Work History
Staked as Pan cl 1-4 (Y75492) in Jun/73 by G.W. McLeod. Restaked in Nov/76 by G. McLeod & R. Eastman as Sea cl 1-16 (YA8404), which were transferred to Hermanson Holdings Ltd and McNamara Coal Ltd in Mar/77. Withdrawn from staking between 1978-84 as part of the Alaska Highway pipeline corridor.
Restaked as Jube cl 1-10 (YA82536) in Jul/84 by G. McLeod & E. Johnson, who hand trenched in 1985 and added Jube cl 11-13 (YA92624) cl 15-32 (YA92726) and cl 14 (YA92746) in Jul/85.
In Jan/87 Dunvegan Exploration Ltd staked Tog cl 1-16 (YA96648) and Top cl 1-44 (YA96668) on the northwest side of the Jube claims.
In Apr/88 Dunvegan acquired the remaining 10 Jube claims and applied to rename them Tog cl 1-10 (YA82536), (the registration numbers remained the same). In Jul/88 the company restaked the Tog claim block located to the northwest as Got cl 1-16 ( YB20460). During the same month the company also restaked the northwest end of the Top claims as Pot cl 1-16 YB20476) and added Tog cl 11-24 (YB20466) to the 10 renamed Tog claims. The company also carried out bulldozer trenching during the year.
In Dec/88 Dunvegan staked Tog cl 25-44 (YB24638) and in Feb/89 staked Tog cl 45-73 (YB25431) and Got cl 17-29 (YB25460). During 1989 the company carried out road construction, soil sampling, magnetic and VLF surveys and detailed geological mapping on the Main showing centered around Tog claims 1-10 (YA82536).
In Nov/89 A. Angus staked Loon cl 1-53 (YB26920) on the northwest boundary of Dunvegan¿s claim holdings. Angus also staked Poppy cl 1-42 (YB26878), Wolf cl 1-50 (YB27025) and Fox cl 1-50 (YB27973) on the southwest boundary at the same time.
In 1990, Dunvegan collared 8 diamond drill holes (262.5 m) on the Main showing, and collected two hand cobbed bulk samples (80 kg and 26 kg) from the same showing for assay and leach testing. In 1994, the company continued a program of prospecting, bulk sampling and trenching. Dunvegan chip sampled the Main showing in 2003.
Capsule Geology
The area is located on the south side of the Alaskan Highway approximately 25 km west of Johnsons Crossing and 3.5 km southeast of Summit Lake and was re-mapped at 1: 250 000 scale in 1994 by Gordey and Stevens. The area is located entirely within the oceanic Cache Creek Terrane, a terrane composed of structurally complex successions of Mississippian to Jurassic basalt, carbonate, chert and greywacke and ultramafite. An Early Cretaceous granitic intrusion (Hayes Peak) intrudes the terrane 5 km to the east.
The area was originally staked as a chromite prospect. Prospecting in 1972 by G. McLeod uncovered a series of small chromite lenses hosted by peridotite southwest of the gold-bearing structure. The largest chromite lens exposed by trenching measures 1.5 x 0.8 m. The best assay was 49.4% chromite and 14.0% Fe2O3. Traces of millerite were identified microscopically.
In 1982 during a property visit conducted by Noranda Exploration Company Ltd visible gold was found in a siliceous rock on the property. Further prospecting in 1984 determined that coarse visible gold occurs with graphite, galena and sphalerite in a linear zone of quartz and quartz-carbonate veining along the sheared contact between ultramafic and andesitic metavolcanic rocks of the Cache Creek Terrane. The highest gold grades occur along graphitic shears which segment massive quartz lenses in the footwall of a 10 m wide zone of talc-carbonate and quartz-carbonate-green mica alteration along the serpentinized margin of the ultramafic body. At least eight of these narrow, highly mineralized shear fractures occur over a 5 m width, and mapping and sampling in 1989 turned up visible gold at thirteen separate locations over a strike length of 26 metres. A selected specimen of graphitic banded quartz from the northwest end of the showing containing visible gold assayed 1 422.2 g/t gold, >50 ppm silver, 7128 ppm lead and 3 938 ppm zinc. Chip samples assayed as high as 72.6 g/t gold across 0.46 m.
Various geologists who have visited the Tog prospect suggest that its strong structural control, geologic setting, and style of mineralization and alteration, resembles gold deposits of the Atlin area, B.C., and the Motherlode district, California.
