The Old Abe occurrence is located is located at an elevation of approximately 1220 metres on a south-southeast facing slope, west of Burntbridge Creek. The area is underlain by argillite, greywacke, wacke and conglomerate turbidites of the Middle Proterozoic Aldridge Formation (Purcell Supergroup). Two or three diorite dikes that strike east/west through the area contain up to 1 per cent fine-grained pyrite and rare chalcopyrite.
Locally, several quartz-siderite veins are reported to be exposed between the Middle and Lower adits. The veins vary in size from less than 0.1-metre wide to 1.2 metres wide and host minor pyrite, pyrrhotite, galena and chalcopyrite. It was estimates that the veins are 300 metres in length, average 0.6 metre in width, and grade 0.4 per cent copper (Assessment Report 34090).
Work History
In 1900, early development work was done on two prospects, the Star and Old Abe groups (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1900, page 798).
The area has been explored in conjunction with the nearby Bull River (MINFILE 082GNW002) mine and a completed regional exploration history can be found there.
Three historic adits, referred to as the Lower, Middle, and Upper adits, of unknown age are reported in the area of the veins. The Lower adit is reported to be located directly above the 9 Level workings of the Bull River (082GNW002) mine.
In 1972, two drill holes were completed on the zone but are reported to have intersected only minor sulphides. Drillhole BR-112 failed to intercept the vein while BR-113 was too far to the south of the veins.
In 2012, Moose Mountain Technical Services prospected and sampled the area. The three adit portals were reported to be inaccessible at this time. Three grab samples (4368 to 4370) taken from below the middle adit yielded values from 0.025 to 1.064 per cent copper, 12 to 28 grams per tonne silver, and 0.033 to 0.346 gram per tonne gold (Bird, S. (2019-01-22): NI43-101 Technical Report - Gallowai-Bul River Resource Estimate (and Assessment Report 34090)).
Refer to Bull River (082GNW002) for details of the greater Bull River property which contained the Old Abe prospect and a minimum of 25 documented mineral occurrences as of October 2022.
