The Snip North occurrence is located on the north side of the Iskut River at an elevation of approximately 100 metres and approximately 4.2 kilometres north west of the junction of the river and Bronson Creek.
The area is underlain by Devonian to Permian greenstone, limestone, shale and clastic sediments of the Stikine Assemblage, overlain by Upper Triassic andesitic volcanics and sedimentary rocks of the Stuhini Group. Early Jurassic Texas Creek Plutonic Suite, syenite and orthoclase porphyry rocks intrude the stratigraphy The Triassic-Jurassic Iskut River (Bronson) stock consisting of monzodiorite to gabbro is found on the southeast part of the property.
Widespread mineralization and alteration consisting of pyrite, chalcopyrite, molybdenite, magnetite, calcite, chlorite, and quartz are found in veins, veinlets, fractures, and stockworks, minor breccias, and as disseminations. Pyrite is found in vein/veinlets and as disseminations and can vary from 1-10%. The rocks are locally silicified and have calcite flooding and also contain in the groundmass, pyrite, magnetite, carbonate, chlorite, biotite, hematite, and epidote. Quartz-carbonate and quartz veins and veinlets, associated with pyrite and chalcopyrite and molybdenite are the most prominent style of alteration. Magnetite veinlets are also common, as well, as disseminations. The veins and veinlets can vary from 1 to 30 mm but can be up to 50 cm thick. Closer to surface or within fault zones, limonite and manganese dioxide are found. The alteration package consists of both phyllic and propylitic phases. All of these alteration packages discussed above are found in fine-grained sedimentary and probable tuffaceous rocks that have a general east-west strike and dip steeply south. The copper and gold grades may vary with the degree of silicification and the amount of quartz-pyrite-chalcopyrite veining.
Work History
In 1964 and 1965, the area of the Snip North claim, was owned by Iskut Silver Mines as the Ray and Joann claims. Soil geochemical surveys and hand trenching was carried out in eight locations in 1965 and 1966 (Assessment Report 921), 1970 (Assessment Report 3002), (Assessment Report 2963) and 1971 (Assessment Report 3374). These claims covered a silt geochemical anomaly and the work done included prospecting, soil, silt, and rock geochemistry, ground magnetics, and hand trenching and sampling. A substantial amount of soil, rock and silt geochemistry was done and several large area, medium to high magnitude soil anomalies, for copper and molybdenum were defined. The focus of the exploration was on anomalous copper, lead, zinc, molybdenum, and silver.
In 1980, Meridor Resources Ltd. staked the present day Snip North Property as the Iskut 1 and Iskut 2 claims. Meridor did not commence any fieldwork until 1987 when they conducted a program of line cutting, geochemical (soil, silt, rock and heavy minerals) and geophysical, (ground and airborne) surveys.
Meridor did a large program of diamond drilling in 1988 but no public reports exist. At least 36 holes were drilled in 1988 (George Cross Newsletters. Most of these holes tested the Gorge showing (104B 356), on the northwestern boundary of the Snip North property and others tested extensive soil and geophysical anomalies in the eastern part of the property.
In 2006, Newcastle Minerals completed a five-hole, 1047.9-meter NQ sized core drilling program. Drilling yielded intercepts including 0.33 gram per tonne gold, 0.12 per cent copper and 0.008 per cent molybdenum over 126.5 metres in hole SN-06-02, 0.28 gram per tonne gold, 0.10 per cent copper and 0.018 per cent molybdenum over 191.4 metres in hole SN-06-03 and 0.27 gram per tonne gold with 0.08 per cent copper over 207.6 metres in hole SN-06-04, including 6.1 metres grading 2.35 grams per tonne gold with 0.11 per cent copper (DuPre, D.G. (2007-02-27): Techincal Report on the Snip North Property).
This was followed in 2007 by a review of historical data, compilation of historical drilling, limited geological mapping and rock sampling, and a six-hole 1158.8-meter NQ sized core-drilling program. Drilling yielded intercepts including 0.448 gram per tonne gold, 0.132 per cent copper and 0.010 per cent molybdenum over 180.0 metres in hole SN07-01, 0.609 gram per tonne gold, 0.086 per cent copper and 0.003 per cent molybdenum over 54.9 metres in hole SN07-02, 0.575 gram per tonne gold, 0.134 per cent copper and 0.006 per cent molybdenum over 155.4 metres in hole SN07-03 and 0.369 gram per tonne gold, 0.171 per cent copper and 0.013 per cent molybdenum over 115.9 metres in hole SN07-04 (Burgoyne, A.A. (2008-02-15): Technical Report on Iskut Gold-Copper-Molybdenum Deposit, Snip North Property).
The 2006, 2007, and historical drilling defined a mineralized porphyry gold-copper-molybdenum system in the order of 500 to 600 meters trend length, 200 to 300 meters in width, and to a depth of 200 meters. The deposit subcrops below a thin cover of overburden and glacial cover. This deposit is located adjacent and on the north side of the Iskut River and parallels the river where defined. Four drill hole sections over an approximate strike distance of 600 meters define the deposit. Eight 2007 and 2006 drill holes and four historical drill holes define the geometry and grade of the deposit. The historical holes were not been used in estimating the potential quantity and grade. Using dimensions of 500 to 600 meters in strike length, a width of 225 meters and a depth of 175 meters along with a specific gravity of 2.90 yields a potential quantity of 57.1 to 68.5 million tonnes (Burgoyne, 2008). The grade varies from 0.3 to 0.6 gram per tonne gold, 0.09 to 0.17 per cent copper and 0.003 to 0.023 per cent molybdenum. Burgoyne (2008)declares that insufficient exploration and drilling were done to define a mineral resource and this is an estimate of quantity and grade only.
During 2009 through 2012, Skyline Gold Corp. completed program of prospecting, soil and rock sampling, geological mapping and airborne geophysical surveys on the area.
