Work History

Staked in Jul-Aug/23 as a group of 8 claims (including Iron Mask (14866), High Ore (14867), Skookum (14870), Silver Wave (14899), Waterloo (14900) and Don (14979) by J. McLean, Irene (14869) by J.H. Carpenter and Silver Hill (14869) by E. Ervin) and 2 fractions (Silver Horde (16526) and Ed (16504) by J. McLean.
Consolidated Mining & Smelting Company Ltd (forerunner of Cominco Ltd) optioned the claims in 1929, performed hand trenching in 1930, drilled 4 holes totalling 455.7 m and took the claims to lease in 1931.
The claims were acquired about 1946 by Ventures Ltd, which added Peter claim (55453) and others in Aug/46 and transferred them to subsidiary companies Hoyle Mining Company Ltd in May/47 and Beaver River Silver Lead Mining Ltd in Apr/52. The Peter and other claims were taken to lease in Aug/56 and the property was later transferred to Ventures Claims Ltd, now a Falconbridge subsidiary.
Big Creek Resources Ltd optioned the property in spring 1990, trenched and added CR cl 1-36 (YB03751) in August of that year. The company drilled 5 holes totalling 610 m in 1991 before returning the claims to Falconbridge Ltd.
In Jul/2002 Rimfire Minerals Coporation conducted a cusary examination of this occurrence and the neighboring Carpenter occurrence (Minfile Occurrence #106D 040) located 3.5 km to the south.

Capsule Geology

The occurrence area is located at the northern end of Carpenter Ridge, between Skookum Gulch and a branch of Ervin Creek, approximately 38 km due north of McQuesten Lake. The area was regionally mapped by L. Green (1972) of the Geological Survey of Canada in 1961 as part of a helicopter-supported party known as Operation Ogilvie. Although the area has not yet been remapped by the Yukon Geological Survey, C. Roots of the Geological Survey of Canada under contract with the Exploration and Geological Services Division (now part of the Yukon Geological Survey) remapped adjoining topographic map sheets 106D/8 and 106D/7 (East half) in 1990 and topographic map sheet 105M (1997) in the mid-1990's. D. Thorkelson (2000) also under contract with Exploration and Geological Services Division remapped topographic map sheet 106D/16 to the north as part of a larger bulletin. The work of these geologists was incorporated into a geological compilation of the Yukon released by Gordey and Makepeace of the Geological Survey of Canada in 2003. M. Baknes of Rimfire Minerals checked the geology in 2002.
Based on the work of these geologists it is believed that the occurrence area is underlain by Lower Proterozoic Gillespie Lake Group dolomite which has been intruded by Middle Proterozoic resistant dark weathering diorite and gabbro sills and dykes assigned to the Hart River Sills. Mineralization occurs in lenses and disseminations in narrow veins cutting Gillespie Group dolomite of Lower Proterozoic age. The mineralization consists of galena, sphalerite, and pyrite in siderite gangue, and is inferred by Abbott (1991) to be a Mississippi Valley-type replacement deposit of Proterozoic age, similar to the Blende deposit (Minfile Occurrence #106D 064) which lies 32 km to the east.
The mineralization occurs in a highly fractured dolomitic sandstone horizon and is exposed in outcrop and float over a 1 220 m strike length. The host horizon averages about 25 m thick but is erratically mineralized. Trench samples across the best mineralized exposures returned up to 69.4% lead and 308.6 g/t silver over 1.8 m. The best drill intersection from the 1991 program was hole 91-2 which averaged 6.6% lead, 2.9% zinc and 41.0 g/t silver over 5.5 m.
Rimfire Minerals examined and sampled 5 of the main veins which were described as containing massive galena with lesser sphalerite and pyrite, sparry dolomite and quartz. A 50 cm wide chip sample collected from one of these veins returned 64.0% lead, 11.1% zinc and 468.9 g/t silver. Other samples returned similar results.

References

ABBOTT, J.G., Dec/91. Notes from talk presented at Whitehorse Geoscience Forum.

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA, Summary Report 1924, Part A, p. 11-13.

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA, Memoir 364, p. 133.

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).

GREEN, L.H. 1972. Geology of Nash Creek, Larsen Creek and Dawson Map-Areas, Yukon Territory. Geological Survey of Canada, Memoir 364.

RIMEFIRE MINERALS CORPORATION, Dec/2002. 2002 Technical Report on the Carpenter Project. A report prepared for Department of Energy Mines & Resources, Yukon Government, Yukon Mining Incentives Program. YMIP # 02-042 available from EMR Library.

ROOTS, C. 1990. Geology of 106D/8 and 106D/7 (east half) map area; Exploration and Geological Services Division, Yukon, Indian and Northern Affairs, Canada, Open File 1990-3.

ROOTS, C.F., 1997. Bedrock geology of Mayo area, central Yukon (105M). Exploration and Geological Services Division, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Geoscience Map 1997-1, 1:50 000 scale.

ROOTS, C.F., 1997. Geology of the Mayo Map Area, Yukon Territory (105M). Exploration and Geological Services Division, Yukon, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Bulletin 7, 82 p.

THORKELSON, D.J., 2000. Geology and mineral occurrences of the Slats Creek, Fairchild Lake, and “Dolores Creek” areas, Wernecke Mountains (106D/16, 106C/13, 106C 14), Yukon Territory. Exploration and Geological Services Division, Yukon, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Bulletin 10, 73p.

WHITEHORSE STAR, 4 Aug/90.

YUKON EXPLORATION 1991, p. 5, 10.

64.50

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