The Lucille Vein occurrence is located alongside and just north of the Cassiar Highway, north of McDame Creek on the south-facing slopes of Mount Reed and approximately 100 kilometres north of the community of Dease Lake.
Regionally, the area is underlain by a highly folded and cleaved assemblage of sedimentary rocks comprising limestone, slate, siltstone and argillite of the Cambrian to Ordovician Kechika Group, quartzite and quartz arenite sedimentary rocks of the Silurian to Lower Devonian Ramhorn Group, limestone, marble and calcareous sedimentary rocks of the Devonian McDame Group and fine clastic sedimentary rocks of the Upper Devonian to Lower Mississippian Earn Group.
The Lucille vein has an average width of 0.5 metre and is composed of 30 to 40 per cent quartz, 20 to 30 per cent chlorite-clay-graphite and approximately 40 per cent massive pyrrhotite, pyrite, bornite and chalcopyrite. Tremolite is also present as large, radiating, acicular aggregates up to 1 centimetre wide. The vein is brecciated and strikes 128 degrees with a vertical to steeply southwards dip. The vein is cut by several northeast- and east-trending faults throughout its length, with little to no offset noted. The metasediments hosting the Lucille vein are intensely altered graphitic, sericitic, limonitic schists. Hostrocks may be quartzites of the Silurian to Lower Devonian Ramhorn Group or slate, siltstone and argillite of the Cambrian to Ordovician Kechika Group.
The metasediments below the vein host numerous crosscutting mineralized quartz-carbonate veins, averaging 0.3 metre wide, and vein stockworks, averaging 0.1 metre wide. Two types of veins have been identified, with the first type being composed of 50 per cent quartz and minor carbonate on fractures planes with 50 per cent sulphides consisting of generally 35 to 40 per cent pyrrhotite, 3 to 5 per cent bornite, 5 to 10 per cent pyrite, 3 to 5 per cent chalcopyrite and trace tetrahedrite. The second type of vein comprises approximately 50 per cent quartz and carbonate, each, with minor (5 to 10 per cent) disseminated pyrrhotite and pyrite. The type 1 veins host gold values.
The Lucille vein was only intersected once in drillcore very near surface in hole CL7. Assay results from surface samples of the vein are as high as 13.18 grams per tonne gold, and drilling results yielded up to 12.47 and 4.53 grams per tonne gold over 0.5 and 1.3 metres, respectively, in hole CL6 and 4.69 grams per tonne gold over 1.1 metres in hole CL2 (Assessment Report 21576).
Work History
In 1969, Brettland Mines Ltd. completed a 165.0 line-kilometre airborne magnetic survey on the area as part of the Krain Option property.
In 1990, on behalf of D. Busat and C. Berube, nine BQ diamond drill holes, totalling 636.8 metres, were drilled on the CL claim to explore the Lucille vein at depth. Limited surface mapping and sampling of the vein and hostrocks was also carried out. In 1997, International KRL Resources Corp. completed a 315.0 line-kilometre airborne magnetic and electromagnetic survey on the area as the Cold claims. In 1999, a program of geological mapping was completed on the area as the Habu and Rhonda claim groups by Hardy Hibbing.
In 2008, Pacific Bay Minerals Ltd. completed a 917.0 line-kilometre airborne magnetic and electromagnetic survey on the area immediately north of the occurrence as the Haskin-Reed property. The following year, a program of geochemical (rock, silt and soil) sampling and trenching was completed on the property.
Also during 2008 through 2010, Hawthorne Gold Corp., later China Minerals Mining Corp., completed regional programs of geological mapping and geochemical (rock and soil) sampling, and 11,657 line-kilometres of airborne magnetic, radiometric and electromagnetic surveys on the area immediately south as the Cassiar Gold property.
In 2019, Margaux Resources completed a program of prospecting, geological mapping and rock sampling on 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.
