November 2006, the Company purchased a 100% interest in the Kirkland Creek Property, located 120 kilometers northwest of Whitehorse, Yukon, in the Ashihik lake region. The property is comprised of 144 claims totaling approximately 7300 acres. The vendor retains a 3% net smelter royalty ("NSR"). The Company has the right to purchase up to 2% of the 3% NSR.
The property covers a large Tertiary and Eocene-aged volcanic complex comprised of rhyolitic flows and breccias. Dykes and feeder plugs of both are present. The volcanic rocks are underlain by a major regional North West trending fault or "suture" zone. Internally, the complex exhibits circular structural and magnetic features characteristic of caldera collapse and resurgent volcanism activity. In outcrop exposures examined, the volcanic rocks have often been altered into linear argillic and silicic zones containing banded jasperoid and drusy quartz veinlets. These zones formed as a result of hydrothermal activity.
Historically, the area of the Kirkland Creek Property has undergone exploration at various times. Gold was first detected in the area by prospectors familiar with the Klondyke placer mines in the late 1890's who noted that very fine gold occurs in several of the streams draining from the property. Copper and gold exploration for skarn and porphyry style deposits was undertaken regionally at various times, lastly in the 1970's by major mining companies.
In 1988, a regional scale, low-density, government silt survey for the area returned anomalous results for gold and the epithermal gold indicator elements arsenic, antimony and mercury from streams draining the area covered by the Kirkland Creek Property. Exploration work subsequently conducted by others during 1989-1990 at the site of the Kirkland Creek Property included silt and soil sampling, an airborne electromagnetic and magnetic survey (417 line kilometers), grid-controlled ground based electromagnetic and magnetic surveys and geological mapping at a cost exceeding $350 000. The area of completed ground work (grid) focused on following up of airborne geophysical anomalies up stream from highly anomalous (714 and 2200 ppb Au) silt sample locations. A gold-arsenic soil sample geochemical anomaly was detected coincident with EM and magnetic anomalies. Hydro thermal alteration occurs nearby in the limited outcrop exposures. No further follow up work was conducted at that time.
The Kirkland Creek Property represents an important exploration target because the volcanic complex is recognized as a potential host for high-grade gold bearing quartz-calcite veins (similar to those at Mt. Skukum to the south) or bulk tonnage disseminated gold deposits similar to the Round Mountain, Nevada, model. Either of these epithermal style environments (now geologically well understood) could represent the source for the fine-grained crystalline gold present in the local streams. |