Occurrence Details


Occurrence Number:
105I 036
Occurrence Name:
Oro
Occurrence Type:
Hard-rock
Status:
Drilled Prospect
Date printed:
10/7/2024 11:35:48 AM

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General Information
Capsule
Work History
Assessment Reports
References

General Information

Secondary Commodities: barite, lead, zinc
Aliases: Howards Pass, Selwyn Project
Deposit Type(s): Sediment hosted Stratiform Barite
Location(s): 62°37'16" N - -129°47'16" W
NTS Mapsheet(s): 105I12
Location Comments: .5 Kilometres
Hand Samples Available: Yes
Last Reviewed:

Capsule

Work History

*This occurrence was moved 0.75 km to the northwest in Dec/2010. The new location represents the approximate mid-point of the barite horizon.

Staked as Oro cl 1-40 (Y70595) in Nov/72 by Noranda Exploration Company Ltd, which carried out geological mapping and grid soil sampling in 1973. In Jan/73 Noranda optioned the Bet cl 1-26 (Y70875), which adjoin the Oro claims to the south, from Sovereign Metals Corporation; carried out geochemical sampling and geological mapping in July and August; staked Buc cl 1-7 (Y73614), Mar cl 1-3 (Y3627) and Dar cl 1-7fr (Y73630) contiguously with the existing claims in August; and drilled 6 holes (312.7 m) in September.
The adjacent area to the west was staked as Bev cl 1-104 (Y71747) in Dec/72 by Cominco Ltd, which carried out geological mapping and geochemical sampling during June and July/73.
In Jul/ 75 the Ogilvie Joint Venture (Brinco Ltd, Mitsubishi Metal Corporation, Ventures West Capital Ltd) staked Tang cl 3-4 (Y84533) and Tang cl 5-16 (Y84535), east and west respectively of the remaining 8 Oro claims (#'s 5-12) and carried out geological mapping later that year. In 1976 and 1977 the Joint Venture carried out additional geological mapping and geochemical sampling.
The northernmost Oro claims were restaked as OP cl 176-190 (YA00008) in Nov/75 by Canex Placer. The Bev group was partially restaked as She cl 1-2 (YA11300) in Oct/76 by Yukon Revenue Mines Ltd and Hudson Bay Exploration and Development Company Ltd staked Fast cl 1-30 (YA68856) 2.4 km to the southwest in Aug/82 and carried out geological mapping and geochemical sampling in 1983. Although records are sketchy it appears the last claims surrounding this occurrence expired by the end of 1984 (the location map on page 242 of Yukon Exploration 1985-1986 shows no claims in this area).
In May/2005 Pacifica Resources Ltd entered into a Letter of Intent to purchase a 100% interest in the neighbouring Howard's Pass property for the sum of $10 000 00 spread over 7 years and a commitment to spend a minimum of $3 500 00.00 in exploration expenditures. The agreement was signed between Pacifica and Placer Dome (CLA) a wholly owned subsidiary of Placer Dome Inc (51% owner) and Cygnus Mines Ltd (49% owner). Pacifica immediately staked 415 Selwyn claims in order to cover open ground in the Howard’s Pass area. The majority of staking occurred at the west end of the property. Selwyn cl 190-350 (YC28176) cover the area surrounding this occurrence and the Pelly North occurrence (Minfile Occurrence 105I 069) located 3 km to the north. The property agreement between Pacifica Resources and Placer Dome and Cygnus Mines was formally approved in Aug/2005.
Beginning in 2005 Pacifica undertook a multiyear geological mapping and soil and silt sampling program on the Howard’s Pass property. Details of this program have not been publicly released. In 2006, as part of a larger property wide (191 drill holes, 40 096.5m) drill program Pacifica drilled a fence of 7 diamond drill holes (1 438.5m) measuring 2.07 km in length, north-northeast of this occurrence. The southernmost drill hole was collared approximately 0.75 km northeast of this occurrence. The results of this drilling led to the discovery of the Pelly North zone located on the northern half of the former Oro claims. No other substantial exploration work appears to have been carried out in the vicinity of this occurrence.
On January 29, 2007 Pacifica Resources announced a plan of re-organization in which the Howard's Pass project would be spun off to a new company, Selwyn Resources Ltd and the company's remaining properties would be transferred to a new company Savant Exploration Ltd. Pacifica shareholders received shares in Savant Exploration as compensation for the transfer of assets from Pacifica to Savant. The agreement was approved on May 31, 2007 and completed on June 6, 2007 at which time control of the Howard's Pass property, commonly referred to as the Selwyn Project was transferred to Selwyn Resources and the charter of Pacifica Resources was cancelled. The company conducted extensive exploration programs in 2007 and 2008 on the Selwyn project but the area around this occurrence does not appear to have received any substantial work.
In mid-2009 Selwyn opened discussions with various companies regarding the formation of a possible strategic partnership. The company announced in Dec/2009 that they had signed a binding Framework Agreement with Yunnan Chihong Zinc & Germanium Company Ltd (China), whereby both companies would form a joint venture company to hold all assets associated with the Selwyn project. In return for a 50% interest in the joint venture Yunnan Chihong deposited 100 million dollars in cash irrevocably to a bank account for the joint venture to use to fund development of the Selwyn project. As part of the agreement Yunnan Chihong agreed to fund all of Selwyn Resources direct costs incurred from July 1, 2009 on the Selwyn project.
On January 5, 2010 Selwyn Resources announced that they had engaged Wardrop Engineering Inc to start a Phase 1 work program leading to the completion of a National Instrument 43-101 compliant feasibility study on the Selwyn project. The company hopes to complete the study by the end of 2010.
On August 18, 2010 Selwyn announced the completion of the joint venture with Yunnan Chihong and the formation of a new company Selwyn Chihong Mining Ltd. Selwyn Resources transferred all Selwyn Project claims, equipment, permits and licenses to the new company. At the same time the joint management committee approved in principal a predevelopment budget of 89 million dollars for 2010 and 2011. The money will be directed to the advancement of permitting, completion of the feasibility study and related engineering and resource definition drilling of various surface and underground deposits.

