Work History

Staked as Gal cl 1-20 (72679) in Aug/56 by Prospectors Airways Company Ltd, which carried out soil sampling, ground magnetometer and EM surveying and drilled one (10 m) packsack hole. 
Restaked in Nov/63 as Rose cl 1-32 (85623) by Dickson Yukon Syndicate (Faraday Uranium Mines Ltd, Homestake Mining Company Ltd, Union Carbide, U.S.S. & R, Violomac Mines Ltd, and T. Lindsley), which carried out only preliminary surveying. Immediately restaked in Dec/64 as Faro cl 1-36 (91467) by Dynasty Exploration Ltd, which carried out airborne and ground magnetometer and EM surveying, soil sampling and gravity surveying before entering a joint venture with Cyprus Exploration Ltd in Mar/65. The Faro ore body was discovered as soon as drilling started in Jun/65 and was transferred to a new company, Anvil Mining Corporation Ltd. By Feb/67, 89 holes (13 069 m) had been drilled and a feasibility study had been completed. 
Mill tune-up commenced in Aug/69 at 4 990 tonnes/day and was gradually expanded to 9 072 tonnes/day in 1975, when the company reorganized as Cyprus Anvil Mining Corporation. A total of 32.8 million tonnes grading 5.48% Zn, 3.60% Pb and about 32 g/t Ag were milled to the end of 1982. Gold production averaged 131 042 grams per year from 1978 to 1981, while the No. 2 Zone was being mined. Control of Cyprus Anvil was acquired from Cyprus Mines Corporation by Standard Oil of Indiana Ltd in 1979 but the transfer of ownership was blocked by the Foreign Investment Review Act and it was eventually sold to Hudson's Bay Oil and Gas Ltd in Jul/81, and to Dome Petroleum Ltd in Dec/81. Production was suspended indefinitely in Jun/82 because of low metal prices. At the time, production was shifting from the No. 1 to the No. 3 Zone and a major mill modification was just nearing completion. 
During 1983, Dome and the federal government embarked on a two year $50 million stripping program to prepare the No. 3 Zone for production. ln addition, 21 holes (2 751.4 m) were drilled in 1983 and another 22 holes (4 267.2 m) in 1984 to define the limits of the No. 3 Zone. 
In Nov/85 Dome's interest was acquired by Curragh Resources Ltd in a complex sale including grants and concessions from both the Federal and Territorial governments. Waste rock stripping began in Jan/86 and the mill was restarted in Jun/86 at 5 500 tonnes per day, increasing to 12 300 tonnes/day in 1987. Production totalled 6 483 000 tonnes at an average recoverable grade of 3.67% Zn, 2.31% Pb and 19.0 g/t Ag in 1986 and 1987. During 1988, a haul road was constructed to connect the Faro mill to the Vangorda Plateau deposits. Production in 1988 was 4.1 million tonnes containing 149.3 million kg Pb, 200.9 million kg of Zn and 214 million g Ag. 
Detailed exploration immediately northwest of the Faro mine included 1:5 000 scale mapping in 1988 and 4 diamond drillholes (1 123.8 m) and borehole Pulse EM surveying in 1989. 
Production in 1989 was 4.4 million tonnes containing 108.1 million kg Pb, 176.8 million kg Zn and 95.4 million g Ag. A decline was completed in 1989, and a small southwest extension of the deposit was mined by room and pillar underground methods in 1990 and 1991. Production from both open pit and underground workings in 1990 was 4.3 million tonnes containing 116.6 million kg Pb, 117.6 million kg Zn and 98.5 million g Ag. 
As a result of a 10 week strike in spring, 1991 production from the Faro and Vangorda deposits dropped to 2.2 million tonnes, containing 95.9 million kg Pb and 142.1 million kg Zn. Curragh's production shifted almost entirely to the Vangorda deposit in 1992, although underground operations in the Faro pit continued until year end. Stripping operations exposed the tip of the Grum orebody late in the year. Curragh's Faro operations were shut down in April, 1993 due largely to low metal prices, and the company went into receivership following a disaster at its Westray Coal mine in Nova Scotia. 
In Nov/94 Anvil Range Mining Corporation acquired all claims owned by Curragh following the bankruptcy of the latter. Anvil later resumed production by mining first the Vangorda and later the Grum deposits. During Aug & Sep/96 the company drilled eight groundwater monitoring holes: four on the Intermediate tailings dam: one on the Second Embankment tailings dam and two on the Faro rock dump, to monitor groundwater quality down gradient of the waste rock dumps and tailings. 
In Jan/98 Anvil filed for court protection from creditors and in Apr/98 a receiver was appointed to handle the company¿s assets and maintain the mine site. Anvil Range was delisted in Jan/99. 
Please see Minfile Occurrences #105K 055 and 056 for further information.

