Work History

Lode gold exploration on Lower Gold Run began in September, 1900 when a group of 10 quartz claims including the Roberts (138A) were staked along the right limit of the creek between placer claim No. 16 and the mouth of 43 Pup. These claims and several others to the southwest were surveyed in 1901 and 1902, and some of the claims were explored with trenches and shallow shafts until about 1906. A second group of claims, including the Yukon Queen (5107) and Yukon Queen Extension (5142), were staked by J. Payne in 1901 on the left limit of Gold Run and right limit of 34 Pup. These claims, which were surveyed in 1903, covered a gold-bearing quartz vein which was explored by a 50 m adit and two shafts up to 15 m in depth. Several mill tests (of uncertain size) of the vein material were run through the Munger Syndicate's test mill in Dawson. The results were sufficiently promising that by July of 1902, the Yukon Queen Mining Syndicate, which was largely financed by the Munger Syndicate, was formed to develop the property. It appears unlikely that a mill was actually constructed on the site or that additional development work was done on the property, because the claims were allowed to lapse by the end of 1903.

Prospecting continued in the area, however, and a number of new claims were staked on both limits of Gold Run Creek and were explored with trenches and shallow shafts. The Yukon Queen property was restaked in August, 1913 by J. Lloyd as the Red Hill (12343), King Mine (12344), Ratta (12444) and Hilda (12445) claims. Lloyd had driven at least 100 m of tunnel on the claims by 1925 and continued to explore the claims with trenches and shallow shafts until 1930. Lode exploration in Lower Gold Run continued sporadically until about 1936 when interest in lode gold in the Klondike generally declined.

The immediate vicinity of the old Yukon Queen workings was re-staked as the Gold Crest claim about 1942-47 and later as Aime cl 1-2 (15090) in October, 1966 by J.A. Lamontagne.

Re-staked as Deb 1-4 claims (YA5164) in July, 1976 by F. Burkhard. The claims covered the old workings and were explored with bulldozer trenching in 1978. Archer, Cathro & Associates (1981) Ltd on behalf of Dawson Eldorado Gold Explorations Ltd, surrounded the Deb claims with Klam cl 12 (YA65661) in June, 1983. L. Gatenby staked Lass cl 51-58 (YB23633) to the west of Deb cl in August, 1989.

Re-staked June, 1983 as part of a block of 100 G. Hawk cl (YB40728) by W. Hawkes. The G. Hawk claims expired in 1993 however Hawkes re-staked some them as G. Hawk claims (YB44807) in June, 1993. W. Hawkes performed trenching and geological sampling on the G. Hawk cls in June, 1993, and optioned several claims to Wealth Resources Ltd. in September, 1993.

J.S. Christie staked the GR cl 5-26 and cl 58-74 cl (YB44833) overtop expired G. Hawk claims in July and August, 1993. Christie also staked RR cl 51-54l (YB45221) in this area at the same time. C.R. Little staked the R's cl 1-10 (YB45019) and the BFC cl 1-10 (YB45029) in July, 1993. Wealth Resources conducted a soil survey on the BFC cl in August, 1993. C. Little staked the MGR cl 1-8 (YB52331) 1 km west of prospect in July, 1994.

In June, 1996 Barramundi Gold Ltd. staked a large block of Sur claims around the Deb claims.

In 2003, Klondike Gold Corp. (formerly Arbor Resources) staked the nearby FB cl 1-74. Klondike Gold Corp. optioned a 50% interest of their Klondike claims to Klondike Star Mineral Corp. (KSMC), which became a 50/50 joint venture in 2005 and in 2006, KSMC staked the Aime cl 1-26 surrounding the Aime showing. KSMC performed soil and rock geochemistry across the Aime claims from 2006 to 2008. 

Klondike Gold Corp. resumed work in 2011 and purchased Klondike Star Mineral Corp. in 2015 to restore a 100% interest. Soil surveys and prospecting were continued in 2012 to 2014. In 2015, Klondike Gold Corp. performed a ground magnetics geophysical survey and orthophoto imagery. Regional soil sampling and airborne magnetics were performed in 2018 on the Aime claims, along with prospecting and four diamond drill holes (452.5 m). The Aime occurrence is considered part of Klondike Gold's "Gold Run" target area.

Regional & Property Geology

The Gold Run target area hosting the Aime occurrence is located within the Klondike region, which is underlain by the Permian Klondike Schist Assemblage of the Yukon-Tanana terrane (YTT). The Klondike Schist represents a transition from plutonism to arc volcanism that has undergone greenschist facies metamorphism and consists of metaplutonic Sulphur Creek orthogneiss in the west that transitions eastward to a package of metavolcanic and metasedimentary units including: felsic to mafic (quartz-mica ± chlorite) schist, graphitic schist, and quartz augen schist (PKf and PKs). Evidence of five deformation events (D1 to D5) are present in within the Klondike Schist Assemblage as a result of obduction and regional thrusting and faulting related to uplift, which have produced a visible S2 and S3 foliation fabric in the schist units. A major thrust fault, which crosses Gold Run Creek near the occurrence, is marked by lenses of sheared serpentinite, and dips westward at a shallow angle. Rocks beneath the thrust include garnetiferous quartzite and amphibolite. Gold-bearing quartz veins were encountered on both the Yukon Queen and Red Hill claims.

