Work History
Staked as Silver Queen cl (12632) in July 1917 by C.P. Mack, who explored with 18.3 m of drifting in 1918-1923. The nearby Newbauer cl (12982) was staked in March 1920 by M. Newbauer, who drove a 3 m long drift later in the year. Mack re-staked the showing in October 1929 as Mack, etc. cl (15476 ), while Orloff King added the adjoining Ptarmigan cl (15729) in October 1932 and Gold Standard cl (15789) in July 1934 and filed 17 m of tunneling on the Gold Standard in 1941.
The Mack claims expired in October 1937 and were re-staked as Mack cl (39134) in May 1939 by C.P. Mack who added six adjoining claims between June 1940 and August 1946. This group was optioned briefly in March 1947 by G.A. Reynolds and C.L. Coleman, was taken to lease in November 1956 and was optioned in May 1972 by Area Exploration Company (Cyprus). Silver Standard Mines Ltd staked YU cl (73506) 1.6 km northeast in July 1958 and explored with mapping and EM surveys in 1958-1959 and later with geochemical sampling and hand trenching.
Re-staked by G. Dickson as Wedge cl 1-15 (YA82167), by M. Muursepp as Bull cl 1-8 (YA81420) and other miscellaneous claims, in 1984. Prochem Ltd. optioned the leased claims and some of the Wedge claims and explored with soil geochemistry, EM-16 surveys and bulldozer trenching in 1985, grid geochemistry and bulldozer trenching in 1986, and 12 holes (822 m) in 1987, and 11 holes (1,219.2 m) in 1988. Bedrock mapping, mechanical trenching, soil geochemistry, and ground magnetics were also performed in 1988. The 1987 and 1988 work was funded by a subsidiary of Prochem's; Aurchem Resources Ltd, which performed additional trenching and soil sampling in 1989.
In 1990, Aurchem built roads, excavated 12 trenches on the Eliza Creek zone and conducted magnetometer and IP surveys. Two hundred soil samples were collected from the Eliza Creek zone and 7 drums of vein material were collected for metallurgical testing.
In 1991, Aurchem expanded the soil grid and completed property wide geological mappings, IP/Resistivity and VLF-EM surveys and target specific magnetometer surveys. All previous exploration results, including soil sample locations, were compiled on a new compilation map. The new survey grid, three trenches were completed and 300 soil samples were collected.
Aurchem added JBF cl 1-7 ((fractional) YB362590) and Jon-Wedge cl 1-6 (YB35895) in August 1992 and explored with 3,384.8 m of reverse circulation drilling in 32 holes in July and August, 1992. In July 1993, the Wedge cl 1-4 and 16-17 were transferred to J. Dickson from the estate of G. Dickson. In 1993, Aurchem conducted IP/resistivity and magnetic surveys, geological mapping and soil geochemistry on the Ras, Wedge, Jon-Wedge, JLZ, and JBF claims.
In March 1995, the Wedge claims were transferred to Aurchem Exploration Ltd. In early 1996, BYG obtained an option to purchase all of Aurchem's claims located in the Mt Nansen area. As part of this agreement BYG funded an extensive trenching and mapping program from August to October 96, on the Bull 2, JBF 1-f, Jon-Wedge 3 and LCGS 1 claims. BYG encountered financial difficulties at the end of 1996 and suspended most exploration activities.
In February 1999, BYG announced plans to temporarily shut down the Mount Nansen Mine. In March 1999, BYG was placed in receivership and the Nansen mine became a Type II Minesite. The Wedge, Etzel and Bull claims reverted to Aurchem after the federal government took over maintenance of the adjoining Mount Nansen mine site in July 1999.
In 2009, 101073531 Saskatchewan Corp. flew a regional airborne and magnetic survey that included the Eliza S occurrence. In 2011, Ansell Capital Corp optioned the Discovery Creek property, including the Eliza S occurrence, from Aurchem Exploration. Ansell Capital carried out bedrock mapping as well as rock and soil geochemistry in 2011
Regional & Property
The occurrence is located in the Dawson Range within Yukon-Tanana Terrane (YTT). The rocks of the YTT in this region consist of Early Mississipian metamorphic rocks separated into meta-sedimentary and meta-igneous suites (Stroshein, 1998). The meta-sedimentary suite consists of micaceous quartz-feldspar gneiss, schist and quartzite of the Nasina Assemblage. The meta-igneous package is comprised of biotite-hornblende feldspar gneiss and coarse-grained granodiorite orthogneiss with lesser amphibolite.
Four rock types dominate the geology surrounding the occurrence and are comprised of:
1. Paleozoic metamorphic Yukon-Tanana gneiss, quartzite, and amphibolite to the south;
2. Triassic to Jurassic metamorphosed alkali-feldspar-rich plutonic suites;
3. Mid-Cretaceous Mount Nansen Suite andesite, felsic lapilli tuffs, basaltic to latite volcanic rocks; and quartz feldspar porphyry, dacite, latite, and quartz monzonite porphyritic hypabyssal rocks; and
4. Mid-Cretaceous Whitehorse granodiorite.
A porphyry copper-molybdenum complex (MINFILE occurrence 115I 066) is found in the northeast section of the claims, with argillic and propylitic alteration haloes covering the remainder. The porphyry complex occurs at the intersection between a major northwest structure and an east-west fault. Copper and molybdenum ± gold and silver occur in a porphyry stock and phyllic-altered granodiorite. Surface leaching and oxidation is variable, but can reach considerable depths. A steeply dipping, northwest-striking epithermal vein system which formed peripheral to the porphyry migrated inward during cooling and collapsed, creating a complex system of overlapping mineralization including: porphyry Cu-Mo-Au-Ag; northwest striking mesothermal quartz-pyrite-gold veins; and northwest striking epithermal quartz-Au-Ag-Pb-Zn-Cu veins.
The Eliza S showing consists of two main epithermal veins over a 914 strike length along the edge of a volcanic-granodiorite contact.
Mineralization & Results
Mineralization at the Eliza S prospect consists of pyrite with lesser galena, sphalerite, chalcopyrite and arsenopyrite in quartz ± carbonate veins.
Drilling in 1987 and 1988 by Aurchem returned anomalous gold and silver values ranging from 0.3 to 17.1 g/t Au and 10.3 to 2742.8 g/t Ag. Trenching results from 1989 returned assays up to 0.058 oz/ton Au over 11 feet including 2 feet of 0.04 oz/ton Au, 1.56 oz/ton Ag, 2.12% Pb, and 0.19% Zn. Other trenching samples returned 3 m of 1.0 g/t Au and 7.9 m of 3.4 g/t Au. Soil sampling returned assays of >50 ppm Au, 1-2 ppm Ag, and >120 ppm Pb.
In 2011, Ansell Capital performed soil sampling with the best sample returning 1377.5 ppb Au, 23.6 ppm Ag, 4783.7 ppm Pb and 859 ppm Zn.
