The Koots occurrence is located in the Wolverine Range, approximately 35 kilometres southeast of the town of Mackenzie.
Regionally, the area is underlain by undivided sedimentary rocks of the Cambrian Atan Group; mudstone, siltstone, shale and fine clastic sedimentary rocks of the Ordovician to Mississippian Earn Group; calc-silicate metamorphic rocks of the Upper Cretaceous to Eocene Wolverine Complex and Paleogene to Neogene granitic intrusive rocks.
High-grade schists and gneisses, extensively intruded by pegmatites and granitic bodies of probable Cretaceous age, compose the Wolverine Complex, an undifferentiated, high metamorphic grade equivalent of the upper Proterozoic Ingenika Group. Upper Paleozoic andesitic volcanic, greenstone, argillite, shale and limestone are interwoven with the metamorphic rocks.
Locally, a sulphide-bearing skarn at the contact between a multi-phased intrusive and limy metasediment consists of disseminated pyrrhotite, magnetite, pyrite, molybdenite, scheelite and chalcopyrite, and rare galena and sphalerite in the intrusive and metasedimentary rocks.
Away from the calc-silicate skarn are recrystallized, coarse-grained, dirty grey limestones and siliceous and phyllitic argillites. The intrusive grades southward from quartz monzonite-granodiorite through to granite and alaskite. Fine-grained equivalents occur as dikes, sills and aplites in the stock and in the surrounding metamorphosed sediments.
Work History
In 1976 and 1977, Chevron Standard Limited completed airborne radiometric and geochemical surveys of the area. Three areas of anomalous zinc, lead or copper were encountered, resulting in the staking of the Zap claims. A chip sample of altered garnet schist taken from trench no. 3 yielded 3.1 per cent molybdenum over 1.38 metres, whereas trench no. 1 yielded values of up to 0.037 per cent molybdenum and 0.68 per cent tungsten over 1.35 metres and 0.036 per cent molybdenum with 0.11 per cent copper over 1.2 metres (Assessment Report 9921).
In 1980 and 1981, Denison Mines Limited carried out an exploration on a few properties in this area. The exploration programs, designed to find copper-molybdenum mineralization, included limited geological mapping, soil and silt sampling, trenching and magnetometer surveys. A total of 11 rock, 31 soil and 2 silt samples were collected. Discouraged by the results, Denison Mines dropped the properties.
In 1990 and 1991, D.L. Cooke and Associates staked Cato 1-4 mineral claims (which in part overlapped with the former Denison Mine's properties) to cover airborne magnetic anomalies in this area. A reconnaissance program of prospecting, mapping and soil sampling was done on the property to evaluate the potential of the claims for copper, molybdenum and gold mineralization. The property was dropped the following year.
In 2006 and 2007, ATW Venture Corp. completed programs of prospecting, soil and rock sampling and trenching on the area as the Carp property.
In 2012, a minor program of prospecting and sampling was performed on the area as the Mackenzie Mo property.
In 2020 and 2021, Golden Planet Mining Corp. completed a regionally extensive program of prospecting, geological mapping, geochemical (rock, till and soil) sampling and a 4851.0 line-kilometre airborne magnetic and electromagnetic survey on the area as the Rider property.
