Work History

The original anomaly was discovered in 2000 by J. Bond of the Yukon Geological Survey, during a regional till geochemistry survey.
The occurrence was staked as Spice cl 1-10 (YB93156) in Feb/2001 by Tanana Exploration Inc and I. Elash, who carried out reconnaissance soil sampling, prospecting, hand trenching and rock sampling later in the year. Supplementary till sampling was also conducted by the Geological Survey of Canada in the summer of 2001, across the suspected local ice flow direction.
In Jan/2002 the claims were optioned by Atac Resources Ltd, which added Spice cl 11-14 (YB93615) and Spice cl 19-36 (YB93619) in Feb/2002. During the summer of 2002 the company carried out an exploration program consisting of geological mapping, prospecting, soil sampling and hand trenching. In Jan/2003 Atac dropped the option and returned the claims to Tanana Exploration and Elash.

Capsule Geology

The area is located near the northern part of the Yukon Tanana Terrane, near the boundary with the North American Miogeocline. Outcrop exposure in the area is rare, usually not exceeding 1 to 2%. Thus geological mapping is mainly based on the occasional exposed ridge, creek exposures and rock chips obtained from soil pits and frost heaves.
Recent regional bedrock mapping by Murphy et al., (2001) indicates that the area is underlain by Carboniferous (?) age Finlayson succession rocks comprised mainly of dark grey phyllite, chert, clastic rocks and marble. These rocks are in turn overlain by Middle Permian to Triassic (?) layered rocks consisting of conglomerate, siltstone and basalt. The Finlayson succession is also known to host significant accumulations of felsic meta-volcanic rocks in the region, however none were observed in the occurrence area. The age and correlation between the various units is poorly constrained and are subject to revision as more data becomes available.
Four rock types have been observed on the property; phyllite, conglomerate, rhyolite and listwanite. The phyllite probably belongs to the Carboniferous unit while the conglomerate probably belongs to the Middle Permian to Triassic unit. The source of the rhyolite and listwanite is more uncertain. The rhyolite is believed to occur as dykes cutting the layered rocks. The dykes are either related to the mid-Cretaceous Orchay Batholith located to the northwest on topographic map sheet 105K or (more likely) to younger Eocene volcanics. The listwanite which was only observed by Atac Resources personnel, cold be related to a buried ultramafic intrusion or alternatively to a prominent north-northeast trending fault that trends across the centre of the claim block.
Bond¿s original till sample collected in 2000 (JB00-155), returned 28.9 ppb Au, the highest result from that years sampling program. The sample also returned the highest values for As (484.5 ppm), Sb (151.37) ppm, Hg (2 1020), Tl (1ppm) and Ag (1 374 ppb). Bond felt that these results indicated the potential for epithermal gold mineralization in the area.
Preliminary soil sampling carried out by Tanana Exploration outlined a northwest trending, open ended Au, As, Sb and Hg anomaly overtop the occurrence area. A sample comprised of angular clasts of grey quartz with breccia, collected from a sample pit returned a peak value of 1.05 g/t Au.
Bond returned to the area in 2001 and collected 9 follow-up samples along a north transect that appears to crosscut a bedrock structure. The line traversed across, from south to north, Carboniferous dark grey phyllite, into Permian conglomerate, and back into dark grey phyllite. All samples returned high mercury content, with the highest returning 25 957 ppb Hg. Sample JB01-001-02 located towards the south end of the sample line returned a significant multi-element anomaly including; 13 891 ppb Au, 6 665 ppb Ag, 952 ppm As, 952 ppm Sb and 23 832 ppb Hg. Re-analysis of the remaining pulp by fire assay, as well as ICP-MS assays on the -230 mesh and -80 mesh from the sample split, confirmed the anomaly with nearly identical gold values. Bond concluded that given the thin till cover and abundance of angular bedrock fragments in till at this site, the source of the anomaly is likely proximal, possibly within 50 m of the sample site.
Atac Resources results generally confirmed results obtained earlier by Bond and Tanana Exploration. The best auger sample returned 4.46 g/t Au from a sample site that twinned Bond¿s sample number JB01-001-02. The dominant rock fragment type from this site was highly fractured grey-white rhyolite with graphitic hair line fractures. Hand pits dug on the southern end of the grid revealed an abrupt termination of the rhyolite unit along a north northeast trending fault. Rocks in the immediate vicinity of the fault were found to be enriched with graphite. The best result from hand pits and trenches were 1.21 g/t Au and 0.98 g/t Au. Arsenic and mercury values were elevated for some of these samples but not all. All hand specimens and soil samples collected outside the grid area returned low gold values.

References

ATAC RESOURCES LTD, Dec/2002. Assessment Report #094342 by W.A. Wengzynowski.

BOND, J.D., 2001. Surficial geology and till geochemistry of Weasel Lake map area (105G/13), east-central Yukon. In: Yukon Exploration and Geology 2000, D.S. Emond and L.H. Weston (eds.), Exploration and Geological Services Division, Yukon, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, P. 73-96.

BOND, J.D. AND PLOUFFE, A., 2002. Finlayson Lake Targeted Geoscience Initiative (southeastern Yukon), Part 2: Quaternary geology and till geochemistry. In Yukon Exploration and Geology 2001, D.S. Emond, L.H. Weston and L.L. Lewis (eds.), Exploration and Geological Services Division, Yukon Region, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, p. 209-228 plus 10 fold-out maps.

PLOUFFE, A. AND BOND, J.D., 2003. Till geochemistry of the Finlayson Lake (105G), Glenlyon (105L) and east Carmacks (115I) map areas, Yukon Territory, Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 4479, Yukon Geological Survey Open File 2003-10(D), 1 CD-ROM.

MURPHY, D.C., ET AL., 2002. Finlayson Lake Targeted Geoscience Initiative (southern Yukon), Part 1: Bedrock geology. In: Yukon Exploration and Geology 2001, D.S. Emond, L.H. Weston and L.L. Lewis (eds.), Exploration and Geological Services Division, Yukon Region, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, p. 189-207.

MURPHY, D.C., ET AL., 2001. Preliminary bedrock geological map of northern Finlayson Lake area (NTS 105G), Yukon Territory (1:100 000 scale). Exploration and Geological Services Division, Yukon Region, Indian and Northern affairs Canada, Open file 2001-33.

TANANA EXPLORATION INC, Feb/2002. Assessment Report #094271 by S. Traynor.

61.9925

-131.921110

Assessment Reports that overlap occurrence

Report Number	Year	Title	Worktypes	Holes Drilled	Meters Drilled
094980	2007	Diamond Drill Report on the Spice Project	Diamond - Drilling	3	440
094834	2006	Geological and Geochemical Report on the Spice Project	Soil - Geochemistry
094898	2004	Induced Polarization and VLF Survey at the Spice Property, Ross River Area, Yukon Territory	EM - Ground Geophysics, IP - Ground Geophysics, Line Cutting - Other
094342	2002	Assessment Report Describing Geological Mapping, Prospecting, Soil Geochemistry and Hand Trenching on the Spice Property	Soil - Geochemistry, Bedrock Mapping - Geology, Prospecting - Other, Hand - Trenching
094271	2001	Evaluation Report on the Spice Property (Spice 1-10 Quartz Mining Claims)	Rock - Geochemistry, Soil - Geochemistry, Prospecting - Other, Hand - Trenching