The Maple Leaf area occupies a steeply benched alpine slope that forms the eastern side of the Moosetrap Creek valley, north of Tulsequah Glacier. The showing is located approximately 73 kilometres south-southwest of Atlin, B.C.
The Maple Leaf showing consists of two striking color anomalies, corresponding to areas of intense bleaching and quartz-sericite alteration, zinc-copper-gold anomalies, and local areas of massive sulphide mineralization. Host rocks are structurally complex, greenschist to amphibolite facies rocks, quartzo-faldspathia, pelitic and mafic composition. They are tentatively correlated with the Late Paleozoic Boundary Ranges metamorphic suite. Dominant structural trends (compositional layering, foliation, folds and faults) are north northwest, overprinted by late brittle east northeast-trending shears, and dykes associated with the nearby Eocene Sloko Group. Alteration is most intense along an east northeast- trending cliff face associated with one of these late faults, with alteration extending in three bands to the north-northwest.
American Bullion Minerals Limited discovered two mineralized boulder trains along the northwestern margin of the glacier that crosses the central part of what became (in 2006) the Rizz claim. Lead-zinc mineralization in a thin carbonate unit was found in scree in the property's northern part, and at the toe of a small tributary glacier in the central part of the property.
The only significant mineral showing found in place during the 1990-1991 exploration in the Maple Leaf area was on a steep slope near the crest of the cliff above Rugulose Glacier. There, outcrops of near the upper contact of the 3300 zone contained undisclosed amounts of semi-massive to disseminated sphalerite and galena with disseminated pyrite and chalcopyrite in the silicified felsic volcanic host.
The area had no prior record of mineral investigation until staked by American Bullion in 1990, with follow-up geochemical and geophysical work in 1991, American Bullion Minerals Ltd. press release 1990. Assay values range to 5.0 grams per tonne gold, 129.6 grams per tonne silver, 11.25 per cent zinc, 8.22 per cent lead, 0.15 per cent copper (Assessment Report 21844). These high values are obtained from float blocks in a moraine constructed along the top of the cliff face. Similar values have not been obtained for in-place samples. The area is modelled by American Bullion as a large kuroko type volcanogenic massive sulphide system analogous to the nearby Tulsequah Chief deposit.
Within a few kilometres of the main showing, other alteration and mineralization include carbonate altered metapsaminite and mafic schis listwanite altered talc-tremolite schist, quartz-pyrite veins in quartz-feldspar-mica schist, and clay\sericite\pyrite alteration associated with shears and late felsic dykes in all lithologies.
Work History
In 1990, American Bullion Minerals Limited prospected the Rizz and Maple Leaf areas. Gold-silver-lead-zinc mineralization was discovered in a train of schist boulders and silver-lead zinc was found in marble in scree in the northern part of the Rizz area. Massive and disseminated sulphide mineralization was found in boulder trains along the northern flank of Rugulose Glacier. Three gossanous rhyolitic zones were discovered on the slope north of the glacier: the 3100, 3300, and 3500 zones. The Glacier Light property was staked over what American Bullion named the Maple Leaf area. The Rizz claim group was staked on the Rizz area. The two claim groups were recorded on August 18 and September 8, 1990 respectively.
In 1991, American Bullion's prospectors returned to the Rizz area and discovered lead-zinc-silver mineralization at the toe of a small glacier in its central part, and lead-zinc mineralization at the head of a glacier in the southern part of it (Assessment Report 21845). Rock, soil and silt sampling programs were conducted in the Maple Leaf area. Subsequently, a pulse electromagnetic survey was conducted over the 1991 Maple Leaf grid (Assessment Report 21844). The 3300-zone showing comprising semi-massive and disseminated sulphide mineralization was sampled. It was located on a steep slope near the top of the cliff on the northern flank of Rugulose Glacier.
After 1992 the Glacier Light and Rizz claims lapsed.
In 2006, the Maple Leaf-Rizz claim group was map-staked by Saturn Minerals Inc and later that year they conducted an exploration program consisting of a drill program of 1,347.1 metres in 7 NT holes. Three of the previously discovered zones: 3100,3300 and Camp zones were tested by drilling during Saturn Minerals Inc.'s 2006 drill program Most of Saturn Minerals Inc.'s 2006 diamond-drill holes penetrated rock along the crest of the cliff just north of the reported location of the 3300-zone showing. The 3100, 3300, and Camp Zones were all tested during the 2006 drill program. No massive sulphide mineralization was found. Only traces of disseminated sphalerite, chalcopyrite, and galena were encountered in the quartz-pyrite zones.
