The New Mess 1 occurrence is located at the southern end of the Toodoggone Gold Camp, north of Kemess Creek and approximately 8.8 kilometres east of Duncan Lake, about 250 kilometres north of the community of Smithers.
The Toodoggone Gold Camp lies within the eastern margin of the Intermontane Belt and is underlain by a northwest trending belt of Paleozoic to Paleogene sediments, volcanics and intrusions. Regionally, the area is situated within a Mesozoic volcanic arc assemblage bounded to the east by the Omineca Belt and to the west and southwest by the Sustut and Bowser basins. Devonian to Permian Asitka Group crystalline limestones are the oldest rocks exposed in the region and are commonly in thrust contact with Upper Triassic Stuhini Group marine sedimentary and volcanic rocks, andesite flows and pyroclastic rocks. These units have been intruded by the granodiorite to quartz monzonite of the Early Jurassic Black Lake Suite and are in turn unconformably overlain by or faulted against dacitic volcanics and volcaniclastics of the Lower Jurassic Toodoggone Formation (Hazelton Group).
The dominant structures in the area are steeply dipping faults that define a prominent regional northwest structural fabric trending 140 to 170 degrees. High angle, northeast-striking faults (approximately 060 degrees) appear to truncate and displace northwest-striking faults. Collectively these faults form a boundary for variably rotated and tilted blocks underlain by monoclinal strata.
The geology of the area is separated into four northwest trending, fault-bound panels. The occurrence is underlain by the west-central panel, an upfaulted panel of regionally propylitic-altered Toodoggone volcanics in the south portion and Stuhini volcanics in the northern portion. A major north-northwest striking fault separates the hosting panel from structurally higher, zeolitized Toodoggone volcanics to the east. Stuhini Group volcanics are characterized by augite and plagioclase porphyry, basalt and andesite flows and breccias. Several members of the Toodoggone Formation are present. Lithologies of the Toodoggone Formation include reddish to mauve, variably welded ash-flow and lapilli-ash tuffs with subordinate block-lapilli tuff, epiclastics and rare andesitic lava flows interbedded with ash-flow tuffs (Bulletin 86). These rocks are propylitically altered with argillic overprinting.
Mineralization is of deep epithermal character, hosted in the Stuhini and Toodoggone (Adoogacho Member) volcanic assemblages. The mineralization is associated with argillic altered volcanics and at least eight brecciated quartz-amethyst-barite veins, varying from 0.1 to 1.5 metres wide, within a major north-northwest striking shear zone. One of the quartz veins exposed in trench 3 strikes 170 degrees and dips 10 to 25 degrees west and is bound by shearing and pyritic, argillic-altered gouge. The zone can be traced for 120 metres along the west side of a creek. Mineralization is comprised of pyrite, sphalerite, galena, and chalcopyrite associated with barite and calcite.
In 1986, a chip sample (MR-61) assayed 0.28 gram per tonne gold over 0.5 metre, whereas a grab sample (NT-01) from the area assayed 0.245 gram per tonne gold, 35.1 grams per tonne silver, 0.38 per cent copper, 1.38 per cent lead and 10.62 per cent zinc (Assessment Report 15184).
In 1989, outcrop samples yielded up to 1.16 grams per tonne gold and 155 grams per tonne silver, whereas trench sampling yielded up to 3.81 grams per tonne gold and 321 grams per tonne silver in trench 2 and 0.61 gram per tonne gold with 32.5 grams per tonne silver over 0.6 metre in trench 4 (Assessment Report 19789). A drillhole (89-7) was drilled to test the mineralization intersected in trenches 3 and 4, and a 0.6-metre section assayed 17.6 grams per tonne silver, 1.0787 per cent zinc, 0.5072 per cent lead, 0.1293 per cent copper and 0.417 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 19789).
In 2003, samples taken approximately 100 metres northwest of the 1989 diamond drilling yielded 2.04 grams per tonne gold and 154.0 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 27429). In 2004, rock samples from the area yielded up to 49.9 grams per tonne gold, 791 grams per tonne silver and greater than 1.0 per cent each of copper, lead and zinc, whereas chip samples taken over 1.2 metres of the vein yielded from 0.55 to 36.48 grams per tonne gold with 275 to 1460 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 27636).
In 2017, a diamond-drill hole (UDS-17-03), located approximately 450 metres to the southeast of the 1989 drilling, yielded intercepts of up to 1.310 grams per tonne gold over 2.0 metres, along with five other intercepts yielding from 0.102 to 0.216 gram per tonne gold over 2 metres (Assessment Report 37846).
The area has been explored in conjunction with the nearby Mess showing (094E 070) located 1.5 kilometres north, since the early 1980s.
In 1980, Serem Ltd. completed a program of soil and silt sampling and geological mapping on the area as the Mess 1-4 claims. In 1981, a program of geological mapping and rock, silt and soil sampling was completed. In 1986, Western Premium Resource Corp. completed a program of geochemical (heavy mineral, rock, silt and soil) sampling and an airborne magnetometer and VLF-EM survey on the area. This work outlined numerous precious metal soil anomalies with gold up 1680 parts per billion over an area of approximately 2.5 by 1 kilometre. The New Mess claim was staked in July 1986 to cover the area of the southern airborne anomalies. Rock and soil geochemistry, which was done on behalf of Western Premium Resource Corp. in 1986, has confirmed the presence of significant silver and gold mineralization on the property. Soil and stream geochemistry also indicated other anomalous areas that warrant further investigation. In 1989, Inco Gold Management Ltd. performed a program of prospecting, hand trenching and seven diamond-drill holes, totalling 365.7 metres, on the area on the behalf of Western Premium Resource Corp.
During 2003 through 2006, Stealth Minerals Ltd. completed programs of prospecting, geochemical (rock, silt and soil) sampling and geological mapping in the area as the Fog-Mess property.
During 2014 through 2017, Serengeti Resources Inc. completed programs of prospecting, rock, silt and soil sampling, three diamond-drill holes totalling 1132.5 metres, and a 9.0 line kilometre induced polarization survey on the area as the UDS property. The diamond drilling was performed to the south of the New Mess 1 occurrence and is reported to have intersected porphyritic andesitic volcanic rocks displaying propylitic and phyllic alteration assemblages and monzonitic rocks with pervasive phyllic and weak potassic alteration associated with quartz-pyrite-magnetite±chalcopyrite veins. In March of 2018, Serengeti Resources Inc. signed an option agreement to acquire a 100% interest in the Atty and ATG properties from Finlay Minerals Ltd. and Electrum Resource Corp., respectively. In 2018, Serengeti Resources Inc. conducted a program of rock sampling, core re-logging and sampling, geological mapping and a 20.0 line kilometre ground induced polarization survey on the area as the ATTY-ATG property. The property covers eight occurrences: Attycelley (094E 022), Awesome (094E 081), Fog 1 (094E 115), Fog 2 (094E 116), Fog 3 (094E 117), Kem 6 (094E 119), New Mess 1 (094E 120), and Wrich 1 (094E 122). During the months of June, July and August 2019, Serengeti conducted a broad exploration program on the ATTY property in order to follow up on drill core re-logging and sampling, mapping and geophysics completed in 2018. The 2019 program included 30.8 line kilometres of ground-based IP surveys in two phases and a diamond drilling program of 2318 metres in six drillholes.
