Work History

The Silver Ridge showing was discovered in Aug/54 by G. Fairclough and E. Erickson, who staked it as the Key 3 cl (69103) in August and optioned it until 1957 to Conwest, which drove three 3 short adits (about 23.5m total) and hand trenched in 1955.
The property was optioned in 1958 by R.R. Kirwan, H. Regehr & E. Erickson who drove a 10.7 m adit and drilled 7 x-ray holes (64m) in 1959, and built a 56 km road, shipped 13.2 tonnes of cobbed ore to the Trail Smelter and transferred the claims to a new company, Ketzakey Silver ML in 1960.
Following a legal dispute, the property was optioned from 1964 to 1972 by Silver Key ML, which performed only limited bulldozer trenching.
Restaked as B cl (Y64472) in Jul/72 by Regehr, Erickson & A.M. Riba, who hand cobbed about 46.7 tonnes from the old adits, formed a new company, Iona Silver ML, in 1976 to develop the property, and explored with bulldozer trenching in 1977 and 1979.
In Aug/79, Argorex Gesellschaft zur Gewinning von Bodenschatzen CmbH & C obtained first right of refusal for production financing through an Iona option to TRV Mls Corp, which retained a 5% net smelter interest.
G. Karens tied on Toots cl (YA50431) to the northwest in Mar/80 and explored with hand trenching later the year. Iona optioned its claims to Canamax Res Inc in 1985 and changed its name to Aigner Holdings L in 1981. J. Seward restaked Toots cl as Tea (YA99460) in Oct/86 and hand trenched in 1987.
In Mar/95 R. Berdahl staked D cl 1-2 (YB59266) on the west boundary of the B claims. In Aug/95 Berdahl staked Dad cl 1-13 (YB60965) on the southern boundary of the D claims. One month later Berdahl added Dad cl 14-17 to his claim holdings. In Oct/95 Atna Resources staked Dad cl 18-21 (YB70832).
The occurrence was restaked as B cl 1-10 (YB85402) by R. Berdahl in Jul/96. Berdahl staked D cl 3-4 (YB85400) at the same time.

Capsule Geology

The adits were driven on cross-veinlets that join a main vein striking about 010o and dipping 38o west. The showing consists of a fairly massive lens of galena with minor sphalerite, tetrahedrite, chalcopyrite and jamesonite about 7.3 m long, which averaged 1028.5 g/t Ag and 18% Pb across an average width of 0.9 m. Discontinuous mineralization was traced for a length of 82 m in siderite gangue.
The vein cuts a sequence of argillite, slate and cherty quartzite at the base of a Mississippian felsic volcanic unit. Selected galena specimens reportedly assayed as high as 17 142.4 g/t Ag but most assays contained much less silver. Woodcock reported that No. 2 adit assayed 1110.83 g/t Ag and 17.8% Pb across a 3 m width for a length of 7.4 m and that two bulk samples from No. 1 adit gave an arithmetic average of 1114.3 g/t Ag, 4.8% Pb and 0.35% Cu.
Sampling by A.E. Aho in 1963 indicated that four zones are present that assay from 685.7 to 1817 g/t Ag, and 6.4 to 23% Pb across widths of 0.7 to 1.0 m for lengths of 4.6 to 9.1 m. At least 3 other weaker showings occur within 610 m to the east and southeast.

References

CONWEST EXPLORATION CO. LTD, 1955. Assessment Report #018893 by J.R. Woodcock.

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA Paper 61-23, p. 39-40.

REGEHR, H., ERICKSON, E. and RIBA, A.M., 1972. Assessment Report *#061144 by H.S. Aikins et al.

SILVER KEY MINES LIMITED, Sep/63. Assessment Report by H.A. Briden.

SILVER KEY MINES LIMITED, Sep/65. Prospectus Report by L.G. White.

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA Paper 66-31, p. 64-68.

YUKON GEOLOGY VOL. 2, p. 8-26.