The Yellow Rose prospect is located on the Graves 1 claim, 750 metres south-southeast of Mount Graves proper and 600 metres south of the Mount Graves prospect (094E 087). Smithers is 290 kilometres to the south.
A description of the regional geological setting of the Yellow Rose prospect is given in the GWP prospect (094E 087).
Volcanics and volcaniclastics of the Jurassic Hazelton Group are hostrocks of the Mount Graves prospect and surrounding area. These rocks form the eastern limb of a north-northwest trending faulted anticline. Regionally, these rocks have been subdivided into four informal units (Forster, 1984), which at the Mount Graves prospect, dip 50 to 80 degrees to the northeast. Welded and partially welded andesite pumice breccia, overlain by grey, green to orange hornblende porphyritic andesitic flows and pyroxene andesite flows; lesser thin discontinuous lenses of greywacke and laminated siltstone comprise lithologies of the Hazelton Group. Quartz monzonite dikes are found in the faulted core of the regional anticline and along northeast and east trending faults. A series of quartz-feldspar porphyry rhyolitic dikes, striking northwesterly and dipping steeply, occur subparallel to bedding.
Propylitic alteration is pervasive in all units (Forster, 1984). Mafic phenocrysts are altered to chlorite and epidote with hematite and magnetite inclusions or rims. Plagioclase crystals are replaced or rimmed with epidote, chlorite and carbonate. Groundmass is altered to epidote, chlorite, carbonate, sericite and pyrite. Silicification varies from hairline fractures of quartz and calcite to complete quartz flooding along faults and fractures. Pyrite is commonly associated with quartz veining. Weathering products of pyrite include iron oxides, jarosite and manganese oxides along fault and fracture zones. Stockwork and breccia zones consist of quartz, amethystine, chalcedony, calcite, siderite, hematite and barite.
The Yellow Rose prospect lies along the southeastern end of the Yellow Rose fault zone, which has an exposed strike length of some 2 kilometres. The fault zone is describes as a lens-like anastomosing fracture system. This is one of the most persistent structures in the Mount Graves area. It strikes northwest and is inclined steeply to the southwest. At its northwest end, the fault pinches to less than 10 metres wide and is associated with only scattered quartz and calcite veins. On the Yellow Rose prospect (and Orange Rose showing), the fault zone is over 30 metres wide with associated argillic (clays and jarosite) and lesser quartz-pyrite alteration. This is enveloped by a broader zone of propylitic alteration; the iron-carbonates weathering a rusty brown.
At the Yellow Rose prospect, mineralization consists of a coarse stockwork of quartz veining containing galena, sphalerite, chalcopyrite and barite. The veins are hosted in an andesitic, agglomeratic ash flow tuff. The mineralized zone has been exposed over a minimum width of 17 metres.
Trench 1 on the Yellow Rose prospect, has exposed sparse, thin and largely barren, clear quartz veining. Veining cuts broken, clay-altered andesite on the exposed hangingwall. An additional 5-metre length of shattered, increasingly clay-altered andesite was exposed further into the fault zone, to the northeast. Thin, sparse quartz veining with little or no sulphides persists in this new trench extension.
In 1985, trenching on the Yellow Rose prospect intersected gold mineralization in thin quartz veining. The best gold assay results were from sample 36257 which analysed 10.49 grams per tonne gold and 1.7 grams per tonne silver over 5 centimetres (Assessment Report 14824). Samples 36288 and 36289 analysed 6.51 and 6.17 grams per tonne gold respectively (Assessment Report 14824). In 1987, 6 channel samples were taken from a 25-metre extension of Trench 1, in and adjacent to thin quartz veining. The highest assay values from these sample were 0.96 gram per tonne gold, 0.6 gram per tonne silver, 0.36 per cent lead and 0.49 per cent zinc (Assessment Report 17326).
In 1996, 30 rock samples were collected from trench 1 across 60 metres of true width of the Yellow Rose gossan zone, yielding an average of 0.043 gram per tonne gold. A rock chip sample (J96/47) collected from trench 2 on the Vole Peak zone yielded 0.870 gram per tonne gold and 17.9 grams per tonne silver over 2 metres (Assessment Report 24993).
In 2003, a chip sample (132908) from a former trench on the Yellow Rose zone yielded 0.416 gram per tonne gold, 4.7 grams per tonne silver, 1.13 per cent lead and 0.31 per cent zinc (Assessment Report 27441). Three other trench samples (132909, 132910 and 132911), taken a few hundred metres to the north and possible on the Vole Peak zone, yielded from 3.8 to 14.9 grams per tonne silver and trace to 0.24 gram per tonne gold, and a chip sample (132066) from the same area over 2.5 metres of a quartz-breccia zone assayed 16.3 grams per tonne silver and 0.109 per cent lead (Assessment Report 27441).
