Work History

Staked as Union Mines claims in May, 1898 by W.P. Schnabel, reportedly as a restaking of a showing staked in 1893 by Thomas Kerwin and two others. Kerwin is supposed to have taken out ore assaying $1,200 per ton and to have told the story to his nurse on his deathbed in Juneau. Since there was no government office in Yukon that could accept claims until 1895 (Forty Mile), it is conceivable that earlier claims could have been recorded in Alaska. Schnabel claimed to have found Kerwin's camp but never found rich ore. The Nevada Mines and Cariboo groups were staked uphill about 1906 by C. Bush and W.F. Schnabel. By 1909, workings consisted of 3 adits, the longest of which was 41 m, and an aerial tramway on the Union Mines claims. On the other claims, considerable hand trenching was done. Schnabel reportedly shipped about 10 tons of hand cobbed ore worth about $20 per ton in 1906.
Restaked by C. McConnell as the Export group (18890) about 1927 and as Florence cl (4581) in Jun/46; as Nesjack (60448) and Winnie cl (60493) in Aug/51 by Yukore NL, which mapped, trenched and cleaned out the adit. Yukon E & Dev CL tied on to the Yukore property in 1951-52. Restaked as Darlene cl (73137) in Aug/57 by P. Poggenburg, who enlarged the group in later years and performed hand and bulldozer trenching in 1952-63. In 1964, Cominco conducted a bulldozing and mapping program under option. A small program of geochemical and geophysical surveys and bulldozing was conducted in 1969 and in 1970, a new company, Whitehorse Silver ML, was formed which carried out grid soil sampling in 1971, EM surveys in 1972, and bulldozer trenching in 1974. The adjoining Ida cl (Y23259) were staked Jan/68 by P. Poggenburg and transferred to Idaho Silver ML in March.
Dumb Donkey ML tied on the Dumb Donkey cl (Y75338) in Mar/73, added more claims in 1974 and 1975 to fringe the property on the west, north and east, performed extensive bulldozer trenching in 1974-76, and restaked the old showings between 1976 and 1977. The southeast portion of the property was briefly optioned in 1974 and again in 1978 by Whitehorse Copper ML, which explored with Mag, EM and IP surveys and trenching in 1979. Dumb Donkey performed more bulldozer and hand trenching in 1979, and transferred the property to Annie Lake ML later in the year. Annie Lake performed mapping, geochemical and geophysical surveys in 1980. The property was transferred in 1981 to D. Baird and in 1983 to Avid Gold Res Inc, which trenched later in the year and drilled 2 holes (94.5 m) in 1986. Baird restaked part of his property as Sail cl (YA92057) in Jun/85.
The adjoining New cl (YA82093) were tied on to the south in Jun/84 by Barker Creek Placer E Corp and Silver Mtn Res L and sold to New Era Dev L and Havilah Gold ML, which performed a mag survey in 1985 and a geochem survey in 1986. Avid Gold Res Inc performed trenching and road construction on the Sail and Dumb Donkey claims in 1989, and blast trenching in 1992, and conducted drilling and blast trenching on the Dumb Donkey, Sail and DD claims in 1993.

Capsule Geology

At least a dozen veins were found by the early work within an area 120 m by 370 m. The veins cut greywacke and tuff of the Jurassic Laberge Group. Bleached, silicified alteration envelopes are common around the veins, which appear to be associated with Eocene rhyolite dykes. Both veins and dykes appear to be emplaced along north to northwest-trending faults.
The veins range from 10 to 30 cm wide, and were traced for up to 30 m along strike. Galena, arsenopyrite, and minor sphalerite, pyrite and chalcopyrite occur both in quartz-calcite vein gangue and in the walls of the veins. Early work gave average grades of about 1714 g/t Ag and 40% Pb and up to 3.4 g/t Au. An 8.22 m wide vein zone further uphill contained 3 bands of sulphides 0.5 to 0.6 m wide. Grab samples assayed as high as 4354 g/t Ag, 49% Pb and 6% Zn.
The best assays obtained by A.B. Mawer of Cominco in 1964 were 120.0 g/t Ag, 2.5% Pb, 1.0% Zn and 2.1 g/t Au from a 7.6 m chip sample in a trench, and 41.4 g/t Ag, 27.7% Pb, 1.6% Zn and 6.9 g/t Au from a selected specimen from the same trench. The 1978 work was performed on a new showing which consists of a narrow quartz-carbonate vein striking northwest and dipping 70° southwest. The vein is weakly mineralized with galena, sphalerite, chalcopyrite and pyrrhotite. No anomalies or mineralization were discovered on the New claims.

References

BARKER CREEK PLACER EXPLORATION COMPANY, Jun/85. Assessment Report *#091650 by G.C. MacDonald.

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA Memoir 31, p. 130-139; Memoir 312, p. 135-136.

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA Summary Report 1906, Part A, p. 28; 1930, p. 10-11.

GEORGE CROSS NEWSLETTER, 4 Nov/52.

HAVILAH GOLD MINES LTD, Jul/86. Assessment Report *#091855 by T. Garagan.

MINERAL INDUSTRY REPORT 1971-72, p. 53.

NEW ERA DEVELOPMENTS LTD, Aug/89. Assessment Report #092746 by R.T. Henneberry.

PLACER MINING TIMES, 12 Oct/83.

WHITEHORSE SILVER MINES LTD, Mar/71. Prospectus Report #019940 by T.R. Tough.

YUKON EXPLORATION 1985-86, p. 18, 179.