Work History
Staked as Penguin, Pioneer, Peel, Boom & Moon cl (69364) in 1954 by Conwest Exploration Ltd and Central Patricia Mining Ltd, which explored with surface trenching in 1955, 610 m of shallow packsack drilling in 1956, 1980 m of drilling in 1958 and 1959, and a single 335 m hole in 1960. The drilling proved up to 68 040 tonnes grading 12 g/t Au.
Fringe staking included Dak cl (698ll) to the south in 1954 by Prospectors Airways Company Ltd on behalf of a syndicate including Noranda Mining Ltd and Kerr Addison Gold Mining Ltd; NY and Tee cl (75811) to the north and west in 1961 by G. Dickson, which were staked as BJ, etc cl (79678) in 1962 by Giant Yellowknife Mining Limited; and Top cl (Y74240) in Sept 1973 by G. Fairclough. Prospectors Airways drilled 3 packsack holes (52 m) on the Dak group in 1955.
The key claims were surveyed and taken to lease and the property was transferred to a private company, Ketza River Mining Ltd and examined briefly in 1974 by Nordev Resources Ltd. Ketza River tied on Kon cl (YA56473) in 1980, explored them with mapping and sampling in 1981 and optioned the property to Pacific Trans-Ocean Resources Ltd (Pacific Copper Mining Ltd) in 1983.
Pacific Trans-Ocean entered a joint venture with Canamax Resources Inc and to the end of 1987 explored with ground and airborne geophysical surveys, geochemical surveys, 20 000 m of drilling in 246 holes, 1600 m of drifting on three levels in the Peel & Ridge Zones, and metallurgical testing.
During 1987, nine additional zones (including Knoll, Break, Gully & QB Zones) were tested and a 320 tonne/day mill was built. Initial reserves, at the beginning of mining, were estimated at 495 000 tonnes of oxide ore grading 18 g/t Au and 495 000 tonnes sulphide ore grading 9 g/t Au. Production began in Apr/88 after a capital expenditure of $27 million. Production in 1988 was 86 664 tonnes containing 635 349 g Au and 6 804 g Ag with gold recovery of 87%.
In 1989 the Kon claims were transferred to Canamax which conducted 3983.2 m of surface diamond drilling (mostly on the Gully, Tarn and Knoll Zones) later that year. Production in 1989 totaled 1 337 115 g Au, and a further 1 139 943 g Au was produced between January and September 1990. Much of the production came from underground workings at the Peel and Ridge Zone but approximately 40% was oxide ore grading 9.9 g/t Au which was mined from open pits at the Break and NU zones (one pit), the QB vein, and the uppermost Ridge, Tarn, Gully and Knoll zones. The mine was shut down in September, 1990.
Canamax covered the north extension of the QB zone with more Kon claims (YB33222) in 1991. Hemlo Gold Mines Inc staked Kon cl 19-20 (YB45994) in the same area in 1993 and prospected, mapped and trenched on the Shamrock zone.
In February 1992, Wheaton River Minerals Ltd announced an agreement to purchase the mine, mill and related properties. Wheaton River performed geological mapping, prospecting and trenching on several Kon claims in August 1993.
In April 1994, Wheaton River Minerals Ltd sold the Ketza River property to YGC Resources Ltd in return for a controlling interest in YGC following which YGC formed Ketza River Holdings Ltd to hold the Kon claims. In August 1994 Ketza sold all of the Kon claims it considered exploratory to Hemlo Gold Mines Inc. Ketza kept the actual mine, the mill and the Kon and other claims which made up the mine site.
Hemlo Gold Mines dug trenches and removed a total of 8 255 cubic metres in August 1994 on several of its Kon cl (YA70945). Hemlo Gold drilled three diamond drill holes totaling 489.3 m on the Shamrock area (QB, Shamrock and Gully zones) in May and June of 1995. In August 1995 Hemlo Gold transferred all of the Kon claims back to Ketza River Holdings Ltd.
H. Regehr carried out 527 cubic metres of trenching in five areas of Star cl 2-4 located 3 km south of the mine in August 1994. YGC carried out diamond drilling programs in 1994, 1995 and 1996, totaling 11 090 m in 107 holes. In 1997, YGC experienced financial problems related to its largest shareholder BYG Natural Resources Ltd. The property laid dormant from 1998 until 2004.
In April 2005, YGC was relisted on the Toronto Venture Exchange. The company completed 95 diamond drill holes (12 485 m) in 2005 on the Shamrock and Manto zones, and 238 diamond drill holes (29 500 m) in 2006 on the Lab, Tarn, Penguin and Crest targets within the Manto zone. The company also performed trenching on the Nu Zone and channel sampling at the Gully Zone in 2006.
