Work History

The original claims were staked as Grew cl 1-48 (94550) between Nov/65 and Feb/66 by General Enterprises Ltd and optioned to Gaylord Mines Ltd in 1967, which carried out magnetometer, EM and IP surveying later in the year. Three drill holes reportedly planned in 1968 were apparently never drilled. The nearby Carlin cl 1-32 (Y5762) were staked in May 66 by S. Young and examined briefly by Scope Mining and Exploration Consultants later that year.

A. Carlos, unaware of any previous staking became interested in the area following reports of Faro residents hand mining and recovering placer gold from Grew Creek. Prospecting the area, Carlos noted the presence of Tertiary volcanics and strong structural features furthering his interest. In May/83 Carlos discovered gold mineralization in outcrop and restaked the occurrence area within Canyon cl 1-40 (YA75717) in Jun/83. Carlos carried out geological mapping and geochemical sampling later in the year. The Canyon group was optioned late in 1983 by Mincan joint venture (Hudson Bay Exploration and Development Company Ltd and Minorco Canada Ltd), which staked more claims and carried out geological mapping, VLF-EM and magnetometer surveying and geochemical sampling in 1984 and 1985; trenching and drilled 13 holes (1,732 m) in 1984; drilled 19 percussion holes (1,660 m) in 1985; and geochemical sampling, EM and magnetometer surveying in 1986, before dropping the option.

The Ren cl 1-2 (YA75799), Tar cl 1-8 (YA75786), Hell cl 1-8 (YA75778) and Ern cl 1-8 (YA75749) were staked contiguously with the southern corner of the original Canyon claims in Jul/83 by Ezee Golds Ltd, which carried out trenching in 1983, 1984 and 1986. In 1987 Ezee Golds drilled one hole (51.3 m) for assessment on the Ern etc claims; carried out trenching, road work and additional drilling in 1989 and 1990; and trenching and road work in 1992. In Oct/93, Ezee Golds performed trenching on the Ern, Hell, Tar, and Ren, claims and on fractional Vac, JSC and TMP claims.

The Canyon claims were reoptioned in 1987 by a joint venture between Noranda Exploration Company Ltd, Golden Nevada Resources Inc and Brenda Mines Ltd, which carried out property wide geochemical sampling, ground magnetometer, airborne geophysical surveying and drilled 17 holes (2,972 m) 500 m west of Grew Creek on Canyon cl 3 and 4 (Main Zone) in 1987; geophysical surveying, geochemical sampling and drilled 30 core holes (13,156.5 m) in the Main Zone, 10 core holes (3,045 m) in the Tarn Zone (east of Grew Creek) and 12 rotary holes (1,448 m) between the two zones in 1988; and drilled 10 holes (1,165 m) in 1989. Golden Nevada Resources Inc changed its name to Goldnev Resources Inc in Jun/89 and excavated 18 backhoe trenches and 4 pits in 1991 before dropping its option later in the year.

Noranda Exploration Company Ltd tied on Can cl 1-168 (YB7880) to the northwest in Sep/87 and optioned them to Mintel International Development Corporation, which carried out geochemical sampling later in the year. Mintel staked the Ran cl 1-1 040 (YB08978) adjacent to and northwest of the Can claims in 1987. Mintel changed its name to Golden Trump Resources Ltd in Apr/89 and transferred the Ran claims to Prime Equities Inc in Nov/91. The Can claims were transferred to Prime Equities International Corporation in Dec/91. Both the Can and Ran claim groups were later transferred to A. Carlos in Apr/92.
In 1992, Wheaton River Minerals signed a letter of agreement to acquire the Grew Creek deposit but the terms of the option agreement were not fulfilled and the core claims reverted to Carlos. By the end of 1992, all of the Canyon and Grand claims previously optioned by other companies were also returned to Carlos.

