Gold Silver Zinc

Virtual Museum ID: 19-BCGS-Fawn(5)-1

Specimen Summary


Gold is a valuable, highly prized mineral used in everything from jewellery to electronics and dentistry. Gold is desirable due to its special properties, such as malleability and resistance to tarnishing. Gold is commonly microscopic or embedded within or around sulphide grains. Free visible gold occurs as disseminated grains, or rarely as crystals. Crystals of gold commonly form within or around quartz. In its natural mineral form, gold is commonly alloyed with silver. Gold is distinguishable by its characteristic golden yellow colour and extreme heaviness.

Silver is an important precious metal. It is still highly valued today and has many important uses, as well as being used for jewellery. Silver has the highest electrical and thermal conductivity and reflectivity of all metals and is widely used in electronics and industrial chemistry. It is also used to make mirrors, photographic and x-ray film and collectible coins. Silver has natural antiseptic properties, therefore, has many different medical applications. Silver can occur in its elemental form as metallic silver, or in compounds and minerals with other elements like gold and lead. Silver has a distinct silver-grey colour and is soft and malleable, meaning it can be easily worked and shaped.

Sphalerite is the main ore mineral for zinc, and although relatively common, finding it in commercial amounts is somewhat rarer. The zinc will give the mineral a yellow or red hue, but iron can replace the zinc in the atomic structure, making the crystals black. Rarely, cobalt finds its way into the structure, and produces green crystals. Although sphalerite is a relatively soft mineral, it can be cut (faceted) into attractive gems, which are used for mineral displays.

Specimen Data

 

The information listed below relates to the current holding location or collection that the sample is from, and whether the item is viewable at that location or is part of a private collection. Coordinates are given as guides, and we remind you that collecting specimens from these locations is not allowed. Caution is advised visiting such sites and Below BC assumes no responsibility for any injuries or trespassing charges that may occur as a result of the viewer entering these sites.

Collection Details

Original Collection:

British Columbia Geological Survey (BCGS)

Sub Collection:

-

Collection ID:

Fawn(5)-1

Virtual Museum ID:

19-BCGS-Fawn(5)-1

Accessibility:

Date Added to VM:

2019-05-07

Location Information

Sample Origin:

120km SW of Vanderhoof, B.C.

Specific Site:

Fawn Property

UTM Easting:

356452

UTM Northing:

5897510

Datum:

10 (NAD 83)

Coordinate Accuracy:

Specimen Details

VM Category:

Ore Sample

Primary Features:

Gold Silver Zinc

Primary Mineral Formula:

Au · Ag · Zn

Primary Category:

native element

Secondary Features:

Advanced Geological Information

 

The following section provides geological data relating to the specimen or the site it was collected from, when available. Information has been obtained from various sources including private and government datasets but may not be up to date. Any geological time periods or ages listed often relate to the primary geology of the area, and may not be the actual date of an event such as mineral formation.

Geological Formation:

Hazelton Group (Naglico Formation)

Geological Period:

Middle Jurassic

Stratigraphic Age:

174.1 -163.5 Ma

Geological Belt:

Intermontane

Geological Terrane:

Stikine

Minfile ID:

093F 043

Site Details:

The Fawn property is located in the Fawnie Creek map area of the Nechako Plateau approximately 120 kilometres southwest of Vanderhoof.

The property covers the eastern portion of the Entiako Spur which comprises part of a regional uplift that exposes Jurassic basement rocks. The Fawnie Creek area is underlain predominantly by Middle Jurassic Hazelton Group (Naglico Formation) intermediate to felsic flow and volcaniclastic rocks, and intravolcanic sedimentary rocks, of the informal Naglico formation (Fieldwork 1993, pp. 15-26). Hazelton Group rocks have been intruded by the Late Cretaceous Capoose Batholith. The main phase of the Capoose Batholith, exposed both north and south of Entiako Spur, is quartz monzonite; subordinate phases include quartz diorite plugs and stocks and quartz porphyry dikes and plugs.

Thermal effects on Jurassic strata are widespread especially in the central part of the Entiako Spur where Hazelton Group rocks form a broad thin skin (an erosional remnant) over the Capoose batholith. The alteration mineral assemblage consists of epidote, chlorite, quartz and calcite. A mineral assemblage consisting primarily of garnet, diopside, epidote and biotite has developed where contact metasomatism has been most intense.

Eocene felsic to intermediate flows and pyroclastics of the Ootsa Lake Group unconformably overlie Hazelton Group rocks. They form isolated exposures in areas to the southeast near Mt. Davidson and to the west at the Wolf epithermal prospect. Miocene plateau lavas of the Chilcotin Group unconformably overlie all other rocks, although none occur in the immediate vicinity.

Felsic plutons of probable Late Cretaceous age cut Hazelton Group strata to the north at the Capoose prospect (093F 040). A variety of felsic dikes, suspected to be feeders to Eocene Ootsa Lake Group volcanic rocks, cut all lithologies on the property, and locally are spatially and genetically associated with epithermal style vein mineralization (Assessment Report 21927).

