The Catspaw occurrence is located near the toe of Thomas Glacier, a small glacier located between Frank Mackie and Berendon Glacier. The area is underlain by rocks of the Lower Jurassic Unuk River Formation, Hazelton Group. These consist of limestone, volcanic fragmentals and tuffs with minor argillites cut by later Cenozoic(?) feldspar porphyry dykes.

Limestone outcrops at lower elevations and consists of dark grey to black fine to medium-grained rock containing pyrite and hematite stains. The fragmentals were observed on the north slope above the glacier and consist of angular fragments in a fine-grained green matrix. The tuffs with minor argillite are thin-bedded well laminated rocks varying from grey to black.

A large gossan, hosting gold and silver mineralization, occurs south and adjacent to the toe of the glacier. It was prospected and sampled in 1986. Two pyritic rock samples contain 1.06 and 1.13 grams per tonne gold with 4.80 and 2.40 grams per tonne silver, respectively. A third sample assayed 123.77 grams per tonne silver. The lithology underlying the gossan was not reported (Assessment Report 15975).

Several hundred metres to the northeast a feldspar porphyry dyke, with a northwest trend, intrudes limestone. Chalcopyrite occurs along the contact as disseminations and massive stringers up to several centimetres in width but commonly less than 1 metre in length. No samples were taken for analysis (Assessment Report 8768).

Work occur in the Catspaw showing first occurred in 1986 by Teuton Resource and was followed up by work on Catspaw claim 1987 and 1988 by Wedgewood Resources (but south of the Catspaw showing). Big I Development worked on the Portland/Haida claim (104B 082), just west of the Catspaw showing, and to the south on the Catspaw claim on the Catspaw South and Catspaw 146 showings (104B 288 and 343). A large airborne geophysical program was conducted by Teuton over the 4-J and Catspaw claims in 2006 at which time significant geophysical anomalies were reported to have been detected on the Catspaw claim. (Assessment Report 28381).

Refer to 4-J (104B 128) for further details of the combined 4-J and Catspaw work history, the latter of which surrounded the Haida (Portland) property

Work History

The first reported activity on the 16 claim Portland (Haida) group (104B 082) was in 1934 when the owner, Alphonse Thomas of Stewart, was exploring the showings by open cutting. Intermittent work by the owner continued until 1940 when Silbak Premier Mines, Limited optioned the property. Work by the company included exploratory stripping, open cutting, and 49 metres of drifting in one adit. The option was subsequently relinquished. In 1946, Mr. Thomas still held the property which was reduced to 4 claims. Development work to this date included, in addition to the adit driven by Silbak Premier, a 3 metre long adit and about 10 open cuts.

Silver Standard Mines acquired the Haida 1 claim in 1967. During 1980 Northair Mines Ltd undertook a limited geochemical soil sampling program near the main surface sand underground workings on the Haida 1 claim.

From 1980 to 1982, the Catspaw claim (southeast of 4J's) was staked by Elan Exploration Ltd arround the Haida Claim and optioned to E&B Exploration (Assessment Report 8768). E&B undertook minor prospecting, sampling and geological mapping before returning the property to Elan. Several of the streams draining the Catspaw and Jim claims were noted to carry gold colours when panned by prospectors.

In 1983, the Catspaw claim was optioned to Teuton Resources Corp. Thee property was enlarged by staking the Four-J's claims and the Gamma claim. A stratiform lead-zinc-antimony (gold-silver) occurrence and a boulder train of argentiferous quartz sulfide mineralization was discovered on the John claim. This latter work was undertaken by Billikin Resources under option (the option was relinquished the following year).

In 1986, work was done by Teuton Resources on the Catspaw claim. Seventy rock samples were collected from the steep/precipitous area south of the glacier in the western portion of the Catspaw claim (Assessment Report 15975).

In 1987, the property was optioned by Teuton to Wedgewood Resources. Field program concentrated on prospecting, trenching, sampling and geochemical surveys on the Four-J's and surrounding claims (Assessment Report 17027).

In 1988, Wedgewood carried out further rock sampling and mapping on the Four J's, Catspaw and Gamma claims before discontinuing the option (Assessment Report 18705). A brief examination of the Catspaw claim was undertaken to determine the position of the southern claim boundary in relation to several mineralized trenches. It was. In addition, the existing grid was extended to the claim boundary for control purposes and 28 samples were collected.

In 1990 Big I Developments Ltd. coptioned both the Haida #1 and Catspaw mineral claims and performed some geological mapping, limited VLF-EM and magnetometer surveys, rock trenching and a drilled a short diamond drill hole. The exploration program confirmed that number of occurrences of structurally controlled quartz fissure (breccia) zones containing significant gold and silver values. All of the known precious metal-bearing showings, examined appear to be related to east-west faults and/or contacts. Gold values were as high as 39.77 grams per tonne and silver ran as high as 4526 grams per tonne (Assessment Report 21212).

A diamond drill and rock trenching program was undtertaken by Big I Developments in 1991 on the Haida/Catspaw claims. Of the two zones drilled only one (Site 1 - DDH 91-2) encountered anomalous gold silver. While the values encountered were low; 0.38 gram per tonne gold and 27.09 gram per tonne silver over an 11 metre section, the zone may have east-west and down-dip potential (Assessment Report 22124). Drillhole 91-3 was put down on the Haida claim.

In 2006, a 427 line kilometre airborne electromagnetic and magnetic geophysical survey was successful in outlining a number of target areas worthy of further exploration. Principal among these was 4J, a complex EM anomaly situated under thin ice cover approximately 100-200m west of the eastern edge of the Smalles icefield. Other significant geophysical anomalies indicated were the EM conductors detected southeast of the 4J anomaly on the Catspaw claim and the discrete, oval-shaped Mag-EM anomaly detected near the southeast corner of the gossan covered by the Tennyson 1-4 claims. The showing covered by the survey include the 4-J (104B 128), 4-J Gold (104B 126), Portland (104B 082), Catspaw (104B 211), Catspaw South (104B 288) and Catspaw 146 (104B 343).

In 2011, the property was optioned to Rotation Minerals which can earn a 50 per cent interest in the property by incurring specific exploration expenditures over 4 years.

Refer to 4-J (104B 128) for further details of the combined 4-J and Catspaw work history, the latter of which surrounded the Haida (Portland) property