Work History

The Moraine occurrence was first staked in 1934/35 as the Moosehide claims (19159). Since, it has been restaked numerous times; in 1947 as Fox, etc cl (57037), in 1954 as Ox cl (67102), in 1961 as Ball cl (75770), in 1966 as the AH 79-93 cl (Y11247), in 1978 and 1981 as Coot cl (YA23457 and YA59995), and in 1989 as Skip cl (YB26357). The claims lapsed between 1990 and 2009 when Strategic Metals restaked the claims as the Hooch cl.

Work completed since 1935 on the Moraine occurrence includes trenching, prospecting, geological mapping, geochemistry, and both ground and airborne geophysics.

Geology

The Moraine showing is located within the Yukon-Tanana Terrane and is generally underlain by Snowcap Assemblage metasediments of late Proterozoic and Paleozoic age. A batholith of the Ruby Range Suite is mapped west of the Moraine property and is of Paleogene age. The batholith consists of various granites, granodiorites, monzonites, diorites and porphyries. A layer of Quaternary sediments covers the showing and therefore there is limited outcrop. As a result, detailed geological maps have been created with a combination of geological and geophysical data.

Near the showing, five metasedimentary units (Snowcap Assemblage) and three intrusive sub-units (granodiorite, andesite and hornblende diorite – Ruby Range Suite) have been identified. The property is floored by a subunit composed of quartz-biotite gneiss and minor micaceous schist, which has a mapped thickness of about 250 m. This subunit is overlain by a 75 m thick package of quartz-rich gneiss to relatively clean quartzite, which is well fractured and generally rusty. The quartzite package is conformably overlain by a 50 m thick section of limestone that comprises white to grey limestone with thin bands of scattered garnets.

The known mineralization on the Moraine property consist of two skarn horizons. The North skarn horizon formed at the quartzite-limestone contact as discontinuous, calc-silicate altered lenses interbedded with limestone. A micaceous schist overlies the North skarn horizon. This schist varied from massive quartz-rich gneiss to highly sheared mica schist. The South skarn horizon is globular in shape (120 by 70 m) and lies near the granodiorite-gneiss contact. Both skarn horizons contain calcite, epidote, actinolite and garnet with local concentrations of magnetite, pyrrhotite, pyrite, chalcopyrite, molybdenum and molybdo-scheelite. Secondary copper minerals such as malachite occur on fractures in other subunits.

Both skarn horizons are variably mineralized. The North skarn has been discontinuously sampled over a 30 m wide by 100 m long area. Samples collected in 2011 yielded values up to 0.391 g/t gold, 25.2 g/t silver, low bismuth (less than 5 ppm), 1.06% copper, 38.6% iron, 804 ppm molybdenum and 930 ppm tungsten.

The South skarn spans a 70 m wide by 120 m long area. Skarn samples collected in 2011 returned values up to 2.1 g/t gold, 425 g/t silver, 55 ppm bismuth, 7.22% copper, 37.3% iron, 178 ppm molybdenum and 740 ppm tungsten. (AR096042 - 2011)