The Taurus II (Reo vein) occurrence is located 2.4 kilometres northwest 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.
Approximately 10 kilometres east of the town of Cassiar, an extensive area of quartz veining occurs in Sylvester Allochthon (Upper Paleozoic Slide Mountain Complex) greenstones intercalated with sediments. A zone greater than 180 metres wide and striking northeast contains abundant veins, stringers and lenticular masses of quartz. The veins vary from massive white bull quartz to sheared quartz with graphitic seams and vuggy quartz with tetrahedrite, pyrite and chalcopyrite. The veins are up to 5 metres wide and have quartz-carbonate-mariposite alteration envelopes. Two ages of quartz are evident. The older veins, which carry the gold values, are massive and trend 090 to 115 degrees; younger veins trend at 045 degrees and truncate these veins. A 1.0-metre sample of drillcore assayed 149.6 grams per tonne silver and 8.58 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 9548).
Work History
The area has been explored in conjunction with the nearby Taurus (MINFILE 104P 012) occurrence and a completed regional and property exploration history can be found there.
In 1976, the Reo claim was staked and was drilled by Erickson Gold Mines Ltd. in 1981 after a surface geochemical survey in 1980.
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.
Trench 7 tested a broad soil gold anomaly in the Reo vein area. The trench crosscuts the western extensions of the 070- to 090-degree–trending, steeply south-dipping Reo vein system located 25 metres to the east. A north-striking fault hosting a 5-centimetre veinlet was exposed in the southern end of the trench. Grab samples from the stringer and surrounding wallrock yielded 0.2 to 0.3 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 29235). During the course of backfilling the trench, a 1.5-metre-wide northern extension of this structure was uncovered. A small patch in the vein contained 5 to 10 per cent clotty tetrahedrite and intense copper oxide staining but the vein itself did not yield any significant assays.
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.
