Exploration History
Staked in Jun/22 as a group of about 25 claims, of which the most important were single claims Carrie (14672) by L.B. Erickson, Blackhawk (14676) and Snowdrift (14669) by W. McKay, and Margaret (14702) by N. Marquis. Consolidated Mining & Smelting Company Ltd (predecessor company to Cominco Ltd) optioned the Carrie claim in Dec/26 and drilled 762.0 m in 1929 before dropping the option. McKay drove an 18 m adit on the Blackhawk claim in 1926 and 1929. The Margaret claim was surveyed in 1927 and taken to lease in Oct/30.
The Carrie claim was restaked as Rit, etc cl (55329) in Apr/45 by Yukon Northwest Exploration Ltd, a Leitch Gold Mines Ltd subsidiary, and sold to Hoyle Mining Company Ltd, a Ventures Ltd subsidiary, in Nov/46. The property was explored briefly in 1948 by East Bay Gold Ltd, which shipped 143 tonnes in 1949, and was transferred to Beaver River Silver Lead Mines Ltd in Apr/52, and to Ventures Claims Ltd (both Ventures Ltd subsidiaries) in Jan/59. The Rit group was taken to lease in 1953. The Margaret lease was held in 1948 by Yukon Lodes Ltd.
Recent staking around the leased claims include the Mac, etc cl (61588) in May/51 by M. McCallion, who explored with a 3.7 m shaft in 1952; the Pat cl #2 (Y6309) by P. Callison and Law cl #1 by L. Brown in Jun/66; Sam cl 1-8 (Y31831) in Mar/69 by P. Versluce; McCal cl 1-10 (Y95231) in Aug/74 by C.A. Lindstrom; and the Beaver cl 1-8 (YA41621) in Mar/80 by Grant Oil Inc, which were transferred to Jamto Resources Ltd in 1981.
Restaked as Snoose cl 1-20 (YC56719) in Jul/2007 by M. Bindig and subsequently entered an option agreement with Northex Ventures Inc. who completed reconnaissance prospecting, trench mapping/verification and geochemical rock sampling. In 2008 Northex Ventures completed additional prospecting, trench mapping and geochemical rock sampling, including locating historic mineral workings outside of the historic Central zone over the Bella (MINFILE 106D 100), Red (MINFILE 106D 102), Falls (MINFILE 106D 103) zones, the Snowdrift Extension vein (MINFILE 106D 104) and White Hill (MINFILE 106D 037) showing.
In 2009, Northex Ventures Inc. was renamed Monster Mining Corp. whom staked the Snoose 21-90 (YD11201) claims in Aug/2009 to wholly expand the borders of the property. Monster Mining Corp. completed a YMIP-funded exploration program completed detailed mapping over the historic Central zone, collection and analysis of 140 soil samples, rock geochemical sampling, prospecting (including the White Hill showing) and petrographic work to verify host lithologies.
In Jul/2010, Monster Mining Corp. added the MK 1-54 (YD34936) claims to the northeast. No work program was recorded until 2011 whereby detailed structural mapping, rock sampling and helicopterborne SkyTEM time domain electromagnetic geophysical survey was completed by Monster Mining Corp. No work program was completed on the claims in 2016, at which time they changed their name to Metallic Minerals Corp.
In Oct/2017, Metallic Minerals Corp. expanded the McKay Hill property to the southeast adding the Snoose 91-116 (YF29091) claims. Metallic completed satellite imagery data collection over the property, mapping (1:250- to 1:30,000-scale), prospecting, geochemical rock sampling, hand-pitting over the No. 6 vein and soil sampling (including sampling over the Independence zone, MINFILE 106D 101).
In 2018, the MK 55-96 (YF29201) were added by Metallic Minerals to the west to cover tracked favourable Marmot Group stratigraphy. Metallic completed property-wide mapping and prospecting, cut 16 excavator and hand-trenches which were geochemically channel sampled, and widespread soil sampling (571 samples).
Capsule Geology
The occurrence area is situated on the south slopes of McKay and Horseshoe Hills near the headwaters of Red Gulch approximately 23.5 km northwest of McQuesten Lake. The area was regionally mapped by L. Green (1972) of the Geological Survey of Canada in 1961 as part of a helicopter-supported party known as Operation Ogilvie. The occurrence was interpreted to be underlain by deformed Upper Proterozoic to Lower Cambrian clastic rocks of the Hyland Group. However, industry mapping over 2009-2018 on the project resulted in the interpretation that the host-lithologies in the area are in fact siliciclastic and hypabyssal volcanic rocks interpreted to belong to the Cambrian to Silurian Marmot Group.
Known mineralization at McKay Hill occurs as a series of decimetre to metre-scale quartz-galena ± copper oxides ± sulfosalts veins with banding and localized brecciation parallel to vein walls observed on well-developed veins. In lithological units with high initial porosity such as conglomerates, mafic volcaniclastics and grit (coarse, weakly reworked sandstone), mineralization is frequently observed as matrix replacement-type (in particular on the No 6 vein).
