General Information
Capsule
Work History
Staked in Feb/67 as the Fox cl (Yll8l4) by Boswell River ML, which performed an airborne mag, EM and radiometric survey in 1967, a geochem survey in 1968, and built a tote trail and drilled 16 holes (3126 m) in 1969. Boswell's property was fringe staked in 1969 by Northwest Explorers L (NW cl) & McGregor Telephone & Power Construction CL (Mac cl), both of which performed geochemical surveys that year. The NW group was further investigated during 1971 by Hudson's Bay O & G CL. The Fox group was restaked in Nov/71 by J.B. O'Neill as Habitant cl (Y63891).
Restaked in Jun/75 by R.G. Hilker as Bug cl (Y99583). Tintina Silver ML optioned the property in 1975 and performed mapping and hand trenching in 1976, before entering a joint venture in late 1977 with Amoco Can Pet CL. Amoco enlarged the property and explored with an IP survey in 1978 and 32 holes (21,391 m) in 1978-1982 to earn a 50% interest. Tintina Silver's 50% interest was transferred to Tintina Mines Ltd in Jun/91. Several Bug, SM and Gub cl were transferred to Tintina Mines Ltd in Nov/93. In Aug/93, Amoco Canada Petroleum's 50% interest was purchased by Tintina Mines Ltd. In the summer of 1995 Tintina Silver resampled selected sections of diamond drill core.
In response to a renewed industry focus on molybdenum, Tintina Mines Ltd announced in Apr/2005 that the company intended to proceed with preparation of an application to conduct advanced underground exploration of the deposit.
Capsule Geology
Molybdenite occurs in a quartz stockwork cutting an oval-shaped 1450 x 650 m quartz-monzonite porphyry stock of Late Cretaceous age, which intrudes Paleozoic argillite of the Kootenay terrane (Yukon Tanana terrane, Mortensen 1992). Inferred mineral resources consist of 187,270,000 tonnes grading 0.167% MoS2, at a cut-off grade of 0.10% MoS2.
The initial claims were staked to cover a zone of strong geochemical anomalies in molybdenum, copper, silver and tungsten associated with a prominent pyritic gossan. Background Mo values in the area are 4 ppm Mo. Silts downstream from the gossan contained up to 330 ppm Mo, and anomalous values between 20 and 40 ppm Mo were obtained as far as 1.6 km downstream. Soil sampling outlined concentric haloes of anomalous geochemical values, with a central molybdenum anomaly and peripheral tungsten, fluorine, lead, silver, copper and zinc anomalies.
The 1969 drillholes returned assays of up to 0.1% MoS2 with traces of galena, chalcopyrite and scheelite, but were not deep enough to intersect the main zone of mineralization.
The porphyry stock is complex and multi-stage with a classical concentric alteration pattern and an easterly orientation. It is cut by a barren, post-mineral, quartz-eye diorite stock which also trends east and dips to the south. The mineralized zone is at least 1500 m by 425 m in area, extends to a depth of more than 1125 m and is badly segmented by barren sills and/or dykes associated with the diorite stock. Mo grades are zoned outward around a richer core. Some mineralization extends into the metasedimentary wallrock.
Most of the Amoco drill holes bottomed in mineralization. The best published intersections include Hole 81-24, in which a length of 72.5 m from 849 m to the hole bottom averaged 0.41% MoS2 and Hole 82-29, which averaged 0.16% MoS2 over 339 m (from 33 to 393 m), 0.23% MoS2 over 384 m (435 to 861 m), and 0.32% MoS2 over 96 m (1002 to 1116 m)(all averages excluding barren dykes). Reserves as of Nov/92, as calculated by S.F. Sabag, range between 187.3 million tonnes grading 0.167% MoS2 (using a 0.10% MoS2 cutoff), and 21.3 million tonnes grading 0.293% MoS2 (using a 0.25% cutoff).
Tintina Silver resampled 417 intervals of drill core to investigate whether Red Mountain ore might yield coproduct gold in concentrate and assess the gold distribution within the periphery of the porphyry system, in the Cu enriched zones and in the oxidized cap with a view to directing future underground development into mineralized rather than barren ground.
The results indicate that gold content is inversely related to Mo grade, and does not have preferential distribution related to depth as previously anticipated. Gold concentrations from the copper bearing upper sections of the deposit are equally low as those from its Mo-richer deeper core precluding a gold bearing Cu cap or a Au enriched supergene zone.
Gold does, appear to have an affinity for the periphery of the deposit, particularly its northeast portions near the Quartz Eye Diorite dike and surrounding hornfels wherefrom nearly all of the higher grading data have to date been obtained. Higher grade silver sections (typically in the 5-20 ppm range) also come from holes in the northeast and eastern portions of the deposit, and may be genetically associated with the Quartz Eye Diorite.
Since the northeast portion of the deposit has been designated as the principal entry point for a 3200 m exploration tunnel into the deposit, it was recommended that future work be directed to optimize exploitation of any incidental reserves that might be encountered in this area.