Detailed mapping in 1989 indicated that the quartz veins have a minimum strike length of 120 m, and associated graphitic horizons were traceable as VLF conductors over a strike length of 140 m. Total width of the shear zone is estimated to be at least 85 m.
Drilling in 1990 tested the quartz veins up to 30 m down dip, over a strike length of 100 m. Hole 5-90 contained visible gold and returned assays up to 53 g/t gold over 0.18 m. Hand cobbing produced two 50 kg samples, No. 1 with visible gold and No. 2 without. An 80 kg sample made by mixing these two assayed 108.3 g/t gold. Bacon, Donaldson and Associates of Vancouver performed a single scoping test on 26 kg of No. 1 material to determine the cyanidation potential of the ore. The sample assayed 56.81 g/t gold and 112.58 g/t silver. The test showed that 70-80% of the gold could be recovered by gravity concentration.
In 1994 five new trenches were excavated by hand blasting and mucking. Two of the trenches were dug on TOG cl 2 and three were dug on TOG cl 9. A total of twenty-four bulk samples ranging in size from 0.9 kg to 22.6 kg were collected and sent to four different laboratories for analysis. The samples were milled in a small portable ball mill and then assayed by various methods. Results showed a wide variance in values contributed to: a) the method used in assaying and (2) the nugget effect. One laboratory, Lakefield Research, carried out gold recovery by gravity methods. An 11 kg sample returned an average value of 0.23 g/t gold with a 31.8% recovery.
Chip sampling carried out in 2003 across the width of the quartz vein exposed at the Main showing did not return any significant gold values, however three grab samples collected from ultramafic rocks situated in the footwall of the showing returned values of 41.84 g/t, 121.95 g/t and 159.09 g/t gold and 61.7 g/t, 76.0 g/t and 181.4 g/t silver. None of the samples were anomalous for platinum group elements (PGE¿s).
References
ASH, C.H. AND ARKSEY, R.L., 1990: The Atlin ultramafic allochthon: ophiolitic basement within the Cache Creek terrane; tectonic and metallogenic significance (104 N/12); in Geological Fieldwork 1989, British Columbia Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, Geological Survey Branch, Paper 1990-1, p. 365-374.
DUNVEGAN EXPLORATIONS LTD, Mar/92. Property valuation by R.A. Doherty.
DUNVEGAN EXPLORATIONS LTD, Nov/90. Assessment Report #092919 by M.P. Webster
DUNVEGAN EXPLORATIONS LTD, Jan/90. Assessment Report #092869 by D. Copeland.
DUNVEGAN EXPLORATIONS LTD, Mar/94. Assessment Report #093272 by M.P. Webster.
DUNVEGAN EXPLORATIONS LTD, Oct/2004. Assessment Report #094473 by S. Casselman.
GORDEY, S.P. AND MAKEPEACE, A.J. 2003: Yukon Digital Geology, version 2.0, S.P. Gordey and A.J. Makepeace (comp); Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 1749 and Yukon Geological Survey, Open File 2003-9 (D).
GORDEY, S.P. AND STEVENS, R.A., 1994a:Tectonic framework of the Teslin region, southern Yukon Territory; in Current Research 1994-A; Geological Survey of Canada, p.11-18
GORDEY, S.P. AND STEVENS, R.A., 1994b: Preliminary interpretation of the bedrock geology of the Teslin area (105C), southern Yukon; Geological Survey of Canada, Open file 2886 (map, scale 1:250 000).
GORDEY, S.P. MCNICOLL, V.J. AND MORTENSEN, J.K., 1998: New U-Pb ages from the Teslin area, southern Yukon, and their bearing on terrane evolution in the northern Cordillera; in Radiogenic Age and Isotopic Studies: Report 11: Geological Survey of Canada, Current Research 1998-F, p. 129-148.
HART, C.J.R., 1996. Geology and mineralization of the Tog, listwaenite-hosted gold occurrence in southern Yukon Territory. In: Yukon Exploration and Geology, 1995, Exploration and Geological Services Division, Yukon, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, p. 49-56.
YUKON EXPLORATION 1989, p. 34; 1990, p.20, 151.
YUKON MINING AND EXPLORATION OVERVIEW, 1988, p. 17; 1989, p. 6.
