Work History
This area was originally explored by individual prospectors for gold veins in the 1930s. The first recorded staking of the area was by R. McKamey, who staked Low cl 9-49 (Y40124) in November 1969. The claims were optioned to Samson Mines Ltd. and Monarch Metal Mines Ltd. who carried out geochemical sampling before allowing the claims to lapse.
Re-staked as Ag cl 1-36 and Au cl 1-40 (Y75866) in July 1973 by E.D. Campbell and G.E. Smith who later optioned them to Prism Resources Ltd. and Dynasty Exploration Ltd. Prism and Dynasty carried out grid geochemical sampling, magnetometer surveying and bulldozer trenching in 1974 and IP surveying in 1975. The claims subsequently lapsed in 1980.
Re-staked as the Seymour cl 1-44 (YA60053) in May 1981 by Arctic Red Resources Ltd., which carried out geochemical sampling. Re-staked as Ken cl 1-16 (YA82495) in June 1984 by G. Harris. Chevron Minerals Ltd surrounded Harris’ claims with EYM cl 1-46 (YA86872) in June 1985 and carried out geochemical sampling and geological mapping in 1985 and 1986. R.A. Granger partially re-staked the Ken claims as Nek cl 1-4 (YA95968) in August 1986.
In 1987, Chevron optioned its claims to Big Creek Joint Venture (Big Creek Resources Ltd. and Rexford Minerals Ltd.), which carried out road work in 1987 and 1988. Big Creek Resources Ltd. purchased the EYM claims in the spring of 1990, and trenched later in the year. Rinsey Mines Ltd. optioned Big Creek's claims in February 1991 and carried out trenching that year. B. and G. Harris re-staked the Nek claims as Daze cl 1-6 and Happy cl 9-10 (YB36050) in July 1991 and G. Harris and Maingold Exploration Ltd. carried out prospecting and trenching in 1992. Harris and Associates conducted blast trenching and soil and rock geochemical sampling in 1993.
In April 1994, G. Harris re-staked the majority of the EYM claims as Glen cl 1-40 (YB46680) and carried out prospecting, trenching and geochemical soil sampling on the Glen claims. During August 1994 the Geological Survey of Canada under the Canada-Yukon Mineral Development Agreement carried out a multi-parameter airborne geophysical survey of the Mount Nansen region including this area. Quantitative gamma-ray spectrometric, VLF-EM and magnetic data were obtained.
In 1996, the Glen claims were optioned to La Rock Mining Corporation which carried out soil sampling later in the year. The eastern portion of the Glen claims were re-staked as Glen cl 11-20 (YC09190) by B. Harris in December 1998. In June 1999 Harris added Glen cl 1-4 (YC15335).
In February 1999, ATAC Resources Ltd. re-staked the occurrence and most of the western portion of the original Glen claims as Sey cl 1-20 (YC09221). ATAC carried out prospecting, geochemical soil sampling and magnetometer surveying in 1999; prospecting in 2001; and prospecting and hand trenching in 2002.
Northern Freegold Resources consolidated the claims in 2006 as part of their Golden Revenue property and performed a property wide VTEM and magnetic airborne survey, including the Stoddart occurrence. Diamond drilling of three holes was performed in 2008. A ground magnetic and VLF-EM geophysical survey was conducted in 2014.
Triumph Gold acquired Northern Freegold Resources in 2015 and the property that includes the Stoddart occurrence is now termed the Freegold Mountain Project.
Regional & Property Geology
The occurrence is partly underlain by Yukon-Tanana Terrane (YTT). The rocks of the YTT in this region consist of Early Mississippian metamorphic rocks separated into meta-sedimentary and meta-igneous suites. The meta-sedimentary suite consists of micaceous quartz-feldspar gneiss, schist and quartzite. The meta-igneous package is comprised of biotite-hornblende feldspar gneiss and coarse-grained granodiorite orthogneiss with lesser amphibolite.
The YTT basement rocks are cut by numerous plutonic and volcanic events from the Mesozoic (Murray & Friend, 2018), including:
1. Early Jurassic Long Lake monzonite to syenite plutonic suites;
2. Mid-Cretaceous Mount Nansen Suite andesite to diorite;
3. Mid-Cretaceous Whitehorse granodiorite, quartz monzonite and granite;
4. Late Cretaceous Casino quartz monzonite;
5. Late Cretaceous Prospector Mountain syenite; and,
6. Quartz feldspar and feldspar hornblende porphyry dykes and plugs.
The major structural feature in the area is the Big Creek Fault with steeply-dipping, northwest-trending dextral faults parallel to the more regional Tintina and Denali faults (AR 097175).
Mineralization & Results
The claims are underlain by Paleozoic hornblende-biotite-feldspar gneiss and schist which are intruded by a roughly elliptical 200 by 490 m stock of hornblende porphyritic syenite of Early Jurassic age. The stock lies within a 425 by 1,160 m area containing swarms of Mid-Cretaceous porphyry dykes of the Mount Nansen Suite. Mineralization discovered by trenching and mapping is present dominantly as pyrite with trace chalcopyrite, malachite and azurite. Trace amounts of molybdenite, magnetite, pyrrhotite, and arsenopyrite are present in association with copper minerals (AR 090906).
The 1993 geochemical sampling program returned highly anomalous values for Au in soil, and moderately anomalous Au values in samples of quartz-arsenopyrite-veined felsic porphyry (AR 093189).
In 1994, ten rocks samples collected on the Glen claims were analysed and returned peak values of 1,164 ppb Au, 1,643 ppm Cu, 5,470 ppm Pb, 762 ppm Zn, 724 ppm As, 804 ppm Sb and > 50.0 ppm Ag. Soil sampling alongside the access road produced several anomalous samples, the best of which returned 574 ppb Au, 197 ppm Cu, 161 ppm Pb, 675 ppm Zn, 2 040 ppm As, 17 ppm Sb and 3.0 ppm Ag (AR 093291).
Diamond drilling in 2008 returned elevated gold and silver values including: 360 ppb Au, 13.4 g/t Ag, and 1.01% Cu over 0.7 m in 08ST-07; 265 ppb Au, 8.8 g/t Ag and 0.68% Cu over 1.1 m in 08ST-07; and 235 ppb Au, 6.0 g/t Ag and 0.46% Cu over 1.0 m in 08ST-09 (Fonesca & Giroux, 2009).