The Kusk occurrence area is located along the nose of a major northwest-trending, overturned syncline (Crooked Lake syncline). The Proterozoic Snowshoe Group forms the base of the syncline and consists of banded paragneiss, feldspar-augen gneiss, schist and sub-mylonite. Overlying the Snowshoe Group rocks with apparent structural discontinuity is a 100 to 500 metre thick section of andesitic to basaltic metavolcanics of the Mississippian Slide Mountain Group. Overlying this sequence is a thick section of Upper Triassic metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks consisting of a thick basal phyllite/greenschist sequence which grades upward into augite porphyry flows, tuffs and breccias.
The Kusk occurrence is underlain by the Upper Triassic basal phyllite/greenschist sequence that has been subdivided into three units; the lower unit consists of interbedded dark grey to black phyllite, greenschist and quartz-sericite schist, the middle unit is characterized by dark grey to black, locally strongly pyritic, lustrous phyllite with minor intercalated lenses of limestone, and the upper unit consists of interbedded black phyllite, quartzite, greenschist and quartz-sericite-chlorite schist. The middle unit includes a knotted, iron carbonate-rich facies characterized by abundant fine-grained iron carbonate knots (ankerite and/or siderite) up to 1 centimetre in size. The augen in the knotted phyllite unit are invariably weathered to limonite and/or goethite in surface exposures but at depth are dense to very fine grained, often faintly laminated and occasionally containing fine lines of pyrite, pyrrhotite and rarely sphalerite. The phyllite generally wraps around the knots and many show rotation with pressure shadows filled with secondary carbonate.
Quartz-carbonate pods, laminations and veins are common in the phyllite sequence. Most of the quartz occurs as pods and discontinuous laminations conformable to bedding. Locally, thin late-stage quartz veins crosscut bedding. The quartz is milky white with clusters of coarse carbonate, principally ankerite. Pyrite, pyrrhotite and minor sphalerite, galena and chalcopyrite are associated with the carbonate. Strong vein zones tend to occur near the contact of knotted phyllite, cherty laminated phyllites and metavolcanics. Moderate to strong sericite and carbonate alteration is commonly found in the phyllite unit.
The Kusk claims were first staked by J.M. Dawson in 1981. Nirvana Oil and Gas Limited and Roddy Resources Limited jointly optioned the claims in 1982 and performed a soil geochemistry survey over the next three years. By 1984, geochemical surveys had identified a weak zone of anomalous gold values that was found to extend in a southerly direction from the Frasergold property into the Kusk 3 and 5 claims area. Geological sampling conducted in the same year had identified two zones with an estimated indicated reserve of 544,800 tonnes containing an average of 3.09 grams per tonne gold (Property File Rimfire Roddy Resources Inc., 1984). A 1985 diamond-drill program intersected a low-grade stratabound gold zone 6.1 to 8.08 metres wide in the black phyllites near the top of a sequence characterized by calcareous phyllite and argillaceous limestone interbeds. Diamond-drill hole 1 intersected a zone 6.1 metres wide that assayed 1.13 grams per tonne gold. Diamond-drill hole 2 intersected the same zone across an 8.08 metre intersection and assayed 0.37 grams per tonne gold. A quartz-carbonate lens also assayed 0.335 per cent zinc and 14.0 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 14050).
