The Eastern Outlier prospect occurs in an area of complexly faulted northwest striking and steep westerly dipping Proterozoic, Paleozoic, and Mesozoic sediments intruded by Cretaceous to Tertiary pyritic and altered trachyte-syenite plutons, dikes and sills. The sediments consist of red hematitic and green siltstone and green and yellowish dolomitic siltstone of the Proterozoic Kintla Formation, quartzite and sandstone of the Cambrian Flathead Formation, mottled dolomite and limestone of the Middle and (?) Upper Cambrian Elko Formation, black shaly limestone of the Upper Devonian Fairholme Group, sandstone and dark shale sandstone of the Upper Cretaceous Alberta Group, and mudstone, shale and sandstone of the Upper Cretaceous Belly River Formation. All the rock units have varying amounts of pyritization, silicification, argillic alteration, minute to large quartz veining, and in the case of some sediments, there are hornfels and skarn developed near intrusive contacts and fault zones.
The Eastern Outlier area is underlain by a thick sequence of Paleozoic carbonate and clastic rocks and older Proterozoic sedimentary units. Mid-Cretaceous syenite and trachyte intrusions occurring as sills, dykes, plugs, and diatremes intrude these units. Gold mineralization occurs disseminated in limestone and with quartz stockworks in syenite intrusives and Proterozoic sediments.
The Eastern Outlier prospect was considered the most significant form of mineralization on the Howell property. It occurs in the form of low grade disseminated gold in limestone and dolomite (as revealed by reverse circulation hole HRC-25 which had an intercept of 123.4 metres (from 0 - 123.4 metres) grading 0.71 gram per tonne gold, including 9.1 metres grading 2.99 grams per tonne gold and 57.9 metres grading 1.23 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Reports 18318 and 30526). Mineralization of this style is associated with minor amounts of pyrite, minor silicification with occasional millimeter scale quartz veinlets and often geochemically anomalous concentrations of arsenic. Alkalic dikes and or diatremes usually cross-cut the carbonate or are at least close by.
The 2008 diamond drill program began in the Eastern Outlier area with an extension to the last hole of the 2006 drill program HW-606. The original hole returned anomalous mineralization throughout, ending in mineralized Devonian reefal limestone that graded 0.42 grams per tonne gold over the final 42.7 metres. The 2006 hole had been terminated due to weather constraints at 66.5 metres in mineralized limestone grading 0.44 gram per tonne gold. Drill hole HW08-606 Ext was completed by re-entering the previous hole and drilled to a depth of 204.0 metres. A revised intercept from 23.7 to 204.0 metres graded 0.26 gram per tonne gold over 180.3 metres including a 50.7-metre intercept from 23.7 to 74.0 metres that graded 0.47 gram per tonne gold; further anomalous gold mineralization was encountered over a 1.4-metre interval from 124.3 metres depth that returned 0.97 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 30526). Gold in drill holes indicates an east-west zone length of at least 400 metres.
WORK HISTORY
In 1970, Canarctic Res Ltd. outlined numerous lead-zinc anomalies. In 1982-1983 Cominco Ltd performed prospecting, mapping, sampling and outlined three extensive zones of anomalous gold and silver. From 1984-86, Cominco discovered two additional zones of gold/silver bearing mineralization. In 1987, Cominco collected 619 soil samples and 65 rocks samples in the area between the headwaters of Howell and Twentynine Mile creeks (Assessment Report 16908), near or over MINFILE showings Howell (082GSE037) and Howe (082GSE048).
At the same time, Dome Exploration defined several new gold and lead-zinc-silver anomalies along the southeast extension of the central showings (A Zone). From 1988-89, Placer Dome Inc drilled 25 reverse circulation holes, the best hole was HRC-25 which yielded 57.9 metres of 1.23 grams per tonne gold, hosted in carbonaceous limestone (Assessment Report 18318).
In 1983, Cominco Ltd staked the Howell 1-5 claims. Work on the Howell claims consisted of heavy mineral concentrate stream sampling, silt sampling, prospecting, and geological mapping. This limited program indicated anomalous amounts of gold in the heavies and located surface rubble with small amounts of silicified and quartz veined material. The mapping located areas of intense silicification and argillic alteration within the intrusives and sediments.
In 1983 Cominco collected approximately 417 soil, 14 silt, and 74 rock samples across the Howell claim area, but mostly from the Howell 5 claim and areas around it (Assessment Report 11787). The soils were collected along contour lines at 1675-metre (5500-foot) and 1830-metre (6000-foot) elevations at 50-metre spacing. A few lines were also run along road cuts and claim lines in specific areas. Rock samples were single qrabs to four metre chip samples.
In 1984, Cominco Ltd's program on their Howell Group of five claims was directed at those areas where previous work had located three areas where coincident anomalous gold and silver values in soils occurred (Assessment Report 13242). The 1984 program involved the collection of 133 soil samples along elevation contours, and the collection 30 rock samples and or specimens.
In 1986, Cominco's program involved the collection of 561 soil samples along elevation contours and the collection of 136 grab and/or chip samples over 5 metre intervals, expanding on areas previously sampled (Assessment Report 15095).
