Ontario Mineral Inventory

Ontario Geological Survey
Permanent Link to this Record: MDI000000001146

Record: MDI000000001146

General

Mineral Record Identification
Record Name(s)	Buck Lake - 1992
Related Record Type
Related Record(s)
Record Status	Prospect
Date Created	2011-Mar-23
Date Last Modified	2022-Jul-14
Created By
Revised By

Commodities

Primary Commodities: Platinum Metals, Nickel, Copper

Location

Township or Area: Tib Lake Area

Latitude: 49° 9' 43.86" Longitude: -89° 58' 55.41"

UTM Zone: 16 Easting: 282608 Northing: 5449767 UTM Datum: NAD83

Resident Geologist District: Thunder Bay South

NTS Grid: 52H04NW

Point Location Description: Dog River north of Buck Lake Confirmed with GE

Location Method: Field Visit with GPS

Access Description: From Highway 17 via an all-weather Dog River Road and Wolf Tree Trail for 33.75 km to the junction with an old logging road and several new logging roads serve various parts of the property. Some parts of the prospect are accessible by boat along the Dog River and from Buck Lake. The western part of the claim block can be accessed via Sideen Road and a network of newly cut logging roads.

Exploration History

1992: W. J. Richmond and W. D. Morehouse staked the Buck Lake prospect and conducted the OPAP-funded projects over the next five years. Their work resulted in the discovery of the Main Showing. 1998: Home Ventures Ltd. optioned the property conducting conducted geochemical and ground magnetometer surveys. 2000: Home Ventures Ltd. changed its name to Buck Lake Ventures Ltd. (“Buck”) and formed a joint venture with LMX Resources Ltd. completing grid cutting outcrop mapping, grab, chip and humus sampling, overburden stripping, trenching and channel sampling. 2003: North American Palladium conducted a diamond drilling program to test some of the geochemical and geophysical anomalies, drilling 4 DDH totalling 1416 m. 2004: Buck Lake Ventures drilled 10 DDH. 2008-2014: Ultra Uranium Corp conducted geochemical work included prospecting, outcrop mapping, continuous channel, chip and “pack-sack” drill hole sampling. 2011: A Terraquest airborne magnetic and VLF-EM survey was flown. In 2011, Goldbank Mining Corp. (“Goldbank”) acquired 51% of the property. 2014: Ultrare-acquired the claims from Goldbank and changed its name to Empire Rock Minerals Inc. 2015: Empire Rock Minerals Inc. completed prospecting, outcrop and trench mapping and sampling in three areas. 2017: The property is currently being explored by Empire Metals Corp.

Assessment Work on File

Assessment Work on File
Office File Number	Online Assessment File Identifier	Online Assessment File Directory
2.29492	20000000655	20000000655
2.25151	52H04NW2021	52H04NW2021
2.57009	20000014092	20000014092
2.56677	20000014094	20000014094
2.56413	20000014456	20000014456
2.345444	20000002125	20000002125
2.19449	52H04NW2004	52H04NW2004
2.20470	52H04NW2009	52H04NW2009
W9440-00108	52H04NW0012	52H04NW0012
2.15427	52H04NW0001	52H04NW0001
2.40856	20000003992	20000003992
2.15954	52H04NW0005	52H04NW0005
2.45315	20000006184	20000006184

Geology

Province: Superior

Subprovince: Wabigoon

Belt: Dayohessarah-Kabinakagami

Geological Age: Archean

Geology Comments

Oct 13, 2016 (Andrew Tims) - The BLPGE is not a typical mafic/ultramafic layered intrusion. Rather, it shows energetic, mafic and felsic magma intrusions forming conformable and cross-cutting dykes and veins, breccias and magma-mingling textures. Pegmatite dykes appear to be the latest intrusive phases and quartz veins are the products of hydrothermal activity.