The Giver epithermal gold-silver zone is hosted by dark green plagioclase-phyric andesite flows and green to maroon andesite to dacite flows, lapilli and crystal lithic tuffs and minor argillaceous sedimentary rocks. Mineralization occurs in sericite and clay-altered volcanic rocks that host auriferous, chalcedonic breccia and silica stockwork zones. An 8.2 metre chip sample across the zone graded 0.6 gram per tonne gold, 7.1 grams per tonne silver and 0.0914 per cent As (Assessment Report 21927).

In 1994, Western Keltic Mines Inc. conducted a six-hole, 617-metre drilling program to test Giver zone mineralization, and VLF-EM and arsenic-zinc-lead-silver soil anomalies that were outlined during exploration programs carried out in 1991 and 1993. Diamond drilling confirmed the presence of an east-trending, steeply north dipping zone of pervasively clay and sericite-altered andesite. Significant widths of siliceous breccia and stockwork mineralization occur within the alteration; an 8.1-metre intercept in one hole assayed 2.02 grams per tonne gold and 25.2 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 23531).

Breccia zones consist of grey, intensely silicified and brecciated lapilli tuff. Sulphide content is about 1 per cent and consists mostly of very fine grained pyrite that occurs as wispy coatings on angular clasts and as 2-millimetre and smaller irregular patches distributed throughout matrix and clasts. Traces of fine-grained acicular arsenopyrite partly replace clasts. Sphalerite and specularite occur in trace amounts. Chalcedonic quartz is the dominant gangue mineral and is cut by comb quartz and late calcite veinlets. Quartz-lined drusy cavities commonly contain rhombs of white dolomite, clusters of subhedral to euhedral barite, rare grains of sphalerite and possibly pyrargyrite.

WORK HISTORY

In 1981, BP Minerals Limited staked claims to cover silver-lead-zinc geochemical lake sediment anomalies following the discovery of the Capoose silver occurrence 10 kilometres to the north (Assessment Report 21927). From 1982 to 1983, geological mapping and geochemical soil and stream sediment sampling were performed. Coincident lead-, zinc- and silver-in-soil anomalies were delineated within an area about 3,000 by 700 metres across (Assessment Report 21927). From 1983 to 1984, backhoe trenches exposed rhyodacite lapilli tuff containing up to 94.5 grams per tonne silver and up to 0.88 gram per tonne gold; further backhoe trenching in 1984 produced disappointing results (Assessment Report 21927). In 1988, BP Minerals dropped their claims.

In 1991, 375923 BC Ltd. performed geological mapping, soil and rock geochemical sampling and ground magnetometer and VLF-EM surveying. Epithermal gold-silver mineralization was found associated with brecciated, silicified and argillic-altered volcanic rocks on the property. A continuous chip sample from the Giver zone averaged 623 parts per billion gold and 7.1 grams per tonne silver across 8.2 metres (Assessment Report 21927). The Giver zone coincides with an easterly trending VLF-EM conductor 1900 metres long that is open at both ends. Other areas of epithermal mineralization were found during the 1991 work; select rock samples assayed up to 12.9 grams per tonne gold and 25.0 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 21927). Silver-zinc-lead soil geochemical anomalies were associated with each of four strong, easterly trending VLF-EM conductors in the property area.

Western Keltic conducted two diamond drill programs, the last with partner Cascadia International Resources Ltd., between 1994 and 1997 (Assessment Report 23513); Assessment Report 25910). Both drill programs were focused on the mineralized structures in the north half of the Fawn Property. These programs totalled 1236.6 metres in 13 holes. Eight drill holes tested the Giver Zone in 1994 and 1997, all intersecting wide, altered zones with significant intervals exceeding 100 parts per billion gold. Drill hole FWN97-06 was drilled in the vicinity of the Givermore Zone and encountered 10.2 metres of 1.0 grams per tonne gold and 23.3 grams per tonne silver.

In 1997, a total of 619.6 metres in seven holes was drilled in 1997. Five of these holes tested the Giver Trend along strike from the 1994 drill holes; the best intercept from this work was 1.08 grams per tonne gold across 10.2 metres. Two of the 1997 holes, FWN97-01 and FWN97-02, tested a splay of the Giver Trend. FWN97-01 intersected 2.02 grams per tonne gold and 6.0 grams per tonne silver across 1.1 metres. Hole FWN97-02 intersected 0.13 gram per tonne gold and 3.8 grams per tonne silver across 2.2 metres (Assessment Report 25190).

In 2010, Silver Quest Resources Ltd. collected a total of 32 geochemical soil samples from the Fawn property during June 2010. The soil samples were collected across the central part of the Giver trend at 50 metres intervals along north-south lines 250 metres apart. The results of the geochemical soil sampling showed that eight of the 32 soils contain anomalous (1.0 gram per tonne or greater) silver concentrations (Assessment Report 31642).

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