The McKay Hill central zone was historically explored over the No. 1, No. 1 west, No. 2, No. 3, No. 6, No. 7, No. 8, No. 9, North, Snowdrift, Blackhawk, Blackhawk west and Blackhawk east veins via open-cutting. The adit driven in 1948 into the No 6 vein drove into the vein across a width of 3.8m, but it narrowed to 1.2 m within 9 m along strike.
Select historic grab samples reported assays up to 1,302.8 g/t silver, 4.58% lead and 8.84% copper. A picked talus sample of tetrahedrite float returned 2,129.1 g/t silver 9.27% lead 15.04% copper (all assays from Memoir 364, p. 134).
In 1929 the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada Ltd (Cominco) drilled 5 holes targeting the No. 6 vein for a total of 832m. The drill was limited to vertical and horizontal set-ups did not intersect the vein.
In 1948, East Bay Gold Ltd's shipped 143 tonnes of ore from the No. 6 vein, it averaged 390.9 g/t silver and 74.1% lead. According to Memoir 364, "mineralization decreased rapidly as the pits were deepened and disappeared totally within a few feet".
In 1952 a 3.7m shaft was cut into the Blackhawk vein. From 1952 to 2007 the occurrence did not see documented work.
Over the 2007 and 2008 seasons Northex Ventures prospected the Central zone to relocate historic veins and their associated open-cuts, completed geochemical rock sampling over each located historically explored vein. The best results were obtained from the No. 1 and No. 8 Veins, which were not evaluated by Cominco. A 2007 grab sample from the No. 1 vein returned 15.6 g/t Au, 668 g/t Ag, 2.40% Pb, 0.94% Zn and 3.9% Cu with >10,000 ppm antimony and 1410 ppm As. A 2007 1.5m chip sample across the No. 1 vein returned 1.37 g/t Au, 57.2 g/t Ag, 1.51% Pb, 4.70% Zn and 0.63% Cu with 5450 ppm Sb. In addition, a grab from the No. 8 Vein returned 16.8 g/t Au, 646 g/t Ag, 27.0% Pb, 0.14% Zn and 0.64% Cu with 9005 ppm Sb and 120 ppm As.
In 2008, in addition to further prospecting and sampling of the Central zone, the Bella (MINFILE 106D 100), Red (MINFILE 106D 102), and Falls (MINFILE 106D 103) areas were also prospected and sampled. The best gold results were obtained from the Snowdrift (grab- 15.6 g/t Au, 668 g/t Ag, 2.40% Pb, 0.94% Zn and 3.9% Cu) and No. 8 (grab- 16.8 g/t Au, 646 g/t Ag, 27.0% Pb, 0.14% Zn and 0.64% Cu with 9005 ppm Sb) veins. Significant precious metal results were also obtained from the North (1.84 g/t Au, 372 g/t Ag), Blackhawk West (1.14 g/t Au, 100 g/t Ag), Blackhawk (0.90 g/t Au, 484 g/t Ag), No. 6 (0.83 g/t Au, 683 g/t Ag across 1.1m) and No. 1 West Veins (0.765 g/t Au, 502 g/t Ag).
In 2009, soil sampling, detailed mapping and associated petrographic work was completed over the Central zone. During this time the veins were re-interpreted to represent epithermal high-sulfidation mineralization hosted in Marmot Group stratigraphy. Prospecting traverses were completed over the Central zone and included the first modern-day sampling of the White Hill (MINFILE 106D 037) occurrence. 140 soil samples were collected over the central McKay Hill and highlighted a vertical zonation of high-level gold-copper, intermediate-level zinc-copper, into low-level base-metal silver-lead. No work was recorded in 2010.
In 2011, as part of a YMEP-funded program a SkyTEM survey at McKay Hill highlighted several widespread areas on the property with similar geophysical properties to those of the known veins in the Central zone. The survey indicates that known mineralization is associated with a magnetic low on the margins of a magnetic high, interpreted to reflect magnetite destructions associated with carbonate alteration. In addition, Snowdrift Extension vein (MINFILE 106D 104) was located to the east of McKay on the northern side of Horseshoe Hill.
2017 work reported included soil sampling to expand the Central zone and was the first time the No. 6 vein was explored to the southwest via hand-pitting. Sampling highlights reported included 988 g/t Ag and 24.4 g/t Au from the No. 6 vein intersection with the North vein (Metallic Minerals News Release, Oct/2017). Further mapping and prospecting work was completed on the Central zone and over Horseshoe Hill at the Independence zone (MINFILE 106D 101) and White Hill (MINFILE 106D 037). In addition high-resolution orthophotography over the claim block.
2018 highlighted the discovery of numerous new veins via prospecting and trenching. Five of which are in the Central zone, 1 in the West McKay zone (MINFILE 106D 105), 1 in the Bella zone (MINFILE 106D 100), 1 in the Red Zone (MINFILE 106D 102), 2 in the Falls Zone (MINFILE 106D 103), and 1 in the Independence North Zone (MINFILE 106D 104; Metallic Minerals News Release, Sep/2018 and Dec/2018). No new results are available at the time of writing. In addition, Metallic Minerals completed widespread soil sampling expanding the Central zone towards the West McKay, Falls, Bella and Red veins.
