Work History
Originally discovered in 1930 and staked in 1931 by G. McDade, who explored with trenching and shallow shafts from 1931-1932. Re-staked by W. Teare as Tenderfoot cl (39142) in June 1937 and re-staked as Tenderfoot cl (4208) in November 1940. Teare explored with two shafts (15 m and 11 m deep) and a 16 m adit.
Re-staked as May cl 1-12 and June cl 1-4 (74197) in May 1959 by Conwest Exploration Company Ltd., which carried out trenching that year; staked May cl 13-14 (74218) in June 1959; and drilled 5 holes (410 m) in 1960. Canol Metal Mines Ltd tied on Sno cl 1-24 and North cl 1-16 (74721) in April 1960.
Re-staked as Tinta cl 1-4 (Y10054) in August 1966 by Canex Placer Ltd., which carried out grid soil geochemical sampling, EM geophysical surveying and staked Tinta cl 5-8 (Y20626) in November 1966. The property was optioned to Silgold Mines Ltd. in 1968, which resampled the existing trenches and staked Tinta cl 9-16 (Y24745), Tinta cl 17-18 (Y25329) and Tinta cl 19-26 (Y26024) in May, July and September 1968, respectively. This option was transferred to Coin Canyon Mines Ltd., which carried out geochemical soil sampling and bulldozer trenching from 1969 to 1972.
Optioned in September 1973 by Exeter Mines Ltd., which carried out grid geochemical sampling, EM geophysical surveying and drilled 4 holes (343.2 m) that year; drilled 21 holes (1,341.4 m) in July and August 1974; staked Tinta cl 9, 11-26 (Y76840) in August 1974; changed its name to Tinta Hill Mines Ltd in 1975; and drilled 3 holes (313.6 m) in 1976.
The claims then reverted to Placer Development Ltd. and were optioned in 1979 by a joint venture between Silver Tusk Mines Ltd. and Panther Mines Ltd., which completed 516 m of drifting and crosscutting in the No. 1 Adit in 1980 and 1981, and another 457 m in 1981 in the No. 2 Adit situated 366 m west and 45.7 m lower in elevation than No. 1. Additional trenching was carried out in 1986 by the joint venture and in 1987 by International Consolidated Platinum Ltd. under a separate joint venture agreement.
Mill City Gold Inc. optioned the property and carried out reconnaissance geochemical sampling and prospecting in November 1988 and drilled 8 holes (1,143.6 m) in December 1988. Silver Tusk carried out road work in 1989; trenched in 1991, 1992 and 1994; and staked Tinta cl 9-72 (YA48246) in October 1994.
In November 1998, Midnight Mines Ltd. (B. Harris) began re-staking lapsing sections of the property as various Tinta and Hill claims (YC09166). From 2000 to 2001, Midnight Mines carried out prospecting and geochemical sampling. The company’s acquisition of the property was completed with the re-staking of the last of the original Tinta claims as Tinta cl 1-2 (YC19653) in August 2002 and Tinta cl 11-12 (YC19666) in September 2002. During this period, GPS surveying and mapping of the various roads, drill collars, trenches and underground working present on the property was undertaken and an existing baseline was partially reconstructed. In 2004, Midnight Mines performed rock geochemistry and prospecting.
In 2007, Northern Freegold drilled 12 holes for a total of 2200 m, which confirmed the extension of the vein system at depth and along strike. The company drilled 17 holes for a total of 3807 m in 2008.
A technical report by Fonseca and Giroux dated August 31, 2009 covers all of Northern Freegold's Freegold Mountain property and includes an inferred resource estimate for the Tinta Hill deposit.
Triumph Gold acquired Northern Freegold Resources in 2015 and the property that includes the Tinta Hill occurrence is now termed the Freegold Mountain Project. An updated inferred assessment resource was determined for Tinta Hill in 2015.
Triumph Gold performed magnetic and VLF-EM ground geophysics and soil sampling in 2016; soil sampling and mechanical trenching in 2017; and mechanical trenching in 2019.
