The Midge (formerly Gold Hill) occurrence is situated approximately 7 kilometres east of Little Fort, near the south end of Dunn Lake.
Regionally, the property is mainly underlain by northerly striking, moderately dipping, massive dark green pillow basalts of the Devonian to Permian Fennell Formation (Slide Mountain Group). Easterly striking fault and shear structures, frequently mineralized, cut the Fennell rocks. A small gabbroic stock lies immediately south and downhill of the vein occurrences. Several narrow, steeply dipping hornblende-pyroxene diorite dikes cut the Upper Fennell Formation, transitioning to a sill-like feature at depth.
Locally, at least four subparallel quartz vein zones occupy two easterly striking, steeply dipping fault-shear systems that cut massive pillow basalts. Disseminated galena, chalcopyrite, pyrite, sphalerite and arsenopyrite occur in quartz veins, veinlets and stringers over relatively narrow widths. Some native gold has also been reported in quartz veins. The two systems, one of which has been traced over a strike length of 300 metres, are 40 metres apart and dip steeply north into the hillside. Carbonate alteration (ankerite?) envelopes the vein zones. These alteration zones can be up to 6 metres in width. Quartz veins are up to 1.3 metres in width but average on the order of 40 centimetres. A second-order vein system strikes north to northeasterly and dips steeply. These structures do not appear to be as prominent as the easterly striking set.
The Gold Hill property is believed to have been initially staked during the First World War. By 1923, two parallel vein structures had been identified. During the later 1920s, H. Skoning and M. Fennell developed a series of drifts on the Gold Hill property. The quartz vein and wallrock was transported to the creek, where it was crushed and panned for free gold.
In 1929, A.E. Day continued work on the property, developing tunnels and underground workings (Minister of Mines Annual Report, 1929). By 1929, evidently under the direction of Granby Mining and Smelting Company, diamond drilling (11 X-ray holes) and approximately 52 metres of underground drifting and crosscutting had been completed. A total of 300 metres of drifting and crosscutting had been carried out from nine adits by 1930.
In 1972, G.G. Addie performed geological mapping on the Dan and Ran claims, which covered the Gold Hill showing, on behalf of J.G. Murphy (Assessment Report 3600).
In 1984, a 27-sample soil geochemical survey was run by Rapid Canadian Resource Corp. on behalf of owner M. Fennell. Background gold values were found to be approximately 10 parts per billion, with anomalous values reaching 40 parts per billion within 100 metres of veining (Assessment Report 12723).
In 1985, Jay D. Murphy conducted prospecting and limited rock sampling (Assessment Report 14689).
Late in 1986, Minnova Inc. made an agreement with M. Fennell to acquire the Dixie claim. The Dixie 2, 3 and 5 claims were subsequently staked by Minnova around the main Dixie claim.
During 1987, Minnova conducted an exploration programme of surface geological mapping combined with underground mapping and sampling of the old adits. A 1-kilometre-long road was constructed to provide better access.
Underground sampling by Minnova Inc. in 1986 to 1987 yielded 3.9 grams per tonne gold and 14.7 grams per tonne silver over a 30-centimetre vein width and strike length of 20 metres in the No. 7 adit (Adamson, 1987).
In 1988, Minnova Inc. carried out diamond drilling totalling 839.4 metres in six holes. Alteration zones were found to persist but to narrow at depth, and gold values were elevated but lower than those encountered in adits (Assessment Report 18372).
In 2004, W. Brent McEwen conducted prospecting and identified elevated lead, zinc, silver and gold values in samples in and around existing adits (Assessment Report 27552).
Also in 2004, Andris Kikuaka conducted a limited geological and geochemical survey on the property on behalf of J. Allen Hilton (Assessment Report 27763).
In 2005, Sego Resources Inc. conducted a 542-sample soil geochemical program to test for the extension of the known east-striking vein and shears hosting gold and copper mineralization. Coincident anomalies in arsenic, gold, copper, lead and zinc were suggested as targets for further exploration (Assessment Report 28351).
Between 2005 and 2007, limited sampling and mapping was conducted, and ownership of the property transferred to Cielo Gold Corporations (Grunenberg, Technical Report, July 2011).
