Work History

Staked as Bit cl 1-6 (93441) in November 1965 by Mount Nansen Mines Ltd, which performed mapping and geochemical sampling in 1966. Area Exploration Company Ltd (Cyprus Exploration Corporation Ltd) optioned the claims in 1971, added Rusk cl 1-39 (Y66939) in August 1972 and explored with grid soil sampling and mapping in 1972-1973.

Re-staked as LD cl 1-14 (YA8225) in September 1976 by G. Dickson, who re-staked as Swiss cl 1-62 (YA24209) in May 1979. Dickson trenched in 1980 and 1981, re-staked as J. Bill cl 1-32 (YA78049) in August 1983, added Rat cl 1-24 (YA81428) to the south and Bull cl 1-8 (YA81420) to the east in February 1984. Dickson trenched in 1984 and added Bull cl 9-28 (YA86288) in December 1984.

Part of the property was optioned in 1986 to Chevron Canada Resources Ltd, which explored with mapping, grid soil sampling, EM-16 surveys and bulldozer trenching in 1986 and 1987 before dropping the option. In October 1994 the J. Bill, Rat and Bull claims were transferred to Dickson's widow, J. Dickson.

In May 1995, Dickson's claims were transferred to Aurchem Exploration Ltd and combined with the company's other claim holdings in the area, which collectively became known as the Discovery Creek project.

In July 1996, BYG Natural Resources Inc signed a letter of intent to explore Aurchem's claims in the Mount Nansen area. Subsequently in September 97, BYG entered into an agreement with Trumpeter Yukon Gold Inc. (a wholly owned subsidiary of BYG) whereby Trumpeter would be entitled to earn a 60% interest in the Aurchem claims by assuming a portion of the financial obligations outlined in the original agreement. As of December 1997, BYG and Trumpeter had not completed the terms outlined in the original letter of intent and negotiated a restructuring of the terms with Aurchem. In February 1999, BYG announced plans to temporarily shut down the Mount Nansen Mine to the southeast of the Rusk occurrence. In March 1999, BYG was placed in receivership and the Nansen mine became a Type II Minesite.

The J. Bill, Rat and Bull claims reverted to Aurchem after the federal government took over maintenance of the adjoining Mount Nansen mine site in July 1999. Aurchem carried out a limited exploration in 2001 and 2002, attempting to find new exploration targets from compilation of existing exploration data. In 2003 the company collected a limited number of soil samples on the J. Bill claims located north of Slate creek. The company also stripped three 75 to 90 m long areas in the same area to allow the ground to thaw out.

In 2009, 101073531 Saskatchewan Corp. flew a regional airborne and magnetic survey that included the Rusk occurrence.

In 2012, Rockhaven purchased the J. Bill claims that include the Rusk occurrence from Aurchem. These claims now form the eastern edge of the Klaza Property. In 2016 and 2017, Rockhaven performed rock and soil sampling at the Rusk occurrence and carried out ground magnetic and IP surveys in 2017.

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 dominant rock type at the Rusk occurrence is an aphanitic, well jointed Mount Nansen Suite rhyolite to dacite.

Mineralization & Results

The original discovery, which was explored by Dickson, is a pyrite-arsenopyrite-galena-sphalerite-quartz vein about 1 m wide that cuts rhyolite of the Mid-Cretaceous Mount Nansen Group.

The 1986 soil sampling outlined four gold-lead-silver anomalies while the EM-16 surveys and bulldozer trenching were relatively ineffective and produced negative results.

The area sampled in 2003 is underlain by medium-grained, dark grey quartz diorite and brown weathering equigranular, medium grained granodiorite. The quartz diorite outcrops west of a previously discovered gold-in-soil anomaly where boulders of granodiorite and rare quartz-feldspar fragments are found in frost polygons. Gold values range up to 217 ppb. A grab sample of clay altered quartz-feldspar porphyry from a frost polygon returned 0.320 g/t gold.