In Feb/93 YGC Resources Ltd optioned the Grew Creek property (Minfile Occurrences 105K 008, 093, 113, this occurrence and 105F 047) and later in the year drilled 17 holes (1944 m) on the Canyon claims and carried out trenching on the Ran claims.
In Apr/94 YGC purchased the Ketza River property (Minfile Occurrence 105F 019) including a 400 metric tonnes per day mill from Wheaton Rivers Minerals Ltd. The sale was paid for with YGC shares and resulted in Wheaton River becoming controlling shareholder in YGC. YGC planned to truck Grew Creek ore to the Ketza River mill for processing, starting in 1995. Projected production was expected to be 30,000 oz (930,000 gm) Au per year for 3 years, with a 93% recovery. The plan never proceeded.
During the 1994 exploration season YGC drilled 14 holes (1,307 m) in the South and Main Zones. Nine holes were drilled in the South Zone to identify and sample the mineralization along the zone. The remaining 5 holes were drilled to fill in, test continuity and determine the upper level of bedrock mineralization at the eastern end of the Main Zone. In Oct/94 Carlos transferred the Grand, Ran, Can and Canyon claim groups to YGC.

In 1995 YGC drilled 14 diamond drill holes (1,530 m) on the Grew Creek property. Twelve of the holes were drilled to test various targets in and adjoining the Main Zone. One hole was drilled at the Main West Zone located 2 km to the west on Canyon cl 48 (YA81167). The remaining hole was drilled on Canyon cl 221 (YA81340) located approximately 16 km to the west (Minfile Occurrence 105K 113).

In the spring of 1996 YGC drilled 17 diamond drill holes (1560.7 m) to systematically drill test the continuity of the Main Zone mineralization on intermediate sections between 10+175E and 10+287.5E. Following completion of the program, the company carried out a compilation study which included surveying the location of all known drill holes and calculating an updated resources estimate for the Main Zone (non 43-101 compliant). At the end of 1996 YGC elected not to complete the final year of the option agreement and returned the various claim groups to Carlos.

Carlos staked Canon cl 1-6 (YC08793) in May/98 and Canon cl 7-14 (YC08939) in Jul/98, 2.5 km north of this occurrence location and contiguous with the existing Grew Creek claim block. Later that year Carlos carried out VLF-EM and magnetometer surveying, prospecting, soil sampling and trenching on the Canon claims.

In 2000 Carlos carried out an enzyme leach sampling program on a grid located between this occurrence location and the Robert Campbell Highway (located to the north). In 2001 and 2002 Carlos drilled 4 holes (191.1 m) and 6 holes (416.7 m), respectively, to test one of the anomalies (E) which is located immediately east of the occurrence location. Carlos also collected additional enzyme leach samples to increase his sampling density. In 2003 Carlos collared 3 diamond drill holes (150.9 m) on anomaly E and 4 diamond drill holes on the Maverick prospect’s anomaly B (Minfile Occurrence 105K 093) located approximately 10 km to the northwest. In 2004, before Carlos optioned the Grew Creek property, Carlos drilled 5 additional diamond drill holes (219.80 m) on anomaly B.

In Jul/2004 Carlos optioned the entire Grew Creek property to Freegold Ventures Ltd which drilled 12 diamond drill holes (633.4 m) on the Main zone. In 2005 Freegold Ventures carried out IP surveys on the Maverick prospect (Minfile Occurrence 105K 093), the Main zone, and the Rat Creek and Tarn zones (they adjoin the Main zone on the southeast side). The company followed up by drilling 6 diamond drill holes (960 m) on the Tarn and Rat Creek zones; 5 holes targeted the Tarn zone and 1 hole targeted the Rat Creek zone. Two of the Tarn zone drill holes were collared in overburden. The diamond drilling was conducted in two parts; mid to late March and November to mid-December.

In 2006 the company drilled 5 diamond drill holes (798 m) on the Tarn zone to test various IP chargeability targets. In the third quarter of 2007 Freegold Ventures dropped its option and returned the Grew Creek property to Carlos.
In Jan/2008 Carlos optioned the Grew Creek property to Emerick Resources Corporation which completed a compilation report in May/2008. Carlos carried out additional enzyme leach sampling in 2008.