The lithological units of the Klondike region commonly contain both large, foliaform quartz veins associated with D3 folding and thrusting and discordant quartz veins possibly associated with D4 brittle faulting. Mineralization is generally hosted in the discordant quartz veins, however, the exact mineralization age and timing in the Klondike region is currently unknown. A structural mapping program completed by SRK Consulting Inc. in 2018 on the Klondike claims in the Lone Star property area identified a newly defined “D4” fault system interpreted to be the primary conduit for gold mineralization fluids that suggests a younger mineralization age than previously assumed. The white to locally oxidized, discordant veins are generally mineralized with sulphides (pyrite, rare galena, chalcopyrite), as well as visible gold, and are rarely more than 2-3 metres thick. Where present, visible gold is commonly noted along the selvages of both fresh and oxidized pyrite grains and can also occur as free grains within the quartz veins.

Mineralization & Results

Gold mineralization occurs as visible gold within quartz veins within extensive carbonate alteration hosted by weakly foliated mafic schist. The quartz veins are suggested to be only 10 cm to 50 cm in width.

The vein located and explored by a 35 m adit on the Yukon Queen property is reported to dip at 45° to the north or northeast and range from 0.5 to 1 m in thickness. Slickensides are visible on the vein walls and up to 0.3 m of fault gouge is present locally. The wallrock is pyritized and also gold-bearing. A 1.5 m channel sample across 1 m of vein, and including 0.25 m of wallrock on each side, is reported to have assayed 20.6 g/t Au and selected hand samples assayed up to 147.4 g/t Au.

A separate vein on the Ratta claim was drifted between the Yukon Queen adit and 34 Pup. At the Ratta adit, this vein is 6 to 15 cm wide and dips north at about 20°. The wallrocks are pyritized (3% to 4% pyrite) for up to 0.5 m either side of the vein. In 1915, J. Lloyd reported that he had drifted over 21 m on a vein on the Ratta claim that was 36 cm thick, dipped 45° to the northeast, and had yielded assays as high as 308.6 g/t Au with minor Ag.

Vein material visible on waste dumps of the old workings on Lower Gold Run Creek is similar to that from other gold-bearing lodes in the Klondike. It consists of medium- to coarse-grained milky quartz with scattered coarse cubes of pyrite and rare grains of galena. Traces of visible gold were seen in vein material on the Yukon Queen adit dump, and Mortensen et al. (1992) reported ribboned vein material from this location. Samples of fines from the dumps of the Ratta and Yukon Queen adits contain background levels of all elements except gold, which is moderately anomalous in both cases (70 ppb Au and 180 ppb Au respectively).

Mortensen et al. obtained an average homogenization temperature of 310°C and salinity of about 4.3 wt% NaCl equivalent for mesothermal veins of this type in the Klondike area.

Wealth Resources carried out rock and soil sampling on two separate grids located within the G. Hawk claims in June, 1994. The HW Grid was located on the G Hawk claims lying directly north of the Deb claims and the old Payne (also known as the Aime) adit. A total of 44 soil samples were collected from 2 lines. A weak Au and Cu anomaly trending northwest and coinciding with the strike direction of the mineralization reported at the Aime showing was uncovered.

The HW2 grid covered the central portion of the G. Hawk claims and consisted of 7 lines and 256 samples. Two distinct Cu anomalies were outlined by the results. The first anomaly was located in the northwest corner of the grid (183 ppm Cu) and coincides with the location and strike direction of the Doron showing (MINFILE occurrence 115O 132) reported by Debicki in 1985. A second Cu anomaly located to the east (179 ppm) appears to be in line with a small quartz pod uncovered by Teck Corp's placer operation. The quartz pod which contained chalcopyrite and chalcocite returned 59 g/t Au, 187.5 ppm Ag, >10 000 ppm Cu and >10 000 ppm Pb.

The HW2 grid also uncovered two parallel, 250 meter long, narrow, Au anomalies (185 ppm and 150 ppm). These anomalies, which were located in the south central part of the grid, are thought to represent the strike extension of the Doron (MINFILE occurrence 115O 132) showing. Wealth Resource's field work suggests that the Doron is located approximately 800 meters southeast of the location reported in Debicki's 1985 map.

Work performed in 2006 to 2008 on the Aime claims by Klondike Star Mineral Corp. included MMI soil geochemistry that returned anomalous Au values between 9 ppb and 629 ppb Au. Rock geochemistry results from grab samples in 2008 returned 0.31 g/t Au from an irregular white quartz vein in outcrop.

Between 2012 and 2014, Klondike Gold Corp. performed soil surveys in the Aime area (the Gold Run target) that returned anomalous values between 20 ppb and 957.7 ppb Au. Prospecting in 2013 returned two grab samples of 0.68 g/t Au and 0.70 g/t Au and nine samples from 2014 returned values ranging from 3 g/t Au to 26.4 g/t Au.

In 2018, Klondike Gold drilled four diamond drill holes totaling 452.5 m that targeted historic shafts in the vicinity of the Aime showing on the Gold Run target. These holes returned anomalous gold intercepts of 0.99 g/t Au over 1.43 m in GR-160; 0.22 g/t Au over 8.15 m in GR-161; and 1.23 g/t Au over 13.5 m, including 9.51 g/t Au over 1.15 m in GR-162. Soil sampling over the Gold Run target associated with the Aime showing identified five anomalies between Sulphur and Gold Run Creek in 2018 and prospecting results on three of these anomalies returned nineteen samples ranging from 5 g/t Au to 55 g/t Au.