Work History

First staked as fringe claims around the Brown-McDade property in 1943-1944. In 1946-1948, the Webber Vein area was explored by Conwest Exploration Company Ltd. During this period, claims were held nearby by Yukon Range Exploration Ltd (Conwest, Frobisher, & Nova-co Exploration Ltd), Nansen Yukon Mines Ltd. and Colery Yukon Mines Ltd.

Re-staked in June 1958 as Dome cl (73537) and in July 1959 as Joanne cl (74285), which were optioned in 1962 by Mount Nansen Explorers Syndicate (Conwest, Faraday Uranium Mines Ltd, Kerr Addison Gold Mines Ltd, Newmont Mining Corporation of Canada Ltd, Noranda Exploration Company Ltd, J. Rankin, Rio Tinto Cananda Exploration Ltd and, later, Central Patricia Gold Mines Ltd.). Work in 1962, supervised by Newmont, consisted of geochemical surveys, bulldozer trenching and one 107 m drill hole and staking of BM & Jeff cl (77688) in May. In 1963, Mount Nansen Mines Ltd. was formed by the syndicate and the Webber Vein was explored by bulldozer trenching and 3 diamond drill holes (328 m).

Peso Silver Mines Ltd. acquired control of Mount Nansen Mines Ltd. in 1964 and through to 1966 explored the Webber and Heustis Veins by 2,107 m of underground development and 2,226 m of diamond drilling and added the Laura Betty cl (93469) in October-November 1965. Nansen conducted a feasibility study in 1983 and sold the property in 1984 to BYG Natural Resources Inc.

Chevron Canada Resources Ltd. optioned the property from BYG in June 1985 and explored with soil sampling, 2,727 m of excavator trenching and 311.5 m of diamond drilling in 7 holes in 1985; VLF surveys, 9,218 m of excavator trenching and 576.4 m of diamond drilling in 11 holes in 1986; and excavator trenching of 2 trenches and drilled 3 diamond drill holes in 1987. BYG entered into a sub-option agreement with Chevron in 1988 and explored with 10 holes (320 m) and 1,242 m of excavator trenching.

In 1995, BYG continued exploration and development work on their Mount Nansen Project. Three diamond drill holes (890 m) were drilled on the Huestis zone. In preparation for mine production at Brown-McDade (MINFILE occurrence 115I 064), BYG carried out road construction, tailings dam stripping and construction and rehabilitation of mill and mine buildings. BYG also applied for various mining permits and licences. In April 1996, BYG received their Class A water licence which allowed them to begin mining operations. Mining began on the oxidized portion of the Brown-McDade zone (MINFILE occurrence 115I 064).

In February 1999, BYG announced plans to temporarily shut down the Mount Nansen Mine. In March 1999, BYG was placed in receivership and the Nansen mine became a Type II Minesite. In 2004, the court appointed receiver PricewaterhouseCoopers to manage the mines’ assets. In 2007, the receiver sold 199 periphery claims to #101073531 Saskatchewan Corp., which included the Webber zone.

In 2009, 101073531 Saskatchewan Corp. flew a regional airborne and magnetic survey that included the Webber occurrence. A 43-101 technical report by Middleton, 2009, summarizes the Mount Nansen and Tawa properties.

Guinness Exploration Inc. optioned the claims in 2010 and explored with 2 trenches totaling 50 m that were subsequently reclaimed. In 2011, Ansell Capital Corp. optioned the claims from Guinness Exploration and performed geological mapping over the Webber zone.

Regional & Property Geology

The occurrence is located in the Dawson Range within Yukon-Tanana Terrane (YTT). The rocks of the YTT in this region consist of Early Mississipian metamorphic rocks separated into meta-sedimentary and meta-igneous suites (Stroshein, 1998). The meta-sedimentary suite consists of micaceous quartz-feldspar gneiss, schist and quartzite of the Nasina Assemblage. The meta-igneous package is comprised of biotite-hornblende feldspar gneiss and coarse-grained granodiorite orthogneiss with lesser amphibolite.

Four rock types dominate the geology surrounding the occurrence and are comprised of:
1. Paleozoic metamorphic Yukon-Tanana gneiss, quartzite, and amphibolite to the south;
2. Triassic to Jurassic metamorphosed alkali-feldspar-rich plutonic suites;
3. Mid-Cretaceous Mount Nansen Suite andesite, felsic lapilli tuffs, basaltic to latite volcanic rocks; and quartz feldspar porphyry, dacite, latite, and quartz monzonite porphyritic hypabyssal rocks; and
4. Mid-Cretaceous Whitehorse granodiorite.

The Webber vein is in a strong shear zone, striking northwest and dipping steeply west, that cuts highly altered Mississippian schist and gneiss intruded by dykes and stocks of Mid-Cretaceous porphyry.

Mineralization & Results

The Webber zone consists of a quartz vein system which strikes northwest and dips steeply southwest. The system is dominantly comprised of two veins known as the No. 1 and No. 2 veins. The veins form lenses within the shears and consist of quartz, pyrite and arsenopyrite and minor amounts of galena, chalcopyrite, sphalerite and various silver minerals.

These veins are located approximately along the footwall and hanging wall of the fault, respectively, and vary in width from 0.3 m to 2.0 metres. The Webber zone has been explored over 500 metres through a combination of surface stripping, trenching and underground development. The No. 1 and No. 2 veins have been developed over distances of at least 200 m and 250 m, respectively (Denholm et al., 2000; Campbell, 1994). Mineralization occurs in shoots or rods which are typically 25 m in horizontal strike length and 100 m along plunge. Transitions between mineralized and unmineralized sections of vein tend to be very sharp and shoots tend to correlate well with surface mineralization.

The Webber vein returned the best assays from 1985 and included 4.0 g/t Au and 47.0 g/t Ag across 7.0 m from a trench and 10.0 g/t Au and 830.1 g/t Ag across 1.1 m from a drill intersection. 1986 trenching produced the highest trench results of 0.117 oz/ton Au and 3.97 oz/ton Ag over 19 m at the junction with the Flex zone. Drilling in 1987 returned assays of up to 12/2 g/t Au and 2450.3 g/t Ag over 2.1 m at the Webber occurrence.

Historical proved and probable reserves were calculated as 58,584 tonnes of 10.9 g/t Au and 611 g/t Ag for the Webber zone in 1989 (not NI 43-101 compliant). 

Trenching in 2010 by Guinness Exploration returned up to 1.43 g/t Au and 4.03 g/t Ag over 2.2 m in trench WEB10-2.