The Burn showing is located on the south side of Date Creek, approximately 14 kilometres north-northwest of Hazelton.
The Burn property is underlain by a granodiorite plug of either the Cretaceous Bulkley Plutonic Suite or the Eocene Nanika Plutonic Suite. The Burn Stock, which covers an area of 900 by 1,600 metres, elongated to the northwest, is mainly represented on surface by a crowded feldspar plus/minus biotite plus/minus hornblende porphyry which was intruded into a sequence of poorly-bedded Cretaceous clastic sedimentary rocks. Biotite hornfels is variably developed within the clastics over a distance of several hundred metres outboard of the stock. The porphyry is variably biotite, silica and sericite-altered; a quartz-molybdenite stockwork is developed within the porphyry and biotite hornfels.
Both Bowser Lake Group and Skeena Group rocks have been mapped in the vicinity of the Burn property. The Bowser Lake Group is represented by the Muskaboo Creek Assemblage, a shelf assemblage dominated by laterally continuous sheets of fine- to medium-grained sandstone. The Skeena Group is represented by the Bulkley Canyon Formation (partially equivalent to Kitsuns Creek), a lower unit of fluvial, flood-plain clastic sedimentary rocks. The sedimentary rocks strike north and are mainly argillites, sandstones and shales. The sediments are cut by a series of north-trending biotite feldspar porphyry dikes, mainly south of the granodiorite plug.
The sedimentary rocks are hornfelsed near the granodiorite and mineralized with pyrite, pyrrhotite, minor chalcopyrite and molybdenite. The biotite feldspar porphyry dikes are also mineralized with pyrite and minor chalcopyrite and molybdenite. The most interesting mineralization is molybdenite which has been found in all of the outcrops of the granodiorite plug, in veins and stockworks. In drill hole BBC-80-6, two mineralized zones were intersected: from 27 to 144 metres a section assayed 0.088 per cent molybdenite and a second zone from 207 to 231 metres averaged 0.082 per cent molybdenite (Assessment Report 8562).
WORK HISTORY
Molybdenum-copper occurrences were first discovered in 1973 on the current Burn property by the Hazelton Joint Venture, a group comprised of Yukon Consolidated Gold Corporation, Pacific Petroleum and Cambridge Mines (Assessment Report 4433). Hazelton JV carried out mapping, soil sampling and drilled one AQ hole, but did not file any work for assessment (as reported in Assessment Report 8562).
In 1975, the property was restaked by Earl Sargent, the prospector who had found the original showings, and optioned to Noranda. That year, Noranda cut a 1200 metre long north-south baseline with 2000 metre east-west cross lines spaced 200 metres apart for soil geochemical and geophysical surveys. The soils revealed a 600 by 1000 metre molybdenum anomaly, defined by greater than 20 parts per million molybdenum (maximum 1100 parts per million), remaining open to the north, which corresponded to the known extent of molybdenite mineralization (Assessment Report 5891). The IP survey showed a core of high resistivity, largely coincident with the molybdenum soil anomaly, surrounded by rings of intermediate and lower resistivity. These were interpreted as either sedimentary rocks or a pyritic halo surrounding a felsic intrusive. All lines showed weak chargeability anomalies within the zones of intermediate and low resistivity (Assessment Report 7864).
Noranda dropped the option and Sargent optioned the property to Amoco Canada in 1979. Amoco extended Noranda’s grid and IP survey 600 metres to the north and 500 metres to the west. This survey completed and confirmed the previous pattern of a highly resistive core with low chargeabilities, surrounded by progressively less resistive and more chargeable rings (Assessment Report 7864). Amoco drilled six holes on the Burn property in 1979 and 1980 (3 each year), but filed assessment on only one of them, hole BCC-80-6 which averaged 0.027 per cent molybdenum over the entire hole (Assessment Report 8562). The 1980 core has reportedly been moved to the CJL Enterprises core facility in Smithers, B.C.
In 2006, Tenajon Resources staked the Burn property and attempted to extend Noranda’s open-ended molybdenum soil anomaly to the north. Due to snow, the only samples collected were taken 600 to 1000 metres north of the north end of Noranda’s anomaly and returned background values, attributed to thick overburden (Assessment Report 28986). The following year, Tenajon cut a grid with eleven east-west lines spaced 200 metres apart for ground magnetic and induced polarization geophysical surveys. They collected soil samples from a portion of the grid at 50-metre spacings along seven lines, roughly duplicating Noranda’s anomaly, and drilled five NQ core holes. The 2007 Tenajon work was not filed for assessment, but summary information was published on the company website and in news releases; complete data was later furnished by Tenajon to subsequent title holder Misty Creek Ventures. Tenajon’s holes were all drilled either on the 400 Road or along a short spur from it, at the northern and northwestern end of the coincident molybdenum soil anomaly and resistivity high. Four of the five holes cut significant molybdenite mineralization, with intersections ranging from 3 metres at 0.077 per cent molybdenum (B07-01) to 277 metres at 0.039 per cent molybdenum (B07-04) (as reported in Assessment Report 31487). The 2007 core is in good condition, cross-stacked in a road-accessible clearing southeast of the property (Figure 2).
In 2009, Misty Creek Ventures Ltd staked the Burn property and followed up with limited mapping and core re-examination (Assessment Report 33839). This work focused on producing the first geological map of the property, re-locating the Noranda/Amoco and Tenajon cut grids and drill holes, and re-examining historic drill core. Three rock samples were taken from altered and mineralized float and outcrop during the course of geological mapping,