In 2009, Emerick completed nine diamond drillholes (1,592.3 m) on the Grew Creek property. The holes tested Enzyme Leach soil anomalies located at various zones. Two holes (381.0 m) tested the Rat Creek target area located south and east of the main zone. The remaining seven diamond drill holes tested the Maverick (Minfile Occurrence 105K 093) and KM 410 (Minfile Occurrence 105K 113) zones.

Capsule Geology

The Grew Creek epithermal gold deposit is hosted by Eocene Ross Assemblage volcanic and sedimentary rocks deposited in a pull-apart basin within the Tintina Fault zone. The gold occurs in stockwork quartz veins and hydrothermal breccias cutting hydrothermally altered rhyolite. In Dec/89 Goldnev Resources Ltd reported that the Main Zone contained drill indicated reserves of 773,020 tonnes grading 8.92 g/t gold and 33.6 g/t silver. Within this deposit Goldnev identified a high grade core containing a drill indicated reserve of 184,950 tonnes grading 12.14 g/t gold. Metallurgical testing by Noranda in 1988 indicated that recoveries of 92-94% are possible using simple cyanide processing.

In the Main Zone, rhyolitic tuffs are juxtaposed against a cyclic sequence of Carboniferous and Permian aged fluvial sediments along the northwest-southeast trending Grew Creek fault. The faulted contact is partly intruded by a quartz-feldspar porphyry dike. The pyroclastic rocks, dike, fault and sediments all dip steeply to the north. The volcanic rocks are hydrothermally altered to illite-quartz and illite-quartz-adularia assemblages, with an outer propylitic halo.

Mineralization consists of pyrite, marcasite, arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite, argentite, electrum, silver selenides, galena and sphalerite. Fluorite is also present in the Tarn zone, 2 km southeast of the Main zone. Gangue minerals include quartz, adularia, carbonates, and quartz pseudomorphs after calcite. In the main zone, gold and silver occur as micron-size grains in chalcedony stringer stockworks and adjacent silicified tuffs. There is a good correlation between gold and silver assays, with a gold: silver ratio of about 1:4 for ore-grade mineralization, which occurs in an elongated zone trending west-northwest. The mineralization is strongly anomalous in arsenic and mercury, but mercury shows only a weak correlation with gold and silver. Most high mercury values lie along the fault, above the gold-silver zone.

Initial drilling on the Main Zone returned a best intersection of 11.7 g/t gold and 150.9 g/t silver across 31.4 m, while the best section exposed in a trench assayed 3.6 g/t gold and 15.3 g/t silver across 13 m. The 1989 drilling focused on the Main Zone, with the best intersection returning 10.5 g/t gold over 13 m.

The Tarn Zone, located 2 km to the east, consists of quartz-fluorite-chalcedony stockworks and localized silicification within a 900 x 100 m zone of sericitized rhyolite dikes and tuff. The best assays were 150 ppb gold across 2.0 m in a trench and 520 ppb gold over 1.5 m in a drill hole.

Prospecting in the area is difficult due to a thick cover of glacial till. Plouffe (1989) showed that gold is concentrated in the silt and clay size fraction down-ice from the Grew Creek deposit, but the common pathfinder elements silver, antimony, arsenic and mercury show little correlation with the gold distribution.

On the Ern claims, Ezee's 1987 drill hole cut silicified, argillized crystal-lithic felsic tuff stained with limonite, but returned only trace gold.

YGC’s 1993 diamond drilling intersected strongly altered volcanic rocks beneath a zone of hydrothermal alteration exposed in a surface trench. The 1994 drilling showed that mineralization in the South Zone consists of an extensive quartz-adularia stringer stockwork of low grade gold-silver values. The best intersections were 2.33 g/t gold and 4.1 g/t silver over 10.4 m. The South Zone mineralization appears to be connected with the Main Zone mineralization, but further drilling in between the two zones needs to be carried out to confirm this theory. The drilling in the Main Zone confirmed earlier reported grades. The best intersection was 1.69 g/t gold and 3.0 g/t silver over 24 m. In Oct/94 YGC calculated an open pit mineable reserve for the Main zone of 173,000 tonnes grading 12 g/t gold and 32.3 g/t silver.

