Work History

Staked in Jul/61 as Eagle cl (76323) by Conwest and central Patricia Gold ML, which formed a new company, Tintina Silver ML, to develop the property. Tintina built a 33.5 km winter road from Mile 780 on the Alaska Highway the following winter and completed 557.8 m of drifting, 190.5 m surface drilling (6 holes) and 975.4 m underground drilling (22 holes) in 1962. Fringe claims were held at the time by Frobisher L (Arco cl- 76879) and by a syndicate composed of N.S. Edgar, D.R. Murphy, Magdalena Corp L, Canberra OCL, A. MacGregor, Veezay Helicopters L, and Cordilleran Pet of Can L (Jess and Norm cl - 77206).
After control was sold to a private group in 1967, Tintina explored with geochem surveys in 1968; mapping, hand trenching and 97 holes (3,626.8 m) in 1974; and mapping, geochem and EM surveys in 1975, and added more Eagle cl in Sep/74 and Sep/75. Fringe claims include New cl (Y74260) in Sep/73 to the north by New Senator Rouyn ML which did a little drilling in 1974 and 1981 and Jim cl (Y74575) in Mar/74 to the east by Envoy Res L, which conducted mapping and geochem sampling. Tintina added 100 Cec, etc cl (Y94498) to the south in May/76 and drilled 11 holes (1,230.2 m), in addition to mapping and sampling on the New claims.
The company changed its name to Tintina Mining Ltd and conducted a trenching and sampling program in 1980. Metallgesellschaft performed mapping in 1983 under a brief option. In 1984, Tintina conducted mapping and hand trenching. The property was optioned briefly by Cancord Res in 1986. In 1987, Tintina Mining drilled 15 holes (1,712 m).

Capsule Geology

The property is situated within a hornfels halo up to 3.2 km wide developed in Cambrian limestone and phyllite around a Jurassic-Cretaceous stock. Unmineralized garnet-diopside-epidote skarn occurs locally at the contact. The host rocks consist of three limestone horizons separated by argillite. This sequence displays locally complex structure near the showings, including a northwest trending anticline, minor drag folds and abundant small scale thrust and cross faults. Conwest recognized 22 vein showings in an area of 121.4 ha.
In 1974-75, most of the individual vein zones were reinterpreted as portions of larger, structurally controlled, stratabound deposits within the carbonate horizons. Four modes of mineralization are present. The most important consists of a 90 m long zone of massive to disseminated sphalerite, galena and tetrahedrite in the middle limestone unit (called the Upper Limestone). Mineralization is best developed at the crests of small anticlinal folds close to the overlying argillite (Conwest Showings 1, 2, 3, 4 and 10). Similar showings which contain relatively more sphalerite and are generally smaller, occur in the lower limestone horizon (Conwest Showings 5, 6, and 7). A third type consists of pods of massive galena with minor sphalerite in calcite-quartz veins associated with thrust faults at the base of the uppermost argillaceous limestone (Conwest Showings 8 and 9). The fourth type consists of chalcopyrite in veins, usually within the argilliaceous limestone.
The 1962 sampling indicated an average grade of 1440 g/t Ag, 17% Pb and 9% Zn across a width of 1.5 m. The 1976 drilling, situated between Zones 10 and 15 and in the saddle west of Zone A, did not cut anything of commercial significance. Indicated and inferred reserves were reported as 90,719 tonnes grading 685.7 g/t Ag 6.0% Pb and 10.0% Zn in 1979. The 1980 trenching gave grades of 1,419 g/t Ag, 22.1% Pb and 12.5% Zn across widths 0.3 to 2.1 m over a 150 m length of vein 8.
A new antimony-rich lead-bismuth sulphosalt was identified here in 1967 and given the name Tintinaite. The bismuth end-member is kobellite.
The 1987 drilling returned generally low assays, except for holes 787-05 in the main zone near the adit which assayed 1.1 g/t Au, 48 g/t Ag, 0.1% Pb, and 2.9% Zn over 2.6 m; and T87-14, 700 m to the northwest, which averaged 923 g/t Ag, 11% Pb and 14% Zn over 3 m.