The Loon property is located about 70 kilometres south of Burns Lake in the Windfall Hills area, north and east of Uduk Lake near the eastern boundary of Tweedsmuir Park.
Felsic to intermediate flows and tuffs of the Eocene Ootsa Lake Group underlie most of the prospect area. Ootsa Lake rhyolitic rocks including welded and spherulitic flows and breccias, have a gentle west dip and are underlain by andesitic rocks of unknown age. Oligocene to Miocene Endako Group andesitic to basaltic flows, dikes and plugs locally overly or intrude Ootsa Lake Group rocks. Middle Jurassic Hazelton Group rocks, consisting of andesites and sedimentary rocks, are exposed to the southeast of the showing area and are intruded by quartz monzonite of suspected Cretaceous or Tertiary age.
Trenching exposed cream coloured rhyolite to dacite that is variably silicified and argillically altered. Silica occurs as quartz-chalcedony veinlets, lenses and drusy cavities in clay altered volcanic rock. Pyrite (and marcasite?) is the only observable sulphide and is present in trace amounts to 5 per cent. Sulphides vary from coarsely crystalline to very fine-grained and locally exhibit colloform banding. Gold and silver mineralization appear to be related to the presence of dark grey chalcedony.
Work History
In 1988, Mingold (held by Hudson Bay Mining) staked the Loon claims after tracing mineralized epithermal boulders south of Ootsa Lake up-ice to outcroppings of similar material. A program of rock and soil sampling, trenching and a 9.2 line-kilometre ground electromagnetic survey was completed. Chip samples from trench 4 yielded an average of 1.36 grams per tonne gold and 13.2 grams per tonne silver over 4.0 metres, whereas a grab sample (24902) of brecciated and silicified rhyolite, taken a short distance south of the trench, assayed 5.32 grams per tonne gold and 109.2 grams per tonne silver (Assessment report 18637).
In 1989, Mingold Resources Inc. completed a program of prospecting, geological mapping, geochemical (rock and soil) sampling, trenching and a 0.6 line-kilometre resistivity survey on the Loon claims. A 2-metre channel sample (00215) from trench 89-9 assayed 0.20 gram per tonne gold and 4.5 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 20123).
In 1990, a small VLF-EM resistivity survey was completed and succeeded in outlining two distinct anomalous zones which coincided with the known areas of silicification and precious metal mineralization.
In 1993, Hudson Bay Exploration and Development Co. completed a program of geochemical (rock and soil) sampling, minor trenching and a 2.5 line-kilometre resistivity survey. A grab sample (Loon Pyrite) from trench 88-4 assayed 1.52 grams per tonne gold and 9.3 grams per tonne silver, whereas a 2.3-metre chip sample from the same trench yielded 0.56 gram per tonne gold and 6.7 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 22977).
In 1994, Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting completed 773.4 metres of diamond drilling in 5 holes, testing IP anomalies. In 1994, a sample across 2.35 metres in DD94-4 assayed 4.25 grams per tonne gold and 29.7 grams per tonne silver (Explore BC Application 1995-96). Soil surveys suggested that epithermal mineralization associated with the western most trenches (TR88-4, 5, 6) trends at approximately 020 degrees over a distance of 300 metres and possibly 1100 metres. Mingold ceased operations in 1990 and no further work was done. The Loon 2 claim was transferred to Hudson Bay Exploration in 1993.
1995, Hudson Bay personnel staked a total of 28 units to the north and west of the Loon 2 claim. A 22.5 kilometre grid extension was added to the new claims and. geological mapping and geochemical soil sampling was then conducted. The purpose of this program was to determine the extent of gold-silver mineralization to the north of previously found mineralization on the Loon. A total of 330 soil samples were collected. No geochemical anomalies were delineated. A trenching program was also conducted in order to test several IP anomalies from a survey done earlier in the year. Four of the eight trenches reached epithermally altered felsic volcanics. Chip samples from the trenches yielded up to 0.230 gram per tonne gold over 2.0 metres in trench TR95-04, whereas a float boulder from trench TR95-05 yielded 2.94 grams per tonne gold and 29.4 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 24229).
Galambos (Assessment Report 34069) reported a further 6 holes totalling 1610 metres were drilled by Hudson Bay on the Loon property in 1996 but the verifying report was not indicated.
In 2011, Canarc Resources Corp. completed a program of prospecting and rock sampling of the surrounding area as the Uduk claims of the Windfall Hills property. A grab sample (52327) of rhyolite, located on a hill approximately 1.5 kilometres west-southwest of the Loon occurrence, yielded 0.326 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 32523).
In 2012, RKG Exploration conducted a review and interpretation of Regional Geochemical data and regional 1st derivative magnetic data for the Loon claim owned by Ken Galambos but is actually both just north and east of the previously documented (in MINFILE) Loon showing location (Assessment Report 34069). Galambos reports that his 2012 claims are believed to cover the northeast extension to mineralization found at the original Loon showing but it is not clear if this means these extensions were actual or inferred.
In 2016, Canarc Resource Corp. completed a 3D induced polarization survey covering an area of 3.8 square kilometres, approximately 10 per cent of the Windfall Hills property.
In 2018, Carnarc Resources Corp. completed a program of geochemical (rock, soil, and till) sampling, trenching and a 470.0 line-kilometre airborne magnetic and radiometric survey on the Windfall Hills property. The area trenched and sampled is located on a small hill approximately 2 kilometres to the south of the Loon occurrence and the results are reported in the Uduk Lake (MINFILE 093F 057) occurrence.
See Uduk Lake (093F 057) for related geological details and work in the area to the immediate south.