In June 2007, following the acquisition of Queenstake Resources Ltd ,YGC changed its name to Yukon-Nevada Gold Corporation. The company completed 363 diamond drill hole (50 000 m) on the Hoodoo, Penguin, Lab, Tarn, Flint and Nose targets within the Manto Zone as well as Shamrock Zone targets - QB, Mountain Top and Gully. Yukon-Nevada also received its Class "A" Water Use License.
In January 2008 Yukon-Nevada released an updated National Instrument 43-101 compliant resource figure for the entire Ketza River property. The figures are based on a cut-off grade of 1.0 g/t gold for material inside the optimized open pits and 3.0 g/t gold for material mineable by underground methods. Total measured resources for open pit and underground equal 712 200 tonnes grading 6.40 g/t gold while total indicated resources for open pit and underground equal 3 369 500 tonnes grading 4.61 g/t gold. Total measured and indicated resources for open pit and underground equal 4 081 700 tonnes grading 4.93 g/t gold.
Yukon-Nevada continued exploratory drilling at Ketza in 2008 to expand the resource, as well as geotechnical work for mine planning. Diamond drilling was performed on the Peel, Penguin, Tarn, Break and Lab targets in the Manto Zone and QB and Gully targets in the Shamrock zone (30 151 m in 223 holes). In 2009, the company continued compiling data and completed a geophysical survey on the Shamrock Zone.
Work history between 2009 and 2014 not yet summarized.
The company released a resource estimate dated January 25 2010, and the accompanying report is dated June 28 2011 (Yukon Nevada Gold, 2010). The resource includes all results from drilling till the end of 2008, but not the results of the 2009 and 2010 drilling.
In October 2012, the company anounced a name change to Veris Gold Corp.
Capsule Geology
The deposit is located southwest of the Tintina Fault Zone in the Cassiar Terrane (Platform). The Cassiar Terrane is a curvilinear shelf which formed, between mid-Cambrian to Silurian time, roughly parallel to the western edge of the North American craton, but separated from it by the Selwyn Basin. Shallow water deposition on the platform continued until Late Devonian time. Block faulting and local uplift during the Late Devonian and Mississippian resulted in deposition of carbonaceous shale and chert pebble conglomerate in the Selwyn Basin and across the Cassiar Terrane.
The occurrence area covers a portion of the Lower Cambrian Rosella assemblage/suite (unit ICR) composed of limestone, argillaceous limestone, fossiliferous limestone and lesser marble, calc-silicate, calcareous phyllite, minor schist and the Ingenika assemblage/suite (unit PCI4) composed of siliclastics, minor limestone schist, minor amphibolite and marble (Gordey and Makepeace, 1999). The Rosella and Ingenika assemblages/ suites are thought to be intruded at depth by a mid- Cretaceous felsic pluton of the Cassiar Suite (unit mKqC) which caused uplift and served as a source of heat for the mineralizing fluids.
On the Ketza River property, gold occurs in sulphide and oxide replacement manto deposits hosted by Lower Cambrian limestone, and in quartz-sulphide fissure vein and stockwork systems. The mantos occur in massive, crystalline limestone located south of the west-plunging Peel Creek anticline, and the vein and stockwork deposits occur in Lower Cambrian argillite and phyllite on its north limb (Stroshein,1996). Two phases of ductile deformation, followed by thrusting and extension, affected the Ketza River mine area (Fonseca, 1998). An extensional event (D4) coincided with the timing of mineralization. There is no regional equivalent of the D4 event and D4 may represent a brittle response to the emplacement of a pluton (Fonseca, 1998).
Manto type oxide ore was mined underground from the Peel and the Ridge zones (a single orebody deformed by a southeast-overturned fold) between 1988 and 1990, recovering approximately 3.1 million grams of gold. The oxide ore consists of hydrous red ferric oxide (limonite and goethite) and variable amounts of fine clay mixed with quartz fragments. Fine grained free gold can be concentrated from the oxide ore by panning. The oxide material is mostly friable, although a harder, shiny hydrous iron oxide known as "hisingerite" occurs around higher grade ore containing more than 20 g/t Au. The highest grade material in the Peel zone was concentrated in the nose of the fold.
In the Ridge Zone, a relict pyrrhotite-chalcopyrite stockwork, now reduced to boxwork-textured oxide material, forms an envelope around a core of higher grade earthy-textured oxides.
