Strawberry Flats Gold Project, BC
Ownership:
- 100% St. Elias Mines
Property Option Agreement:
- Currently not under option agreement
Mineralization:
- Au-Cu-Mo Skarn
- 1 BC Ministry of Mines Minfile database Mineralized Showing
- Strawberry Flats
Technical Reports (43-101):
- There have been no technical reports completed
The Property:
The Strawberry Flat Property is located in the Trail Creek Mining Division, in the Kootenay-Boundary Regional District, of south-eastern British Columbia, Canada. The property lies south of Mount Crowe (2144 m asl.) across Nancy Green Pass and the western slopes of Mount Lepsoe, Elgood, Plewman and old Glory Mountain. St. Elias Mines holds a 100% interest in 8 contiguous mineral tenures (2,956.0947 hectares) that cover a southwest trending package of ground located approximately 16 kilometers northwest of the town of Trail in southeast BC.
The Strawberry Flats Gold Property overlies an area of old reverted crown granted mineral claims upon which historic work culminated in the development of several exploration trenches, pits and shafts. Most of this work was completed in the years immediately preceding World War II, and no detailed results from this work are currently publicly available. The Strawberry and Pachamama claims were staked by Roy Ganderton in 1987 and 1988 during which time the old workings were cleaned out and sampled. Significant gold values were obtained from several locations on the south side of Mount Crowe. In September 1988 SMD Mining optioned Strawberry and Pachamama claims from Roy Ganderton and staked additional ground to the east and west of the optioned ground. The claims were subsequently optioned to Cameco in 1989 and were registered to Cameco by May, 1990.
During the summer of 1989, Cameco personnel outlined a number of moderate and strong Au-As lithogeochemical anomalies, and numerous magnetic and VLF anomalies throughout the central portion of the grid. One area was soil sampled and backhoe trenched. Four of these trenches crossed the strike of a coincident magnetic high and arsenic soil geochemical anomaly. They exposed a variably pyrrhotite-magnetite-chalcopyrite-bearings skarn zone with elevated (up to 650 ppb/3m) gold values. The fifth trench tested an isolated 475 ppb gold soil s+ample. It exposed a 6-8 m wide fault zone with silicified and sulphide-bearing intervals, one of which assayed 39.16 g/tonne Au over 2.0 m.
Old Trenches just north of the Cameco boundary were discovered during the 1989 exploration program. The old trenches exposed a 1 to 5 m wide gossan zone over a 25 m strike length. The gossan is hosted by a complexly folded, variably skarned limestone within 40 m of an intrusive contact. Outcrop exposure is poor. The best channel sample across the gossan returned 13.6 ppm Au/2.6 m. An old adit emplaced about 15 m vertically below the trenches contains only spotty sulphide mineralization, grab samples of which assayed up to 5.3 ppm Au and 19.7 ppm Ag. The adit may have stopped short of the main zone. The area was named the Grizzly Zone. The Grizzly occurrence is just north of the ground now covered by the Strawberry Flats.
In 1990, Cameco personnel returned to the Trench 5 area and conducted detailed soil sampling and ground magnetic surveys preceding additional trenching. Soil samples were collected over the interpreted strike extension of a fault zone. Elevated gold-in-soil values defined a 140m long, westerly striking, narrow zone centred over Trench 5. The magnetic survey did not locate any magnetic features that correlate well with the soil anomalies or any topographic lineaments.
Subsequent trenching over the gold anomaly exposed numerous gossaned calcareous siltstone beds. One of these returned assays of 11.69 ppm Au over 2.0 m. This channel sample was taken subparallel to a bedding plane and translates into a true thickness of approximately 0.5 m.
During October 1991, five drill holes (429.9 m) tested for strike and depth continuity to surface gold mineralization at the Grizzly and Trench 5 showings. At the Grizzly showing, three holes tested a 60 m segment of the surface gossan at 30 m vertically below the trenches. All holes intersected extensive skarn development in calcareous sediments. Weak sulphide mineralization in SW90-1 and SW90-2 averaged 2.4 ppm Au and 6.7 ppm Ag over 2.5 m, and 1.4 ppm Ag over 5.5 m, respectively.
In the Trench 5 area, two holes were drilled heel to toe to test beneath surface mineralization and a topographic lineament. Both holes intersected complex interfingering intrusive sediment contacts, however neither hole contained any significant gold mineralization.
Exploration program carried out in 2010 consisted of a geological review of Trail Creek Exploration District, a GIS compilation of all historic technical data within and adjoining the Strawberry Flats Property and a verification/reconnaissance rock geochemical sampling and soil sampling program from August 16th to August 23th 2010. The verification program was designed to evaluate the known mineral showings identified by Cameco on ground currently covered by Strawberry Flats Property. The reconnaissance geochemical survey was focused on expanding the historic geochemical grids to the north toward Astral Mining Corp.’s contiguous Jumping Josephine project. A total of 1012 soil samples and 28 rock samples were collected during the 2010 verification/reconnaissance program.
The results of the 2010 exploration program successfully verified the known mineral showing referred to as the “Strawberry Flat” showing. Values up to 37.1 gram per tonne Au, 1065.8 ppm Mo and 1794.5 ppm Cu were observed on the property.
Recommended Work:
Rock verification sampling carried out discovered previously unrecognized Cu and Mo mineralization as well as confirmed Au mineralization from an area interpreted to be the remnants of Cameco’s 1990 Trench 5 during the property visit. This area should be reopened and sampled. Trenching down strike to mineralization in Trench 5 can be guided by the Mo and Zn in soil anomalies.
Peru 