Capsule Geology

The Selwyn project (Howard’s Pass project) is located in eastern Yukon and straddles the Northwest Territories border, approximately 350 km northeast of Whitehorse, Yukon and approximately 80 km north-northwest of the former mining town of Tungsten. Over ninety percent of the property lies in the Yukon. To date Selwyn Resources Ltd has identified 15 lead-zinc deposits over a strike length of 37.5 km.
The occurrence lies at the southwest end of the mineralized belt identified by Pacifica/Selwyn Resources. Based on exploration work carried out by Noranda Exploration, Cominco, the Ogilvie Joint Venture and geological mapping by Gordey (1992) and others the occurrence is underlain by a northwest trending package of Lower to Upper Devonian Portrait Lake Formation shale and siltstone belonging to the Lower Earn Group. It overlies Ordovician to Silurian Road River Group shale and mudstone and Upper Cambrian to Lower Ordovician Rabbitkettle Formation limestone.
A lenticular, thinly bedded barite horizon, measuring approximately 1 100 m long, 15 to 50 m wide and up to 50 m thick, occurs near the base of the Portrait Lake Formation on the former Oro claims. Barite beds, with low lead and zinc values, grade upward to siliceous siltstone that is overlain by pebbly mudstone. The barite horizon is underlain by a stockwork of quartz-ankerite-pyrite-barite veins within silicified, locally pyritic grey siltstone and argillite. Soil sampling to the west on the Tang claims identified a linear zone of anomalous barium values that extends west onto the claims but the joint venture was unable to locate any significant zinc-lead mineralization.
Zinc-lead mineralization on the Howard’s Pass property is hosted by the Active Member, part of the Duo Lake (or more commonly labelled Howard’s Pass Formation) Formation which lies in the lower half of the Road River Group. This occurrence appears to lie in stratigraphically younger rocks. Three of Pacifica/Selwyn Resources 2006 drill holes encountered zinc-lead mineralization with the Hole PLN-007 located at the northern end of the line of drill holes returning 10.65m grading 2.9% zinc and 3.5% lead. Hole PLN-003 (the most southern drill hole) located approximately 0.75 km northeast of this occurrence returned 7.4 m grading 2.46% zinc and 0.7% lead. Although Pacifica/Selwyn has not released any detailed geology maps for this area, it appears the Active Member is trending in a northwest-southeast direction. The 1973 drilling by Noranda also followed a northwest-southeast trend but was located approximately 0.75 km to the west, thus likely intersecting rocks stratigraphically younger rocks.

References

COMINCO LTD, Dec/73. Assessment Report #060907 by K.R. Pride.

DAWSON, K.M., 1990. Regional geological setting of selected mineral deposits of the Northern Cordillera. In: Mineral Deposits of the Northern Canadian Cordillera, Yukon-Northeastern British Columbia, J.G. Abbott and R.J.W. Turner (eds), 8th IAGOD Symposium, Field Trip NO. 14 Guidebook, Geological Survey of Canada Open File 2169, p. 6.

GOODFELLOW, W.D., and JONASSON, I.R., 1983. Environment of formation of the Howard's Pass (XY) Zn-Pb deposit, Selwyn Basin, Yukon. In: Mineral Deposits of Northern Cordillera, J.A. Morin (ed.), Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Special Volume 37, p. 19-50.

GORDEY, S.P., 1992. Geology, Little Nahanni River, Northwest Territories-Yukon Territory. Geological Survey of Canada, Map 1762A, scale 1:250 000.

GORDEY, S.P. and ANDERSON, R.G., 1993. Evolution of the Northern Cordilleran Miogeocline, Nahanni Map Area (105I), Yukon and Northwest Territories. Geological Survey of Canada Memoir 428, 214 p.

