In the Trapper occurrence area, basalt and mafic volcaniclastic rocks of the Upper Triassic Stuhini Group are intruded by a feldspar phyric diorite sill, and its extrusive dacite facies that are presumed to be part of the Late Cretaceous Thorn Magmatic Suite of the Windy Table Complex. Early Eocene Sloko Group rhyolitic feldspar porphyry dikes and dacitic feldspar porphyry intrude older rocks; extrusive equivalents of rhyolite and felsic volcanic rock overlie older country rock.
Quartz veins with galena, chalcopyrite, pyrite and minor sphalerite and malachite occur mainly within rhyolite and tuff. The veins are typically 2 centimetres wide and strike east and dip vertical. Gold mineralization and coarse yellow pyrite is also associated with silica flooding within rhyolite.
In 2011, drill hole TG-11-011 intersected 22.86 metres (from 106.89-129.75 metres depth) of porphyry dike and its margin grading 2.51 grams per tonne gold and 7.5 grams per tonne silver; including 18.60 metres of only porphyry dike grading 0.98 gram per tonne gold and 8.5 grams per tonne silver; and 4.26 metres of the dike margin grading 9.18 grams per tonne gold and 2.95 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 33269).
The main area of mineralization occurs within a 7-metre-wide, silicified, 035 degree striking zone within a rhyolitic feldspar-augite porphyry dike. A 1.0 metre chip sample assayed 6.2 grams per tonne gold and 5.4 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 13107).
Work History
Chevron Canada Ltd staked the Inlaw claim in 1983. In 1983 and 1984, Chevron conducted geological, geochemical, and trenching work on the property. The east-west oriented soil grid is limited to a roughly 1.2 kilometres east-west by 1.4 kilometres north-south area within the centre of the Checkmate 2 claim.
The Chevron work outlined a large 1500 by 400 metre area of coincident gold-arsenic-antimony anomalies that trend east-northeast across an area of iron-carbonate alteration, diorite intrusives and rhyolite dikes. Very high gold values (up to 8.65 grams per tonne gold) in soils are reported, from which flakes of free gold were observed in heavy mineral concentrates. Follow-up trenching and bedrock sampling work yielded six chip samples averaging 2.86 grams per tonne gold over 6 metres (Assessment Report 13107). The Inlaw claim lapsed in 1994.
In 1989, Tahltan Holdings conducted geological and geochemical surveys on the Law claims to the east of the Inlaw area. No mineralization was found (Assessment Report 19377).
Clive Aspinall staked the Checkmate 2 claim in 1998 to cover the former Inlaw claim area and conducted a program of reconnaissance geological mapping and geochemical sampling. A total of 21 soil samples (predominantly talus fines), 9 stream sediments samples and 21 rock samples were collected and analyzed for gold only. The 1998 mapping work expanded the area of the northwest trending iron carbonate alteration zone to a total length of 3.8 kilometres, 200 to 800 metres wide and roughly 200 metres thick. Aspinall interpreted it as dipping under younger rocks to the east and northeast and suggests that gold mineralization within the iron carbonate alteration is associated with zones of silica. The highest gold values from work by Aspinall were 2054 parts per billion in soil, 509 parts per billion in stream sediment and 704 parts per billion in rock float sample (Assessment Report 25669).
In the summer of 2003 five rock samples were collected by Clive Aspinall from the from the Checkmate 2 mineral claim, for petrographic studies. These studies included five thin section and three polished section studies. These petrographic studies reveal that low-grade gold-copper-zinc-arsenic-antimony and silver mineralization is sourced to leucocratic feldspathic rocks, weakly altered, associated within a distal package of auto brecciated andesitic rocks, exhibiting strong carbonate, chlorite and chert-quartz chalcedony associations, of possible sinter or other unclear origin.
The Checkmate property was acquired by Solomon Resources Limited from Clive Aspinall and conducted a program of geological, geochemical, and prospecting surveys on the Checkmate property in 2004. The sampling program included the collection of 58 rock samples, 223 soil samples and 21 silt samples. The results of the 2004 work supported the previous exploration results and outlined areas for further work. Solomon returned the property to Aspinall in 2005.