Capsule Geology

This is one of five major synsedimentary, stratiform lead-zinc-silver deposits which occur in an arcuate belt along the south flank of the Anvil Batholith. They are distributed through a 150 m thick stratigraphic interval which straddles the boundary between non-calcareous phyllite and schist of the Lower Cambrian Mount Mye formation and calcareous phyllite and calc-silicate of the Cambrian to Ordovician Vangorda formation. Some of the sulphide lenses appear to be laterally equivalent to a discontinuous carbonaceous unit which marks the base of the Vangorda formation. The deposits are considered to be submarine exhalites formed from hot metalliferous brines discharging through sea floor fumaroles along a synsedimentary fault related to lower Cambrian extensional tectonism (Pigage, 1990). Before mining, the Faro deposit contained initial geological reserves of 57.6 million tonnes grading 3.4% Pb, 4.7% Zn and 36 g/t Ag using a 4% Pb + Zn cutoff. It has dimensions of 2 000 x 800 x 70 m and forms a single, flat-lying, elongated asymmetric lens which tapers toward the southwest. 
The Faro deposit lies approximately 100 m beneath the Mount Mye-Vangorda contact. Of all the Anvil area deposits, the Faro orebody lies closest to the Anvil Batholith, and the Mount Mye formation host rocks are metamorphosed to biotite-andalusite-muscovite schist, while the overlying Vangorda formation is metamorphosed to dense, banded calc-silicate. The presence of pyrrhotite and magnetite at Faro is attributed by Lianxing and McClay to contact metamorphism of the orebody. 
Mineralization consists of (in decreasing order of abundance): pyrite, sphalerite, galena, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite and marcasite, with patchy barite and traces of tetrahedrite, bournonite and arsenopyrite in a siliceous gangue. The upper part of the Faro deposit is higher grade and baritic. The lower and outer parts are lower grade, quartzose and variably carbonaceous. The same zoning is evident in plan, with a transition from high grade baritic massive sulphides in the northwest to low grade carbonaceous quartzose ore in the southeast. The deposit is surrounded by concentric envelopes of bleaching and silicification, and quartz-muscovite-plagioclase alteration, which affect both the hanging wall and footwall rocks. 
Because of its proximity to the Anvil Batholith and the high metamorphic grade, the gold content at Faro is low compared to the other deposits. The Faro deposit has been subjected to complex polyphase deformation and occurs on the upper limb of a northeast-verging Z-shaped fold. The central part of the orebody is downdropped by several extensional faults which form a graben. 
Despite an average 16.8 m of overburden and 152 m of cap rock, the Faro deposit was clearly outlined by a gravity survey, and by lead and zinc soil anomalies both in the volcanic ash layer and in the B horizon. Magnetic and EM surveys were difficult to interpret due to interference from greenstone sills. 
The 1989 drillholes immediately northwest of the Faro pit were unmineralized and intersected an unexpectedly high concentration of porphyry dykes, and the batholith was encountered at a shallow depth beneath the metasedimentary rocks. 
By the end of 1992 the Faro deposit was essentially mined out. The Faro pit was later used as a tailings storage facility.

References

AHO, A.E., 1966. Exploration in Anvil-Vangorda District. Western Miner, Apr/66, 
p. 127-148. 

ANVIL MINING CORPORATION LTD, 1966. Assessment Report *#062062 by B. Mackenzie. 

ANVIL MINING CORPORATION LTD, 1966. Assessment Report *#018985 by R.S. Adamson. 

ANVIL MINING CORPORATION LTD, 1966. Assessment Report *#091235 by D.W. Tully. 

ANVIL MINING CORPORATION LTD, 1966. Assessment Report *#091236 by R.E. Thurmond. 

ANVIL MINING CORPORATION LTD, 1966. Assessment Report *#091237 by R.S. Adamson. 

ANVIL MINING CORPORATION LTD, Nov/67. Assessment Report *#091238 by M.G. Grant. 

ANVIL MINING CORPORATION LTD, 1967. Assessment Report *#062222 by M. Lewis. 

ANVIL MINING CORPORATION LTD, 1967. Assessment Report *#062223 by B. Mackenzie. 

ANVIL MINING CORPORATION LTD, 1974. Assessment Report *#062010 by J.L. Lennon. 

