The Smoke Uranium occurrence is situated at the southern end of the Swannell Ranges (Omineca Mountains), approximately 42 kilometres east-northeast of Takla Landing. It was discovered in 1974 by Anglo-Bomarc Mines Ltd., who thought it held little economic potential.

The area is underlain by granite, monzonite, and gabbroic phases of the Late Triassic to Early Cretaceous Hogem Intrusive Complex, which have been emplaced into volcanic rocks of the Middle Triassic to Lower Jurassic Takla Group east of the Pinchi fault zone. The plutonic rocks form an elongate batholith, extending from Chuchi Lake, and north to the Mesilinka River.

A plug of alaskite, approximately 300 metres in diameter, intrudes granite on a prominent knoll, east-northeast of the Bralorne Takla mercury mine (093N 008). Uranium mineralization occurs locally in narrow quartz veinlets and stringers in widely spaced fractures cutting the alaskite.

Two samples of this mineralization assayed 0.07 and 0.14 per cent U3O8 (0.06 and 0.12 per cent uranium) respectively, while samples of the alaskite itself ranged from 0.003 to 0.012 per cent U3O8 (Assessment Report 5372, page 3).

Work History

The radioactive occurrence was originally found in 1969 by ground follow-up of an airborne scintillometer survey; soil sampling and a radiometric survey were carried out but no claims were staked.

In 1972, the Lin group was owned by W.B. Bacon and the Luc Syndicate carried out a geochemical soil survey in the area consisting of approximately 700 samples.

Anglo-Bomarc Mines Ltd. acquired the Smoke 1-32 claims From Leslie Hart, of Vancouver, in 1974. Work during 1974 included a magnetometer survey over 10 line-kilometres and a geochemical soil survey (351 samples) over 18.5 line-kilometres.

In 1990 and 1991, Golden Rule Resources Ltd. completed programs of geological mapping, geochemical (rock, silt, and soil) sampling and a 1500 line-kilometre airborne geophysical survey on the area as the Takla property. Also in 1991, Pacific Rim Mining Corp. completed a program of silt and soil sampling on the area immediately north as the Kwan 5-8 claims.

During 2005 through 2010, Redton Resources and Geoinformatics Exploration Canada Inc. undertook work on the regionally extensive Redton property, which covered the Falcon (MINFILE 093N 068) occurrence to the south (just north of Nation Lake) and north to the Tak (MINFILE 093N 067) occurrence, approximately 6 kilometres south of the Omineca River. In 2005, a 5764.0 line-kilometre airborne magnetic and electromagnetic survey was completed on the area as the Takla-Redton property. In 2006, a program of geological mapping and geochemical (rock, silt, and soil) sampling was completed on the property along with 12 diamond drill holes, totalling 4032.5 metres, on the Takla-Rainbow (MINFILE 093N 082) and Tak occurrences. In 2007 and 2008, programs of geochemical sampling (rock, silt, and soil) sampling, ground geophysical surveys and 10 diamond drill holes, totalling 3784.0 metres, were completed on the property. This work centred primarily on the Takla-Rainbow occurrence to the north and Falcon occurrence to the south. In 2010, a subsequent AeroTEM survey by Redton Resources identified 65 electromagnetic anomalies on the property.

In 2011, Kiska Metals Corp ran a soil sample line over the Smoke Uranium showing (093N 175), the Smoke Copper showing (093N 152) and the Lin 18 showing (093N 168) areas. A few sporadic anomalous gold in soils were obtained but no significant or consistent elevated copper, molybdenum, lead, or zinc values were obtained in the Smoke Urnaium or Smoke Copper areas (Figure 12, Assessment Report 32504). Two rock samples (M411113 and M411114) were taken at the Smoke Uranium location consisting of bleached quartz flooded granite. Both were slightly anomalous in uranium assaying 10 parts per million each (Assessment Report 32504).

During 2012 through 2014, Kiska Metals Corp. completed further programs of geochemical (rock, silt, and soil) sampling, geological mapping and ground geophysical surveys on the Redton property.

Also in 2014, Serengeti Resources Inc. completed a program of geochemical (soil, silt and rock) sampling and a 7.8 line-kilometre induced polarization survey on the area as the Kwanika East-Smoke property. A 328.0 line-kilometre airborne magnetic survey was completed the following year.

In 2016, Serengeti Resources Inc. completed a 12.0 line-kilometre ground induced polarization survey on the area. This work identified a zone of moderate to high chargeability response on the two-line survey over the strongest magnetic feature in the west, whereas elevated chargeability values were recorded at depth on the two most eastern traverses.