Work History
Staked as Bar cl 1-2 (Y69420) in Jul/73 by Dick Woodcock and optioned to Baroid of Canada Ltd, which staked Cathy cl 1-6 (Y97235) to the south and east in Feb/75 and Walt and Les cl (Y98238) 1.5 km to the east in Aug/75. Baroid carried out geological mapping and geochemical sampling in 1975 and 1976, added Row cl (YA41656) in Jun/80 to the south covering a road route, and drilled 10 holes (899 m) in 1980.
Cominco restaked the Bar claims as part of a group of 48 Hess claims (YA6595) staked to surround Baroid¿s claims from Sep/76 to Jul/77 and carried out geological mapping and geochemical sampling in 1977 and 1978 and hand trenching in 1981.
The property was restaked as Cathy cl 5-10 (YB09318) in Mar/91 by J. Coyne. In 1993 Coyne carried out geological mapping, prospecting and bulk sampling and tied on Ard cl 1-6 (YB22563) to the south in Sep/93 and completed a geological compilation and mineral inventory review in 1999.
In Nov/97 NDU Resources Ltd staked Walt cl 1-58 and 60-77 (YC00173) to surround the Cathy claims on three sides and to cover prospective stratigraphy along strike to the west (Minfile Occurrence #105O 022). In Mar/98, NDU merged with United Keno Hill Mines Ltd. Expatriate Resources Ltd carried out geological mapping, grid soil geochemical sampling and hand trenching of the claims later that year under an option agreement with NDU which transferred to United Keno Hill. In Sep/98 Expatriate staked Walt cl 78-81 (YC01581) contiguously to the north and in Oct/98 the company purchased a 100% interest in the claims from United Keno Hill.
Capsule Geology
Small barite zones occur in faulted slices of Devonian to Mississippian Earn Group shale thrust over Ordovician to Lower Devonian Road River Formation sediments. The barite zones form part of a stratabound, sheet-like body up to 60 m thick and 2 km long, which is zoned from a brecciated barium carbonate core outward to massive barium carbonate, massive barite and laminated barite. The 1980 drilling outlined an inferred resource of 450,000 tonnes of commercial grade barite (with a specific gravity over 4.25) in the main Cathy zone (central occurrence), which is up to 30 m thick and 150 m long. This figure was verified in 2000 and was classified as an inferred resource according to the 1996 CIM definitions in use at the time.
Cominco¿s trenching of Hess cl 61 exposed laminated witherite containing minor disseminated sphalerite, galena and tetrahedrite. The best of eight chip samples assayed 3.0% Pb, 2.2% Zn, 430 ppm Cu and 83 ppm Ag and 4.2% Pb, 1.1% Zn, 273 ppm Cu and 122 ppm Ag.
A 160 kg bulk sample of barite taken in 1993 yielded a weighted average specific gravity of 4.19.
Expatriate¿s sampling and trenching in 1998 defined four main areas of highly anomalous zinc occurring over 8 km of strike length across the property. Two of these areas are proximally related to this occurrence; Area 3 is located 0.5 km southwest of location marker 021A and Area 4 corresponds to location marker 021B. The other two areas occur further to the west and are part of Minfile Occurrence #105O 022.
All of the areas are found within the Portrait Lake Formation of the Early to Middle Devonian Lower Earn Group. Soil sampling returned peak geochemical values of 2.33% Zn, >10 000 ppm Ba, 962 ppm As, 2 240 ppm Pb and 587 ppm Cu. Chip sampling of the trenches returned peak values of 11.4% Zn, >10 000 ppm Ba and 4 130 ppm Ni. The high Zn and Ni values were returned from weathered barium carbonate rich rock and are attributed to smithsonite, as no obvious sulfide mineralization was detected during trenching.
References
BAROID OF CANADA LTD, Feb/76. Assessment Report #090072 by L.M. Tyrala, D.B. Simon and W.B. Sasser.
BAROID OF CANADA LTD, Jun/77. Assessment Report #090206 by D.B. Simon and B. Johnson.
BAROID OF CANADA LTD, Mar/81. Assessment Report #090768 by T. Jenkins.
BAROID OF CANADA LTD, Aug/81. Assessment Report #090907 by T. Jenkins.
COMINCO LTD, Sep/77. Assessment Report #090243 by R.J. Sharp.
COYNE, J., Feb/94. Assessment Report #093179 by J.A. vanRanden.
COYNE, J., Mar/2000. Assessment Report #094084 by G.D. Keller.
EXPATRIATE RESOURCES LTD, May/99. Assessment Report #094017 by R.F. Gish.
MINERAL INDUSTRY REPORT, 1975, p. 29-30; 1976, p. 117; 1977, p. 35.
TURNER, R.J., and GOODFELLOW, W., 1990. Barium carbonate bodies associated with the Walt (Cathy) stratiform barium deposit, Selwyn Basin, Yukon: a possible vent complex associated with a Middle Devonian sedimentary exhalative barite deposit. In: Current Research, Part E, Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 90-IE, p. 309-319.
YUKON GEOLOGY AND EXPLORATION 1979-80, p. 216-217.
YUKON EXPLORATION AND GEOLOGY 1981, p. 174.
