Work History

Glasmacher (1984) reported quartz veins containing anomalous gold from two locations on Little Gold Creek. The downstream location (166A) was staked as part of a group of 8 Big Gold cl (YA87986) in Aug/87 by D. Downes. Downes added more claims and performed bulldozer trenching in 1988.
In Jun/94 the upstream location (166B) was staked as Mallard cl 1-2 (YB48795) by P. Hayduck. In Oct/94 Hayduck staked Mallard 3-4 (YB52732) on Hungry Gulch 5 km to the northeast.
The downstream location was restaked by A. Downes as Mac cl 1-10 (YB54274) in Sept/95. Dredge Master Gold Ltd (T. Turner) staked Mac cl 11-28 (YB88253) in Aug/96 to surround the original Mac claims on three sides. Dredge Master's claims subsequently lapsed and were restaked as Bud cl 13-24 (YC07234) by M. McDougall in Jun/98 and as Mac cl 11-21 (YC12533) in Sep/98 by A. Downs. Teck Corporation staked Glacier cl 1-18 (YC07626) in Jul/98 and Glacier cl 19-26 (YC12170) in Aug/98 immediately to the south of the Bud and Mac claims and carried out prospecting, geochemical sampling and geological mapping in 1999.
Kennecott Canada Exploration Inc optioned the Mac, and Bud claims from their respective owners in 1999 and carried out prospecting, geochemical sampling and airborne geophysical surveying before dropping the options the following year.

Capsule Geology

The area is underlain by Devonian to Mississippian aged Nasina Assemblage graphitic and non-graphitic quartzite, micaceous phyllite, chlorite schist and minor marble of the Yukon Tanana Terrane. Late Cretaceous andesite flows and hypabyssal sills underly the northwest corner of the Mac claims. Further to the east, Late Tertiary volcanic rocks consisting of pyroclastic tuffs and breccias interbedded with silty sediments are overlain by an olivine alkali basalt flow.
Glasmacher and Friedrich (1992) described mesothermal quartz-carbonate-sulphide veins which cut metamorphic rocks in this area. The veins are lenticular, up to 50 cm thick and strike north-northeast. Glasmacher's studies indicate two stages of vein formation. Weakly anomalous gold values are associated with arsenopyrite deposited from high temperature (320-350°C) saline fluids (12.8 wt% NaCl equivalent) of the first stage. Base metal sulphides were deposited during the second stage.
Kennecott's work in 1999 failed to produce any encouraging results and outcrop examined on the Mac claims showed restricted alteration and little mineralization other than pyrite. A magnetic low located at the northwest end of the Mac claims was considered to be of interest, but was not followed up due to deep overburden in the area.
Teck's work on the Glacier claims revealed small centimetre scale quartz veins and veinlets containing small amounts of galena, chalcopyrite and traces of malachite and pyrite cutting the metasedimentary rocks. Sampling of old trenches in the area returned elevated precious and base metal values with up to 800 ppb Au, 445.4 ppm Ag, 9 436 ppm Pb, 3 566 ppm Cu and 445 Sb. The samples, hosted in quartz-muscovite schist, consisted of quartz veinlets with rusty blebs, chalcopyrite, galena, trace pyrite and malachite with rusty iron oxide and manganese altered fracture surfaces.