Nov 28, 2017 (Mark Puumala) - The following general description of the property geology was provided by McKay (2001): “The portion of the Buck Lake Property examined during the present program is underlain primarily by a complex mixture of coarse- to very coarse-grained gabbroic and, to a lesser extent, pyroxenitic rocks of the Buck Lake Intrusion (Map B). These rocks have been variably fractured, locally brecciated (by both magmatic and tectonic processes) and intruded by numerous, narrow, mafic and felsic dikes. Xenoliths of variably assimilated, gneissic, tonalitic rocks occur locally within both the gabbroic and pyroxenitic rocks. The gabbroic and pyroxenitic rocks contain variable amounts of both primary and secondary sulphide minerals including pyrite, chalcopyrite and pyrrhotite. Some of the sulphide mineralized rocks contain significant amounts of Pt, Pd, Cu and Ni.” Primary igneous layering is present within the Buck Lake intrusion, with these layers generally trending in a northeasterly direction. Interestingly, these rocks also contain abundant fractures and breccia zones that are approximately parallel to the layering. The late fractures are commonly intruded by late mafic and felsic dikes (McKay 2001). McKay (2001) suggested that the brecciation and fracturing is most likely to have resulted from a combination of tectonic and magmatic processes. Mapping by Molak and Richmond (2016) indicated the presence of a northeast-striking fault on the property that coincides with a magnetic discontinuity and has a close spatial association with many of the PGE occurrences on the property. This structure may merge with the East Dog River fault of Stone et al. (2003), which was only previously mapped to the eastern edge of the Buck Lake intrusion

Lithology

Lithology Data
Rock Type	Rank	Composition	Texture	Relationship
Gabbroid-Unsubdivided	1
Gabbro	2

Mineralization

Mineralization and Alteration
Rank	Mineral Name	Class	Economic Mineral Type
1	Pyrite	Economic	Ore
2	Pyrrhotite	Economic	Ore
3	Chalcopyrite	Economic	Gangue

Mineralization Comments

Mar 23, 2011 (J Scott) - Cu-Ni-PGE associated with vari-textured gabbro

Nov 28, 2017 (Andrew Tims) - Disseminated, blebby and vein-style sulphidic ± PGE mineralization is hosted by varied textured pyroxenitic and gabbroic rocks. The most common sulphidic minerals are pyrite, pyrrhotite (?) and chalcopyrite and magnetite.is a common oxide. Sampling from 1992 had selective grab and blast pit samples returning up to 2,030 ppb Pt and 2,276 ppb Pd and the small diameter drill cores returned up to 1.90 g/t Pd, 1.35 g/t Pt, 0.57% Cu and 0.52% Ni.

Nov 28, 2017 (Mark Puumala) - McKay (2001) noted that most of the pyroxenitic rocks have been uralitized and chloritized, while the pyroxenitic and gabbroic phases of the intrusion have been weakly silicified with localized carbonate, epidote and hematite alteration and weak saussuritization of plagioclase feldspar. Most of the intrusion contains trace to minor sulphides that occur as disseminated grains and fracture coatings, while the gabbroic phases contain 1 to 2% magnetite (McKay, 2001). McKay (2001) described the main PGE showing as follows: “In the vicinity of the main Pt-Pd occurrence, multiple zones of discontinuous blebby sulphide mineralization comprising up to 10% pyrite, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite and associated PGE mineralization occur locally within an area approximately 20m by 50m in size. These zones of sulphide mineralization appear to be spatially related to the contact zone between brecciated pyroxenitic and gabbroic rocks present in this area. Most, but not all, of the sulphide mineralization occurs within brecciated pyroxenite or within xenoliths of pyroxenite within heterolithic gabbro breccia. The mineralization comprising the main Pt-Pd occurrence remains open both to the northwest and to the southwest where it is truncated by the Dog River and covered by overburden, respectively.” Molak and Richmond (2016) have provided additional characterization of the mineralization as follows: “The most common sulphidic minerals are pyrite, pyrrhotite (?) and chalcopyrite and magnetite is a common oxide. The subordinate minerals are pentlandite, millerite, scheelite, ilmenite and barite and PGE minerals form minute inclusions in chalcopyrite. The following minerals were identified kotulskite, telargpalite (?) and an unnamed Pb-Ag-Fe-Cu alloy (or a sulphosalt?), BiTeS. The late, re-mobilized, vein-style to lentiform, hydrothermal, sulphidic mineralization associated with the quartz and/or calcite locally contains rare PGE ± Bi, Mo, W inclusions.” The 2004 diamond-drilling program that was completed on the property by Buck Lake Ventures (Brickner, 2005) included 10 holes, targeting extensions of the main mineralized zone. Only 2 of these holes intersected PGE mineralization, both within 10 m of surface. The best assay was 0.91 g/t Pt and 1.21 g/t Pd over 2.65 m in drill hole DDH-9. These intersections were interpreted to represent a 1.7 to 3.5 m wide mineralized zone that shows a shallow (15°) dip to the northwest. Based on these results, a minimum of 2 additional drill holes were recommended for the areas north and northwest of the main showing (Brickner 2005).

