Work History

Discovered in Sep/1895 by William Ogilvie. Staked as Carbonate cl (315) in Sep/1899. Restaked as Yukon Beauty & Australia Girl cl (5723) in May/02 and as Jeanerette group (Yukon Maid, Camp Bird & Yukon Chief) cl (7254) in Sep/05 by Jeremiah O'Neill and partners, who drove a 198 m adit and a 15 m raise near the river bank by 1906.
The property was idle until 1926 when J. Lawrence and P. Rost staked the Lava, Beaver, etc cl (15082) around the Jeanerette groups and triggered a small staking rush. Rost later shipped 4.5 tonnes of hand-cobbed float from surface to the Tacoma Smelter. In 1929, J. Risco optioned the property and drove a 39.6 m adit 130 m above the river. H. Wadcock restaked as Macbeth cl (4230) in Jun/42 and Risco restaked as Eureka cl (57764) in Jul/52 and Silver King, etc cl (78604) in Jul/58.
After attempting to reopen his adit, Risco optioned his claims in late 1962 to L. Patnode and W. Kaufman, who drove a 84 m adit 91 m above the river and performed hydraulic trenching in 1962 and 1963. In early 1964, Silver City ML was formed and it continued the hydraulicking in 1964-65 and drove a 56 m adit in 1965 (38 m east of the 1929 adit and 130 m) and drilled two holes (61.0 m). Subsequent work included an EM survey in 1966, a grid soil survey in 1968, an attempt to reopen the lower adit in 1968-69.
Restaked as Plata cl (Y65002) in Jun/71 by L. Patnode, who carried out geochem, mag and EM surveys later that year, built a 62.8 km winter road and bulldozer trenched in 1973, drilled 5 holes (164.6 m) in 1974 and hand trenched in 1976.
Patnode restaked as Allos cl (YA31737) in Aug/78, added DSN & DSS cl (YA47092) to the west in Aug/79 and performed bulldozer trenching in 1979 and hand trenching in 1984, 1986 and 1988. The Allos and SC claims were transferred to K. Potter in Oct/89.
Noranda partially restaked DSN group as SC cl (YA87471) in Jul/85 and staked Kelly cl (YB4934) to the east in Apr/88. R. Wondga performed rotary drilling on the Kelly claims in 1989.

Capsule Geology

The claims cover the north flank of an east-west trending anticline. Mineralized float has been found in the lower 150 m of a 600 m slope in an area of multiple slides caused by erosion along steep faults which strike east-west parallel to the river. Mapping of the slide material on surface and underground indicates that the lower slope is composed of a quartz-carbonate rock, interbedded with sericite-graphite schist, which is overlain by dioritic rocks, and in turn, quartzite and argillite of probable Paleozoic age. Rhyolite porphyry dykes are also present. The quartz-carbonate rock is host to the mineralization, which consists of galena, tetrahedrite, sphalerite, chalcopyrite and siderite.
A stibnite showing occurs about 1.6 km to the west. Grab samples show average silver-lead ratios between 5:1 and 10:1, and silver assays as high as 27 427.8 g/t.
Rost's shipment is supposed to have had a recoverable value of $73/tonne. The 1929 adit is rumoured to have cut 15.8 m of disseminated mineralization before intersecting a 90 cm vein of galena which assayed 20 673.7 g/t Ag. Strong rumours persist that a 9.1 tonne shipment was made about 1902.
The quartz-carbonate rock is interpreted as a flat-lying altered ultramafic sill that lies above the old workings. The 1972 EM survey outlined four EM conductors, two of which had coincident magnetic anomalies. Specimens of silicified andesite containing 1 to 20% stibnite that were taken from the old dump in 1986 assayed 0.07 g/t Au, 1.1% As and 9.5% Sb.

References

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA Paper 66-31, p. 23-24; Paper 88-1E, p. 78.

MINERAL INDUSTRY REPORT 1971-72, p. 15-16

PATENODE, L., 1971. Assessment Report *#061134 by A.C. Ogilvy et al.

PATENODE, L., 1986. Assessment Report *#091876 by T.C. Stubens and B.R. Patnode.

SILVER CITY MINES LTD, Jun/67. Prospectus Report #061677 by P.H. Sevensma.

SILVER CITY MINES LTD, May/66. Prospectus Report by A.R. Parker.

YUKON EXPLORATION 1985-86, p. 393-394.