The Eureka property is an orogenic gold project located within an overlap area between the prolific Klondike Gold Fields placer district and the emerging, highly significant hard rock White Gold district of west-central Yukon Territory. It lies 110 km by road south of Dawson City, right on the proposed haulage route to Newmont’s Coffee Deposit. The property covers a 70 sq km area which is wholly within the traditional territory of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation and partially overlaps with Na-Cho Nyäk Dun traditional territory.
The property is underlain by metasedimentary rocks belonging to the Yukon-Tanana Terrane. It lies within an important gold belt that hosts productive hard rock mines including Fairbanks Gold, True North and Pogo in Alaska, and important recent discoveries such as the White Gold Deposit of White Gold Corp. and Newmont’s Coffee Deposit, located 50 km and 75 km southwest of the Eureka property, respectively. White Gold and Coffee are structurally controlled vein and breccia deposits hosted within metamorphosed Yukon-Tanana terrane rocks. Klondike Gold Corp’s orogenic gold Klondike project lies about 50 km north of the Eureka property.
It’s unique location in the overlap area between the two districts is favourable for mineralization. Typically, mineralization within the White Gold district is structurally controlled, while mineralization with the Klondike Gold Fields district is orogenic-hosted. Both districts have deep weathering profiles as a result of escaping glaciation. Mineralization at Eureka appears both orogenic and structurally controlled.
The Eureka property straddles the headwaters of two of the most prolific placer creeks in the Klondike Gold Fields, Eureka and Black Hills creeks. The Eureka Gold Project has a long history, with the earliest recorded mineral claims in the area dating back to the early 1900s. Placer activity in the area dates to the discovery of gold in the Klondike in 1896 and is still highly active today. Reported gold production from 1978-2020 for Eureka Creek is 101,671 ounces while reported production from Black Hills Creek over the same time period is 115,996 ounces.
Gold recovered from the upper reaches of both creeks is described as a mixture of coarse and fine, angular to dendritic grains with average fineness from 620 to 855. Some grains contain inclusions of dark quartz while others are attached to larger white quartz fragments. Gold recovered from the upper left fork of Eureka Creek below Eureka Dome includes greenish yellow to oxidized angular to dendritic grains and nuggets. Pay gravel is described as strongly oxidized and exposed bedrock in pits dug on the upper left fork include mineralized quartz veins and oxidized, altered wall rock. Rare quartz boulders up to one metre in diameter are described in tributaries of the upper left fork. The shape and fineness of gold recovered from Eureka Creek suggests a proximal source. Gold recovered from Childs Gulch is described as mostly fine grains with an average fineness of 750. Some grains are attached to white quartz. Placer cuts in Child Gulch revealed prospective quartz veins in oxidized wall rock.
The Eureka property has never been glaciated and as a result the landscape is mature with dendritic drainages forming radial fans off the flanks of upland domes. Outcrop is rare and generally confined to ridges, over-steepened slopes and road or placer cuts. Oxidation levels extend to 100 m or more below the surface at Eureka, which is indicative of the deep weathering profile in the unglaciated terrain.
Hard rock exploration on the Eureka property has been conducted by numerous operators intermittently since 1988 and has resulted in the discovery of the Wealth, Childs, Allen, Happy and Ball showings. Work performed to date includes: mapping; prospecting; soil sampling; hand and mechanized trenching (5818 m in 38 trenches); ground and airborne geophysical surveying; reverse circulation (RC) drilling (4174 m in 41 holes); and diamond drilling (1188 m in 8 holes).
Grid sampling across parts of the Eureka property has outlined extensive gold-in-soil geochemical anomalies which occur in a northerly elongated belt that is 8000 m long and up to 2500 m wide, and which is open to extension on the property.
Geological mapping and interpretation of LiDAR have identified several strong north- and northwest-trending linear features. These linears appear to play an important role in controlling the mineralization and numerous highlight rock samples were collected within them in 2021 (see News Release February 24, 2022).
Trenching and drilling have identified mineralized structures at the Wealth, Childs, Allen and Happy showings, while placer workings exposed a gold-rich vein at the Ball Showing.
The Wealth Showing is located in the center of the claim block within a 600 by 250 m area of strongly anomalous gold-in-soil values. Bulldozer trenches across this showing exposed quartz breccias with gougy alteration halos. The highest gold assays in trenches included: 0.54 g/t gold across 20 m; 0.97 g/t gold over 17.9 m; 0.75 g/t gold across 10 m; and, 1.06 g/t gold across 2 m. RC drilling within the Wealth Showing returned encouraging results including: 0.59 g/t gold across 18.3 m; 2.34 g/t gold over 3.05 m; 1.13 g/t gold over 6.1 m; 2.44 g/t gold over 1.53 m; and 1.38 g/t gold over 3.05 m.
Preliminary cyanide leach bottle-roll tests of coarse reject material from chip samples taken from trenches at the Wealth Showing yielded the following very positive results in a 24 hour period.
Head Grade | Cyanide Recovery |
Au (g/t) | Au (g/t) |
0.32 | 0.33 |
0.59 | 0.57 |
1.16 | 0.9 |
2.76 | 2.72 |
The Childs Showing lies 2500 m south of the Wealth Showing and comprises gold-bearing breccia zones exposed in bulldozer trenches. Chip samples from the trenches returned 0.72 g/t gold over a true thickness of 4 m and 0.48 g/t gold across a true width of 5.5 m. RC drilling at the Childs Showing returned 6.62 g/t gold over 1.52 and 1.19 g/t gold over 1.52 m.
The Allen Showing is located 800 m northeast of the Wealth Showing, but has seen little mechanical exploration. The showing is exposed in a deep trench cut along a north-trending ridge, which exposed a brecciated and clay-altered zone that is 2 to 5 m wide. Select rock samples returned up to 15 g/t gold, but chip sampling in the trench returned only 0.44 g/t gold across 4 m.
The Happy Showing is located 1800 m north of the Wealth Showing. A sample from a diamond drill hole in this showing assayed 9.99 g/t gold over 1.5 m. This intercept was obtained from an isolated hole completed near the end of the most recent drill program, and it has not been followed up.
The Ball Showing is located on the edge of a placer cut, in the southeastern part of the soil grid. It comprises a gold-rich quartz vein that was exposed in bedrock by a placer miner. A chip sample across the vein assayed 9.8 g/t gold and 238 g/t silver over 0.6 m. This vein has not been drill tested.
The Eureka property is very favourably located, but has received surprisingly little drilling and trenching considering the size and strength of its soil geochemical anomaly and the abundance of gold in creeks draining the property.
