Ontario Mineral Inventory

Ontario Geological Survey
Permanent Link to this Record: MDI52P09SE00007

Record: MDI52P09SE00007

General

Commodities

Primary Commodities: Gold

Secondary Commodities: Tungsten

Location

Township or Area: Opikeigan Lake Area, Rich Lake Area

Latitude: 51° 37' 50.21"    Longitude: -88° 8' 9.96"

UTM Zone: 16    Easting: 421367.02   Northing: 5720566.52    UTM Datum: NAD83

Resident Geologist District: Thunder Bay North

NTS Grid: 52P09NE, 52P09SE

Point Location Description: TRENCH

Location Method: Conversion from MDI

Access Description: Located 145 km east northeast of Pickle Lake and approximately 150 km due north of Lake Nipigon. Accessible by float plane from Pickle Lake, to the southwest end of Opikeigen Lake, then by foot south for 1 km. An alternative would be to fly into the fort Hope First Nation on a scheduled flight, then travel by waterway to the occurrence, 14 km the northwest.

Exploration History

Exploration in the Fort Hope Area began in the 1920s with the discovery of the Fort Hope Gold Mine by prospectors in 1927. Shortly after, additional gold showings were uncovered, including at the Rich Lake Patricia showing. 1929: Mapping - Burwash (1930). 1942: Mapping - Prest (1944). 1969: Thurston and Carter completed an ODM helicopter reconnaissance survey of the Fort Hope Area. 1978: Wallace completed a detailed mapping program of the Opikeigen Lake area for the Ontario Geological Survey. 1981: Extensive sampling of existing trenches. 1984: Detailed geological mapping and grid-controlled rock geochemistry. 1985; ground MAG, VLF-EM - Kerr Addison Mines. 1986: 2 DDH, Aerodat Ltd. Flew a combined airborne MAG, EM - VLF-EM - Kerr Addison Mines. Noramco Exploration Ltd. began a 3 year exploration program on behalf of Pure Gold Resources Inc. and Golden Lake Inc. (later Ella Resources). Noramco completed extensive ground and airborne geophysical surveys, geological mapping and a 5 DDH program. 1987: Noramco completed IP and HLEM-surveys as well as a 12 DDH program totalling 2643.9 m which led to the discovery of the Zones 12 and 29 gold occurrences. Prospecting along trend led to the discovery of the Zone 41 occurrence.1988: Noramco did a magnetometer survey, a humus geochemical survey, airborne RM-VLF survey, trenching, channel sampling, prospecting and geological mapping. A 34 DDH program totalling 6259.5 m was completed, 50% of which were on Zones 12, 29 and 41. 1989: A 6 DDH program totalling 908.4 m was completed, targeting Zones 12, 29, and 41. 1997-9: SLAM Exploration (on behalf of Pure Gold and Ella Resources) conducted an exploration program including a VLF-EM survey, mag survey, rock and soil sampling, geological mapping, and prospecting. 2000: SLAM drilled 6 DDH totalling 1242.5 m, 2 of which were on Zone 12 and 1 was on Zone 29. 2003: Airborne survey was released by the province of Ontario under Operation Treasure Hunt. 2011: Slam and Beatrix Ventures contracted Geotech Airborne Solutions to fly a helicopter borne magnetic gradiometer geophysical survey.

Assessment Work on File

Geology

Province: Superior

Subprovince: Uchi

Terrane: North Caribou

Domain: Uchi

Belt: Miminiska-Fort Hope

Geological Age: Archean  

Geology Comments

Sep 27, 2006 (Mark Puumala) - The Rich Lake gold/scheelite occurrence consists of a number of west-southwest trending quartz veins hosted by sheared, tuffaceous, mafic metavolcanic rocks. The veins are described by Smyk et al. (2005) as consisting of sugary, recrystallized quartz that displays a ¿crack-seal¿ texture with biotite and amphibole septa. The main vein (Zebra Vein) is indicated by Lemaitre (1997) to have an orientation of 263/80, ranges from 10 to 40 cm thick, and can be traced along strike for approximately 80 m. East of the location where the vein pinches out, the shear contains a quartz vein boudin train. Mineralization in the main quartz vein is described by Prest (1944) as consisting of scheelite, arsenopyrite, pyrrhotite and pyrite. No significant wall rock alteration is reported adjacent to the mineralized quartz vein.

