The Kathy occurrence is located approximately 2 kilometres southeast of the settlement of Manson Creek, just north of Lost Creek.
Regionally, this showing occurs within the Proterozoic to Paleozoic Boulder Creek Group. Here, the Boulder Creek Group lies as a fault-bounded sliver within the Manson fault zone. The Boulder Creek Group consists of a series of sandstones, impure quartzites, siltstones, argillites, marbles and minor amphibolite. Immediately to the southwest lies the Cretaceous Germansen Batholith. To the north of this occurrence lay rocks belonging to the Upper Paleozoic or younger Wolf Ridge Gabbro, the Pennsylvanian to Permian Nina Creek Group and pericratonic rocks of North American affinity.
Mineralization is contained within a number of lenticular quartz veins that range from 15 to 17 centimetres wide and consists of galena, scheelite and pyrite. The quartz veins occur in hydrothermally altered phyllites and arenaceous limestones. The veins are controlled by a fault that is related to the Manson fault zone. The occurrence of scheelite within these veins possibly indicates that they may be genetically related to the Germansen Batholith. A rock sample taken in 1981 assayed 0.1068 per cent lead, 0.0258 per cent zinc, 4.6 grams per tonne silver and 0.0222 per cent copper (Assessment Report 9572).
WORK HISTORY
The mineralized veins have been intermittently prospected and sampled since approximately 1875. Several claims were located prior to 1903. Development work was limited to open cutting and stripping.
Previous exploration in the Boulder Creek area dates back to 1940, when the Berthold lode gold prospect, located approximately 1 kilometre south of Boulder Creek, was examined. A 3-metre wide silicified fracture zone containing pyrite galena gold and silver was trenched. This area is just west of the mouth of Boulder Creek in Manson Lakes.
In 1968, the area that was later (in the 2000s) held by Skygold as the Manson Creek property was held as the Asp claim group by Omineca Base Metals Ltd. During the 1968 field season, geological mapping and geochemical surveying was done on the property. Several quartz veins along Boulder Creek were trenched and sampled. Northern Tungsten Mines Ltd., incorporated in 1970, acquired some 60 claims in the Stroh, Reynolds, Don and other groups. During 1972, the company carried out a trenching program and a geochemical soil survey (343 samples). This exploration work exposed mineralization within a large lead anomaly. Work during 1973 included geological mapping, an induced polarization survey over 3.2 kilometres, an electromagnetic survey, a geochemical soil survey (62 samples), trenching and 862 metres of diamond drilling in eight holes on Stroh 7 and 8 and Don 1.
In 1978, Esso Minerals Canada conducted an extensive evaluation program on their BOLD claims consisting of line cutting, totalling 27 line-kilometres; geological mapping at a scale of 1:2500 covering 240 hectares and geophysical surveys, including magnetometer and horizontal loop electromagnetic, each covering 25 line-kilometres. Geochemical sampling consisted of collecting and analyzing 958 soil samples for lead, zinc, copper, silver and molybdenum. The work was confined to the area northwest of Boulder Lake between Boulder and Little Slate creeks.
In 1979, Noranda Mines conducted a geochemical stream silt survey, collecting 20 samples on the Kathy claims approximately 10 kilometres northwest of the Asp/Bold showing area (Assessment Report 7519). During the 1980 field season, Mattagami Lake Exploration Ltd collected 821 soil samples and 220 moss samples (Assessment Report 8814). During the 1981 field season, a total of 1245 soil samples were collected by Mattagami on the Kathy claims. Trenching by D-8 Cat was conducted. A magnetometer survey and a very low frequency electromagnetic survey were conducted.
In 1982, ESSO Minerals Canada conducted work to follow-up on and to further evaluate soil geochemical data obtained in 1978. Work completed by Esso Resources Canada Limited on the BOLD 2 and 4 mineral claims in 1982 consisted of trenching, geological mapping and sampling of the Boulder Creek showing. Bulldozer trenching attempted to discover the source of high-grade mineralization in the main showing area.
In 2006, the Manson Creek project was acquired by Skygold Ventures Ltd. Additional claims were staked later in 2006 and in 2007 as part of a massive regional land-staking program. The Manson Creek claim group consisted of 125 contiguous claims covering an area of 55 812.04 hectares at the start of the 2008 field season (Assessment Report 30701). The claims included the MC 1-34 and 50-84 and the DMC 4-5 and 14-50.
In 2006, Spanish Mountain Gold Ltd conducted a comprehensive soil and silt sampling program on the MC property within the Manson Creek area, covering approximately 54 000 hectares. In total 962 soil samples, 52 silt samples and 52 heavy mineral samples were collected.
Work completed by the Company in 2007 included 1:50 000-scale geological mapping, grid preparation and the collection of 1236 soil samples, 173 silt samples, 99 rock samples and 11 heavy mineral stream sediment samples. The heavy mineral stream sediment and silt sampling surveys identified strong gold anomalies along at least 20 separate drainages within the project area. An apparent correlation between many of the anomalies and the trace of the Dunne Creek fault and associated Dunne Creek listwanite unit was identified. The soil survey grid was located south of Manson Creek, along the north slope of Blackjack Mountain and covered the inferred source area of a number of strong stream sediment gold anomalies identified during the 2006 field program.
The 2007 soil sampling area consisted of a grid area extending south from Manson Creek covering Skelton and Lost creeks and extending further south over the upper reaches of a tributary of Boulder Creek (just west of the Blackjack Mountain occurrence [MINFILE 093N 148]). The soil grid extended to the west over an unnamed north-flowing tributary creek of Manson River, just east of the Black Hawk prospect (MINFILE 093N 022; Assessment Report 29898). More detailed soil sampling was done in the Kathy area.
In 2008, work completed by Skygold included an eight-hole diamond drilling program, totalling 1584.94 metres; regional reconnaissance rock sampling (160 samples); geological mapping and a geophysical airborne magnetic survey. The drilling occurred in the area of the Kathy showing (MINFILE 093N 030). The drilling program targeted the source of significant gold soil anomalies collected in 2007 as part of a detailed (200-metre line spacing) soil sampling program. The soil anomaly includes values of up to 663 parts per billion gold and covers an area approximately 1500 metres by 700 metres of outcropping phyllite and listwanite-altered ultramafic. No significant gold anomalies were reported from drilling.
In 2008, Canadian Mining Geophysics Ltd. (CMG) flew a helicopter-borne magnetic gradiometer and very low frequency electromagnetic survey for Skygold over their Manson Creek property. The survey, consisting of 1580 line-kilometres, was flown in September 2008 and covered the following MINFILE occurrences: Blackhawk (093N 022), Asp (093N 027), Berthold (093N 028), Kathy (093N 030), Kildare Gulch (093N 057), Lost Creek (093N 060), Manson River (093N 061), Boulder Creek (093N 088), AJM (093N 136), Bold 1(093N 137), Blackjack Mountain (093N 148) and Bold 2 (093N 197). Of these, Kildare Gulch, Manson River and Boulder Creek are placer deposits. See Assessment Report 30701 for a full report on the aeromagnetic survey.