The Orange Rose showing (also on the Graves 1 claim) is located over 500 metres to the northwest of the Yellow Rose prospect. The showing lies along the northwestern end of the Yellow Rose fault zones. Trench 2 on this showing has exposed lenses of moderately to heavily silicified andesite porphyry across roughly 20 metres width, varying from a few centimetres to 2 metres thick with up to 5 per cent disseminated pyrite
In 1986, trenching on the Orange Rose showing intersected strong silicification with disseminated pyrite as the only visible mineralization. The best assay results from this trench were 0.02 gram per tonne gold over 200 centimetres (Sample L-311) and 2.9 grams per tonne silver over 10 centimetres (Sample L-314) (Assessment Report 17326).
Work History
The Mount Graves property was optioned by Great Western Petroleum Corp. in 1981 and a geological-geochemical field program was conducted on the property between 1981-1983, which resulted in the discovery of the GWP mineral showing which returned values as high as 1.1 per cent gold and 7500 grams per tonne silver in rock samples (Assessment Report 10050).
Douglas Forster (1984) completed a Master of Science thesis on the southern Toodoggone River area with a comparative economic geology analysis of eight prospects including Mount Graves. Using data from fluid inclusion analysis of mineralized rock from the Mount Graves property, Forster proposed a regional epithermal model that places Mount Graves at a depth favourable for hosting mixed precious and base metal deposition.
In 1984, the area of the gossan zone near Vole Peak was tested by Newmont Exploration of Canada for possible links of the gossan zone to the GWP Zone (Assessment Report 13458).
Geostar Mining Corp conducted assessment work in 1985 and in 1986, Yeager and Ikona resampled the GWP Zone. Rock grab samples yielded gold values up to 5.82 grams per tonne and silver values up to 5115.37 (Assessment Report 14824). Also investigated was the Yellow Rose zone, a gossan associated with argillic alteration and quartz veining, 550 metres south of the GWP zone. Thirty metres of trenching revealed sparse quartz veining with gold values up to 10.49 grams per tonne gold in a 5 centimetre wide quartz vein (Assessment Report 14824). Lead and zinc values over 1 per cent were also noted.
Work performed Blue Emerald during the 1987 program confirmed the GWP zone as the most promising prospect on the Mount Graves property. Results of trenching and mapping indicate probable extensions to the southwest and northeast. Rock chip sampling on the GWP zone yielded values up to 3 grams per tonne gold, 503 grams per tonne silver, 1.45 per cent lead and 3.38 per cent zinc (Assessment Report 17326). Additional trenching and rock sampling was done on the Yellow Rose zone with indications that similar mineralization may occur on a southeasterly extension.
The 1989 sampling program of Blue Emerald Resources on the Graves 1-2 was concentrated primarily in the areas of the Lake Fault Zone, Yellow Rose Zone, GWP Zone, East Ridge Zone, and Vole Peak (Assessment Report 19767). Work consisted of contour talus-soil sampling, grid soil sampling, prospecting, mapping, and trenching. A total of 199 soil, 58 rock, and 2 heavy mineral samples were collected.
In 1996, Vetta Ventures Corp conducted exploration work on their Jessye 1 to 3 claims that consisted of geological mapping rock sampling, grid work, soil and stream sediment sampling, and Mag-VLF geophysical surveys (Assessment Report 24993. A total of 74 rock and 344 soil samples and 21 stream sediment samples were collected from the property during the 1996 survey. Three promising mineralized areas, the Quartz-filled Breccia Zone, the GWP zone and the Yellow-Rose zone, were located and sampled during the 1996 field work program. The Quartz-filled Breccia zone plots out in the vicinity of the Gravy occurrences (094E 205) which has the same strike and description.
In 2003, Stealth Minerals Ltd staked four claim unit (80 units) Sam claims. The Sam claims covered the Graves (GWP) (094E 087), Yellow Rose (094E 203), Gravy (094E 205), Gravy East) (094E 206), TO 2 (094E 212), Duke (094E 218). Stealth minerals undertook a 10 man-day helicopter supported reconnaissance and point specific prospecting and geological evaluation program. A total of 18 rock samples were taken. As part of the regional Government-Private Partnership Toodoggone Initiative, the claims were covered by part of the Fugro operated, Geological Survey of Canada supervised, helicopter airborne magnetic and radiometric survey. The survey recorded 2 magnetic parameters and eight gamma-ray spectrometer parameters flown at a line spacing of 400 metres and a sensor height of 60 metres during 2003. The survey indicated that the claims are underlain by rocks and alteration permissive to host precious metal deposits. A 1.3 by 1.0 kilometre ThK ratio low occurs within the Sam 3 claim coincident to a potassium high and adjacent to a total field magnetic high.
In 2004, Stealth Minerals conducted geological mapping on the Sam claims at 1:10,000. In addition, a total of 11 surface rock samples were taken as float or outcrop samples for analysis. Alteration identification using PIMA spectroscopy was completed on 19 rock samples.
