The Taurus II (McHwy zone) occurrence is located north of McDame Lake in northern British Columbia, 115 kilometres southwest of Watson Lake, Yukon, and 120 kilometres north of Dease Lake. Access to the property is via Highway 37, which connects to these towns. The abandoned town of Cassiar is at the northwestern end of the property, and the unincorporated settlement of Jade City is on Highway 37 at the road entrance to the mine facilities.
Upper Paleozoic Slide Mountain Complex mafic volcanic rocks are the most widespread and crop out over most of the property area. The volcanic rocks comprise massive and pillowed basalt with rare chert intercalations with the lower portion in the Taurus area (MINFILE 104P 012) marked by magnetite and jasper-rich basalt. The non-magnetic and non-jasper–bearing basalt sequence hosts most of the vein systems in the camp and has been the focus of exploration.
Locally, at least six, 040- to 060-degree– trending and vertical to steeply north-dipping quartz veins have been identified at surface. The veins host traces of pyrite.
In 2006, diamond drill holes 06TII-20 and 06TII-21 were designed to provide an initial evaluation of a broad soil geochemical anomaly and associated quartz vein exposures named the McHwy zone (McDame Lake/Highway). Hole 06TII-20 intersected three narrow, shallow alteration/quartz vein zones that yielded sub to 1.5 grams per tonne gold grades. A second intersection between 33.95 and 38.95 metres, a dolomitic alteration halo to a quartz vein at 36.81 to 37.15 metres, assayed 1.35 grams per tonne gold over 5 metres core length. Hole 06TII-21, drilled to undercut hole 06TII-20, also intersected several (four) narrow alteration zones with significant vein structures that yielded less than to 1 gram per tonne gold composites over 0.95 to 2.60 metre intervals. It is not possible to correlate between the structures intersected in these holes (Assessment Report 29235).
Work History
The area has been explored in conjunction with the nearby Taurus (MINFILE 104P 012) occurrence and a completed regional and property exploration history can be found there.
In 1976 and 1979, Newcoast Silver Mines Ltd. completed programs of geological mapping, soil sampling, three diamond drill holes, totalling 220.2 metres, and approximately 24 line-kilometres of ground magnetic and electromagnetic surveys on the area as the Van and Tin claims.
In 1980 and 1981, Esso Resources Canada Ltd. completed programs of prospecting, geological mapping, trenching and geochemical (rock and soil) sampling on the area as the Goldhill, Nora, Val and Van claims. An adit, referred to as the Newcoast adit, was reported on the occurrence by this time.
In 1995, the area was held and examined by Cusac Gold Mines Ltd. as the Table Mountain Gold property.
In 2005, Cusac Gold Mines Ltd. drilled a total of 2444 metres in 13 drillholes on their Taurus II property, in three areas.
In 2006, Cusac Gold Mines Ltd. conducted a soil geochemical survey (2720 samples), LiDAR survey (139 square kilometres), trenching program (eight trenches for a combined length of 530 metres), and diamond drilling program (21 holes for a combined depth of 3280.3 metres; 843 core samples) on the Taurus II area of their Table Mountain Gold property. Twelve holes (1885.5 metres) were drilled to test the western extension of the Oro Structure exposed in the trench 3 area; five holes (586.1 metres) were drilled to test the Blue zone exposed in the trench 5 area. An additional four holes (808.8 metres) were drilled to test isolated targets in the Reo, TR-6E, and McHwy areas.
During 2008 through 2010, Hawthorne Gold Corp., later China Minerals Mining Corp., completed regional programs of geological mapping, geochemical (rock and soil) sampling and 11,657 line-kilometres of airborne magnetic, radiometric and electromagnetic surveys on the area as the Cassiar Gold property.
In 2019, Margaux Resources completed a program of prospecting, geological mapping and rock sampling on the area as the Cassiar Gold property. In 2020, Cassiar Gold Corp. completed a program of regional photogeological interpretation, prospecting and rock sampling on the Cassiar Gold property.
