The Black Bear occurrence is located on a south east facing slope, north west of Top Lake and approximately 2.7 kilometres south of Saddle Hump.
The region is within the Intermontane Belt, underlain dominantly by Lower to Middle Jurassic volcanic and sedimentary rocks of the Hazelton Group, and Middle to Upper Jurassic Bowser Lake Group sedimentary and volcanic rocks. These assemblages are overlain by the Upper Cretaceous-Eocene Ootsa Lake Group phyric rhyolite flows, Eocene Endako Group andesite flows, and Miocene Chilcotin Group basalt flows.
Locally, mineralization is hosted in thick units of intermediate to felsic lapilli and crystal tuff. Specific mineralization is thought to consist of pyrite, sphalerite, tetrahedrite and arsenopyrite; gold and silver mineralization zones do not appear to be confined to a particular lithologic unit.
Work History
In 2010, Parlane Resource Corp. (Parlane) optioned the Big Bear claim from Derrick Strickland and in 2011 completed a stream silt and rock sampling program at the Big Bear property.
In 2012, Little Bear Gold Corp. and Parlane Resources Corp. completed a program of geochemical (rock, silt and soil) sampling, a 14.0 line-kilometre ground magnetic and induced polarization survey and six diamond drill holes, totalling 1637.5 metres, on the Big Bear property. Two holes were completed on the Black Bear occurrence and yielded intercepts including 1.12 and 2.14 grams per tonne gold, 9.3 and 12.6 grams per tonne silver, 0.11 and 0.06 per cent copper with 0.43 and 0.76 per cent zinc over 12 and 9 metres, respectively, in hole BB-12-4 (Assessment Report 34134).
Also at this time a lone drillhole (BB12-5), located on the Silver zone on the northeast flank of Fawnie Dome and approximately 5 kilometres northeast of the Black Bear zone, intercepted a dacitic lapilli tuff and andesite with disseminated pyrite and trace magnetite hosting narrow quartz veins with epidote, pyrite and chalcopyrite yielding 0.385 per cent copper over 1.77 metres (165.9 to 167.67 metres down hole) and 0.152 gram per tonne gold with 0.550 per cent copper over 0.30 metre (213.45 to 213.75 metres down hole; Assessment Report 34134).
In 2015, Parlane completed a successful mineral exploration program comprising soil sampling and geological mapping. The work has further defined drill target areas for future exploration work. Soil sampling at the Black Bear zone on the Big Bear property has identified an anomalous area extending approximately 400 by 170 metres south from the mineralization discovered during Parlane's 2012 drill program. The 2015 120-sample set contained anomalous soil samples that are geochemically similar to the samples that led to the highly successful 2012 drill program. Future work, including additional soil sampling, induced polarization surveying and drilling, is planned for this area.
In 2016, Parlane continued exploration at Black Bear. Soil sampling in the area was designed to target additional drill locations planned for later in 2016. Parlane has identified through soil sampling an area near its Black Bear mineral occurrence that is strongly anomalous in gold and silver. Anomalous samples fall within the top 5 per cent of the 3700 soil samples taken on the property and ranged as high as 4.9 grams per tonne silver and 0.72 gram per tonne gold. The anomalous samples form a cluster approximately 460 metres northwest of the Black Bear and will further assist in targeting additional core drillholes (Press Release - Parlane Resource Corp., November 22, 2016).
