The Taurus II (Trench 1-Newcoast) occurrence is located immediately north of McDame Lake in northern British Columbia, 115 kilometres southwest of Watson Lake, Yukon, and 120 kilometres north of Dease Lake. Access to the property is via Highway 37, which connects to these towns. The abandoned town of Cassiar is at the northwestern end of the property, and the unincorporated settlement of Jade City is on Highway 37 at the road entrance to the mine facilities.
Upper Paleozoic Slide Mountain Complex mafic volcanic rocks are the most widespread and crop out over most of the property area. The volcanic rocks comprise massive and pillowed basalt with rare chert intercalations with the lower portion in the Taurus area (MINFILE 104P 012) marked by magnetite- and jasper-rich basalt. The non-magnetic and non-jasper–bearing basalt sequence hosts most of the vein systems in the camp and has been the focus of exploration.
Locally, a veined structure, exposed on surface in an abandoned adit collar, strikes 110 degrees and dips 60 degrees south. Trenching has exposed quartz vein(s) within a 20-metre-wide zone of intensely altered volcanics that has been traced along strike for at least 200 metres. Veins widths vary from 0.03 to 1.0 metre on average but widths of up to 6.0 metres have been reported. Mineralization comprises tetrahedrite and pyrite with minor sphalerite, chalcopyrite and graphite. The vein(s) are reported to be fault controlled with sheared footwall and hangingwall contact and an intensely limonitic-stained shear zone occurs along the vein footwall.
In 1979, drillhole 79-3, located approximately 150 metres northwest of the trench, intercepted a quartz-pyrite±tetrahedrite–veined zone that yielded 45.5 grams per tonne gold over 1.6 metres, including a 0.3-metre section containing visible gold that yielded 234 grams per tonne gold, whereas surface samples yielded up to 5.8 grams per tonne gold and 320 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 7809).
In 1981, sampling of trenches, immediately east of the adit, yielded up to 2.3 grams per tonne gold over 0.8 metre in trench TR-1 and 204 grams per tonne silver over 1.5 metres in trench TR-5 (Assessment Report 10249).
In 2006, sampling of trench 1, located near the historical drillhole 79-3, yielded 2.3 grams per tonne gold over 6.1 metres, including 11.32 grams per tonne gold over 1.0 metre (Assessment Report 29235).
In 2019, a grab sample (19308) of outcrop assayed 10.90 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 38989).
Work History
In 1976 and 1979, Newcoast Silver Mines Ltd. completed programs of geological mapping, soil sampling, three diamond drill holes, totalling 220.2 metres, and approximately 24 line-kilometres of ground magnetic and electromagnetic surveys on the area as the Van and Tin claims.
In 1980 and 1981, Esso Resources Canada Ltd. completed programs of prospecting, geological mapping, trenching and geochemical (rock and soil) sampling on the area as the Goldhill, Nora, Val and Van claims. An adit, referred to as the Newcoast adit, was reported on the occurrence by this time.
In 1995, the area was held and examined by Cusac Gold Mines Ltd. as the Table Mountain Gold property.
In 2005, Cusac Gold Mines Ltd. drilled a total of 2444 metres in 13 drillholes on their Taurus II property, in three areas and completed a minor soil sampling program on the Newcoast grid.
In 2006, Cusac Gold Mines Ltd. conducted a soil geochemical survey (2720 samples), LiDAR survey (139 square kilometres), trenching program (eight trenches for a combined length of 530 metres), and diamond drilling program (21 holes for a combined depth of 3280.3 metres; 843 core samples) on the Taurus II area of their Table Mountain Gold property. Twelve holes (1885.5 metres) were drilled to test the western extension of the Oro Structure exposed in the trench 3 area; five holes (586.1 metres) were drilled to test the Blue zone exposed in the trench 5 area. An additional four holes (808.8 metres) were drilled to test isolated targets in the Reo, TR-6E, and McHwy areas.
In 2007, Hawthorne Gold Corp. and Cusac Gold Mines Ltd. agreed to merge. In 2014, China Minerals Mining Corporation, previously Hawthorne Gold Corp., had 100 per cent interest in the Table Mountain and Taurus gold deposits. Refer to Taurus (MINFILE 104P 012) and Table Mountain (MINFILE 104P 070) for related work history.
During 2008 through 2010, Hawthorne Gold Corp., later China Minerals Mining Corp., completed regional programs of geological mapping, geochemical (rock and soil) sampling and 11,657 line-kilometres of airborne magnetic, radiometric and electromagnetic surveys on the area as the Cassiar Gold property.
In 2019, Margaux Resources completed a program of prospecting, geological mapping and rock sampling on the area as the Cassiar Gold property. In 2020, Cassiar Gold Corp. completed a program of regional photogeological interpretation, prospecting and rock sampling on the Cassiar Gold property.
