Ontario Mineral Inventory

Ontario Geological Survey
Permanent Link to this Record: MDI42D14SW00004

Record: MDI42D14SW00004

General

Commodities

Primary Commodities: Gold

Secondary Commodities: Zinc, Lead, Silver

Location

Township or Area: Priske

Latitude: 48° 46' 8.57"    Longitude: -87° 16' 44.35"

UTM Zone: 16    Easting: 479500   Northing: 5401820    UTM Datum: NAD83

Resident Geologist District: Thunder Bay South

NTS Grid: 42D14SW

Point Location Description: Adits (approximately 12), shafts, trenches, stripped areas.

Location Method: Data Compilation

Access Description: The mine and property are located in Priske Township about 4 km south of Schreiber on the west side of Worthington Bay, Lake Superior (mining locations BJ 122, BJ 123, claim map G 631, Priske Township). Access may be gained via the old Schreiber dump (Worthington Bay) road which branches off Hwy. 17 at a point 4.4 km east of Schreiber. This road extends approximately 5 km south to the shoreline of Worthington Bay, where the mill was located. An old mining road extends north westward up Mt. Gwynne for approximately 0.75 km to the east adit.

Exploration History

1898: Gold discovered and location staked by Peter McKellar. 1890: Tunnel and open cut were begun on the small but rich East Vein. 1903: P. McKellar patented the mining claim. 1920: W.L. Longworth took over operations; the rich but narrow West Vein was discovered in the northwest of the property. 1921: Schreiber Gold Mines Ltd. was incorporated to operate the property. 1923: A car of high grade ore was taken out and tested, with encouraging results. Underground development continued. Buildings were constructed. 1932: North Shores Gold Mines Ltd. was formed to work the property. A small bulk sample showed that the ore was simple to treat. 1934: North Shore took over 145.7 surrounding hectares from private sources and 97.12 ha from Schreiber Gold Mines Ltd. Underground work commenced. Construction of an amalgamation mill began. The first gold brick ($15,000) was poured. 1935: Spectacularly high gold values came from a new vein parallel to the main vein. Three new adits were started (for a total of 12). 1936-1937: Extensive underground development continued; an argentiferous zone of yellow rhyolite was disc. on the shore of Worthington Bay; operations 'temporarily' suspended toward the end of 1937. 1938-1988: The ground changed hands several times. 1989-90: Noranda conducted prospecting, sampling, stripping, trenching, geological mapping and geochem, mag and IP surveys. Several new gold zones were discovered (incl. Afric Zone). 1991-92: Hemlo Gold Inc. conducted trenching and diamond drilling (14 holes, 1615.6 m total). 1995: Santa Fe Mining optioned the Property but terminated their Canadian operations before completing any work. 1997: Cyprus Canada Inc. conducted an exploration program including geophysical surveys (IP, VLF-EM and magnetics), humus geochemical surveying (773 samples), geological mapping and prospecting, and a 7 DDH program totalling 1131.3 m. 1999-2005: International Taurus Resources Inc. acquired an option to purchase 100% of the patented property from Autotrac Ltd., including the surface rights. 2005: International Taurus Inc. joined American Bonanza Golding Corp. to become American Bonanza Gold Corp. 2006: American Bonanza Gold Corp. drilled 11 DDH, totalling 3163 m. 2007: American Bonanza drilled 9 DDH totalling 1367 m and excavated 6 trenches and some overburden stripping. 2008: American Bonanza conducted prospecting and sampling. 2011: American Bonanza transferred 100% of their interest in the property to Balmoral Resources. Balmoral signed an option agreement with GTA Resources in July 2011 in which GTA can earn up to 70% interest. GTA drilled 12 DDH totalling 1038 m, focussing on the Afric Zone. 2012: GTA drilled 23 DDH, totalling 7186 m, focussing on the Afric Zone. 2013: GTA drilled 17 DDH totalling 3166 m, focussing on the Afric Zone.

