The Nome 1 occurrence is located approximately 1 kilometre east of Needlepoint Mountain and 82 kilometres north of the community of Dease Lake.
The area is underlain by Upper Paleozoic Slide Mountain Complex metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks, which forms the core of the McDame Synclinorium. These rocks are believed to be an allochthonous oceanic terrane thrust onto the carbonate and clastic rocks of the Cassiar platform.
Locally, andesitic volcanics, diabase dikes and sills, and fine-grained clastic sediments are overlain by basalts and basaltic andesites. Argillites are the most dominant unit and are locally carbonaceous, but siltstones are also present. The sediments are thin bedded, trend northwest and are generally steeply dipping. Approximately 300 metres to the east, cliff-forming basalt to basaltic andesitic flows and lapilli and ash tuffs outcrop. These metavolcanics are dark green, massive and contain up to 50-metre-wide massive to locally crinoidal limestones. The metavolcanics are cut by 1- to 3-metre-wide basaltic andesitic dikes.
Chalcopyrite with malachite staining occurs in a 1-metre-wide, northwest-trending quartz-limonite gouge zone within argillite. The strike length is not known but appears limited.
A quartz vein hosting native gold is reported near the southwest corner of the former Nome 1 and several hundred metres south of the Nome 1 occurrence. Later exploration programs during the 1980s failed to identify the reported vein.
In 1980, a rock sample (21074R) from quartz-carbonate veins in a breccia zone cutting metavolcanic rocks, located approximately 700 metres to the southwest of the occurrence, assayed 0.70 gram per tonne gold, whereas other samples from a zone of metavolcanic rock hosting trace chalcopyrite and pyrrhotite as fracture fillings, located on the east side of ridge approximately 1.2 kilometres south-southwest of the occurrence, yielded values of up to 0.11 per cent zinc and 14 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 9344).
In 1987, five soil samples collected in Trench 1 contained greater than 1000 parts per billion gold and 0.9 parts per million silver, with values up to 3400 parts per billion gold and 10.0 parts per million silver, whereas soil samples collected from Trenches 2 to 4 contained anomalous gold values of between 85 and 1250 parts per billion (Assessment Report 16186). Also at this time, three rock samples (collected within the trench) consisting of oxidized and vuggy quartz and carbonate altered volcanics contained between 0.32 and 0.54 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 16186).
In 1988, a sample (RH-14) from a series of parallel, 0.25-metre-wide, quartz veins with ankerite alteration and disseminated pyrite assayed 0.46 gram per tonne gold, whereas nearby soil samples yielded up to 8960 parts per billion gold (Assessment Report 17666).
Work History
In the summer of 1979, following the release of stream sediment data by the Geological Survey of Canada (Open File 562), Canadian Occidental Petroleum Ltd. staked the Need 1-3 claims on the area. Upon staking, a limited program of prospecting, geological mapping and geochemistry was undertaken. In 1980 and 1981, further programs of geological mapping and geochemical (rock, silt and soil) sampling was completed on the Need claims.
In 1983, the Nome 1-5 claims were staked and a limited program of geological mapping, prospecting and geochemical sampling was performed. In 1984, Needle Point Resources completed a soil sampling program on the Nome 1 claim. In 1985, Erickson Gold Mining completed a soil sampling program on the area as the Pin claim. In 1987, Evergrow Resources Ltd. conducted geological mapping, hand trenching (four trenches), and collected 410 soil and 60 rock samples on the Nome claims. In 1988, a further program of soil and rock sampling was completed.
In 1996, Cartaway Resources Corp. completed a 3678.0 line-kilometre airborne magnetic survey on the area as the Hot Tip property. In 1997, Tako Resources Ltd. completed ground VLF-EM and magnetic surveys over two grids within the Nome claims totalling 9.4 kilometres.
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 2013, China Minerals Mining Corp. completed a program of rock, silt and soil sampling on the area.
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.