ANVIL MINING CORPORATION LTD, Feb/75. Assessment Report *#091239 by D.S. Jennings. 

ANVIL RANGE MINING CORPORATION, 1996. Annual Information form (availabile on SEDAR website). 

ANVIL RANGE MINING CORPORATION, Apr/97. Assessment Report #093636 by C. Wels. 

BROCK, J.S., 1973. Geophysical Exploration Leading to Discovery of the Faro Deposit. C.I.M. Bull, Oct/73, p. 97-116. 

CBC NEWS, May 2, 1994. 

CURRAGH RESOURCES CORPORATION, 1985. Assessment Report *#062224 by n/a. 

CURRAGH RESOURCES INC, Dec/88. Assessment Report #092597 by L.C. Pigage. 

CURRAGH RESOURCES INC, Jul/89. Assessment Report *#092737 by J.C. Nyberg. 

CURRAGH RESOURCES INC, Sep/90. Assessment Report #092872 by L.C. Pigage. 

CYPRUS ANVIL MINING CORPORATION, 1974. Assessment Report *#062006 by J.C. Taylor and J.H. Reimers. 

CYPRUS ANVIL MINING CORPORATION, 1976. Assessment Report *#090161 by P.E. Walcott. 

CYPRUS ANVIL MINING CORPORATION, Sep/79. Assessment Report *#091240 by J.G. Simpson and D.S. Jennings. 

CYPRUS ANVIL MINING CORPORATION, Apr/80. Assessment Report *#090941 by E.N. Pennebaker. 

CYPRUS ANVIL MINING CORPORATION, 1981. Assessment Report *#090795 by J.W. Mustard. 

CYPRUS ANVIL MINING CORPORATION, Feb/84. Assessment Report *#091516 by R.S. Tolbert. 

CYPRUS ANVIL MINING CORPORATION, Feb/85. Assessment Report *#091610 by R.S. Tolbert. 

DYNASTY EXPLORATION LTD, Dec. 64. Prospectus report by D.D. Campbell. 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA, Bulletin 208, p. 49-65. 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA, Paper 65-19, p. 38; Paper 67-40, p. 12-14; Paper 68-1, Part A, p. 43-52. 

GU LIANXING and MCCLAY, K.R., 1992. Mineralium Deposita, Vol. 27, p. 169-181. 

JENNINGS, D.S., et al, 1979. Anvil Range Stratigraphy. Talk presented at 7th Geoscience Conference, Whitehorse. 

JENNINGS, D.S. and JILSON, G.A., (1986). Geology and sulphide deposits of Anvil Range, Yukon. In: Mineral Deposits of Northern Cordillera, J.A. Morin (ed.), Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Special Volume 37, p. 319-381. 

MINERAL INDUSTRY REPORT, 1974, p. 128-129; 1975, p. 115-116; 1976, p. 156-157 

NORTHERN MINER, 12 Mar/90; 28 Jan/91; 15 Apr/91; 6 Apr/92; 31 May/93; 28 Nov/94; 22 Mar/95. 

PIGAGE, L.C., 1990. Anvil Pb-Zn-Ag District, Yukon Territory, Canada. In: Mineral Deposits of Northern Canadian Cordillera, Yukon & Northeast British Columbia, J.G. Abbott & R.J.W. Turner (eds), 8th Annual IAGOD Symposium, Field Trip NO. 14 Guidebook, p. 203-308. 

PIGAGE, L.C., 2001. Geological map of Mount Mye (NTS 105K/6 W), central Yukon (1:25 000 scale). Exploration and Geological Services Division, Yukon Region, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Open File 2001-28. 

TEMPELMAN-KLUIT, D.J., 1970. The Relationship between Sulphide Grain Size and Metamorphic Grade, etc. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, Oct/70, p. 1339-1345. 

TENTH COMMONWEALTH MINING & METALLURGICAL CONGRESS, Sep/74. Guidebook, Section V, Article C, p. 19. 

WHITEHORSE STAR, 15 Nov/91; 13 Jul/92; 5 Jun/95; 16 Jun/95; 21 Jun/95; 27 Jun/95; 14 Aug/95; 16 Aug/95. 

YUKON EXPLORATION 1987, p. 13-14. 

YUKON EXPLORATION AND GEOLOGY 1981, p. 154; 1982, p. 142-143; 1983, p. 192; 1984 p. 22; 1992, p. 1; 1994, p. 2. 

YUKON MINING AND EXPLORATION OVERVIEW 1983, p. 13-14. 

YUKON NEWS, 5 Mar/93; 10 Sept/93.

 

Assessment Reports that overlap occurrence