Assessment Work on File

Geology

Province: Superior

Subprovince: Wawa

Terrane: Wawa-Abitibi

Belt: Schreiber-Hemlo

Geological Age: Archean  

Geology Comments

Dec 07, 2005 (B Nelson) - *Harper and Holbrooke (1960) describe the local geology: The property is underlain by rhyolites and rhyolite porphyries intruded in the extreme southeast corner of the ground by the edge of the main mass of syenite and quartz porphyry bounding the roof curtain on the south. The northern half of claim BJ122 is also underlain by syenite. This body is bounded to the W by a strong north striking fault which apparently displace it horizontally some 3,000 feet (914 m) to the south of its original position on the nose of a large mass of syenite lying to the west. The vertical displacement is unknown. West of the fault the area is underlain by dark green intermediate lavas as contrasted to the rhyolites east of the fault. The only other rocks known on the property are a number of small bodies of quartz porphyry in the southern claims of the group and at least two 15 to 30 m wide dikes of diabase. One diabase dike is found with a N70 degreesW trend in the southern part of the ground near Lake Superior while the other is approximately parallel about 1119 m to the north and crosses the northern part of claim BJ122 a short distance south of the adits on the vein. The detailed structure of the rhyolites which underlie most of the property has not been determined. Aside from the strong north striking fault along the west property boundary two other major fault structures are known. One is a fault zone which strikes N40 degreesW across the northeastern part of claim BJ122 and joins the north striking faults about 792 m north of the north property boundary. This fault passes about 61 m E of the portal of the east adit. A number of minor faults are found striking north across the mine area. The economic aspects of the geology are apparently confined to narrow quartz veins carrying gold, both native and as tellurides. Several such veins have been found, but in only one of these have concentrations been sufficient to be of interest. This is known as the Main Vein (in syenite).

Lithology

Lithology Comments

Dec 07, 2005 (B Nelson) - Londry (1992) further describes the main host lithologies as: 1) Felsic Intermediate Volcanic Unit This unit is comprised of dacite to rhyolitic flows. Both aphanitic and porphyritic varieties are common. Contact alteration of the volcanic rocks adjacent to the Northshore syenite contact consists of chloritization, silicification and sulphidization. 2) Quartz Feldspar Porphyry At least three types of porphyry are recognized on the property. The youngest units are NW trending pristine quartz feldspar porphyry dikes /sills characterized by coarse (>1 cm) euhedral quartz eyes. Quartz feldspar porphyry (subvolcanic intrusive) outcrops in the central portion of the property. On a fresh surface, this unit is chloritic, has a sugary texture and corroded feldspar phenocrysts. On the weathered surface, the unit is weakly hematitic ad leached. Sulphidized (mainly pyrite) zones of the unit are generally anomalous in gold (> 170 ppb). Feldspar porphyry, similar in appearance to the porphyritic volcanic rocks, is characterized by relic feldspar phenocrysts and is usually spotted with chlorite. 3) Northshore Syenite The Northshore syenite is a high level intrusive complex consisting of at least three compositional and textural varieties: a) feldspar rich syenite b) hornblende feldspar syenite/diorite c) biotite feldspar syenite The first two types are coarse grained, massive, granular pristine intrusive and occupy the central part of the stock. Biotite feldspar syenite is medium to fine grained and is localized at the margins of the syenite complex. 4) Diabase and Lamprophyre Dikes Northwest trending diabase dikes are common in the area and cut all other rock units on the property. A single north trending lamprophyre dike outcrops at L0+00/2+50S adjacent to a quartz stockwork showing.

Mineralization

Mineralization Comments

Dec 07, 2005 (B Nelson) - Londry (1992) describes the mineralization and alteration of the Northshore property as: Gold mineralization on the Northshore property is confined to pyrite chlorite halos around and within quartz veins that fill fractures within a suite of high level felsic intrusive rocks (trondhjemite, syenite) and their host rock felsic volcanics. Several new gold mineralized zones have been discovered on the North Shores Mine property including the Afric Zone (Londry 1992). The Afric Zone discovered in 1990 by Noranda Exploration Company Ltd. personnel is a 25 m wide zone followed along strike for approximately 250 m and to a depth of 75 m and is open in all directions (Londry 1992). Up to five additional zones have also been discovered including the No. 2, No. 3, No. 4, No. 5 (Londry 1992) and OPAP Zone (D.E. Christianson, Prospector, personal communication, 1995). Schnieders et al. (1993) reports that surface trenching on the No. 3, 4 and 5 zones revealed encouraging results, including 19.9 g/t Au across 5 m, 13.03 g/t Au across 1 m and 7.75 g/t Au across 5 m respectively. Of these zones only the No. 3 zone has been drill tested by a single hole (Londry 1992). Between 6+00W and 7+00W at 2+50S, the OPAP Zone (D.E. Christianson, Prospector, personal communication, 1995) Noranda conducted surface chip sampling which returned values of 4.1 g/t Au across 5.5 m, 3.4 g/t Au across 4 m and 10.3 g/t Au across 1 m from fractured and sheared felsic metavolcanic rocks (Londry 1992). Hopkins (1921, p.13) and Harcourt (1939, p.21) note: The quartz is milky and bluish in colour and contains sparingly distributed sulphides like pyrite, chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite, galena and arsenopyrite. Some feldspar and calcite are also present. Considerable visible gold, some of which is quite coarse, occurs with the sulphides and a greenish talc in the fractures of the quartz. Rich ore shoots contain practically no sulphides but they do contain tellurides like tetradymite.

