Work History
Staked as Dawn claims (70743) in Jul/55 by M. Kroyden and L. Allen, some of which were refused for not being recorded within the allotted travel time.
Restaked as Marlin cl 1-8 (92903) in Sep/65 by Mount Grant Mines Ltd, which added Lucky cl 1-8 (92940) in Oct/65; carried out geological mapping in 1967; staked Sun cl 1-16 (Y24587) in May/68; and built a 22 km access road, carried out bulldozer trenching, detailed geological mapping and drilled 24 percussion and 10 short holes (884 m) later in 1968.
Contex Silver Mines Ltd staked the Law cl 9-34 (Y29650) in Nov/68 to surround the Mount Grant property and restaked the occurrence as Law cl 35-80 (Y35208) in Jun/69.
Restaked as Eve cl 1-68 and 73-76 (YA75610) in May/83 by D. Stedman, who carried out geological mapping, geochemical sampling and staked Eve cl 77 (YA78233) in Aug/83. The claims were subsequently transferred to Anooraq Resources Corporation Ltd, which carried out rock geochemical sampling and staked Eve cl 79-84 (YA82594) in Jul/84; blast trenching and staked Adam cl 1-6 (YA96407) in Oct/86. Anooraq upgraded the access road in 1987-88; began mining rhodonite and shipped 27.3 tonnes in 1987; 20 tonnes in 1988; and 54.4 tonnes in 1989.
In 1991 the company repaired the road, carried out geochemical sampling, trenching, detailed geological mapping and mined approximately 36.3 tonnes of rhodonite. A similar program of exploration was carried out in 1992 when $62 000 of expensese were filed for assessment.
In Oct/94 the company mapped the main rhodonite showing at a scale of 1:100 and carried out extensive bulldozer trenching. Approximately 57 cu. m of footwall quartzite and rhodonite were excavated and one percussion hole (6.7 m) was drilled to test the extent of gem quality rhodonite at the northwestern end of the desposit.
In Sep/98 Anooraq sold the property to 12633 Yukon Inc, which produced 35 tonnes of rhodonite that year. The numbered company subsquently optioned the property to S. McKeown, who carried out road and reclamation work, drilled 5 holes (150.8 m) in the deposit and completed limited hand held percussion driling near the southern boundary of the claim group in 2000.
Capsule Geology
Manganese-rich skarn lenses are hosted by quartzite, black siltstone and chlorite schist of the Devonian, Mississippian and(?) older aged Nasina assemblage of the Yukon Tanana Terrane. The manganese is believed to have formed as a stratiform synsedimentary deposit, which was later metamorphosed. Antal reported that the mineralization consists of 2/3 rhodonite and 1/3 rhodochrosite and that a chip sample assayed 36.3% Mn across 7.6 m. Hole 68-14 assayed 24% Mn across 15.2 m, but most intersections averaged less than 5% Mn. Some of the rhodonite from the skarn is of gem quality and is being marketed as a decorative building stone.
The skarn zone is 25 m long and 4 to 7 m wide. It has been traced for 100 m to the northwest and 250 m to the southeast. The northwest and southeast extensions are very narrow. Shearer stated that the deposit is highly variable in shape and mineralogy, but can be roughly divided into two mineralogical zones: (1) a northern tephroite-bustaminte-rhodochrosite-quartz-minor rhodonite zone and (2) a southern rhodonite-tephroite-minor rhodochrosite zone.
Manganiferous veins up to 15 cm wide are found as boulder trains at the northwest corner of the property (Minfile Occurrence #105C 018). The veins are discontinuous and include pyrite-chalcopyrite-bornite or galena. A specimen from a 1984 trench returned 291.4 g/t Ag, 25.4% Pb and 0.206 g/t Au.
As of 1994 current reserves stood at approximately 362.9 tonnes of gem quality rhodonite with some potential of additional reserves down-dip.
Work in 2000 was undertaken to outline potentially higher grade zones of rhodonite within the remaining reserves of the deposit. The drill holes intersected semi-massive to massive rhodonite which varied in color from light pink to a mottled dark black and rose-red. No details of the percussion drilling, other than the general location on Eve cl 43, were filed for assessment.
References
ANOORAQ RESOURCES CORPORATION LTD, Oct/84. Assessment Report #091573 by G. Macdonald.
ANOORAQ RESOURCES CORPORATION LTD, Oct/87. Assessment Report #062280 by G. Macdonald.
ANOORAQ RESOURCES CORPORATION, Oct/91. Assessment Report #092977 by J.T. Shearer.
ANOORAQ RESOURCES CORPORATION, Oct/94. Assessment Report #093247 by J.T. Shearer.
FINANCIAL EXAMINER, 11 Sep/68.
GEORGE CROSS NEWSLETTER, 7 Jul/88, 20 Jan/89, 26 Jun/89, 13 Jul/89.
GORDEY, S.P. and MAKEPEACE, A.J., 2003. Yukon Digital Geology, version 2.0, S.P Gordey and A.J. Makepeace (comp); Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 1749 and Yukon Geological Survey, Open File 2003-9(D).
McKEOWN, S., May/2001. Assessment Report #094263 by R.A. Doherty.
MOUNT GRANT MINES LTD, Nov/67. Assessment Report #019863 by J.W. Antal.
MOUNT GRANT MINES LTD, Sep/68. Assessment Report #019864 by J.W. Antal.
MOUNT GRANT MINES LTD, Oct/68. Assessment Report #091106 by J.W. Antal.
YUKON EXPLORATION 1987, p. 88-89; 1991, p. 5.
YUKON EXPLORATION AND GEOLOGY 1984, p. 63; 1998, p. 7.
YUKON MINING AND EXPLORATION OVERVIEW 1988, p. 4.
