Work History

G. Dickson staked the area around the Pearl occurrence as Etzel cl 1-50 (YA86336) in November 1984. Pearl Resources optioned the Etzel claims in 1986 and performed bedrock mapping and soil and silt sampling over the area.

In March 1995, the Etzel claims were transferred to Aurchem Exploration Ltd. and combined with the company's other claim holdings in the area, which collectively became known as the Discovery Creek project.

In July 1996, BYG Natural Resources Inc. signed a letter of intent to explore Aurchem's claims in the Mount Nansen area. In February 1999, BYG announced plans to temporarily shut down the Mount Nansen Mine to the south of the Pearl occurrence. In March 1999, BYG was placed in receivership and the Nansen mine became a Type II Minesite. The Etzel claims reverted to Aurchem after the federal government took over maintenance of the adjoining Mount Nansen mine site in July 1999. In 2003, Aurchem performed trenching near the Pearl occurrence.

In 2009, 101073531 Saskatchewan Corp. flew a regional airborne and magnetic survey that included the Pearl occurrence. In 2011, Ansell Capital Corp optioned the Discovery Creek property, including the Kelly occurrence, from Aurchem Exploration. Ansell Capital carried out bedrock mapping as well as rock and soil geochemistry in 2011.

In June 2011, Ansell Capital Corp. (Ansell) purchased the Etzel claims from Aurchem and optioned them to Great Bear Resources Ltd. (Great Bear) who drilled three diamond drills holes (696.17 m) and carried out trenching (4 trenches totaling 255.7 m) and soil sampling at the Pearl occurrence.

In 2012, Rockhaven purchased the Etzel claims from Ansell. These claims now form the eastern edge of the Klaza Property. Rockhaven performed trenching at the Pearl occurrence in 2013.

In 2014, Rockhaven carried out a ground magnetic survey and bedrock mapping over the Etzel claims and drilled two diamond drill holes at the Pearl occurrence. In 2016, they carried out rock and soil sampling, hand trenching, IP ground geophysics and diamond drilling of one hole with follow-up hand trenching and sampling in 2017. Further diamond drilling was carried out at the Pearl occurrence in 2019.

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. These basement rocks are cut by numerous plutonic and volcanic events from the Cretaceous and Tertiary.

The oldest exposed unit within the boundaries of the Klaza property is a pluton of the Early Jurassic Long Lake Suite (EJL), which outcrops in the northeast corner. The majority of the property is underlain by coarse-grained, non-foliated Mid-Cretaceous Whitehorse Suite granodiorite (mKW) comprised of 30% hornblende and biotite. A moderate size, quartz-rich granite to quartz monzonite Casino Suite stock (LKq) intrudes the granodiorite in the southeast corner of the property and is thought to be the main heat source for hydrothermal cells responsible for mineralization on the property. A series of northwesterly trending feldspar porphyry dykes (LKfp) emanating from the stock in the southeastern part of the property cut the Whitehorse suite granodiorite in the Klaza occurrence area. These dykes are up to 30 m wide and consist of buff aphanitic groundmass containing up to 15% orthoclase phenocrysts (1 to 2 mm) with minor biotite and rare quartz phenocrysts. The dykes commonly occupy the same structural zones as the mineralized veins and are often strongly fractured. Some veins cross-cut dykes (Turner & Dumala, 2017).

Sub-aerial volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks belonging to the Mount Nansen (mKN) and Carmacks (uKC) volcanics are found on the periphery of the property. These rocks are believed to be extrusive equivalents of the mid and Late Cretaceous intrusions, respectively (Turner & Dumala, 2017).

Mineralization & Results

Mineralization at the Pearl zone is hosted in argillic to locally phyllic and potassic altered granodiorite and consists of semi-massive to disseminated pyrite, arsenopyrite, galena and sphalerite in crosscutting quartz-carbonate veins. Quartz-feldspar porphyry dykes, shear zones and local breccias were noted in association with the Pearl zone.

Soil sampling performed by Pearl Resources in 1986 collected on three separate grids identified linear, northwesterly trending anomalies with maximum values of 310 ppb Au, 54.5 ppm Ag, 1,980 ppm Pb and 1,160 ppm Zn. A chip sample across a 1.0 m sheared vein zone returned 0.99 g/t Au (AR 091870).

Trenching by Aurchem in 2003 tested altered granodiorite, feldspar porphyry dykes and shear zones. The best results were 1.0 g/t Au and 58 g/t Ag over 2.5 m (T-2) and 6.05 g/t Au and 15.3 g/t Ag across 6.0 m (T-4). A 21.5 m wide, northwesterly trending clay-rich zone returned 0.85 g/t Au and 4.5 g/t Ag over 12.0 m (AR 094450). Gold values were also noted throughout the quartz-feldspar porphyry dykes and shear zones.

Trenching was performed by Rockhaven in 2013 with the best interval exposed in TR-13-41S, which averaged 2.85 g/t Au and 20.04 g/t Ag across 10.72 m. This interval included 1.25 m grading 19.75 g/t Au and 148.00 g/t Ag (AR 096667).

Diamond drilling in 2019 by Rockhaven Resources tested the Pearl zone and returned several significant intersections, including: 5.28 g/t Au, 1054 g/t Ag and 5.62% Pb over 1.6 m in KL-19-439 and 7.11 g/t Au, 58.7 g/t Ag and 6.15% Zn over 0.9 m as well as 3.72 g/t Au, 1020 g/t Ag and 17.2% Pb over 0.46 m in KL-19-449 (Rockhaven News Release, 11 Dec/2019).