Pelly Mountain Project

The 1671 ha Pelly Mountain Property is situated 44 km south of Ross River in south-central Yukon. Access to the property is by helicopter, with the nearest base at Ross River. Crews can be mobilized from the Ketza River Mine road located 15 km east of the property.

The project is prospective for both volcanic massive sulphide (“VMS”) and Rare Earth Element (“REE”) deposit types.

The claims are 100% owned by Eagle Plains Resources and carry no underlying royalties or encumbrances.

Project Highlights

• Numerous high-grade showings and geochemical anomalies
• Excellent geology favourable for VMS poly-metallic deposits
• Significantly underexplored with encouraging early results
• Encouraging exploration to date with comprehensive database
• Drill ready

Geology

The volcano-sedimentary rocks that host the Wolf and MM deposits and underlie the Pelly Mountain Claims form a narrow arcuate 80 km NW trending belt and are termed the Pelly Mountains Volcanic Belt (“PMVB”). Characterized by high potassium content and, locally, bedded barite and volcanogenic massive sulphide (“VMS”) deposits and showings, the PMVB is early to middle Paleozoic in age and occurs within the Pelly-Cassiar Platform, considered to be part of ancestral North America.

Most of the rocks on the property lie on the gently northerly-dipping limb of a large-scale antiform that is part of a train of WNW to NW trending, gently dipping folds that appear, in general, to be tighter to the NW. Although the rocks have been deformed, the stratigraphy appears to be intact and many primary volcanic textures are preserved and readily recognizable.

History

The claim blocks of the Pelly Mountain Property are located 7 km apart and have been worked in the past as separate properties. These claim blocks are referred to as the Fire, Ice and Melt claims.

An exploration target on the Ice Claims was identified in 1977 by Cyprus-Anvil Mining which outlined soil anomalies that were interpreted as being more extensive than would be expected from the mineralization observed in outcrop. Geophysics revealed a small conductive target associated with a magnetic anomaly, coincident with both a large Zn-Pb soil geochemical anomaly and a sedimentary barite horizon.

The Fire Claims was originally staked in 1976 over a surface showing of massive sedimentary barite. Work over 4 years included soil sampling, mapping and geophysical surveying. In 1980 a drill hole was completed but failed to intersect barite or VMS-style mineralization as it was, unknown then, collared below the stratigraphy of the barite horizon.

Eagle Plains Exploration

Exploration efforts have focussed on a specific stratigraphic section, the PMVB, for VMS-style mineralization. Results have shown that mafic volcanic rocks are much more prevalent than previously recognized and their presence appears to play an important role in localizing VMS styles of mineralization.

Staked in 1996, the Ice Claims cover coincident geochemical and geophysical anomalies associated with mineralized outcrops indicating potential VMS mineralization.  A program of mapping, prospecting, hand trenching and geochemical sampling outlined an anomalous area of Pb-Zn associated with the trend of a bedded exhalative barite showing.  It also identified many other features associated with VMS-type deposits and concluded that mineralization appears to be stratiform with the target horizon lying along the NW edge of the property. Additional claims were staked.

• Selected rock samples returned up to 7.12% Zn, 7.82% Pb, 72.9 g/t Ag and >1 g/t Au.

In 1997, hand trenching, geological mapping and rock sampling were conducted.  The reported barite float train was located but not the source, samples returned up to 56.1 g/t Ag, 5760 ppm Pb and 812 ppm Zn. Heavily pyritized, flow banded rhyolite was located confirming the tenor and style of the mineralization as VMS-type.

In 1998 Atna Resources optioned the property and carried out mapping, geochemistry, airborne and ground-based geophysics. Mapping located a widespread package of silica and sericite altered intermediate to felsic volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks containing pyrite, barite, and galena.  Associated with these rocks were a number of coincident Ba-Hg-Pb-Zn soil anomalies. Geophysics located anomalies consistent with the Wolf Deposit and although Atna recommended further work including diamond-drilling, the option was terminated in 1999.

In 2000 Eagle Plains completed mapping and ground-truthing on areas of prospective VMS host stratigraphy and identified priority drill targets. Seven drill holes over 616 m were completed.  VMS-type base-metal mineralization similar to the nearby Wolf and MM occurrences was intersected on drill locations 7 km apart. The best intersections returned values of:

Recognizing the potential for VMS-style deposits as a result of this work, Eagle Plains conducted an aggressive staking program to cover prospective geology.

In 2001 a program of mapping, extensive geochemical sampling and prospecting identified several areas underlain by favorable stratigraphy coincident with strongly anomalous VMS-type geochemical signatures. The prospective stratigraphy was staked.

In 2006, airborne geophysics covered the project area then integrated into the GIS data-base.  Ground-truthing in 2007 confirmed the consistency of the stratigraphic section and demonstrated the stratigraphic controls for the development of VMS mineralization.

A 2010 field program focused on evaluating the numerous alkalic intrusives in the area for REE +/- Nb mineralization. Prospecting and sampling was conducted in areas with syenite stocks or anomalous REE assay values. Scintillometres were used to find rocks with high Th values. Other minerals of interest include fluorite and xenotime.

Work in 2013 consisted of consolidation of data into a cohesive modern database.  Although existing geochemical data allowed for targeting of obvious rock, silt and soil geochemical anomalies, it is also strongly believed that further geochemical analysis can readily identify false anomalies and increase confidence in existing targets.

Future Work

The Pelly Mountain Property boasts an impressive stratigraphic package which has great potential to host VMS mineralization. This potential has been defined by diamond-drilling, detailed mapping and numerous large geochemical surveys. Geochemical anomalies in rocks, soils and silts are consistent with distal to proximal VMS mineralization and are present along a stratigraphic horizon.

Consolidation of multiple geochemical datasets has allowed for advanced statistical analysis of Pelly Mountain geochemical programs for the first time identifying several anomalies on the property as likely to be primary or mechanically transported anomalies.

Recommendations include:

• Detailed geochemical surveying and mapping over anomalous Cu and Zn soil lines
• Compilation and analysis of geochemical information including alteration minerals
• Re-anlysis of existing pulps and an airborne radiometric survey, to assess the REE/Nb targets
• Diamond-drill test existing VMS targets

Eagle Plains - A Project Generator

Eagle Plains Resources is a project generator with several mineral exploration properties of merit that meet qualifying transaction requirements.  We facilitate the listing process for capital pool companies and initial public offerings while providing technical expertise for exploration programs.  Companies interested in co-operatively exploring any of our projects please contact: Chuck Downie at ccd@eagleplains.com or Mike Labach at mgl@eagleplains.com or call 1 866 Hunt Ore (486 8673).

The Pelly Mountain project is currently available for option

Updated May 1, 2024