Work History

Originally staked as the Pioneer (256) cl in August of 1899 by A. Wildhober who later converted the property to a Crown grant. Subsequently surrounded by Porphyry Lode (4252) cl in May of 1900 by P. Bernstein; the Pioneer Extension (4264) by R. Wildhober in June, 1900; and Pioneer A, B (4596, 4597) in June, 1900 by A. Wildhober. The property was explored by shaft and hand trenches until a second surge of lode gold interest in the area in 1908 to 1911, when the Helena (10787) and Helena Fr (11982) were tied on to the west side of Pioneer by W.D. McKay and F.B. Kennedy. A 150 m adit was driven on the Pioneer claim between November, 1903 and October, 1910. In 1912, a shaft 23 m deep with a 3 m crosscut at the bottom was sunk on the Helena cl.

The area was re-staked in 1979 as the ND cl (YA49724) by Klondike Ken Ventures Inc., which did a minor amount of bulldozer trenching near the old Pioneer workings. The property was acquired in 1980 by Dawson Eldorado Gold Explorations, which carried out geological mapping, geochemical sampling and bulldozer trenching from 1981 to 1984.

In June of 1986, the property was optioned to Arbor Resources Inc. Arbor completed linecutting, magnetic, and VLF-EM surveys in 1986 and airborne magnetics, soil surveys, grid geochemistry, EM and IP surveys, and bulldozer trenching in 1987. One rotary hole was also drilled in 1987. W. Dawson tied on Tom cl (YA89142) to the southeast in May 1987.

Kennecott Canada Inc. optioned the property in August of 1992. In 1994, Kennecott carried out a reconnaissance of the entire Lone Star property (including the ND claims), which included digitizing of previous data, geological mapping, rock sampling, trenching, and backpack soil augering. Two diamond drill holes (397.6 m) were drilled on the Buckland Shear Zone located 1.5 km to the southwest (MINFILE occurrence 115O 077).

Kennecott did no significant work on the Pioneer occurrence and in January of 1995 terminated the option agreement. In January of 1996, Arbor Resources Inc. changed its name to Klondike Gold Corp. Klondike Gold Corp. optioned a 50% interest to Klondike Star Mineral Corp. (KSMC), which became a 50/50 joint venture in 2005. Klondike Star Mineral Corp held a 55% interest in the claims in 2005.

Trenching work was performed by Klondike Star Mineral Corp. (KSMC) in 2005 as part of their exploration program and three trenches were dug in the Pioneer area to expose soil and IP survey anomalies noted by Kennecott. Trenching work was performed again in 2006 to resample several historical trenches. In 2007, KSMC drilled five percussion holes totaling 522.7 m after diamond drill equipment trouble in the area. Three of the five holes were drilled near historical workings on the Pioneer occurrence and the remaining two holes were drilled to the north between the Lone Star and Pioneer Zones. Two mini bulk samples weighing 6.6 tonnes and 6.5 tonnes were also taken from historical trenches 96-Tr-17 and 96-Tr-18 in the Pioneer area during the 2007 program.

Klondike Gold Corp. resumed work in 2011 and purchased Klondike Star Mineral Corp. in 2015 to restore a 100% interest. In 2012, Klondike Gold Corp. drilled 4 NQ diamond drill holes (1381.1 m) between the Lone Star (MINFILE occurrence 115O 072) and Pioneer zones. Two NQ diamond drill holes were drilled in 2017 at Pioneer as a step-out from the main focus of the 2017 program, the Lone Star zone.

Regional & Property Geology

The Pioneer occurrence, similar to the Lone Star zone (MINFILE occurrence 115O 072), 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 metavolcanics 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.

The schist at the Pioneer is cut by several north-trending, vertical quartz-feldspar porphyry and plagioclase-phyric mafic dykes. Both types of dykes are locally strongly pyritized, but contain only background levels of gold. A gold-bearing quartz vein approximately 1 m wide has been followed in hand pits, shallow shafts and bulldozer trenches for about 25 m. It strikes 135 degrees and appears to be nearly vertical. Visible gold is present in the vein in one bulldozer trench. Abundant, barren foliaform lenses of metamorphic quartz also occur in the schist. A competent, brittle mafic schist (chlorite-quartz-mica) containing a network of gold-bearing, crosscutting quartz veins was intersected in the 2017 drilling performed by Klondike Gold Corp.

Mineralization & Results

The 1910 adit on the Pioneer claim intersected the gold-bearing quartz vein at a depth of about 40 m. Quartz vein material with visible gold was also reported to have been intersected by the adit at least 80 m north of the vein intersection. Two samples of pyrite and minor galena-bearing vein material on the adit dump collected by R.J. Cathro and J.K. Mortensen in 1982 and 1983 assayed 9.3 g/t Au and 4.8 g/t Au. The 1987 rotary hole intersected 3.43 g/t Au over 1.5 m.

Trenching performed by Klondike Star Mineral Corp. (KSMC) in 2006 on historical trenches in the area returned anomalous gold values up to 1269.3 ppb Au and 1035.6 ppb Au. In 2007, KSMC drilled five percussion holes totaling 522.7 m after diamond drill equipment trouble in the area. All five holes returned intersections of elevated gold values, with the highest intersections including: 0.361 g/t Au over 19.81 m, including 0.652 g/t Au over 9.14 m in hole RC07-PZ-2; 0.43 g/t Au over 3.05 m in hole RC07-PZ-4; and 1.54 g/t Au over 15.24 m, including 7.4 g/t Au over 1.52 m and 2.21 g/t Au over 1.52 m in hole RC07-PZ-5. Two mini bulk samples weighing 6.6 tonnes and 6.5 tonnes were also taken from historical trenches 96-Tr-17 and 96-Tr-18 in the Pioneer area during the 2007 program that returned average gold grades of 0.254 g/t Au and 0.118 g/t Au, respectively.

Klondike Gold Corp. drilled four NQ holes in 2012 to test the Lone Star and Pioneer area at greater depths below surface and to determine the existence of a thrust fault hypothesized to be present at 300 m depth in the target area. Two of the four holes returned elevated gold values with 1.65 g/t Au over 11.6 m, including 2.10 g/t Au and 6.8 g/t Au over 1.5 m in hole 12DDH002 and 3.12 g/t Au over 1.5 m in hole 12DDH003.

In 2017, Klondike Gold Corp. drilled two NQ holes at Pioneer as a 500 m step out along strike from the Lone Star zone that intersected gold in crosscutting quartz veins with up to 0.7 g/t Au over 10.7 m in hole LS17-95. Results from these step-out holes, as well as further infill drilling along strike of Lone Star to the east and west, extended the Lone Star Zone to 1.6 kilometer strike length. The Lone Star zone currently encompasses Pioneer to the west, Lone Star (MINFILE occurrence 115O 072) and the O’Neil (MINFILE occurrence 115O 182) to the east for a total strike length of 4 kilometers. 

Assessment Reports that overlap occurrence