Work History

Staked as Insurance cl 2-8 (66633) and Winter cl 1-8 (66784) as part of the original Vangorda property in Sep/53, by Prospectors Airways Company Ltd on behalf of a syndicate including Noranda Mines Ltd and Kerr Addison Gold Mines Ltd.
A small part of the present DY deposit (5%) was restaked as Bob cl 1-24 (85655) in Nov/63 by Dickson Yukon Syndicate (Faraday Uranium Mines Ltd, Homestake Mining and Development Company, Union Carbide Canada Mining Ltd, United States S & R, Violomac Mines Ltd and T. Lindsley) which carried out geological mapping and limited geochemical and geophysical surveying. The syndicate was later reorganized as Rose Creek Vangorda Mines Ltd and merged with Anvil Mining Corporation to form Pelly River Mines Ltd, which carried out more geophysical surveying and drilled a few holes in 1965-67. The Bob group was restaked as Gale cl 1-66 (Y67319) in Oct/72 by Pelly River Mines Ltd, which carried out drilling in 1974-76.
Most of the DY deposit was staked as DY cl 1-148 (85882) in Mar/64 by Dynasty Exploration Ltd, when some of the original Prospectors Airways claims were allowed to lapse. Dynasty later carried out geophysical surveying and drilling.
The deposit was discovered by a deep drill hole in 1976, following approximately 7,620 m of drilling. It was explored with 12 vertical holes (about 9,144 m) in 1976-77; 11 holes (8,422.2 m) in 1978; 14 holes (about 9,144 m) in 1979; 13 holes (12,626.6 m) in 1980; and 3 holes (about 2,134 m) in 1981. Control of Cyprus Anvil was sold to Hudson's Bay Oil and Gas Ltd and subsequently to Dome Petroleum Ltd in 1981.
Dome's interest was sold in 1985 to Curragh Resources Inc, which drilled 2 pilot holes for an exploration shaft in 1989. The program was continued in 1990 with the completion of a 914 m hole. In 1991, three holes (953.2 m) were drilled to test a fault in the DY deposit, and five holes (953.2 m) were drilled to test the path of a proposed decline. Ten holes (89.7 m) were drilled through overburden to test the proposed portal site.
In Nov/94 Anvil Range Mining Corporation acquired all claims owned by Curragh following the bankruptcy of the latter. The deposit was renamed the Grizzly by the company.
In Jan/98 Anvil Range filed for court protection in order to restructure the company. In Jan/99 Anvil Range's stock was delisted and the company entered bankruptcy proceedings.

Capsule Geology

This is one of five major synsedimentary, stratiform lead-zinc-silver deposits located in an arcuate belt along the south flank of the Anvil Batholith. They are distributed through a 150 m thick stratigraphic interval which occurs at the boundary between phyllite of the Lower Cambrian Mount Mye formation and calcareous phyllite of the Cambrian to Ordovician Vangorda formation. Some of the sulphide lenses are believed to occur at the same stratigraphic level as a discontinuous carbonaceous unit which marks the base of the Vangorda formation. The deposits are considered to be submarine exhalites formed from hot metalliferous brines discharging through sea floor fumaroles along a synsedimentary fault related to lower Cambrian extensional tectonism (Pigage, 1990). The DY deposit consists of three to five massive sulphide layers containing a mineral inventory of 20.3 million tonnes grading 5.7% Pb, 7.0% Zn and 82 g/t Ag using a 9% Pb + Zn cutoff (Pigage, 1990).
The ore horizons lie within a block 2,200 m long, 1,800 m wide and 200 m thick, at a depth of more than 610 m below surface. Mineralization consists of sphalerite, galena, pyrite and minor chalcopyrite. The DY deposit is unusual in having two well defined lobes in plan view, one of which is zinc-rich and the other lead-rich.
The deposit and host rocks are complexly folded, and metamorphosed to upper greenschist facies. Metamorphism is of the high temperature low-pressure type and is related to the intrusion of the mid-Cretaceous Anvil Batholith (85-100 Ma). Detailed mapping in the Vangorda Plateau area has showed that the DY deposit is separated from the Vangorda deposit by the Dixon Creek extensional fault, which has a throw of approximately 610 m.
After Anvil Range assumed control of the property, the company renamed the deposit the Grizzly. As of 31 Dec/1996 Anvil Range estimated that the deposit hosted an Indicated Resource of 17,241,000 tonnes grading 6.39% Zn, 4.85% Pb, 71.6 g/t Ag and 0.75 g/t Au, assuming a 9% combined Zn + Pb cutoff grade with a 10% dilution at zero grade.