Work History
Staked as Al cl 2-4 and 6 (88963) in Oct/64 by the Yukon Pacific Prospecting Group (Asarco Inc, Cerro de Pasco Corporation and Duval Corporation of Canada Ltd), which carried out geological mapping and magnetometer surveying in 1965.
Restaked as KF cl 1-8 and DF cl 1-8 (Y17700) in Apr/67 by D. Duncan, who prospected briefly in June before transferring the claims to H. Kepper and Associates. Kepper and Associates carried out airborne magnetometer, EM and radiometric surveying in Jan/68. The property was subsequently optioned in Jun/68 by Montana Mines Ltd, which restaked it as Flip cl 1-16, KF cl 1-8 and DF cl 1-8 (Y27887) in Aug/68 and carried out geochemical sampling in 1968. Montana Mines carried out additional geochemical sampling, magnetometer and EM surveying in 1969. Restaked in Mar/73 as Joker cl (Y72642) by J.C. Turner.
Restaked as MTB cl 1-30 (YA949) in Aug/76 by Cominco Ltd, which carried out IP and magnetometer surveying in 1977, bulldozer trenching in 1979 and added MTB cl 31-69 (YA45981) in Sep/79. The property was optioned briefly by Canamax Resources Inc in 1986.
Restaked as Lance cl 1-6 (YB15739) in Jul/93 by A. Black, who transferred a 50% interest to L. Steigenberger and carried out hand trenching later that year. In Jul/94, Black and Steigenberger added Lance cl 7-12 (YB45922) and Cox cl 1-16 (YB51272) 2.6 km to the southwest and optioned the property to Snowdrift Minerals Inc. Snowdrift immediately carried out EM surveying, geochemical soil and silt sampling, geological mapping, rehabilitated several old trenches and carried out a petrographic examination of the mineralized zone. In Sept/94 Snowdrift added Lance cl 13-39 (YB15739) to form a contiguous claim block with the existing claims in the area.
In 1996, Snowdrift was taken over by Reward Mining Corporation which carried out geochemcial sampling and drilled two holes (246 m) on Lance cl 4 in Oct/96 before abandoning its interest in the claims. Interest in the claims reverted to Black and Steigenberger, who allowed the Cox claims to lapse before optioning the Lance claims to Gee-Ten Ventures Inc which drilled 5 holes (439 m) in 1999.
Capsule Geology
The property was originally staked to cover mineralized float boulders, up to 5 tonnes in size, downhill from an intrusive contact. Galena, sphalerite, chalcopyrite and scheelite are disseminated in weak skarn which is developed in hornfels and argillite of the Devonian to Mississippian Earn Group, near the southwest contact of the Cretaceous Billings Batholith. Grab samples taken by Gifford and Duncan from mineralized boulders averaged 202.3 g/t Ag, 8.1% Pb, 12.8% Zn, 1.1% Cu and trace Au. The tungsten content was not recognized until 1971 when a small specimen returned an assay between 1 and 2% WO3.
Cominco's 1977 trenches exposed a layer of diopside-garnet-epidote skarn more than 213 m long and up to 13.3 m wide. The skarn layer follows a limestone-argillite contact, contains galena, sphalerite and chalcopyrite in disseminations, lenses and thin concordant bands. A chip sample across the massive sulphide band exposed in Trench #2 assayed 397.7 g/t Ag, 0.8% Cu, 3.1% Pb, 5.4% Zn and 0.28% WO3 across 2.0 m. The best sample from Trench #1 assayed 476.6 g/t Ag, 3.04% Cu, 2.05% Pb, 19.6% Zn and 0.73% WO3 across 1.3 m.
Snowdrift¿s soil and silt geochemical surveys delineated two anomalous zones above the skarn zone. Attempts to expand the zone were hampered by thick glacial deposits in the area. Chip sampling of the rehabilitated trenches returned values similar to those previously reported by Cominco. The best results in 1994 were obtained from samples taken in Trench #2 which assayed 80.9 g/t Ag, 0.81% Cu, 5.83% Pb, 9.46% Zn, and 0.22% WO3 over 0.5 m. The HLEM survey located several weak conductors coincident with the trenches in the skarn zone, while the total magnetic field survey revealed an east-west trending magnetic low also coincident with the trenched area.
Drilling in 1996 tested the previously trenched skarn zone and intersected several mineralized bands, which returned up to 11.58% Pb, 9.6% Zn, 43.8 g/t Ag and 0.017% W over 0.91 m and 0.83% Pb, 11.3% Zn, 78.3 g/t Ag and 0.16% W over 1.82 m. The 1999 drilling tested the continuity of mineralization along the magnetic low feature, as well as testing one of the EM conductors. The best intersection from this drilling was in Hole 99-1, from 48.55 to 51.05 m, and averaged 3.1% Zn, 2.33% Pb, 0.12% Cu and 2.33g/t Ag over 2.5 m that included a 0.24 m section that returned 21.4% Zn, 16.9% Pb, 1.18% Cu and 248 g/t Ag.