Regional & Property Geology
The occurrence partly underlain by Yukon-Tanana Terrane (YTT). The rocks of the YTT in this region consist of Early Mississippian metamorphic rocks separated into meta-sedimentary and meta-igneous suites. The meta-sedimentary suite consists of micaceous quartz-feldspar gneiss, schist and quartzite. The meta-igneous package is comprised of biotite-hornblende feldspar gneiss and coarse-grained granodiorite orthogneiss with lesser amphibolite.
The YTT basement rocks in the area are cut by numerous plutonic and volcanic events from the Mesozoic (Murray & Friend, 2018), including:
1. Early Jurassic Long Lake monzonite and granodiorite plutonic suites;
2. Mid-Cretaceous Mount Nansen Suite andesite to diorite;
3. Mid-Cretaceous Whitehorse granodiorite, quartz monzonite and monzodiorite;
4. Late Cretaceous Casino quartz monzonite;
5. Late Cretaceous Prospector Mountain syenite;
6. Late Cretaceous Carmacks basalt and andesite; and,
7. Quartz feldspar and feldspar hornblende porphyry dykes and plugs.
The major structural feature in the area is the Big Creek Fault with steeply-dipping, northwest-trending dextral faults parallel to the more regional Tintina and Denali faults (AR 097175).
Mineralization & Results
Mineralization consists of northwest-trending, sub-vertical quartz-carbonate veins containing galena and sphalerite with minor tetrahedrite and chalcopyrite. Th emain vein occurs in a vertical shear zone up to 30.5 m wide which cuts Early Jurassic granodiorite to quartz monzonite of the Aishihik/Long Lake Suite. The main vein zone has been characterized discontinuously over 3.5 km along strike with individual veins varying from 0.9 to 1.6 m. Alteration envelopes around veining consists of intense kaolinite extending a few metres and a broader muscovite and illite envelope locally surrounding mineralization (AR 097175).
The Conwest drilling, which explored the vein for a length of 366 m and a depth of 107 m, indicated fairly persistent mineralization over an average width of 1.7 m and as much as 3 m of disseminated pyrite and chalcopyrite in the walls.
The 1973-1974 drilling indicated an average grade of 185.1 g/t Ag, 2.74 g/t Au, 4.7% Pb, 6.0% Zn, 0.4% Cu and 0.05% Cd and showed that higher grade zones are erratically distributed
The No. 1 Adit intersected 94 m of vein grading 6.8 g/t Au, 164.6 g/t Ag, 1.0% Cu, 5.6% Pb and 13.2% Zn over an average width of 0.76 m. The No. 2 Adit intersected 31 m grading 7.54 g/t Au, 120 g/t Ag, 0.8% Cu, 1.3% Pb and 3.8% Zn over an average width of 0.6 m, plus 35.7 m grading 27.8 g/t Au, 696.0 g/t Ag, 3.6% Cu, 6.5% Pb and 2.8% Zn over an average width of 0.53 m.
In 1980, Silver Tusk Mines reported reserves of 764,757 tonnes grading 6% Zn, 4.71% Pb, 0.35% Cu, 2.57 g/t Au and 183.2 g/t Ag.
The 1988 drilling was completed over a 381 m distance along strike of the known mineralized vein structure. Mineralization was observed in all eight drill holes and the core was extensively sampled, but analytical results were never filed.
The GPS surveying and mapping carried out in 2002 served to accurately relocate existing infrastructure in the area and provided the basis for the preparation of a compilation basemap to be used during future exploration of the property.
Grab samples taken in 2004 from the adits returned up to 43.5 g/t Au, 2270 ppm Ag, 7.49% Cu, 8.86% Pb and 4.66% Zn.
Diamond drilling was carried out in 2007 and 2008 that intersected mineralization in holes: TH07-08, which returned 1.35 g/t Au, 29 g/t Ag, 0.12% Cu, 0.17% ppm Pb and 0.12% ppm Zn over 4 m; TH08-13, which returned 0.74 g.t Au, 124 g/t Ag, 0.41% Cu, 0.20% Pb and 0.45% Zn over 0.2 m; and TH08-14, which returned 0.42 g/t Au, 9.26 g/t Ag, 0.04% Cu, 0.38% Pb and 0.49% Zn.