The best results recorded in 1995 were returned from the Main Zone, where hole #181 intersected ore grade gold-silver bearing quartz-adularia vein stockwork mineralization. The hole drilled near the eastern end of the zone returned 15.0 m assaying 7.63 g/t gold and 8.6 g/t silver. Other holes drilled on the Rat Creek Grid, Knoll Zone and in the contact area of a pyroclastic tuff and rhyolite flow dome located immediately east of Rat Creek returned anomalous gold values up to 633 ppb gold.

Twelve of the 1996 drill holes intersected significant gold mineralization in the Main Zone. The best result was recorded in hole GC-94-196 which returned 28.55 g/t gold over 17.0 m including 4.5 m grading 41.3 g/t and 6.59 m grading 41.95 g/t. The hole intersected thick banded quartz vein mineralization at the 795 m elevation which YGC believed represented a central core or feeder zone of the Main Zone deposit. The mineralization occurs within the phyllic alteration zone and is directly related to strong quartz-adularia alteration.

At the end of the 1996 drilling program YGC completed an updated resource estimate for the Main Zone. Employing a 1 g/t gold cutoff grade, a block model estimation calculated a total resource of 527,360 tonnes grading 5.27 g/t gold to the 710 m level. Within this total resource the company estimated an open pit resource of 382,000 tonnes grading 5.08 g/t gold above the 750 m elevation (YGC Resources, 1997, AR 093627). This resource estimate is not 43-101 compliant and later reports from the same author do not refer to it.

Samples from the 2000 sampling program were analyzed using Enzyme Leach technology, revealing several anomalous zones just south of and parallel to the Danger Creek Fault and although no report of this work was ever filed for assessment purposes geochemical anomaly maps produced from this sampling accompanied subsequent reports on the 2001 and 2002 drill programs. Drilling intersected altered and brecciated quartz feldspar porphyry, mixed sedimentary and volcanic lithologies and basalt. Samples of core from both years were submitted for analysis and generally returned values for gold below the detection limit of the analytical techniques employed, the highest reported value was 109 ppb gold over 0.6 m from sericitically altered quartz feldspar porphyry near the bottom of Hole #CGGC-8.

The 2003 and 2004 drilling of the Maverick enzyme leach anomaly B intersected mafic volcanic complex rocks but did not detect any significant gold values. The 2004 drilling program completed by Freegold Ventures indicated that the dominant vein trend is north.The 2005 report on the 2004 drilling lists the 1998 historical Orcan Minerals resource estimate (not NI 43-101 compliant), the same resource is listed in a Freegold Ventures news release (July 14 2004).  
 
Four diamond drill holes were collared on the Tarn zone in mid Mar/2005 before the IP survey was undertaken. The holes intersected intense phyllitic alteration associated with anomalous values in gold, silver, mercury and arsenic. The holes also intersected local fine quartz-adularia zones up to 40 m in length that yielded anomalous values up to 0.174 g/t gold and 2.3 g/t silver (news release 10 May/2005). The second phase of drilling collared 1 diamond drill hole on the Tarn zone and 1 hole on the Rat Creek zone. Two other holes were abandoned in overburden.

The 2006 diamond drill holes were completed between January and early Mar/2006 and were an extension of the second phase of the 2005 drill program. The 2006 drill holes targeted IP anomalies on the Tarn zone. The single hole collared on the Tarn zone in late 2005 and the five 2006 drill holes all intersected favorable alteration and displayed evidence of hydrothermal activity similar to that found at the Main zone but did not intersect any economic intervals.

A 2008 technical report summarizes the work to date on the property (Emerick Resources, 2008, by Stroshein), and lists resource estimates from 1988, 1992, 1993 and 1996. The resource estimated in the 2007 YGC report (by Stroshein) is not mentioned in the 2008 Emerick report (by Stroshein). It states that a resource was calculated in 2005 but.this information hasn't yet been located.

No 43-101 compliant resource estimate has been released to date (Jan 2014).