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 soils and EM ground geophysics in 1985; trenching and diamond drilling in 1986; and trenching and diamond drilling of 12 HQ holes in 1987. BYG entered into a sub-option agreement with Chevron in 1988 and explored with 1 holes totaling 45.1 m. A feasibility study was undertaken in 1989 by BYG.
In 1994, BYG drilled five diamond drill holes (188.7 m), performed auger drilling, and undertook geotechnical studies at the Flex occurrence. In 1995, BYG continued exploration and development work on their Mount Nansen Project and drilled eighteen diamond drill holes totaling 600 m. 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 1998, BYG performed overburden stripping at the Flex zone.
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 Flex zone.
In 2009, 101073531 Saskatchewan Corp. flew a regional airborne and magnetic survey that included the Flex 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 Flex occurrence with fourteen diamond drill holes totaling 1,452 m. In 2011, Ansell Capital Corp. optioned the claims from Guinness Exploration and completed eighteen diamond drill holes (3,000 m) and bedrock mapping. Ansell completed additional diamond drilling of six holes (1,883.46 m) in 2012. In 2013, Ansell Capital Corp. performed 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 Flex zone was discovered by Chevron in 1985 and lies between the Webber and Huestis occurrences (MINFILE occurrences 115I 065 and 138). The occurrence consists of narrow, anastomosing quartz veins infilling fractures in Paleozoic basement gneiss and felsic schist that have been weathered at surface resulting in a bleached appearance. The subparallel veins are locally brecciated, range from 5 to 50 cm thick and dip steeply to the west. Alteration is primarily patchy silicification with pervasive argillic alteration around sulphide-rich veins in the hanging wall and footwall. Sulphide mineralization within these altered veins consists of pyrite, arsenopyrite, silver sulphosalts, galena and sphalerite (Anderson & Stroshein, 1997).
Stroshein & Anderson (1997) identified three vein compositions at the Flex zone that consist of:
1. Dark grey, sulphide-rich, opaque, vitreous quartz associated with high-grade Au
2. Massive, grey chalcedonic quartz with angular clasts of brecciated wallrock, and
3. Barren, pale grey, opaque and vitreous quartz veins containing open spaces.
In 1986, exploration of the Flex vein system returned assays up to 4.0 g/t Au and 136.1 g/t Ag over 19.0 m from trenching and 4.4 g/t Au and 244.4 g/t Ag over 7.6 m from drilling. The veins are cut off by a major cross fault at their north end. Possible offsets were located indicate about 1.4 km of right-lateral offset.
Drilling in 1987 showed the mineralization in the Flex Zone is highly erratic, but returned assays up to 21.0 g/t Au and 280.0 g/t Ag over 1.8 m. Historical possible open pit and underground reserves for the Flex zone were calculated in 1989 as 114,851 tonnes of 7.5 g/t Au and 200 g/t Ag (not NI 43-101 compliant).
In 1994, five infill holes on the Flex Zone returned very encouraging results, with some of the better results being: 11.7 g/t Au 767.2 g/t Ag over 1.92 m in hole 94-137 and 14.4 g/t Au 1152.6 g/t Ag over 3.04 m in hole 94-141. Drilling at the Flex by BYG in 1995 returned assays results of up to 15.57 g/t Au and 502.2 g/t Ag over 2.44 m in hole 95-157; 11.96 g/t Au and 142.7 g/t Ag over 1.31 m in hole 95-161; and 6.48 g/t Au and 300.5 g/t Ag over 1.64 m in hole 95-166.
Overburden stripping and geological mapping of the Flex zone in 1998 by BYG revealed that the mineralized veins trend north-northwest, dip steeply to the west and have been offset by cross cutting northeast trending faults with left lateral moverment of up to 26 m. The mineralization is typically epithermal with extensive wall rock alteration, including argillic and phyllic zones.
Diamond drilling performed by Guinness Exploration in 2010 at Flex confirmed previous gold mineralization with significant intercepts of 1.66 g/t Au and 67.91 g/t Ag over 31.25 m, including 12.14 g/t Au and 778.03 g/t Ag over 1.7 m in hole DDH-10-240; 1.77 g/t Au and 115.96 g/t Ag over 24.25 m, including 22.8 g/t Au and 2946 g/t Ag over 0.2 m in DDH-10-241; and 3/52 g/t Au and 119 g/t Ag over 5 m, including 24.4 g/t Au and 1058 g/t Ag over 0.5 m in DDH-10-249.
Diamond drilling performed by Ansell Capital in 2011 and 2012 extended known geology and mineralization to further depths with some of the significant assay results including: 9.12 g/t Au and 193.36 g/t Ag over 15.53 m, including 72.97 g/t Au and 3122 g/t Ag over 0.6 m in DDH-11-271; 7.55 g/t Au and 296.49 g/t Ag over 9.15 m, including 58.59 g/t Au and 1884 g/t Ag over 1.05 m in DDH-11-272; and 60.7 g/t Au and 1069 g/t Ag over 1.26 m in DDH-12-276.