Lithology

Mineralization

Mineralization Comments

Sep 27, 2006 (Mark Puumala) - The most favourable gold assays reported by Lemaitre (1997) from this showing were obtained by Noramco Explorations during their 1987 exploration program and include 6.09 g/t from a surface grab sample and 3.69 g/t over 0.7 m in diamond drill hole OL-87-7. The most favourable tungsten assay reported from this showing was 1.50% WO3 in a surface grab sample result reported by Thurston and Carter (1970).

Aug 18, 2014 (Therese Pettigrew) - Assays of three composite samples collected by the Wallace (1978) field party from the trenches along the principal vein gave an average of 0.65% Wo3 and 0.13 oz/t Au. A 2536 ppb Au Sample was obtained from the main zebra-striped quartz vein located at the old workings at the Rich Lake Occurrence (Lemaitre, 1997 AFRI 52P09NE2001).

Mineral Record Details

References

Map - FORT HOPE AREA, District of Kenora (Patricia Portion), Ontario

Publication Number: ARM38b-1 Scale: 1:190,080    Date: 1929

Author: Burwash, E.M.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines

Location:

Mono - Mineral Occurrences and Prospects in the Fort Hope-Winisk Area

Publication Number: OFR5926 Scale:     Date: 1995

Author: Mason J.K., White G.D.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

Part - Geology of the Fort Hope gold area, District of Kenora (Patricia Portion)

Publication Number: ARV38-02.001 Scale:     Date: 1998

Author: Burwash E.M.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines

Location:

Map - Fort Hope area, District of Kenora (Patricia Portion), Ontario

Publication Number: ARM51B Scale: 1:63,360    Date: 1997

Author: Prest V.K.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines

Location:

Map - Opikeigan Lake, Kenora District

Publication Number: M2379 Scale: 1:31,680    Date: 1977

Author: Wallace H.

Publisher Name: Ontario Division of Mines

Location:

Map - Fort Hope-Lansdowne House sheet, geological compilation series, Cochrane, Kenora, and Thunder Bay districts

Publication Number: M2237 Scale: 1:253,440    Date: 1972

Author: Thurston P.C., Carter M.W., Riley R.A.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines and Northern Affairs

Location:

Map - Precambrian Geology, Opikeigen Lake Area

Publication Number: P3269 Scale: 1:20,000    Date: 2005

Author: Hall L.A.F.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

Book - OPERATION FORT HOPE

Publication Number: MP042 Scale:     Date: 1970

Author: Thurston, P.C. and Carter, M.W.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

MonoMap - Geology of the Opikeigan Lake area, District of Kenora (Patricia Portion)

Publication Number: R185 Scale:     Date: 1978

Author: Wallace H.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

Mono - Report of Activities 2004, Resident Geologist Program, Thunder Bay North Regional Resident Geologist Report: Thunder Bay North District

Publication Number: OFR6147 Scale:     Date: 2005

Author: Smyk M.C., White G.D., Magee M.A., Komar C.L.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

Map - Geological series, Opikeigen Lake area, District of Kenora (Patricia Portion)

Publication Number: P0926 Scale: 1:31,680    Date: 1974

Author: Wallace H.

Publisher Name: Ontario Division of Mines

Location:

Map - Geological Compilation of the Miminiska-Fort Hope Area, Eastern Uchi Domain

Publication Number: P3611 Scale: 1:250,000    Date: 2009

Author: Madon Z.B., McIlraith S.J., Stott G.M.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

Part - Geology of the Fort Hope area

Publication Number: ARV51-03.001 Scale:     Date: 1997

Author: Prest V.K.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines

Location:

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