The Keel (Beale Lake) occurrence is located on a north-facing slope, south of Keel creek and north of Beale Lake, approximately 75 kilometres northeast of Dease Lake.
Regionally, the area is underlain by argillaceous sediments, chert, limestone, sericitic tuff and mafic volcanics recently assigned to a Precambrian to Devonian tectonite assemblage (Rapid River tectonite) with Kootenay terrane affinity. A small diorite stock intrudes the strata to the west, while granite and alkaline feldspar granitic rocks of the Lower Cretaceous Cassiar Batholith are exposed several kilometres to the southwest.
Locally, two compositionally and spatially distinct styles of gold-silver mineralization have been identified in the area and are referred to as the West and East veined zones.
The West veined zone, located near the western headwaters of Hook Creek and approximately 500 metres west-southwest of the East veined zone, comprises phyllite and bleached quartzites hosting a series of sheeted to stockwork quartz-arsenopyrite-pyrite-scheelite veins and siliceous replacement mineralization. The veins range typically form to 1 to 6 centimetres in width and occur as sheeted veins with an apparent density of one per 0.75 metres. Parallel vein sets have a near vertical dip and strike both north and northeast.
The East veined zone, located immediately east of Hook Creek, comprises scattered quartz-arsenopyrite-pyrite-galena±sphalerite veins, disseminations and breccias occurring over an area of approximately 800 by 1200 metres. The sulphides vary from trace disseminated to massive with a generally sulphide content of greater than 5 per cent.
A third zone of mineralization is reported approximately 500 metres northeast of the East veined zone at an elevation of approximately 1600 metres and west of the informally named East Creek. The zone comprises quartz-arsenopyrite veins in quartzites and sericite schists.
Other mineralized veins, comprising quartz-galena-sphalerite-arsenopyrite hosted in argillite, quartzite and phyllite hornfels, have been identified adjacent to Hook Creek and north of the previous two zones.
Work History
Gold- and silver-bearing quartz-sulphide veins were first discovered on the ridge north of Beale Lake in 1982 and 1983 by the Cassiar Joint Venture, who conducted grid soil sampling and prospecting on the area. In 1983, Canamax Resources Inc. completed a program of grid soil sampling with minor silt and rock sampling on the area as the Keel 1 claim. The best results reported by the property owners are from the East veined zone, with float samples (83CM121) yielding up to 41.83 grams per tonne gold and 1550 grams per tonne silver from a silicified vein breccia exposed in trenches, and 2.5 grams per tonne gold and 5.5 grams per tonne silver from a quartz-arsenopyrite-galena veins exposed in bedrock (Assessment Report 12181). Also at this time, a grab sample (83CW930) of quartz-sulphide veins exposed in Hook Creek, north of the West veined zone, assayed 2.47 grams per tonne gold, 188.6 grams per tonne silver and 1.76 per cent zinc, whereas a float sample (83CW885) from the area of the third zone of mineralization, located northeast of the East veined zone, assayed 17.14 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 12181).
In 1996, following the Cry Lake regional geochemical data release, the ground was restaked as the Flag 1-4 claims that year by Westmin Resources Ltd., and a program of contour soil sampling with limited prospecting and rock sampling carried out, mainly aimed at volcanogenic massive sulphide-style targets. Westmin Resources have reinterpreted and collected new data that suggests a set of veins over 1 by 2 kilometres featuring two distinct types of gold mineralization. They suggest a good exploration model might be a zoned intrusion-related gold system. A float sample (530509) of quartz vein hosting arsenopyrite, located approximately 900 kilometres north of the West zone, assayed 0.024 per cent tungsten, 0.060 per cent bismuth and 9.86 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 25044). This work also identified a gossanous zone, later referred to as the Lucky Luke zone, located near two small lakes approximately 5.5 kilometres west-southwest of the occurrence, hosting pyrrhotite and minor chalcopyrite in an argillite near its contact with a limestone.
In 2000, D.B. Fleming and R.M. Durfeld acquired the property and conducted a minor program of geological mapping and geochemical (rock, silt and soil) sampling on the area as the BLT 1-2 claims. Two outcrop samples (250156 and 250157) from the West zone yielded 2.49 and 1.83 grams per tonne gold, respectively, with up to 0.30 per cent tungsten and 0.035 per cent bismuth, whereas float samples from historical hand trenches on the East zone yielded up to 26.64 grams per tonne gold, 176.0 grams per tonne silver and 7.70 per cent lead (Sample 250152; Assessment Report 26518).
Later work (Fieldwork 2001, pages 54-55) has reassigned the rocks to the metamorphosed sedimentary and volcaniclastic rocks of the Upper Dorsey assemblage. In 2001, British Columbia Geological Survey samples from the same veins yielded 2716 parts per billion gold (fire assay) and 954 parts per million silver from a quartz vein, and 548 parts per billion gold (INAA) and 95 513 parts per million silver (INAA) from a quartz vein with galena, sphalerite and pyrite. Although in the alpine, much of the property is covered by overburden. Mineralized quartz vein float throughout the area hints at additional, unexposed veins (Fieldwork 2001, page 55).
In 2003, Sutcliffe Resources Ltd. staked a large block of claims to enclose the BLT claims that they had previously optioned from D. Fleming and R. Durfeld. The target was a high-grade intrusion-proximal gold deposit, like the Pogo deposit in Alaska. Sutcliffe Resources conducted a mid-fall geochemical (25 rock, 6 silt and 742 soil samples) survey, and a prospecting and geological mapping program but work was cut short by winter. They also conducted a 30 line-kilometre airborne geophysical survey. A local float or subcrop sample (BL03G017) from the area of historical hand trenching on the East veined zone assayed 2.06 grams per tonne gold and 24.1 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 27542).
In 2005, Sutcliffe Resources completed a program of rock sampling and announced that field crews were preparing the Beale project for an induced polarization survey designed to follow up on high-grade gold samples as reported on by G.E. Nicholson in his November 2004 report. The induced polarization 3D array survey and subsequent detailed geological mapping and geochemical sampling are intended to define drill target locations; the geophysical survey totalled 21.6 line-kilometres.
In 2006, Sutcliffe Resources completed 10 BQTK diamond drill holes, totalling 1927.87 metres, from seven setups; all holes were collared to test induced polarization conductors. The best results from diamond drilling were 6.58 grams per tonne gold and 11.8 grams per tonne silver over 0.35 metre (144.22 to 144.57 metres down hole) in hole BL06-09 located on the West veined zone (Assessment Report 28965).
In 2017, Jedway Enterprises Ltd. conducted a geological program of air photograph interpretation at a scale of approximately 1:9636 using Google Earth photos and BC TRIM maps from www.MapPlace.gov.bc.ca covering the main portion of the Beale property where the mineralized veins and induced polarization chargeability anomalies occur above a residual magnetic anomaly.
In 2021, Cazador Resources Ltd. completed a minor program of prospecting, mapping and geochemical (rock and soil) sampling on the area as the Keel property.