Alteration Comments

Dec 07, 2005 (B Nelson) - Contact alteration of the volcanic rocks adjacent to the Northshore syenite contact consists of chloritization, silicification and sulphidization. On a fresh surface, the quartz feldspar porphyry unit is chloritic, has a sugary texture and corroded feldspar phenocrysts. On the weathered surface, the unit is weakly hematitic ad leached. Sulphidized (mainly pyrite) zones of the unit are generally anomalous in gold (> 170 ppb). The porphyry intrusive is highly fractured, brecciated and jointed with pervasive chloritization, ubiquitous pyrite +/ carbonate and frequent fracture filling quartz +/ pyrite chlorite. A hematite skin on fracture planes gives stripped outcrops or weathered surfaces a gossanous appearance.

Mineral Record Details

Site Visit Information

Date: Feb 24, 1997

Geologist: B Nelson

Notes: Resident Geologist personnel visited the occurrence May 19, 1983; August of 1988; June of 1990; August of 1992. Samples obtained by Resident Geologist personnel returned values including the following: F-107-81: 0.29 oz/ton Au (3.5' chip sample, east adit). F-106-81: 1.10 oz/ton Au, 0.10 oz/ton Ag (20 inch chip sample, west adit). 88-BNO-3: 1.54 oz/ton Au, 0.10 oz/ton Ag (east adit, main vein). 88-BNO-4: 1.88 oz/ton Au, 0.14 oz/ton Ag (east adit, main vein). 88-BNO-6: 1.80 oz/ton Au, 0.27 oz/ton Ag (west adit, quartz vein). 88-BNO-16: 40.40 oz/ton Au, 1.28 oz/ton Ag (dump, quartz vein, west adit). Several values returned <0.01 oz/ton Au.

References

Map - Nipigon-Schreiber, geological compilation series, Thunder Bay District

Publication Number: M2232 Scale: 1:253,440    Date: 1973

Author: Carter M.W., McIlwaine W.H., Wisbey P.A.

Publisher Name: Ontario Division of Mines

Location:

Part - The southwestern part of the Schreiber area

Publication Number: ARV47-09.001 Page: 18-21  Date: 1998

Author: Harcourt G.A.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines

Location:

Map - Schreiber area, District of Thunder Bay, Ontario

Publication Number: ARM47J Scale: 1:31,680    Date: 1997

Author: Bartley M.W., Harcourt G.A.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines

Location:

Mono - Gold deposits of Ontario, part 1, districts of Algoma, Cochrane, Kenora, Rainy River, and Thunder Bay

Publication Number: MDC013 Page: 287-288  Date: 1971

Author: Ferguson S.A., Groen H.A., Haynes R.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines and Northern Affairs

Location:

Map - Schreiber-Duck Lake area, District of Thunder Bay

Publication Number: ARM30A Scale: 1:63,360    Date: 1998

Author: Hopkins P.E., Tanton T.L.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines

Location:

Map - Schreiber sheet, District of Thunder Bay, geological compilation series

Publication Number: P0360 Scale: 1:126,720    Date: 1997

Author: Pye E.G.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines

Location:

File - Resident Geologist Mineral Deposit Files

Publication Number: Min Dep Date:

Author:

Publisher Name:

Location: Thunder Bay RGP

Map - Geological series, Precambrian geology of the Schreiber area, east part, Thunder Bay District

Publication Number: P2391 Scale: 1:15,840    Date: 1981

Author: Carter M.W.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

Mono - Mineral Occurrences in the Nipigon-Marathon Area, Volumes 1 and 2.

Publication Number: OFR5951 Date: 1996

Author: Schnieders B.R., Smyk M.C., Speed A.A., McKay D.B.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

Part - Mines of northwest Ontario, parts 1 and 2

Publication Number: ARV10.004 Page: 88  Date: 1998

Author: Bow J.A., Carter W.E.H.

Publisher Name: Ontario Bureau of Mines

Location:

Book - INTERNAL CO. CORRESPONDENCE, RPT ON GOLD RANGE MINES LTD, SCHREIBER, ONT.

Publication Number: Co. corres Date: 1939

Author: Holbrooke, G.L.

Publisher Name:

Location: Thunder Bay RGP

Part - Schreiber-Duck Lake area

Publication Number: ARV30-04.001 Date: 1998

Author: Hopkins P.E.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines

Location:

Compend - Report of activities, 1983, Regional and Resident Geologists

Publication Number: MP117 Page: 47-106  Date: 1984

Author: Kustra C.R.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

Article - Schreiber-Hemlo Resident Geologist's District - 1990

Publication Number: MP152.007 Date: 1997

Author: Schnieders B.R., Smyk M.C., Hinz P.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

Compend - Report of Activities 1992, Resident Geologists

Publication Number: MP161 Page: 121-165  Date: 1993

Author: Fenwick K.G., Pitts A.E., Newsome J.W.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

Publication - Technical Report on the Northshore Property; Thunder Bay Mining Division; Priske Township, Ontario, Canada

Publication Number: Date: 2012

Author: Report prepared for GTA Resources and Mining Inc.

Publisher Name: Minorex Consulting Ltd.

Location:

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