Work History

First staked as Theodore and Rock cl (15625) by A. Brown and G. Fairclough (Yukon Gold Mining Syndicate) in March 1931. Optioned in November 1936 to Mount Freegold Yukon Mining Ltd., which explored a vein on the Theodore cl with two adits (44.2 m and 10.7 m).

Re-staked as Mayflower cl and Donalda cl 1-8 in November 1939 by G. Fairclough, who carried out trenching. Optioned to Gorski Gold Mines Ltd. in September 1951, which worked only on adjoining ground. Optioned to Ormsby Mines Ltd. in February 1958, which surveyed the claims and took them to lease in 1959. Ormsby was amalgamated into Discovery Mines Ltd. in 1964. Discovery carried out soil sampling in 1974, then optioned the property in 1975 to Rayrock Mines Ltd and Ashland Oil Canada Ltd., which explored with 10 drill holes (1,393.2 m) in 1975.

Esperanza Explorations Ltd. added Gnat cl 1-102 (YA24934) to the north and east in August 1979 and optioned the property in February 1980. The Esperanza option was acquired in May 1980 by Arctic Red Resources Corporation, which carried out geological mapping and grid soil sampling in 1980 and IP, magnetometer and VLF- EM geophysical surveying, trenching and drilled 10 holes (1,193 m) in 1981 before dropping the option.

The Discovery Mines property was optioned to Archer, Cathro and Associates (1981) Ltd. in April 1985 and subsequently sold to Nordac Mining Corporation. Nordac carried out bulldozer trenching, drilling of 8 percussion holes (607 m) and metallurgical testing later in the year in a joint venture with Permian Resources Ltd. In 1986, the joint venture staked Peggy cl 1-5 (YA95146) adjoining the existing claim block to the south and drilled 24 diamond drill holes (2,189 m) to prove up ore reserves and conducted a metallurgical study that was partly funded by the Energy, Mines and Resources Branch of the Canadian Government. In 1987, Nordac changed its name to Big Creek Resources Ltd. and carried out bulldozer trenching and excavator test pitting on the deposit and geochemical sampling of the Peggy claims in a joint venture (Big Creek Joint Venture) with Rexford Minerals Ltd. In 1988, the joint venture drilled 35 shallow rotary holes (1,087 m) to prove-up near surface reserves that might be suitable for a test heap leach operation.

Harris and Associates staked the adjacent Ant etc. cl (YB38142) in July 1993 carried out rock and soil geochemical surveying before transferring them to Richlode Investments Corporation in September 1993. Richlode carried out additional reconnaissance soil and rock sampling in October 1993 and added another Ant claim and six fractional claims (YB46568) in December 1993.

In June 1994, Richlode staked seven more fractional Ant claims and carried geochemical sampling, geological mapping and prospecting on the property. In August 1994, Redell Mining Corporation optioned this and other adjoining properties in the area (Margarete and Red Fox; MINFILE occurrences 115I 053 and 052). In November 1996, the Ant claims were transferred to Redell Mining Corporation, which at this time was developing the adjoining Laforma deposit (MINFILE occurrence 115I 054). All work on the Laforma deposit and adjoining properties was later halted.

In April 1998, the company re-organized and changed its name to FM Resources Corporation, which carried out soil and rock geochemical sampling, trenching and prospecting in peripheral areas of their combined claim holdings during 1999. In 2000, FM returned 76 of 80 claims comprising the Goldstar/Vindicator properties, located to the west, to their original owners and carried out linecutting later that year and limited geological mapping in 2001 on the Peggy and Ant claims and additional line cutting on the Ant claims in 2002. Both these claim groups adjoin the quartz mining leases that encompass the Antoniuk (this occurrence) and the Laforma deposit.

Northern Freegold Resources consolidated the claims in 2006 as part of their Golden Revenue property and performed a property wide VTEM and magnetic airborne survey, including the Antoniuk deposit.

Triumph Gold acquired Northern Freegold Resources in 2015 and the property that includes the Antoniuk deposit is now termed the Freegold Mountain Project.

Regional & Property Geology

The occurrence is partly underlain by Yukon-Tanana Terrane (YTT). The rocks of the YTT in this region consist of Early Mississippian metamorphic rocks separated into meta-sedimentary and meta-igneous suites. The meta-sedimentary suite consists of micaceous quartz-feldspar gneiss, schist and quartzite. The meta-igneous package is comprised of biotite-hornblende feldspar gneiss and coarse-grained granodiorite orthogneiss with lesser amphibolite.

The YTT basement rocks are cut by numerous plutonic and volcanic events from the Mesozoic (Murray & Friend, 2018), including:
1. Early Jurassic Long Lake monzonite to syenite plutonic suites;
2. Mid-Cretaceous Mount Nansen Suite andesite to diorite;
3. Mid-Cretaceous Whitehorse granodiorite, quartz monzonite and granite;
4. Late Cretaceous Casino quartz monzonite;
5. Late Cretaceous Prospector Mountain syenite; and,
6. Quartz feldspar and feldspar hornblende porphyry dykes and plugs.

Mineralization & Results

Early work on the claims was directed toward the northeast striking, steeply west-dipping Rambler vein located on the west side of the claims. A geochemical survey in 1974 discovered the Antoniuk mineralization (AR 092161). Mineralization is present within and adjacent to an intrusive diatreme breccia complex of the early Cretaceous Dawson Range plutonic suite. The breccia and surrounding wall rock are cut by fractures and vuggy 5 mm to 30 cm quartz veins containing minor arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite, tetrahedrite and sulphosalts (AR 092161; AR 062304).

The 1974 and 1980 soil sampling outlined a 430 by 490 m area, open to the south, with anomalous response in arsenic (over 250 ppm) and gold (over 160 ppb) on the northeast side of the claims.

Drilling in 1975 and 1981 outlined a 300 by 450 m area (open to the south) with gold values averaging about 0.5 g/t Au. The best drill intersection was 2.3 g/t Au and 11.7 g/t Ag across 21.0 m. The target, which is located in an area of Yukon that escaped Pleistocene glaciation, is strongly weathered and oxidized to depths of at least 60 m (AR 062304).

Reserves subsequent to the 1987 drill program were calculated at 3,877,900 tonnes grading 1.16 g/t Au, using a cut-off grade of 0.5 g/t Au (AR 062304).

Harris's 1993 geochemical survey on the adjacent Ant claims outlined a coincident Au-Ag-As soil anomaly. Richlode continued Harris's work and in October 1994, three soil lines were run over the southern part of the property. A 250 m wide anomaly was outlined on the ridge top northeast of the Antoniuk property boundary. The multi-element anomaly returned values of 40 to 291 ppb Au, with one sample peaking at >6,667 ppb Au, 1.7 to 12.0 ppm Ag and 444 to 2,338 ppm As. Six rock samples collected from Ant cl 5 and 7F and located northeast of the soil anomaly assayed from 6 to 222 ppb Au and 0.2 to 18.6 ppm Ag. The rocks were collected from a felsic breccia body similar in mineralogy to that on this property (AR 093189).