The Wolframite Zone is located near the head waters of Partridge River, approximately 2.5 kilometres south of the British Columbia-Yukon border. The zone is exposed in two glacially scoured outcrops approximately 50 metres apart on an otherwise talus and till covered hillside.
The oldest rocks in the region are predominately quartzites and mica-feldspar-quartz schists and gneisses of the Yukon Tanana Terrane. These rocks occur in a north west- trending belt of roof pendants and xenoliths surrounded by granodiorite, quartz diorite, quartz monzonite and granite of the Coast Plutonic Complex. The metamorphic rocks are thought to be early Paleozoic in age while the plutons are dated as Cretaceous to early Tertiary.
Locally, the area is underlain by equigranular, coarse grained biotite hornblende quartz monzonite.
The mineralization is hosted in a swarm of sub-parallel veins that strike about 30 degrees and dip near vertical. The veins consist of 1 to 5 millimetres of white quartz, symmetrically enclosed by grey weathering, mica-rich alteration envelopes (greisen), which are about 10 times as thick as the veins they enclose. Where exposed, the veins are spaced 5 to 40 centimetres apart and are separated by unaltered quartz monzonite. The wolframite ranges from fine disseminations to coarse bladed aggregates up to 4 centimetres across. The largest concentrations are usually found along vein selvages.
In 2007, Strategic Metals Limited completed an exploration program of geological mapping, prospecting and soil geochemical sampling. Two well mineralized vein specimens assayed 2.78 and 2.51 per cent WO3 while weakly to moderately mineralized vein samples returned between 0.012 and 0.228 per cent WO3. The mineralized samples are weakly anomalous in gold, tin and uranium (up to 95 parts per billion, 132 and 88.3 parts per million, respectively) and moderately to strongly anomalous for bismuth, molybdenum and gallium, up to 250, 178 and 75.5 parts per million, respectively (Assessment Report 29455).
This property was prospected in 2012 by the claim owner who believed it to have potential for greisen and porphyry Mo-W-Sn deposits (Assessment Report 33924). In some places the quartz veins are vuggy and can contain course aggregates of bladed wolframite to 5 centimetres across. Fine needles of beryl were noted in one vein. Sample BW12-450 contains over 0.05 parts per billion beryllium. Veins are spaced 10 centimetres to several metres apart throughout this area (Assessment Report 33924).
Work History
In 2007, Strategic Metals Limited completed an exploration program of geological mapping, prospecting and soil geochemical sampling. Eight rock and 22 soil samples were collected.
In 2012, Brad Wilson examined prospected the area. He described a pronounced nearly north-south trending linear depression. The linear feature is visible on air photos and on satellite-view on Google Maps. It is an approximately 1 kilometre long, 5 metres wide, flat, debris filled depression with a trend of 005 degrees. Outcrop was not found in any part of this feature in 2012. A few soil and rock samples were taken in the area.