Manto sulphide ore in the Peel zone consists mainly of massive pyrrhotite with 5 to 10% arsenopyrite and 0.5 to 1% chalcopyrite. Pyrite is locally common, but galena and sphalerite are extremely rare. Free gold 0.5 to 25 microns across occurs with native bismuth and chalcopyrite along fractures and sulphide grain boundaries or as inclusions in pyrrhotite and pyrite. The gold content of the deposit is highest in the centre and coincides with a higher proportion of arsenopyrite in the massive sulphide. Contacts between the massive sulphide manto and the wall rocks are sharp and the wall rocks are dolomitized.
Exploration carried out during mining production located 19 additional mineralized zones, including the Gully, QB, Break, Nu, Lab, Tarn and Knoll zones. Oxide ore from the Break, Nu, Tarn, Ridge and Gully and the QB vein was mined in open pits in 1989 and 1990. The Fork zone discovered in 1995 contains an estimated oxide resource of 43 000 tonnes grading 10.1 g/t Au.
Magnetometer and EM surveys were useful for locating sulphide deposits, but only prospecting and close-spaced soil geochemistry (gold only) was successful in locating oxide deposits. In the Shamrock zone, a 1996 diamond drill hole intersected 75.4 m grading 1.56 g/t Au.
In 1997 YGC Resources estimated total current reserves of oxide and sulphide type ores, (all categories), remaining in the immediate area, at 234 000 tonnes grading 10.9 g/t Au. Oxide reserves, all categories, include 16,400 tonnes grading 9.2 g/t Au at the Nu zone and 43,000 tonnes grading 10.1 g/t Au at the Fork Zone. Sulphide reserves, all categories, of the Peel West, Peel East and Lab Zone are estimated at 175,000 tonnes grading 11.94 g/t Au.
In 2004, YGC commissioned a technical report updating the mineral resource on the Ketza River property. Results within the Manto style zones south of the Peel Fault at a 1.0 g Au/t cutoff indicated a total of 5.06 million tonnes averaging 2.98 g Au/t classed as measured plus indicated and an additional 6.27 million tonnes averaging 1.76 g Au/t classed as inferred. Results for the Shamrock zone at a 1.0 g Au/t cutoff indicated a total of 2.59 million tonnes averaging 2.19 g Au/t classed as indicated and an additional 4.03 million tonnes averaging 1.92 g Au/t classed as inferred.
In Jan 2008 Yukon-Nevada released an updated National Instrument 43-101 compliant resource figure for the entire Ketza River property. The figures are based on a cut-off grade of 1.0 g/t gold for material inside the optimized open pits and 3.0 g/t gold for material mineable by underground methods. Total measured resources for open pit and underground equal 712 200 tonnes grading 6.40 g/t gold while total indicated resources for open pit and underground equal 3 369 500 tonnes grading 4.61 g/t gold. Total inferred resources for open pit and underground equal 1 080 000 tonnes grading 3.26 g/t gold. Grade estimations were made using the inverse distance squared estimation method. Unlike previous resource estimates, a hard geologic boundary was used to tightly constrain resource shapes in three dimensions. Four block models were defined for the four zones (Peel, Penguin-Lab, Shamrock and Tarn). Each block model consists of a framework with 5m cube blocks. Wireframes of the 52 mineralized envelopes were used to assign a percentage inside the envelope. Any block with more than 0.5% inside a mineralized envelope was assigned a code corresponding to the wireframe.Work history between 2009 and 2014 not yet summarized.
The company released a resource estimate in a report dated June 28 2011, effective January 25 2010 (Yukon Nevada Gold, 2010). The resource includes all results from drilling till the end of 2008, but not the results of the 2009 and 2010 drilling. Resources for the Peel, Penguin, Lab-Hoodoo, Tarn, Gully, QB and Knoll zones were calculated at Various cut-off grades were used for the varying oxidiation states and potential mining scenarios. Cut-off grades used were: 0.78g/t Au for open pit oxide and 3.44g/t for underground oxide resources; and 1.0g/t Au for open pit sulphide and 4.43g/t Au for underground sulphide resources.
Combined open pit and underground, sulphide and oxide resource is calculated as follows: MEASURED RESOURCE is 167,800 tonnes grading 5.38g/t Au, containing a total of 29,000 oz Au (902 kg), INFERRED RESOURCE: 2,212,300 tonnes grading 5.46g/t Au containing a total of 388,700 oz Au (12,090 kg), and INFERRED RESOURCE: 453,700 tonnes grading 4.62g/t Au containing a total of 67,300 pz (2093kg).
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