The Vollaug occurrence is located on Table Mountain, south of McDame Lake, approximately 90 kilometres north of the community of Dease Lake.

Gold- and silver-bearing white quartz veins occur in the Sylvester Allochthon, which is Upper Paleozoic in this area. The Sylvester Allochthon is a fault-bounded imbricate assemblage of Devonian to Triassic regionally metamorphosed (greenschist facies) oceanic rocks thrust over autochthonous North American sediments. In this area, the assemblage consists of Slide Mountain Complex greenstones, pillow metabasalts, serpentinite, listwanite and argillites. West-plunging veins occur on both limbs of a synclinal fold with an east-trending axis.

The Vollaug vein is a graphitic ribboned quartz vein mineralized with native gold, pyrite, tetrahedrite, chalcopyrite and minor galena and sphalerite. The vein occurs at a contact between Upper Triassic argillite (Slide Mountain Complex) and underlying upper Paleozoic greenstone of the Devonian to Triassic Sylvester Allochthon (Slide Mountain Complex). The gold is associated with the graphitic stringers in quartz and lesser amounts with pyrite and tetrahedrite (Grant, 1981). Oxidation of tetrahedrite has produced malachite and azurite. The hostrocks have been silicified. Serpentinized ultramafics along the contact have been altered to listwanite.

The vein varies from 0.5 to 3.0 metres wide and has been traced, semi-continuously, for almost 2 kilometres. The contact may be a decollement, with movement before and after vein emplacement. At least four north-northeast–striking faults have dislocated the vein so that the west side has moved relatively north.

The Vollaug vein has at least three ore zones differentiated, but the indicated ore reserves in 1986 for the whole vein were 154,040 tonnes grading 11.00 grams per tonne gold and 11.7 grams per tonne silver (Map 66).

Drilling on the surface of the previously mined Vollaug vein, Cusac Gold Mines intersected significant values in nine holes. The vein is estimated to contain a proven, probable and possible reserve of 39,366 tonnes grading 15.43 grams per tonne gold (Northern Miner - October 14, 1996).

Production is included with the Erickson mine (MINFILE 104P 029). See also the Wildcat (MINFILE 104P 057) occurrence, which is the faulted segments of the eastern continuation of the Vollaug vein, 2 kilometres south of the main Erickson mine.

Work History

In 1935, the Vollaug vein was discovered by John Vollaug and his partner Hans Erickson and, in 1936, the property was optioned by the Cassiar Syndicate; later that year the option was transferred to Cominco Ltd. In 1937, Cominco conducted a trenching and drilling program consisting of 37 holes. Cominco relinquished their option later that year. Table Mountain Mines Ltd. acquired claims in the area from Bob Wilms and associates in the early 1950s.

In 1973, a decline and drift were driven into the Vollaug vein for 75 metres. This was followed up in 1977 with an adit extension and two raises. In 1981, Plaza Resources went into production mining the Vollaug vein on surface but was forced into receivership later that year. Erickson Gold Mining Corp. acquired the property in September 1983 and beginning in January 1984, drove a 450-metre drift along the vein from the Troutline portal. Also in 1984, five diamond drill holes, totalling 361.9 metres, were drilled on the Vollaug vein located on the Rae claim. No economic intercepts were reported. The following year, 36 diamond drill holes, totalling 3820 metres, were completed on the Hurricane 4 and Wildcat 1 claims. In 1986, Erickson Gold Mining completed 23 diamond drill holes, totalling 3727.8 metres, on the Wildcat 1, 2, 9, 12 and 14 claims and the Ted Fr. claims. A further 31 diamond drill holes, totalling 2601.4 metres, are reported to have been completed on the Hurricane 3-4, Up, Jennie Ext. 4, Sun and FG 1-2 claims.

In 1986, the Wildcat and Ted Fr. claims were optioned from Troutline Creek Golds Ltd. by Erickson Gold Mining Corp., who is the operator. The remainder of the claims were owned by Erickson Gold Mining Corp. In the same year, 18 holes with a total of 2841.05 metres were drilled on the Table Mountain area by Erickson Gold Mining Corporation. The program had two objectives: 1) locating new, major orebodies on Table Mountain, and 2) delineating an ore shoot within the Vollaug vein in the Troutline 2 and 3 zones. Four of the holes were drilled on the Wildcat #1; 11 holes were drilled on the Wildcat #2; 2 of the holes were drilled on the Wildcat #9; and 1 hole was drilled on the Ted Fr.

In 1990, Erickson Gold Mining completed a program of trenching, 13 diamond drill holes, totalling 1639.9 metres, an 18.0 line-kilometre ground electromagnetic survey and a 45.3 line-kilometre induced polarization survey on the Wildcat 13 and 15-16, AA and Bit claims, located immediately northeast of the Vollaug occurrence.

In 2007 and 2008, Hawthorne Gold Corporation and Cusac Gold Mines Ltd. entered into a merger agreement whereby the two companies would continue to operate under the corporate entity of Hawthorne Gold Corporation. Hawthorne became the owner and operator of Cusac’s Table Mountain (MINFILE 104P 070) and Taurus (MINFILE 104P 012) properties and proceeded to form a private subsidiary company, Cassiar Gold Corporation, to retain assets acquired from Cusac. The entirety of this land package became known as the Cassiar Gold property. Table Mountain project areas contain the historical Erickson Gold Mines mine site (MINFILE 104P 029) located adjacent to the southern shores of McDame Lake, historical underground workings at the Main Mine area along Erickson Creek, historical portals used to mine and access the Vollaug vein (MINFILE 104P 019) on top of Table Mountain and east of the Main Mine, and the Cusac and Bain Portals approximately 8 kilometres south of the Main Mine. The Taurus project area is approximately 6 kilometres north of the Main Mine and contain the historical Taurus, Sable and Plaza portals and underground workings. The intent of the 2008 exploration year was to reassess the overall scope of the Cassiar Gold property. The exploration program comprised field reconnaissance, soil sampling (606 samples), rock and chip sampling (365 samples), airborne magnetic and VLF-EM surveying (6567 kilometres), geophysics ground truthing and diamond drilling (15 holes totalling 2536.5 metres on the East Bain vein, MINFILE 104P 070).

In 2010, Cassiar Gold Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of China Minerals Mining Corporation, completed a helicopter-borne time domain-electromagnetic, magnetic and radiometric survey covering 5090 line-kilometres. In 2012, China Minerals Mining Corporation completed drilling campaigns at the Taurus (MINFILE 104P 012, 43 holes) and Table Mountain (MINFILE 104P 070, 10 holes) properties of their Cassiar Gold project. The 10 holes, totalling 1355 metres, from the Table Mountain area were completed on the Sky (MINFILE 104P 078) vein. In 2013, China Minerals Mining Corp. completed a small program of prospecting and geochemical (stream, rock and soil) sampling on the Hunter and Pooley areas.

In 2018, Cassiar Gold Corp. completed a program of sampling, metallurgical studies and 128 direct push drillholes, totalling 512.0 metres, on the mines tailings to examine the potential for gold recovery in a tailings reprocessing program. 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.