The Rikus vein is part of the Kluane project of Strategic Metals Ltd, which is located 45 km north-northwest of Haines Junction, 29 km west of the Aishihik hydro-electric dam and 10 km from the closest road.

The Kluane property is underlain by Late Mesozoic metasedimentary rocks of the Kluane schist and Latest Cretaceous to Eocene rocks of the Ruby Range suite. The Kluane schist consists of a fairly monotonous package of biotite-quartz schist, muscovite-quartz schist and rare lenses of altered and strongly deformed ultramafic rock and marble. Metamorphic grade reaches upper greenschist with local zones of amphibolite. The Kluane schist is intruded by intrusions of the Ruby Range Suite. The Ruby Range suite ranges in age from ca 65 Ma to 52 Ma and consists of biotite granodiorite and hornblende quartz-diorite (Israel et al., 2010).

Three main rock types underlie the Kluane property; 1) biotite-quartz schist of the Kluane schist; 2) migmatitic paragneiss of the Kluane schist; and 3) granodiorite to quartz-diorite of the Ruby Range suite. In the southernmost portion of the claim block, dark grey to black biotite-quartz schist dominates. The schist often forms blocky outcrops that locally weather a brown-orange colour along fractures and joints. Biotite and quartz are the main minerals with the biotite forming the main foliation surfaces. Minor amounts of garnet and staurolite are found as accessory minerals. White to slightly rusty quartz veins of varying widths are ubiquitous and many veins are laterally discontinuous and often have sigmoidal or lozenge shapes. Structurally overlying the schist is a relatively thick package of dark-grey to black and orange weathered migmatitic paragneiss. The paragneiss is characterized by biotite and quartz layers separated by more leucocratic layers comprised of feldspar and quartz. The leucocratic layers appear to be injected melts that may be derived by local partial melting or by melts sourced by intrusions that have migrated along foliation planes.

Marble lenses and rare skarn zones are found within the gneiss on the east-facing slope above Killermun Lake. Exposures of marble are typically white to pale green on both weathered and fresh surfaces, display weak silicification, and range up to 7 m thick and 100 m long. Skarns consist of medium to coarse-grained garnet and diopside. The marbles are often rusty weathering and difficult to distinguish from the surrounding gneiss, unless the rock is broken.

The northern half of the property is comprised of coarse to medium-grained, biotite, granodiorite and hornblende +/- biotite, quartz-diorite of the Ruby Range suite. These rocks generally weather a light grey to white and are locally feldspar porphyritic. Smokey grey quartz grains are common in the granodiorite and less so in the quartz-diorite. The granitic rocks are unfoliated and cross-cut all ductile fabrics found in the Kluane schist except for a strongly foliated border phase that is sporadically observed in outcrop near the boundary with the paragneiss. Foliation in the border phase parallels those found in the Kluane schist and has been attributed to syndeformation intrusion of the earliest phases of the Ruby Range suite (Israel et al., 2010).

Two sets of narrow unfoliated dykes have been noted on the property in several areas underlain by Kluane schist. The dykes are up to one metre wide and are best distinguished by grain size. One of these dykes, from the central part of the property, has been dated at 55.3 Ma. This overlaps a 55.8 Ma age obtained from the main phase of the Ruby Range found just outside the northern portion of the property.

The Kluane vein system straddles the Kluhini River thrust fault, which juxtaposes Cretaceous and older, schist and paragneiss units of Kluane schist to south with granodiorite and quartz-diorite phases of the Paleocene, Ruby Range batholith to the north. Mineralized veins have been discovered across the entire project area, in both the metamorphic and intrusive rocks. The Rikus veins are discordant to foliation and layering in the metamorphic host rocks. The trenches and nearby historical drill holes trace the mineralization over a length of 710 m and through a vertical range of 185 m.

The 2021 trenching program returned the following results:

• 20.54 g/t gold over 2.1 m
• 13.84 g/t gold over 2 m
• 8.60 g/t gold over 5 m
• 7.83 g/t gold over 1.65 m
• 6.48 g/t gold over 2.2 m