Nov 28, 2017 (Therese Pettigrew) - During 2016, Empire Rock Minerals discovered two new occurrences of PGE mineralization on the Buck Lake Property: the Buck Lake South Showing, and the Buck Lake Subcrop. The Buck Lake South Showing is located 300 m SSE of the main showing, at Zone 16, 282731 m E, 5449482 m N. The outcrop exposure at this occurrence consists largely of leucocratic varitextured gabbro. Mineralization within this unit consists of coarse, blebby sulphides that occur in proximity to a medium-grained, more melanocratic phase of the intrusion. Some sulphide mineralization also occurs within the medium-grained gabbro. Grab samples of sulphide mineralized material from both the varitextured and medium-grained phases were collected for assay. The best assay result (1552 ppb Pt and 2214 ppb Pd) was obtained from a sample of medium-grained gabbro containing 3 to 5% sulphides. The Buck Lake Subcrop is located 150 m NE of the Buck Lake Main Showing, at Zone 16, 282855 m E, 5449656 m N. The boulder is located immediately to the SW of the North 25+10E Exploration trench and is along strike from the Main Showing. The boulder is angular and appears most likely to have been derived locally. It was sampled (16DCBK005), and 2 samples (MP16WPT1205, 16DCBK004) of varitextured gabbro containing fine-grained disseminated sulphides were collected from the North 25+10E trench. No significant PGE or base metal assay values were returned (Puumala et al., 2017).

Mineral Record Details

Classification
Rank	Classification
1	Mafic-Ultramafic Intrusion

Site Visit Information

Date: Oct 21, 2016

Geologist: Mark Puumala

Notes: From ORF6326: Observations regarding the geology and mineralogy of the Main showing were consistent with the description of McKay (2001). Igneous layering, breccia zones and later intrusions at the Main showing generally display similar orientations, with most of these features striking 040� to 050�. Notable similarities between the PGE mineralization at the Main and South showings exist. Mineralized zones are associated with coarse-grained blebby sulphides, are either hosted within, or have a close spatial association with varitextured gabbro and occur near contacts between intrusive phases. Notable assay results for grab samples collected from the Main showing on October 21, 2016 included 1521 ppb Pt and 2373 ppb Pd from a sample of brecciated pyroxenite containing 5% coarse, blebby sulphides, and 991 ppb Pt and 2657 ppb Pd from a sample of brecciated varitextured gabbro containing 2 to 5% blebby sulphides. Previous RGP sampling (Schnieders et al. 2001) returned assay values of up to 3715 g/t Pd and 2235 g/t Pt with anomalous values of copper, nickel and gold. The sample that produced the best assay was a malachite-stained, medium-grained gabbro with blebs of chalcopyrite. This sample was taken from the main showing area of Trench 23+50E (Resident Geologist's Files, Thunder Bay South District, Thunder Bay).