Ontario Mineral Inventory

Ontario Geological Survey
Permanent Link to this Record: MDI000000001043

Record: MDI000000001043

General

Commodities

Primary Commodities: Gold, Silver

Location

Township or Area: Richardson

Latitude: 48° 50' 15.39"    Longitude: -93° 59' 20.04"

UTM Zone: 15    Easting: 427435   Northing: 5409875    UTM Datum: NAD83

Resident Geologist District: Kenora

Point Location Description: As located by discoverer

Location Method: Field Visit

Access Description: The property is located approximately 55 km northwest of Fort Frances. Highway 71 leads north from Fort Frances to Kenora on the Trans-Canada highway. The roperty is accessed off of Highway 71 on Teeple Road, a municipal gravel road. The site has year-round access.

Exploration History

1992: Nuinsco optioned patented lands centred on Richardson Township. This led to the discovery of the 17 Zone in 1994. 2005: Rainy River Resources acquired a 100% interest in the project from Nuinsco. 2008: Rainy River drilled 10 DDH on the Burns Block. Rainy River returned the property to the vendors. 2010: Bayfield Ventures purchased the mineral rights in the Burns Block from the Burns brothers. 2011: Bayfield conducted geological mapping and an airborne VTEM electromagnetic system and magnetometer survey over all three Rainy River properties. Diamond drill programs were initiated on the Burns and B Block properties. 54 drill holes totalling 19,311 m were completed. 2011: Bayfield drilled 205 DDH totalling 50,668 m. 2012: Bayfield Ventures drilled 36 DDH totaling 22,214 m. Rainy River began a program of condemnation drilling in the areas proposed for future mine infrastructure. The land east of the Burns/Bayfield block was targeted as a location for a waste rock pile. Two condemnation holes were designed based on the Bayfield drill results found in Bayfield news releases. Both holes hit the up-plunge extension of the anomalous gold intercept along the Bayfield boundary. Follow-up mobile Metal Ion soil surveying outlined a 400 m long gold trend. Rainy River Resources mobilized four drills to delineate the Intrepid Zone completing 102 holes over a strike length of 410 m to a depth of 450 m. 2013: New Gold completed an in-house resources assessment designing extraction of the Intrepid zone as an underground operation off of the ODM-17 Zone pit.

Assessment Work on File

Geology

Province: Superior

Subprovince: Wabigoon

Belt: Rainy River

Geological Age: Archean  

Metamorphism Grade: Greenschist

Geology Comments

Jul 20, 2016 (C Ravnaas) - The Intrepid Zone plunges southwest intersecting the southeast corner of the Burns Block.

Jan 21, 2015 (Therese Pettigrew) - A WNW-ESE trending belt of greenschist facies, supracrustal rocks forms the core of the Rainy River Gold District. This belt is composed of metavolcanic rocks, metamorphosed hypabassal intrusive rocks and metasedimentary units including both clastic and chemical type packages. This district to regional scale rock package dips steeply south at approximately 60 degrees.The facing direction of the rock metavolcanic and metasedimentary rock package has not been definitely determined but no robust evidence of overturning has been documented. This lithologically complex sequence is bounded to the north by an upper amphibolite grade meta-igneous terrain and to the south by granulite facies igneous and metasedimentary gneisses. This belt of greenschist grade supracrustal rock is widely foliated, microfolded and sheared. The WNW-ENE trending, south dipping sequence of supracrustal rocks in known core of the Rainy River gold district is bent sharply to the NNE in a position approximately 200 m east of the eastern boundary of the Burns Block. The NNE trend of the belt then passes into the Off Lake area to east of Highway 71. To the west, the WNW trend is truncated along the Pinewood fault in position near Deerlock. Distinctive, cross cutting, felsic intrusions into the greenstone belt are known from both OGS field mapping and from drill intercepts. Two, N-S elongate, granodorite intrusions occur east of the Burns Block, the Black Hawk and Finland stocks. These stocks are likely the cause of Kspar-Magnetite alteration in 0.5 to 1 km haloes in the surrounding greenstones. On the Property, from south to north, moving down dip through the main lithologic layering and foliation of the property, the following sequence of rock units occur: 1) Upper Dacite Unite; 2) A complex, interlayered sequence of rare rounded clasts, polymictic conglomerate units, thick, well layered mafic volcaniclastic rocks, thin (1-4 m) horizons of finely bedded and strongly sheared graphitic argillites and interbedded massive pyrite-pyrrhotite-chert breccias. Near the base of this sequence, multi-metre thick dacite porphyry units are interlayered with the mafic volcaniclastic units; 3) Lower Dacite Unit (Bayfield Ventures 2014 43-101 report).

Lithology

Mineralization

Mineralization Comments

Jul 20, 2016 (Andrew Tims) - RR condemnation hole,NR121258, intersected 2.2 g/t gold and 38.5 g/t silver over 18.5 m. The new zone contains disseminated and fracture-related mineralization including 2-3% pyrite and variable amounts of sphalerite, galena and chalcopyrite plus electrum and gold..

