The Pie occurrence is located east of the Paul River, approximately 40 kilometres west of Fort Ware and 250 kilometres northwest of MacKenzie.
Regionally, the area is underlain by four main northwest-trending zones of sediments. The westernmost belt comprises a package of Ordovician and Silurian siltstone interbedded with recessive, steel grey to black weathered upper Devonian to Mississippian shale and siltstone of the Gunsteel Formation, part of the Earn Group. The adjacent belt immediately to the east consists of brown to orange weathered Silurian siltstone. The next belt adjacent to the east consists of further recessive, steel grey to black weathered shale and siltstone of the Gunsteel Formation. The most eastern belt of rocks consists of grey weathered, fossiliferous limestone of the lower to middle Devonian Kwadacha Formation.
The Gunsteel Formation shales contain beds of nodular barite and minor amounts of associated galena and sphalerite. The matrix of the underlying debris flow limestone breccias is host to minor amounts of chalcopyrite and pyrite.
The Pie occurrence area contains three types of mineralization: disseminated sphalerite occurring in Kwadacha limestones, stratiform bedded barite±galena occurring at or near the contact between the limestones and shales and coarse-grained barite associated with sphalerite and chalcopyrite within the shales.
In 1978, a grab sample of coarse-grained barite is associated with sphalerite and chalcopyrite within shales assayed 11.2 per cent lead, 1.76 per cent zinc and 0.19 per cent copper, while a gossanous area overlying black shales hosting fine grained galea was identified approximately 700 metres to the northeast of the previous zone with a grab sample (float?) yielding 65 per cent lead and 0.75 per cent zinc (Assessment Report 7373). Also at this time, three zones of disseminated sphalerite in limestone were identified approximately 1.5 kilometres north, 1.8 kilometres southeast and 2.5 kilometres east, respectively of the main zone and yielded from 3 to 10 per cent zinc (Assessment Report 7373).
In 1980, drilling is reported to have yielded intercepts of 2.93 per cent zinc over 2.00 metres and 0.40 per cent zinc over 3.00 metres in hole 80-1 (Assessment Report 8647; Strate, T. (2012-04-05): NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Pie Property).
In 2009, samples (856561 and 856599) of semi-massive sphalerite-galena mineralization from the Pie Breccia zone yielded up to 27.81 per cent zinc and 4.83 per cent lead (Strate, T. (2012-04-05): NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Pie Property).
In 2011, a composite grab sample (860595) of mineralized quartz vein material from the West Pie zone yielded up to 7.48 per cent zinc and 3.5 per cent copper, while a channel sample (1195311) from the Creek 2 zone yielded 0.222 per cent zinc (Strate, T. (2012-04-05): NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Pie Property).
Work History
The original Pie claims were staked by Riocanex in 1978 after the 1977 discovery of the Cirque deposit (094 008) by Cyprus Anvil and Hudson Bay Oil and Gas. Between 1978 and 1982, exploration consisted of soil geochemical surveying, limited very low-frequency (VLF) and helicopter electromagnetic (EM) geophysical surveying, geological mapping, hand trenching and diamond drilling. During this time, nine diamond-drill holes totalling 2365 metres were completed. Several barite and galena showings were discovered near the contact between Mid-Devonian Kwadacha limestones and Upper Devonian Gunsteel Formation shales. As well, three areas of sphalerite mineralization were discovered in the limestones. Several large lead-zinc anomalies were outlined in the vicinity of the galena and barite showings.
In 1982, Ecstall Mining Corporation acquired the property but performed little work except for an airborne VLF and magnetic geophysical survey in 1992.
In June 1992, Minnova Incorporated optioned the Pie claims from Ecstall Mining Corporation and exploration that year consisted of soil geochemical surveying. Additional soil geochemical surveying was completed the following year. In 1994, Metall Mining Corporation (formerly Minnova Incorporated) completed a soil geochemical survey and one NQ diamond-drill hole totalling 520 metres. The drillhole failed to intersect the Gunsteel shale–Kwadacha limestone contact and Metall Mining subsequently dropped their option on the property.
After 1994, the Pie property lay dormant until 2006, when Ecstall Mining Corporation completed a diamond drill program on the property. Seven drillholes totalling 2653 metres were completed by mid-September; an additional seven drillholes of unknown depths were completed by the end of November. Five of the first seven drillholes reached their intended targets and tested the base of the Gunsteel Formation above the Kwadacha limestone contact.
By 2012, the property had been acquired by Canada Zinc Metals Corporation as part of their Kechika regional project. That year, a 100-sample stream sediment sampling program was conducted over the Pie, Akie (MINFILE 094F 027), Mount Alcock (MINFILE 094F 015) and Yuen (MINFILE 094F 013) properties. Canada Zinc Metals Corp. also completed a versatile time domain electromagnetic (VTEM) geophysical survey on the Kechika regional project. Preliminary interpretative results generated from the VTEM data indicate an excellent correlation between the known geological and structural data and the electromagnetic conductivity response generated from the survey. The results also defined the western panel of Gunsteel Formation shale and associated rocks on the Mount Alcock property and suggest an increased level of structural complexity compared to the existing mapping (Press Release - February 26, 2013).
In 2013, Canada Zinc Metals Corp. collected a total of 615 soil samples on the northwest and southeast extensions to the main soil grid to test electromagnetic (EM) trends identified by the 2012 VTEM survey. The EM trends appear to represent strike extensions of known occurrences of Gunsteel Formation shale. The 2013 sampling expanded the strike extents of the northwest-trending lead-zinc soil anomaly that corresponds to the main barite showing originally outlined by historical soil sampling. The anomaly now extends over a distance of 3.25 kilometres with an approximate width of 600 metres. The anomaly is coincident with mapped Gunsteel Formation shale and its central core overlies the massive barite occurrence that has been the focus of limited historical diamond drilling.
In September 2015, preliminary results of a heliborne gravity gradiometry survey flown between November 2014 and March 2015 over the Akie, Yuen North, and Mt. Alcock properties were received by Canada Zinc Metals Corp. The survey was designed to identify significant structural features and gravity high anomalies within the Gunsteel Formation shale. The data in conjunction with previously acquired airborne VTEM, soil geochemistry, and geologic mapping data is being used to further delineate target areas on the properties.
The Pie Option properties (Pie, Cirque East and Yuen) are under option from Canada Zinc Metals Corp. by the Cirque Operating Corporation. In 2016, five high-priority target areas on Pie and Yuen were selected for focused exploration, and a target about one kilometre west and downdip of historic drilling and trenching in the Pie Main area was drilled. Baseline environmental monitoring for the Pie, Cirque East and Yuen properties continued.
In 2017, Canada Zinc Metals Corp. received the final report on the structural interpretation of satellite imagery for the Akie and southern parts of the Kechika Regional project. The principal objective of this study was to generate exploration targets for SEDEX mineralization over a large regional framework in a cost-effective manner. The project involved an interpretation of a 6162-square-kilometre area centred between the Akie property (MINFILE 094F 031) 45 kilometres to the south and the Mount Alcock property (MINFILE 094F 015) to the north, and was undertaken at variable scales of 1:15,000 to 1:25,000 using Sentinel-2 and Landat-7 imagery. Fifty-centimetre-resolution Pleiades-1A data, centred on the properties, were interpreted in greater detail at up to 1:2500 scale. Landsat-7 imagery was also processed for hematitic and jarositic iron oxides, as well as generalized clay alteration.
