Work History

Acquired as Coal Exploration Licence #118 in Jul/80 by St Joseph Exploration Ltd. The licence was part of a package of 8 licences (Licences 115 to 122) which covered topographic map sheets 095D/11 and 14, that St Joseph Exploration staked to cover coal float discovered during a regional helicopter assisted prospecting program conducted in 1980.
In 1981 St Joseph Exploration changed its name to Sulpetro Minerals Ltd. After conducting a preliminary assessment of their claim holding, the company relinquished Coal Licences 115, 116, 119 and 120 in Jul/81. The following month the company drilled 5 diamond drill holes (718 m) followed by geophysical logging and representative geochemical sampling of all holes. In 1982 the company carried out a gravity geophysical survey over their licences. Coal Licence 115 was reissued as Licence 353 in Jul/83.
The occurrence was restaked within Coal Licences 5 to 8 (CYL005) in Jul/2001 by D. Poliquin. In Jul/2003, Poliquin contracted Aurora Geosciences Ltd to carry out a reconnaissance exploration program over the licences. In Jul/2004 Poliquin restaked the licences as Coal Licences 13 to 16 (CYL 0013). Poliquin optioned the licences to Santoy Resources Ltd in 2006 which drilled two drill holes that year. All of the licences lapsed in Sep/2007.

Capsule Geology

An outcrop of coal, 9 m thick was discovered by prospecting in a previously unmapped, fault-bounded half graben infilled with Upper Eocene mudstone and minor sandstone measuring about 42 km long and 5 to 6 km wide. Holes 1 and 2, spaced 900 m apart, suggest a potential open-pittable resource (Historical Calculation, Not National Instrument 43-101 compliant), of approximately 60 million tonnes to a depth of 80 m. The coal, which ranges from lignite A to sub-bituminous C rank, has an average thermal content of 1546 kj/kg and is intermixed and interlayered with clay.
The coal is bright and woody and is interpreted by Long (1985) as having formed in forested swamps. The stratigraphic section consists of 162 m of coal and clay overlain by more than 44 m of silt and organic clay and underlain by more than 125 m of sand and silt. The gravity survey outlined six anomalies and two partially defined weak anomalies and Sulpetro reported that the geophysical results indicate a potential for up to 1.5 billion tonnes.
Aurora Geoscience ground truthed and prospected around the gravity anomalies identified in the 1982 gravity survey. The original discovery outcrop and abundant float occurrences were identified but no new showing were found. Significant thicknesses of Quaternary sediments were found to blanket the area. Sulpetro Minerals' 1982 cut grid was re-discovered but it was overgrown in most places.
Santoy Resoures' drilling returned narrow intervals of coal and the option was dropped.

 

60.693890

-127.211110

Assessment Reports that overlap occurrence

Report Number	Year	Title	Worktypes	Holes Drilled	Meters Drilled
094452	2003	2003 Exploration Program on the Rock River Coal Licenses	Regional Bedrock Mapping - Geology, Regional Surficial Mapping - Geology
062134	1982	Diamond Drilling Report Coal License 118 NTS 95 D-11 NE	Diamond - Drilling, Drill Core - Geochemistry, Downhole Survey - Ground Geophysics	5	717.81
062132	1982	Rock River Coal Geophysics Spring 1982 on Coal Licences 117, 118, 121 and 122	Gravity Survey - Ground Geophysics
062104	1981	Geological Report on Coal Licenses 115 to 122, N.T.S. 95 D-11 & 95 D-14 Rock River Area, Yukon Territory	Rock - Geochemistry, Detailed Bedrock Mapping - Geology, Prospecting - Other