Jan 21, 2015 (C Ravnaas) - The 2010 drill program targeted mineralization in the North, West and 283 gold zones. Drill-hole RR10-18, which tested the 283 zone, intersected 81 m grading 5.08 g/t Au; this included a 10 m interval which returned 35.93 g/t Au (Bayfield Ventures Corp., news release, September 8, 2010). This 10 m mineralized section from hole RR10-18 also returned 359.7 g/t Ag which included a 1 m interval that graded 1760 g/t Ag (Bayfield Ventures Corp., news release, October 20, 2010). Bayfield Ventures Corp. mentions “silver mineralization at the Burns Block could be very important in an eventual assessment of the economic parameters of the known mineralization. Bayfield has now decided to proceed with silver assays for all gold mineralized zones at the Burns Block” (Bayfield Ventures Corp., news release, October 20, 2010). Drill hole 11-71 intersected 25.5m grading 26.7 g/t Au including 11.2m which retured 60.1 g/t Au (News Release June 30, 2011). The gold assays from the northern drill fence are very encouraging. The mineralized zones are contained within strongly sericite and chlorite altered dacite volcanic rocks. As with the previously reported 283 and West Gold Zones to the south, the mineralization commences within the upper portion of a distinctive fragment volcanic unit known as the lapilli tuff. The geologic setting of the mineralization discovered to date along the northern fence is identical to that of the 283 and West Zones and is interpreted to be the up-dip continuation of those zones. Straight line projection of the zone upwards indicates that it will come to surface (likely under till cover) very near the north boundary of the Burns Block. More drilling in this very shallow up-dip area will be carried out. In all areas explored at the Burns Block to date, higher grade mineralization is found where intense sericite alteration is fading and chlorite veinlets begin to appear. This alteration boundary is likely to continue to the east within the overall mineralization envelope developed in the dacite host rocks (Bayfield Ventures Corp., news release, October 20, 2010).

Jan 21, 2015 (Therese Pettigrew) - The mineralized zone in the Burns Block are contained within a package of S-dipping, strongly foliated, sheared and locally folded dacitic volcanic rock. Pervasive sericite-silica alteration is characteristic of the zone. The zones of mineralization occur in felsic metavolcanics within zone of stronger penetrative foliation. The foliation is near coincident with the strike and dip of the lithologies. Gold and silver grade appears to be strongly influenced by proximity to the margins of strong sericitic alteration within the shear system. The zones strike at 120 degrees and dip at around 60 degrees to the SW. The higher grade mineralization is always accompanied by sulphide mineralization, predominantly dark brown sphalerite, chalcopyrite, pyrite, galena, and arsenopyrite. Gold and silver mineralization are invariably found together. Ratios of 5 g/t silver to 1 g/t gold are common, while higher grade zones have silver to gold ratios of at least 10:1, with ratios of >20:1 common. A mineralogical study commissioned by Rainy River Resources as part of the 2009 technical report on their adjacent property found that gold and electrum can occur either as inclusions in pyrite, or disseminated in sphalerite, ankerite or fine grained silicates. Recent interpretations for the geology and genesis of gold mineralization on the Burns Block suggest an early, volcanogenic-associated model. Primary rock units in and around the deposit include dacitic flows and sedimentary volcaniclastic deposits. Additional data from exploration drilling showed that gold mineralization at the Burns Block has a strong gold-pyrite association, including ubiquitous sphalerite, and a very high ratio of silver to gold. These features suggest a transitional epithermal origin. No significant base metal mineralization or stratiform sulphide lenses have been encountered to date. There appear to have been two stages of gold mineralization in the Burns Block. The first (low to moderate grade) gold mineralization was associated with the emplacement of sulphide (pyrite-sphalerite-chalcopyrite) as veins and disseminations in dacitic rocks A later (high-grade) gold mineralization event included the emplacement of quartz-pyrite/chalcopyrite-gold veins and veinlets. Both events are post-dated by deformation, when the auriferous quartz veins that post-date the sulphide stringers and veins and were emplaced. (Bayfield Ventures 2014 43-101 report).

Mineral Record Details

References

Book - NI 43-101 Feasibility Study of the Rainy River Gold Project,

Publication Number: Scale: 1:10,000    Date: 2013

Author: Colin Hardie, Sheila E. Daniel, Glen Cole

Publisher Name: Rainy River Resources

Location:

Publication - Burns Block National Intrument 43-101 Compliant Technical Report

Publication Number: 2014 43-101 Date: 2014

Author: Duke, C.

Publisher Name: Riverbend Geological Services Inc. for Bayfield Ventures

Location: SEDAR

Map - Off Lake-Burditt Lake, Rainy River District

Publication Number: M2325 Scale: 1:63,360    Date: 1976

Author: Blackburn C.E.

Publisher Name: Ontario Division of Mines

Location:

Map - Emo area, District of Rainy River, Ontario

Publication Number: M1954-02 Scale: 1:63,360    Date: 1997

Author: Fletcher G.L., Irvine T.N.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines

Location:

Map - Rainy River sheet, District of Rainy River, geological compilation series

Publication Number: P0309 Scale: 1:126,720    Date: 1997

Author: Davies J.C.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines

Location:

Map - Geological series, Off Lake-Burditt Lake area (western part), District of Rainy River

Publication Number: P0741 Scale: 1:31,680    Date: 1997

Author: Blackburn C.E.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines and Northern Affairs

Location:

Map - Kenora-Fort Frances sheet, geological compilation series, Kenora, Rainy River districts

Publication Number: M2115 Scale: 1:253,440    Date: 1967

Author: Davies J.C., Pryslak A.P.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines

Location:

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For detailed information regarding this mineral record please contact the Kenora Resident Geologist District Office