Work History

The north end of the Venus Vein system was staked in Sep/01 by J.M. Pooley, A.B. Palmer & J.M. Stewart as Venus, Uranus, etc (3768) and was transferred in 1905 to Conrad Cons ML, which explored with at least 914 m of drifting from four adits and three shafts and constructed a 460 m aerial tramway and a 91 tonne mill, at a total cost of over $750 000 between 1905-12. The claims were taken to lease in 1912 by Yukon District Gold Mg CL. About 1830 tonnes were mined, mostly from the Venus 2 claim, but only a small portion was milled due to poor recoveries. The remainder was hand sorted and shipped directly to smelters at Ladysmith and Tacoma. Lessees, mainly Lackinaw and Tagish ML in 1916 and Can Harper Mg Corp L and Montana-Yukon Mg CL in 1920, shipped 1556 tonnes of high grade ore worth $120 000 and 03 tonnes of concentrate worth $26 000, according to one report. C.E.G. Brown estimated in 1963 that 2450 tonnes averaging 21.9 g/t Au and 2338.2 g/t Ag were shipped between 1910 and 1920.
The south end of the main Venus vein, plus the Red Deer and Humper veins, were mostly staked in 1904-06 and were known as the Dail-Fleming group (Venus Extension, Nipper, Beach, Red Deer, Ruby Silver & Humper 1 & 2 claims). These were optioned by the Anglo-American Cons C from 1906-08, by Conrad Cons ML briefly in 1908, and by Caribou Mg CL in 1917. They were explored with at least five adits and three shafts.
In 1922, Maybell MC put in a 975 m adit on the Maybelle fraction adjoining the Venus Mine. In 1928, Yukon Gold Co acquired the Venus Extension, the Ray cl (19024) and Peggy cl (19023) but did little work.
Except for examination by Treadwell Yukon ML in 1919, Hollinger in 1922, Yukon Gold ML in 1929, Transcontinental Res L in 1946-47 and Giant Yellowknife in 1963, the property was idle until 1966. Between 1940 and 1960, the property was consolidated by the Tagish Lake Synd, which sold it in 1966 to Venus ML. Venus built a road from Carcross, completed 2059 m of drifting, 387.7 m of raising and 2191.8 m of u.g. drilling from two adit levels (2700 ft and 2600ft). Production commenced in Sep/70 and by Jun/71, when the mine was closed because of poor recoveries (68% Au, 79% Ag, 84% Pb & 73% Zn) and heavy losses, the mill had treated 58 900 tonnes grading 5.8 g/t Au, 181.7 g/t Ag, 3.7% Pb and 2.5% Zn.
The Tagish Lake Synd property was optioned in 1979 by United Keno Hill ML, which added GHI cl (YA24093) in April, resampled the underground workings, drove 295 m of crosscuts off the 2600 Level and drilled 27 holes (1378 m) below the level later in the year. Between Oct/80 and Oct/81, about $9 million was spent on construction of a new 91 tonne/day mill, 10 km south of the adit, but production was deferred because of low metal prices. Exploration in 1984 consisted of 324 m of drifting, plus two raises (193 m) on the 2850 Level and 108.5 m of sublevel drifting from the raises. In addition, 9 diamond drill holes (1430 m) and 31 rotary holes (2819 m) explored the Venus and Uranus Vein systems on surface.
Modern fringe staking includes Mars cl (90626) to the north in Sep/64 by Peso Silver ML; Gold cl (Y78168) in Mar/74 by D. Waugh; Columbia cl (Y98410) in May/75 by B. Fitch; Red cl (YA19296) in Jul/77 by R. Piercy; & Rainbow & Sandpiper cl (YB6940) to the north in Aug/87 by J.B. O'Neill & R. Hilker.
A feasibility study on remediation of the mine tailings was planned in summer 1994 under the Federal Arctic Environmental Strategy. In the summer of 1995 the tailings were partially dug up and then sealed in a clay liner. In Aug/95 Raindrop cl 1-2 (YB06940) were tansferred in trust to the Carcross First Nation as partial settlement of their land claim.
In Jul/97 J. O'Neil staked Venus fraction (YB97803) adjacent to the occurrence. In Sep/97 B. Scott staked Au (YC08183) 2.5 km to the north, along the shore of Windy Arm Lake.
Between April and Jun/99, R. Berdahl restaked the occurrence and surrounding area as O'Neil cl 1-4 (YC14558), Neptune cl 1-5 (YC14606), Mars cl 1-3 (YC14601), Neptune cl 6-7 (YC15295), Uranus cl 1-3 (YC15301) and MM cl 1-4 (YC15304).