JONASSON, I.R., and GOODFELLOW, W.D., 1983. Sedimentary and digenetic textures, and deformation structures within the sulphide zone of the Howard's Pass (XY) Zn-Pub deposit, Yukon and Northwest Territories. In: Mineral Deposits of Northern Cordillera, J.A. Morin (ed.), Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Special Volume 37, p. 51-70.

MINERAL INDUSTRY REPORT 1973, p. 96, 98, 107; 1976, p. 212; 1977, p. 92.

MORGANTI, J.M., Sep/79. The geology and ore deposits of the Howard's Pass area. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of British Columbia.

NORANDA EXPLORATION COMPANY LTD, Dec/73. Assessment Report #060928 by P.M. McAndless, J.D. Knauer and G.E. Dirom.

NORANDA EXPLORATION COMPANY LTD, Dec/73. Assessment Report #091193 by G.E. Dirom and P.M. McAndless.

OGILVIE JOINT VENTURE, Nov/77. Assessment Report #090257 by J.D. Rowe.

PACIFICA RESOURCES LTD, Jun/2005. Technical Evaluation Report for Pacifica Resources Ltd On the Howard's Pass Project Yukon-Northwest Territory Border, Canada by A.A. Burgoyne. (Available on SEDAR).

PACIFICA RESOURCES LTD, May/2006. Assessment Report #094657 by D. Legault, G. Newton and P. Van Bui.

PACIFICA RESOURCES LTD, Mar/2007. Assessment Report #094637 by K. Bailey, J. Betrand and J. De Bryckere.

PACIFICA RESOURCES LTD, News Release, 2 May/2005, 17 May/2005, 21 Jul/2005, 22 Aug/2005, 9 Feb/2006, 13 Feb/2006, 28 Feb/2006, 29 May/2006, 10 Jul/2006, 17 Jan/2007, 18 Jan/2007, 29 Jan/2007, 6 Feb/2007, 2 Apr/2007, 31 May/2007, 6 Jun/2007.

SELWYN RESOURCES LTD, Mar/2008. Update Resource Estimate Report for the Selwyn Project Yukon-NWT, Canada (NTS 105I/06, 11, 12) by C. Pearson and J. O'Donnell. (Available on SEDAR).

SELWYN RESOURCES LTD, Apr/2009. Resource Estimate Report Update for the Selwyn Project Yukon-NWT, Canada (NTS 105I/06, 11, 12) by J. O'Donnell. (Available on SEDAR).

SELWYN RESOURCES LTD., News Release, 4 Dec/2007, 29 Jan/2008, 26 Feb/2009, 14 Dec/2009, 5 Jan/2010, 2 Jun/2010, 18 Aug/2010.

SELWYN RESOURCES LTD., Nov/2010. Web Site: www.selwynresources.com.

SMITH, C.L., Oct/76. Assessment Report #090135 by C.L. Smith.

YUKON EXPLORATION 1985-1986, p. 242.

YUKON EXPLORATION AND GEOLOGY 1982, p. 135, 1983, p. 18-20, 2006, p. 22-23, 43, 46, 2007, 20, 38, 42, 2008, p. 17, 32, 37, 2009, p. 47, 57, 58.

Work History

Date Work Type Comment
12/31/2010 Studies Feasibility study begun for entire Selwyn project.
12/31/2006 Drilling Number of holes drilled: 7 Amount of work done: 1438.5 METRES Part of larger diamond drill program.
12/31/2005 Geology Part of larger property wide program.
12/31/2005 Geochemistry Part of larger property wide program.
12/31/1983 Other
12/31/1982 Geology
12/31/1976 Geology
12/31/1976 Other
12/31/1973 Drilling Number of holes drilled: 6 Amount of work done: 312.7 METRES
12/31/1973 Geology
12/31/1973 Other
12/31/1972 Geology
12/31/1972 Geochemistry

Assessment Reports that overlap occurrence

Report Number Year Title Worktypes Holes Drilled Meters Drilled
094657 2005 Assessment Report Describing Prospecting, Geochemical Sampling and Diamond Drilling on the Selwyn Project Property Diamond - Drilling, Rock - Geochemistry, Silt - Geochemistry, Soil - Geochemistry, Bedrock Mapping - Geology, Regional Surficial Mapping - Geology 53 8285.72
092948 1990 Report on Prospecting and Geochemical Sampling on the Falcon Property, Yukon Territory Silt - Geochemistry, Soil - Geochemistry
090257 1977 Geological and Geochemical Report on the Tang Claim Group Soil - Geochemistry, Bedrock Mapping - Geology
090135 1975 Geological Report on the Tang Claims, Located Near the Headwaters of the Pelly River Bedrock Mapping - Geology
091193 1973 Diamond Drill Report Diamond - Drilling 6 312

Related References

Number Title Page(s) Reference Type Document Type
ARMC008071 Compilation map outlining geology and mineral deposits in Selwyn Basin - Selwyn project Property File Collection Geochemical Map
ARMC019522 Yukon Minerals Corporation company brochure with maps, reports and news releases Property File Collection Miscellaneous Company Documents