Work History
The Bella zone veins were likely discovered concurrent with exploration dating back to the early 1920s in the McKay Hill area. It is unknown which historic claim the Bella occurrence was on. It has been explored since 2008 as part of the McKay Hill (see MINFILE 106D 038) project.
The Bella occurrence was restaked as Snoose cl 1-20 (YC56719) in Jul/2007 by M. Bindig and subsequently entered an option agreement with Northex Ventures Inc. who completed reconnaissance prospecting, trench mapping/verification and geochemical rock sampling. In 2008 Northex Ventures completed additional prospecting, trench mapping and geochemical rock sampling, including locating historic mineral workings outside of the historic Central zone (MINFILE 106D 038) over the Bella, Red (MINFILE 106D 102), Falls (MINFILE 106D 103) zones, the Snowdrift Extension vein (MINFILE 106D 104) and White Hill (MINFILE 106D 037) showing.
In 2009, Northex Ventures Inc. was renamed Monster Mining Corp. whom staked the Snoose 21-90 (YD11201) claims in Aug/2009 to wholly expand the borders of the property. Monster Mining Corp. completed a YMIP-funded exploration program completed detailed mapping over the historic Central zone, collection and analysis of 140 soil samples, rock geochemical sampling, prospecting (including the Bella zone and White Hill showing) and petrographic work to verify host lithologies.
In Jul/2010, Monster Mining Corp. added the MK 1-54 (YD34936) claims to the northeast. No work program was recorded until 2011 whereby detailed structural mapping, rock sampling and helicopterborne SkyTEM time domain electromagnetic geophysical survey was completed by Monster Mining Corp. No work program was completed on the claims in 2016, at which time they changed their name to Metallic Minerals Corp.
In Oct/2017, Metallic Minerals Corp. expanded the McKay Hill property to the southeast adding the Snoose 91-116 (YF29091) claims. Metallic completed satellite imagery data collection over the property, mapping (1:250- to 1:30,000-scale), prospecting, geochemical rock sampling, hand-pitting over the No. 6 vein and soil sampling (including sampling over the Independence zone, MINFILE 106D 101).
In 2018, the MK 55-96 (YF29201) were added by Metallic Minerals to the west to cover tracked favourable Marmot Group stratigraphy. Metallic completed property-wide mapping and prospecting, cut 16 excavator and hand-trenches which were geochemically channel sampled, and widespread soil sampling (571 samples).
Capsule Geology
The occurrence area is situated on the northwest slope of McKay Hill near the headwaters of Red Gulch approximately 23.5 km northwest of McQuesten Lake. The area was regionally mapped by L. Green (1972) of the Geological Survey of Canada in 1961 as part of a helicopter-supported party known as Operation Ogilvie. The occurrence was interpreted to be underlain by deformed Upper Proterozoic to Lower Cambrian clastic rocks of the Hyland Group. However, industry mapping over 2009-2018 on the project resulted in the interpretation that the host-lithologies in the area are in fact siliciclastic and hypabyssal volcanic rocks interpreted to belong to the Cambrian to Silurian Marmot Group.
Known mineralization at the Bella occurrence is described as massive, vuggy quartz veins with local prismatic clear-quartz infill and interstitial galena, copper-oxide mineralization. The Bella zone is currently comprised of two veins (Metallic Minerals, Sep/2018 and Dec/2018 New Releases) and are hosted in iron-carbonate altered basalts.
The Bella (No. 1) vein was located in 2008 and a grab sample reported 0.445 g/t Au, 84 g/t Ag, 15.2% Pb, 1.0% Zn and 1.25% Cu. In 2018, Metallic Minerals located the Bella No. 2 vein in a historic open-cut and reported 24.9 g/t Ag, 0.389 g/t Au, 1.03% lead and 0.06% Cu (Metallic Minerals, Jan/2019 News Release). The Bella No. 2 vein is interpreted to extend into the West McKay zone (MINFILE 106D 105). No further results are available at this time. In addition, Metallic Minerals completed widespread soil sampling over the Bella occurrence in 2018.