In 1987 Cominco, collected 619 soil samples and 65 rocks samples from Anomaly A and Anomaly E, in the area between the headwaters of Howell and Twentynine Mile creeks (Assessment Report 16908). From 1983 to 1987 five anomalous areas coincident with significant to extensive occurrences of syenite-trachyte dikes and breccias (A, B and E) or plugs (C and D) were located and explored. Several MINFILE occurrence were subsequently documented as a result of this work, including Howell (082GSE037) and Howe (082GSE048) and several new occurrences called Howell 5 (Anomaly C) (082GSE080), Confluence (Anomaly D) (082GSE088), Anomal-E (Anomaly E) (082GSE082), GR 24 (082GSE084), Wutluk (082GSE083), 29Q (082GSE085), 29S (082GSE087), SBN9 (082GSE086), and most notably the “Eastern Outlier” prospect (082GSE078). Though many of these new showings were discovered through exploration work done in the 1980s they were only documented in MINFILE in December 2022.
In 1989 Placer Dome Inc. completed an initial diamond drilling program that was carried out with seven holes totaling 1,097 metres being drilled (4 on the Howell “E” grid). Results include hole HE-2 (Howell “E’ grid) just west of 2006 hole (HW-601) near the Howe showing (083GSE048) with 45 metres grading 0.33 grams gold including 11 metres grading 0.60 grams per tonne. An area of the Howell “E’ grid was surveyed using VLF techniques and 631 additional soil samples were collected and analyzed.
In 1993, 6 NQ size drill holes (189HA4 to 189 HA9) totalling 890.9 metres were completed on the Howell Grid A target (Eastern Outlier prospect) by Phelps Dodge Canada; 5 holes failed to reach target depths (Assessment Report 23273). These holes were spread along the ridge where the HRC reverse circulation holes were previously drilled by Placer Dome.
From 1998-2000, Eastfield Resources Ltd. staked the 18-unit YSOO 1 claim and optioned the Howell 1-5 claims from Placer Ltd and Cominco Ltd. Eastfield carried out exploration on gold targets on the A and E grids (Assessment Report 26141). Work on the Ysoo I claim consist of 17 rock samples in the vicinity of Placer Dome's 1988-1989 HRC-2 drillhole (Assessment Report 18629).
In May 2002 Goldrea Resources Corp. was granted an option by Eastfield Resources Ltd. to earn up to a 55 per cent interest in the Howell property. Goldrea completed an airborne survey and initiated drilling. Goldrea drilled 3 diamond drill holes in the northwest-central portion of Howell 3. The first hole, H-02-DDH-1 contained a 65-centimetre section of massive to semi-massive pyrite below the porphyritic syenite sill. Overall, H-02-DDH-1 averaged 0.57 gram per tonne gold over 152.4 metres (Assessment Report 27199). The airborne magnetometer/radiometrics survey was flown in 2002 for Goldrea by Fugro Airborne Surveys (Assessment Report 27029). This survey area extended about 10 kilometres from the headwaters of Twentynine Mile and Howell creeks, southeast to the confluence of these two creeks.
In 2003, Goldrea Resources Corporation carried out additional (322.2 metres) diamond drilling on the Howell 3 claim (H-03-DDH-1 and 2). Two diamond drill holes were collared 50 and 250 metres south and southeast of the first three holes (H-02-DDH-1, 2, and 3) that were drilled the previous year. One hole intersected 106.4 metres grading 4.5 grams per tonne silver and 0.22 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 27359).
In 2004 La Quinta Resources Corp. optioned the Howell property and completed 217-line kilometers of airborne geophysics including magnetics and multi frequency electromagnetics (Assessment Report 27918). The survey complimented the survey completed in 2002 by including DigHem multifrequency electromagnetics. Although several indistinct conductors were detected one discrete conductor was found which was interpreted to be a conductive rock unit.
In 2006 La Quinta Resources Corp. completed a program of diamond drilling, talus fines sampling and rock geochemistry. Six holes totaling 884 metres were completed along with the collection and analysis of 40 talus fines samples and 129 rock samples. The most significant result of the 2006 program was hole HW-606 in the Eastern Outlier area (Howell "A" Grid) which returned 42.7 metres grading 0.42 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 28853).
The main focus of the 2008 exploration program on the Howell property was drill testing of select targets on the Eastern Outlier zone. The drill program began with the extension of the last hole of the 2006 program (Assessment Report 30526). The western and eastern portions of the Howell "A" grid were further explored by drilling in 2008 as well as an initial drill test of mineralized rocks on the ridge crest above Howell Grid "A". Two holes were drilled along Howell Grid "A" Ridge to the south to test for Carbonate Replacement Deposit style mineralization, two holes were drilled within a large magnetic feature in the 29 Mile Creek valley and one hole was drilled to the north on a smaller weak magnetic feature near Howell Creek. A total of 1312.5 metres of NQ sized core was drilled in 13 holes during 2008. 602 core samples were collected and submitted for analyses. In addition, diatreme core samples from hole HW08-7 were collected and submitted for identification of kimberlite indicator minerals.
Refer to MINFILE occurrence Howell 5 (082GSE080) for related information.
