift basin, and • with east-west oriented transverse basin faults,
Large airborne EM conductivity anomaly and magnetic anomalies occur along a 3 km trend with gold, copper, silver, arsenic, zinc, lead, bismuth and molybdenum soil anomalies.
More drilling is needed to test targets near surface and at depth along the large overturned anticline fold.
Video 1 and Video 2 showing the Lewis Ridge location can be found on PJX’s web site.
Tackle Basin target area (approximately 2 km x 2 km)
Orogenic and/or intrusive related gold deposit potential.
Gold is the dominant element in soils in the Tackle Basin area. (see geology maps with various soil analyses).
Tackle Basin is located in the headwaters of the Wildhorse placer gold creek. It is a large basin with placer gold in the creeks draining the basin.
One favourable gold bearing quartzite-argillite unit ranges from 75 to over 200 m true width. Gold occurs with quartz veins or quartz stockwork zones and silica, sericite and carbonate alteration in the sedimentary unit.
Next Steps
Two new potential deposit types were identified by exploration during 2022.
•Sediment hosted copper-cobalt at Lewis Ridge target area. •Intrusive related gold-copper-silver at Estella Basin target area.
Geological mapping, geochem sampling, and airborne geophysical surveys have defined over 10 km with deposit potential.
Next steps will be to explore and test the drill ready Estella Basin and Lewis Rudge targets, and advance the Tackle Basin and other targets to a drill ready stage.