Work History

The O’Neil occurrence was included within the DE cl (YA55250, etc) staked by Dawson Eldorado Exploration 1981 who performed soil sampling and an orthophoto survey that year. Geological mapping and soil geochemistry was carried out during 1983-1984.

In June 1986, Arbor Resources Inc. optioned the property and performed airborne magnetics, VLF-EM and VTEM and ground VLF-EM and IP geophysical surveys over the Lone Star property, including the O’Neil claims, in 1987. Mechanical trenching and soil sampling were also performed, as well as rotary drilling of four holes (87-R-53 to 87-R-56). Rock sampling and geological mapping was performed over the O’Neil occurrence claims in 1988.

In 1990, Arbor performed further ground IP, magnetic and resistivity geophysical surveys over the Lone Star claims, including the O’Neil claims. A follow-up rotary hole (90R39) was also drilled at O'Neil  during the 1990 program.

In August 1992, Kennecott Canada Inc. optioned the Lone Star properties, including the O’Neil claims. In 1994, they carried out a reconnaissance assessment of the entire Lone Star property consisting of geological mapping, rock sampling, trenching and backpack soil augering. Soil samples were collected across the entire property. The soil auger was able to penetrate up to 1 m in depth and samples were collected every 25 m on approximately 1 km spaced lines.

In January 1995, Kennecott terminated the option and in January 1996 Arbor changed its name to Klondike Gold Corp. No further work was performed on the O’Neil claims until 2004 when Klondike Gold performed trenching, soil and rock sampling, and geological mapping.

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 Lone Star claims in 2005 and performed trenching on the O’Neil claims. The on-site bulk sampling gravity mill was also upgraded during this time, however, no bulk samples from O’Neil were analyzed. In 2006, KSMC drilled 3 NQ diamond drill holes, as well as performed trenching and ran a ground IP geophysics survey over the property.

Klondike Gold Corp. resumed work in 2011 and purchased Klondike Star Mineral Corp. in 2015 to restore a 100% interest. In 2011, Klondike Gold and Klondike Star performed soil sampling across the O’Neil claims. Work performed in 2012 consisted of surficial terrain mapping by AECOM Consulting based on 1996 1:25000 aerial photographs, as well as rock and soil sampling.

Klondike Gold Corp. performed ground magnetics and orthophoto surveys over the Lone Star area in 2015, including the O’Neil claims. Work performed in 2017 consisted of three NQ diamond drill holes (LS17-97 to LS17-99), 35 line kilometers of ground 3D-IP survey, prospecting, and soil sampling. In 2018, Klondike Gold ran an airborne magnetics survey over the entire property, including the O’Neil claims, and conducted detailed regional and structural mapping using SRK Consulting Inc. 

Regional & Property Geology

The O’Neil occurrence, similar to the Lone Star (MINFILE occurrence 115O 072) and Pioneer (MINFILE 115O 150) occurrences along trend, 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.

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.

The O’Neil occurrence is currently encompassed within the Lone Star zone, consisting of three known mineral occurrences: Lone Star (MINFILE occurrence 115O 072) in the centre, Pioneer (MINFILE occurrence 115O 150) to the east and O’Neil to the west for a total strike length of approximately 4 kilometres. Similar to the Lone Star occurrence, 2017 holes drilled at O’Neil by Klondike Gold intersected zones of pyritic intermediate schist crosscut by quartz veining.

Mineralization & Results

Mineralization at the Lone Star zone is commonly noted as visible gold contained in crosscutting, discordant quartz veins or disseminated within intermediate (quartz-mica ± chlorite) schist units. The presence of finely disseminated gold within large intervals of intermediate to mafic schist (quartz-mica ± chlorite schist) units in the nearby Lone Star (MINFILE occurrence 115O 072) area above and directly adjacent to the “D3” Bonanza Fault was first noted in 2016 by Klondike Gold and M. Grimshaw (2018). Grimshaw (2018) attributes disseminated gold deposition to porosity in the schist unit developed in pressure shadows around pyrite formed during greenschist metamorphism in the region. Disseminated gold mineralization and gold mineralization within veins can occur across widths of up to 130 meters and depths of 50 to 100 meters in the Lone Star zone, which encompasses the O’Neil occurrence.

Soil sampling work performed on the DE claims hosting the O’Neil occurrence in 1981 by Dawson Eldorado Exploration returned Au anomalies up to 2000 ppb Au. Smaller soil anomalies were returned in the 1984 soil sampling program at O’Neil, ranging from 15 ppb to 100 ppb Au. Trenching performed by Arbor Resources in 1987 returned significant Au samples in iron oxide altered muscovite schist two trenches: 0.069 oz/ton over 5 feet in 87TR16 and 0.011 oz/ton over 5 feet.

No significant results were returned in the 1990 rotary hole drilled by Arbor Resources at O’Neil, however, a resistivity low was noted in the geophysical survey that likely corresponds to a fault structure. Arbor’s 1994 regional soil sampling survey returned anomalous gold values ranging from 101 ppb to 205 ppb Au at O’Neil.

Three trenches, TR04-09 to TR04-11, were excavated by Klondike Gold Corp. (formerly Arbor Resources) in 2004. One of the trenches, TR04-10, returned up to 19 g/t Au.

One trench (06-TR-07) and three diamond drill holes (06-ON-14 to 06-ON-16) were completed in 2006 by Klondike Star Mineral Corporation (KSMC). Trench 06-TR-07 returned several anomalous Au results, including 279.3 ppb Au over 5 m. All three drill holes also returned elevated gold intersections, including: 0.9 g/t Au over 4.0 m in 06-ON-14; 0.355 g/t Au over 17 , including 0.646 g/t Au over 7.65 m in 06-ON-15; and 0.66 g/t Au over 13.7 m in 06-ON-16.

Klondike Gold Corp. drilled three NQ holes at O’Neil in 2017 that returned anomalous gold intercepts of 0.6 g/t Au over 13.7 m and 0.3 g/t Au over 52.6 m (including 0.5 g/t Au over 13.3 m) in holes LS17-97 and LS17-98, respectively. A large soil sampling survey in 2017 identified a 4 km strike length anomaly that includes the O’Neil occurrence with gold values ranging from 75 ppb Au to 2,891 ppb Au in the anomaly core. Prospecting results from the 2017 program returned samples of quartz veins in subcrop with gold values of 4 g/t Au and 0.5 g/t Au.
 

Assessment Reports that overlap occurrence