General Information
Capsule
Work History
Porphyry potential in the area was first recognized in late 1969 by several exploration groups while most of it lay within the large claim block surrounding the Mt Nansen vein property. During 1970, the Swiss interests controlling Mt Nansen Mines Ltd. explored the porphyry potential with stream sediment and soil geochemical sampling and airborne magnetometer, EM and K40 surveying. The portion of the claims beyond the mill site and developed vein systems were optioned from 1971-1975 by Area Exploration Company, a Cyprus Exploration Corporation Ltd. subsidiary.
Mt Nansen Mines Ltd. transferred its interest to BYG Natural Resources Inc. in 1984. Chevron Canada Resources Ltd. optioned the BYG property in June 1985 and re-staked the west side of the occurrence as TBR cl 1-8 (YA86690) in May 1985 and EEK cl 1-18 (YA87210) to the east in June 1985. BYG encountered financial difficulties at the end of 1996 and suspended most exploration activities. 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 Old Timer, Flex, Webber and part of the Huestis zones.
In 2009, 101073531 Saskatchewan Corp. flew a regional airborne and magnetic survey that included the Old Timer occurrence.
Guinness Exploration Inc. optioned the claims in 2010, but did not perform work at the Old Timer occurrence. In 2011, Ansell Capital Corp. optioned the claims from Guinness and performed trenching and mapping at Eliza E (MINFILE occurrence 115I 143) to the south of Old Timer.
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.
A porphyry copper-molybdenum complex (MINFILE occurrence 115I 066) is found in the northeast section of the property, with argillic and propylitic alteration haloes covering the remainder. The porphyry complex occurs at the intersection between a major northwest structure and an east-west fault. Copper and molybdenum ± gold and silver occur in a porphyry stock and phyllic-altered granodiorite. Surface leaching and oxidation is variable, but can reach considerable depths. A steeply dipping, northwest-striking epithermal vein system which formed peripheral to the porphyry migrated inward during cooling and collapsed, creating a complex system of overlapping mineralization including: porphyry Cu-Mo-Au-Ag; northwest striking mesothermal quartz-pyrite-gold veins; and northwest striking epithermal quartz-Au-Ag-Pb-Zn-Cu veins.
Mineralization & Results
The Old Timer occurrence is a northwest-trending zone of phyllic altered quartz monzonite and granodiorite in the peripheral zone of the porphyry complex (Hart, 1997). Mineralization is present as pyrite in quartz veining and breccia. Sampling in 1995 returned values of up to 9.22 g/t Au and 8.0 g/t Ag.