Capsule Geology

Most of the development has been on the main Venus vein, a north-trending, shallowly west-dipping, quartz fissure vein system which cuts intermediate volcanic rocks of Cretaceous age. The vein has been traced for more than 1.6 km on surface along a steep mountainside overlooking Tagish Lake. Fourteen other veins are present but most have not been explored. The 2700 adit is located 760 m southwest of the original mine on the Venus #2 claim, while the 2600 adit is 365 m northeast of the 2700 adit. The Red Deer vein is located farther uphill to the west, and strikes more northeasterly, whereas the Humper Vein is situated at the south end and strikes easterly.
The Venus vein, which is the strongest structure on the property, ranges from about 8 cm to 2.4 m wide (average 0.9 m) and is surrounded by an alteration envelope up to 3 m wide. Mineralization consists of coarsely crystalline quartz and carbonate carrying irregular bands and pods of pyrite, arsenopyrite, galena and sphalerite with minor tetrahedrite and chalcopyrite. Mineralization on the other two veins was reportedly similar in composition but narrower and less abundant. In the mine, two types of faults cut the vein: weak normal and reverse faults that strike normal to the vein, and strong faults that trend almost parallel and cause the vein to roll, pinch and swell. Most mineralization is concentrated in swells associated with the strong faults.
Twelve ore shoots ranging in length from 14 to 42 m were sampled by Venus ML and gave an average grade of 13.4 g/t Au, 396.0 g/t Ag, 2.6% Pb, 1.7% Zn & 0.09% Cd across a minimum width of 1.2 m. At the start of production, ore reserves were calculated at 68 466 tonnes proven and 53 865 tonnes probable. After the mine closed, remaining reserves were recalculated as 54 364 tonnes proven and 16 017 tonnes probable averaging 9.26 g/t Au, 247 g/t Ag, 2.1% Pb and 1.4% Zn across a 1.5 m mining width. Operational problems were blamed on insufficient cutting of high assays, dilution caused by the flat dip, and poor gold recoveries from arsenopyrite because the cyanide circuit never reached full operation. Resampling and further exploration drifting and drilling by by United Keno Hill Mines Ltd extended mineralization to 170 m below the 2 600 level and led to the calculation of new reserve figures in Jun/80. These figures indicated proven reserves of 54 354 tonnes, probable reserves of 16 017 tonnes and indicated reserves of 38 329 tonnes, grading 7.55 g/t Au, 226.3 g/t Ag, 1.89% Pb and 1.37% Zn.
The 1984 work on the Venus Vein increased proven reserves to 61 689 tonnes grading 10.98 g/t Au, 305.14 g/t Ag, 2.5% Pb and 1.5% Zn. These figures do not include 12 156 tonnes of ore grading 5.83 g/t Au, 147.43 g/t Ag, 1.3% Pb and 0.7% Zn stockpiled at the Venus mill site. The 1984 drilling on the Uranus Vein outlined a zone 50 m long averaging 3.8 g/t Au, 870.8 g/t Ag, 5.7% Pb and 2.6% Zn across 1.5 m.
The paragenesis can be divided into two stages: (1) early quartz-arsenopyrite-pyrite; and (2) late quartz-sphalerite-galena ± Au. Gold occurs with galena primarily as fracture fillings in arsenopyrite. Steeply dipping ore shoots, which are not visually apparent, comprise 20% of the veins and typically contain both types of mineralization. The wallrocks are altered to a sericite-carbonate-quartz-pyrite assemblage with local pods of intense clay alteration. A rare hydrous arsenite of iron and calcium was identified here in 1913 by Tyrrell & Graham and named Yukonite.

References

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA, Summary Report 1905, p. A31-32; 1906, p. A25-26; 1916, p. 39-44.

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA, Paper 68-68, p. 62-64; Paper 69-55, p. 37-38.

MACLEAN, T.A., 1914. Lode Mining in Yukon. Mines Branch Publication 222, p. 188-200.

MINERAL INDUSTRY REPORT 1969-70, p. 115,147; 1971-72, p. 54-55.

PHELPS, J.L. AND SCOTT, J.D., 1960. Summary Report on the Venus Mine. Private report on file at Resident Geologist's office, Whitehorse.

RALFS, KEN, Apr/75. A study of the mineralogy, paragenesis, zoning and wallrock alteration, Venus Mine. Unpublished B.Sc. thesis, University of British Columbia.

SELCO NORTHERN LTD and VENUS MINES LTD, 1966. Assessment Report *#018872 by A.J. Macdonald.

TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 1913, p. 13-18.

UNITED KENO HILL MINES LTD, May/80. Assessment Report *#091114 by K.K.

UNITED KENO HILL MINES LTD, 1987. Assessment Report *#062278 by K.W. Watson.

VANCOUVER SUN, 19 Jun/71.

VENUS MINES LTD, 1960. Assessment Report *#018870 by J.L. Phelps and J.D. Scott.

VENUS MINES LTD, 1963. Assessment Report *#018874 by C.E.G. Brown and J.A. Kelly.

VENUS MINES LTD, May/66. Report by A.J. MacDonald in Venus ML Prospectus.

VENUS MINES LTD, 1966. Assessment Report *#018871 by A.J. Macdonald and J.M. O¿Brien.

VENUS MINES LTD, 1967. Assessment Report *#018873 by A.J. Macdonald and J.M. O¿Brien.

VENUS MINES LTD, Aug/68. Assessment Report *#092550 by C. Bottaro.

VENUS MINES LTD, Oct/68. Feasibility Report by MacDonald Cons L & Acres Western L.

WALTON, L. AND NESBITT, B.E., May/86. Evidence for late stage Au-galena mineralization in the Venus vein. Geological Survey of Canada, Program with Abstracts.

WALTON, L., 1987. Geology and Geochemistry of the Venus Au-Ag-Pb-Zn Vein Deposit, Yukon Territory. Unpublished MSc Thesis, University of Alberta.