General Information
Capsule
Work History
First staked as fringe claims around the Brown-McDade property in 1943-1944. In 1946-1948, the Nansen area was explored by Conwest Exploration Company Ltd. During this period, claims were held nearby by Yukon Range Exploration Ltd (Conwest, Frobisher, & Nova-co Exploration Ltd), Nansen Yukon Mines Ltd. and Colery Yukon Mines Ltd.
Re-staked in June 1958 as Dome cl (73537) and in July 1959 as Joanne cl (74285), which were optioned in 1962 by Mount Nansen Explorers Syndicate (Conwest, Faraday Uranium Mines Ltd, Kerr Addison Gold Mines Ltd, Newmont Mining Corporation of Canada Ltd, Noranda Exploration Company Ltd, J. Rankin, Rio Tinto Cananda Exploration Ltd and, later, Central Patricia Gold Mines Ltd.). In 1963, Mount Nansen Mines Ltd. was formed by the syndicate.
Peso Silver Mines Ltd. acquired control of Mount Nansen Mines Ltd. in 1964. Nansen conducted a feasibility study in 1983 and sold the property in 1984 to BYG Natural Resources Inc.
Chevron Canada Resources Ltd. optioned the property from BYG in June 1985 and explored with two trenches in 1985; trenching in 1986; and thirteen trenches in 1987. BYG entered into a sub-option agreement with Chevron in 1988 and explored with 5 holes totaling 158.8 m.
In 1995, BYG continued exploration and development work on their Mount Nansen Project. Prospecting was undertaken at the Orloff-King occurrence. In April 1996, BYG received their Class A water licence which allowed them to begin mining operations. Mining began on the oxidized portion of the Brown-McDade zone (MINFILE occurrence 115I 064).
In February 1999, BYG announced plans to temporarily shut down the Mount Nansen Mine. In March 1999, BYG was placed in receivership and the Nansen mine became a Type II Minesite. In 2004, the court appointed receiver PricewaterhouseCoopers to manage the mines’ assets. In 2007, the receiver sold 199 periphery claims to #101073531 Saskatchewan Corp., which included the Orloff-King zone.
In 2009, 101073531 Saskatchewan Corp. flew a regional airborne and magnetic survey that included the Orloff-King occurrence. A 43-101 technical report by Middleton, 2009, summarizes the Mount Nansen and Tawa properties.
Guinness Exploration Inc. optioned the claims in 2010 and explored the Orloff-King occurrence with 10 trenches totaling 1061 m. In 2011, Ansell Capital Corp. optioned the claims from Guinness Exploration and completed four diamond drill holes (607.46 m) and one trench (49.3 m). In 2013, Ansell Capital Corp. performed two lines of IP ground geophysics over the occurrence.
Regional & Property Geology
The occurrence is located in the Dawson Range within Yukon-Tanana Terrane (YTT). The rocks of the YTT in this region consist of Early Mississipian metamorphic rocks separated into meta-sedimentary and meta-igneous suites (Stroshein, 1998). The meta-sedimentary suite consists of micaceous quartz-feldspar gneiss, schist and quartzite of the Nasina Assemblage. The meta-igneous package is comprised of biotite-hornblende feldspar gneiss and coarse-grained granodiorite orthogneiss with lesser amphibolite.
Four rock types dominate the geology surrounding the occurrence and are comprised of:
1. Paleozoic metamorphic Yukon-Tanana gneiss, quartzite, and amphibolite to the south;
2. Triassic to Jurassic metamorphosed alkali-feldspar-rich plutonic suites;
3. Mid-Cretaceous Mount Nansen Suite andesite, felsic lapilli tuffs, basaltic to latite volcanic rocks; and quartz feldspar porphyry, dacite, latite, and quartz monzonite porphyritic hypabyssal rocks; and
4. Mid-Cretaceous Whitehorse granodiorite.
Mineralization & Results
The Orloff-King occurrence was discovered in 1986 by Chevron Exploration and is located approximately 1 km northeast of the Webber zone (MINFILE occurrence 115I 065). The occurrence consists of quartz veins and limonitic fractures that dip 45°to the southwest (AR 092701) in weak to moderately magnetite-enriched andesite, andesitic flows and flow breccias tested over a 280 m strike length. Mineralization is present as grains of pyrite and galena noted within narrow sulphide breccias zones during diamond drilling.
Trenching in 1986 and 1987 by Chevron Exploration traced the zone over a 250 m strike length. Assays from the trenches averaged 0.050 oz/ton Au and 1.85 oz/ton Ag across 11.5 m.
2010 trenching by Guinness focused on un-finished trenches to the northwest of known mineralization with peak grades of 7.05 g/t Au and 34.7 g/t Ag over 0.7 m.
Drilling in 2011 by Ansell Capital at the Orloff-King Zone intersected Ag, Pb and Zn mineralization in narrow sulphide breccias zones. Assays from drilling returned up to 1.73 g/t Au and 30.55 g/t Ag over 1.9 m and 4.39 g/t Au and 1.3 g/t Ag over 0.3 m in DDH-11-267, as well as 1.36 g/t Au and 48.69 g/t Ag over 0.55 m in DDH-11-268. Trenching results from 2011 also returned elevated gold and silver values with assays of up to 0.227 g/t Au and 8.8 g/t Ag over 6.0 m.
