Work History

The showing may have been discovered before 1887. It was rediscovered in the late 1930s by A.K. Money. Cominco investigated it in 1943 and Money staked it Nov/44 as the Betty and Joyce cl (4322), and again in Mar/49 as the Lakeshore cl (57565).
Restaked in Sep/55 as Cat and Rat cl (71150) by E. Brodhagen, who hand trenched in 1956-57. The showing was investigated by Datlasaka Mines Ltd in 1960-63.
Restaked as Matt cl 1-8 (86874) in May/66 by Matt Berry Mines Ltd, which also staked Jim cl 1-4 (86882) at the same time. In May/66 the company surrounded the claims with Berry cl 1-40 (Y7688). Later in the year the company trenched and drilled 13 diamond drill holes (646 m).
Between the fall of 1968 and the end of 1969 Matt Berry drilled an additional 16 diamond drill holes (1744.8 m) and carried out EM surveys. During the same period Radio Hill Mines Ltd staked Frances cl 1-28 (Y27758) north and south of Matt Berry's claims. Radio Hill optioned the claims to Matt Berry in 1969 and partially funded some of the diamond drilling undertaken that year.
The property was optioned in Sep/70 to joint venture group consisting of Canadian Nickel Company Ltd and Metallgesellschaft Canada Ltd which drilled 4 holes (426.7 m) in 1970.
In 1972, a new option was signed with Nordev Resources Ltd (Nordev Mines Ltd, Silver Key Mines Ltd and Impala Mines Ltd) and in 1973, a 40% interest was acquired by New Joburke Exploration Ltd. Cyprus Anvil Mining Corporation conducted soil sampling, mag and gravity surveys under a brief option and Nordev Resources Ltd made an offer to buy the Matt Berry Mines Ltd interest in 1974.
Restaked as Barb cl 1-8 (YA12548) in Mar/77 by Sovereign Metals Corporation, which added Barb cl 9-15 (YA20216) in Jun/77. The claims were optioned until late 1978 by Welcome North Mines Ltd and New Frontier Exploration Inc which explored with a pulse-type EM survey. Sovereign explored with bulldozer trenching in 1979 and staked Barb cl 17-32 (YA36636). In Feb/80 the claims were optioned to Cominco Ltd, which drilled 5 holes (1 229 m) and added Barb cl 33-175 (YA46974) in 1980 and conducted limited geological and geochemical surveys in 1981.
After Cominco dropped its option, the property was optioned to Tinto Gold Corporation in 1983. Sovereign changed its name to Barytex Resources Corporation in 1986 and optioned the property to Pulse Resources Ltd, which performed magnetic and geochemical surveys and tied on Beth cl 2, (YB00654) and cl 4-27 (YB00655) in Jul/87; cut baselines in Aug/88 and added Binti cl 1-8 (YB15412) in Oct/88; and performed mapping, soil sampling and geophysical surveys in 1989. Pulse Resources drilled four holes (303 m) on the Money zone located 1.5 km southeast of the deposit, before dropping its option in Aug/92.
In Nov/92 Barytex re-organized and changed its name to International Barytex Resources Ltd. The company performed 53 km of linecutting on the Barb, Binti, and Beth claims in Sep/93. and staked Pat cl 1-40 (YB51826) 5 km south of the deposit in Aug/94.
In 1995 International Barytex carried out geological mapping and prospecting on the Pat claims located south of the main Barb claim group. In 1998 the company conducted an airborne EM and magnetic geophysical survey over their entire property.
In Dec/2002 Kobex Resources Ltd optioned the Barb claims with the intention of carrying out an I.P. geophysical survey followed by diamond drilling. In Aug/2003 Kobex decided not to proceed with the work and cancelled the option.

Capsule Geology

The occurrence is located near, the eastern shore of the East Arm of Frances Lake, southeast of Thompson Creek. The area marks the western edge of the Selwyn Basin, where siliclatic and carbonate deposition took place under different tectonic environments, from Late Proterozoic through Triassic.
Dawson reported in 1887 that 'specimens of quartz veins containing iron and copper pyrite, from the east arm (of the lake), about midway up it, were found to contain traces of gold'. The discovery showing in the canyon is a single quartz vein more than 1.5 m wide containing chalcopyrite, galena, sphalerite and pyrrhotite.
Away from the creek canyon, a sheared massive sulphide deposit on trend with the vein has been traced with trenching and drilling for a length of about 300 m and a slope distance of about 350 m. It consists of galena, sphalerite, pyrite, minor chalcopyrite and jamesonite in a sheared and brecciated zone up to 9 m wide, which strikes north-northwest and dips moderately east.
Fonseca (2001) of the Yukon Geology Program examined the general geology of the area while mapping the Matt Berry deposit. The area is underlain by sandstone, limestone and shale that are intruded to the east by the mid-Cretaceous Mt Billings batholith. The sedimentary sequence was orginally thought to be Silurian to Devonian in age. However, recent age dating by the Yukon Geology Program of galena collected from black phyllites at the deposit returned an Ordivician age suggesting that the sedimentary units in the area are coeval with Road River Group rocks. Also, examination of diamond drill core from the Matt Berry deposit revealed that the dark phyllites in the footwall of the Matt Berry zone are underlain by a strongly deformed, quartz-sericite augen schist of probable felsic volcanic protolith. The presence of the felsic volcanic rocks suggests that mineralization in the area, once thought to be mainly sedimentary-exhalative in nature may possess a strong volcanogenic component.
At least three sulphide bands are exposed at surface. In detail, these massive sulphide bands are up to 50 cm thick, lie parallel to the shear fabric and form envelopes around slivers of the host phyllite. Quartz-filled tension fractures also contain sulphides. The deposit is located within 2 km of the contact of the Cretaceous Mt Billings batholith, and the sulphides appear to be extensively remobilized and recrystallized. In Oc/69, Matt Berry Mines estimated total reserves at 376 486 tonnes grading 148.46 g/t Ag, 9.12% Pb, 6.25% Zn and 0.38% Sb.
Reserves calculated at the end of 1977 were 533,434 tonnes grading 6.1% Pb, 4.6% Zn and 102.86 g/t Ag. The deeper 1980 drill holes encountered the favourable horizon but were unmineralized. In 1983 Tinto Gold Coporation calculated that the higher grade core hosted reserves of 200,644 tonnes grading 144 g/t Ag, 7.9% Pb and 7.2% Zn.
A possible extension to the Matt Berry deposit 1.5 km to the southeast (the Money zone) is indicated by mineralized float and a polymetallic soil anomaly coincident with a shallow-dipping IP anomaly. Two parallel northwest-trending conductors extend over a length of 800 m. The upper anomaly is offset by a northeast-trending fault.
Three of the four holes drilled on the Money zone in 1991 intersected a 1 to 2 m wide zone of massive sulphides, however only Hole 91-1 returned significant results, intersecting 0.49 m grading 17 g/t Ag, 1.82% Pb and 5.85% Zn.
Geological mapping carried out on the Pat claims found that the quartz, augen-schist unit mapped on the adjoining Beth claims extends onto the Pat claims, however no mineralization was found. The airborne geophysical program outlined two high priority airborne EM anomalies parallel to and west of the Money zone. Both anomalies are coincident to an IP anomaly identified in an earlier program but not drill tested and appear to be on strike with the Matt Berry zone located one km to the north.