In 2008 Richfield Ventures Corp conducted a sampling program, 221 soil samples were collected, along with 13 rock samples and 5 stream sediment samples. Soil sampling from 2008 and previous sampling by Chevron indicated a possible soil anomaly of up to 1 kilometre long and as much as 100 to 200 metres in width.
Constantine Metal Resources Ltd acquired the property in 2010. Work in 2010 was limited to a one day in August, with a focus on testing the continuity of the Chevron-Richfield gold-in-soil geochemical anomaly westward across Inlaw Creek, where rusty-weathering orange-brown and locally gossanous rock exposures suggested the mineralized and altered zone was present. A total of 98 soil, 26 rock and 2 silt samples were collected. Fifteen of the soil samples on the traverse yielded gold values greater than 100 parts per billion, with five of those over 200 parts per billion and ranging as high as 579 parts per billion gold (Assessment Report 31984). The data indicated that the gold anomaly remains open to the west and to the north. The data and the altered and mineralized rocks further suggested to Constantine Metal that the northwest-trending mineralizing system has a strike extent greater than 1.5 kilometres in length.
In 2011, Ocean Park Ventures entered into a Joint Venture agreement with Constantine Metal Resource to earn an initial 50 per cent interest in the property. In 2011 Ocean Park Ventures completed an extensive exploration program on the Trapper Property. The program included an expanded soil sample grid, prospecting, property-wide geological field mapping and prospecting, line-cutting, ground-based induced polarization/resistivity and magnetic geophysical surveys, an airborne SkyTEM electromagnetic/magnetic geophysical survey, and 8,377.84 metres of diamond drilling in 42 drill holes. Exploration in the 2011 tested the historic gold-in-soil anomaly. In total, 2,436 soil samples and 490 rock samples were collected. Four prospective zones were discovered; the Inlaw Zone (104K 078), the West Ridge Zone (104K 175), the Outlaw Zone (104K 176) and the Window Zone (104K 174). Positive drill results in the Inlaw Zone require follow-up drilling to test the continuity of the gold mineralization (Assessment Report 33269). Data collected in the 2011 program also suggests the potential for a large-scale porphyry deposit at depth. The lead, zinc and copper soil anomalies are concentrically zoned, similar to porphyry-style signatures. Soil geochemistry shows a broad west-northwest trending coincident silver, lead, zinc, arsenic, cadmium anomaly that is at least 5.2 kilometres long. Both the airborne and ground geophysics support the west-northwest trend. The Inlaw, Outlaw and West Ridge zones are located within a pervasive iron-carbonate alteration zone. The West Ridge Zone was discovered late in the exploration season. The drill results from the West Ridge Zone contained the most consistent gold mineralization with 25 to 30 metres of over 1.0 gram per tonne gold drilled in three different holes (Assessment Report 33269).
In March 2017, Dunnedin Ventures Inc. released results from exploration undertaken in October 2016 on its copper-gold porphyry Trapper project. Highlights of the program included the collection of 62 heavy mineral concentrate samples across 40 square kilometres of the project area. The concentrates averaged 2.31 grams per tonne gold and ranged from zero to 32.1 grams per tonne gold (Press Release, Dunnedin Ventures Inc., March 27, 2017). High gold values upslope from previously drilled gold zones defined new gold targets or significant step-outs to known zones.
The Trapper Gold trend is a northwest-southeast striking, 7 kilometre long gold trend on the Trapper claims that were acquired Brixton Metals Corporation from Kodiak Copper in year 2020, becoming part of their Thorn property. In 2020 Brixton completed 3,025 metres of drilling in 16 core holes on the Thorn, just north and northwest of the Trapper area. A total of 1473 rock samples and 5588 soil samples were also collected throughout their expanded Thorn property including the Trapper Target area that contains the Trapper (Inlaw) (104K 078), Outlaw Trapper (104K 176), West Ridge (104K 175), Window (104K 174) and two new showings west of the West Ridge prospect. Brixton collected a number of rock samples in the West Ridge and Trapper (Inlaw) area. A rock sample taken in 2020, in the Inlaw area about 370 metres west of drill holeTG-11-011, assayed 18 grams per tonne gold (Figure 9, Press Release, Brixton Metals Corp., Dec.15, 2020).
Refer to Thorn (104K 031), Chivas (104K 180), East Outlaw (104K 083) and Oban (104K 168) for details of the work history of the greater Thorn property.
