The 2,256 ha Mitchell Property is located approximately 10 kilometres southwest of the former South Bay Mine (1.6 mt mined @2.5% copper, 14% zinc and 3.5 ounce per ton silver), which is approximately 80 kilometres east of the town of Red Lake in northwestern Ontario. Access to the property is via the South Bay Road extending east off the Highway 105. An electrical grid lies just south of the Property.
The Property occurs within the southern Birch-Uchi Greenstone Belt (BUGB) in the Uchi Subprovince of the Superior Province of the Canadian Shield and contains felsic volcanic units similar to those found at the South Bay Mine. BP Selco (“Selco”) drilled eleven short holes, totaling 1270 metres, testing airborne geophysical targets (magnetic and electromagnetic) in the western part of the Property during the late 1960s to early 1970s. As a result of this drilling, Selco delineated volcanogenic massive sulphide or VMS-type exhalite horizons. Drill holes intersected up to 5.5 m wide semi-massive to massive and 23.0 m wide stringer sulphide mineralization consisting of pyrite-pyrrhotite-chalcopyrite-sphalerite mineral assemblage.
In the mid-1990s, Noranda Mining and Exploration Company carried out geophysical and litho-geochemical surveys and geological mapping on the property and reported two areas of VMS-style mineralization. The Jigg Occurrence, which is coincident with a prominent ‘bulls-eye’ airborne electromagnetic anomaly and which was also drilled by previous operator Selco, occurs on ‘Grid A’ near the western property boundary. The drilling by Selco was shallow and mineralization remains untested along strike, down plunge and at depth below 100-metre vertical. A surface pulse electromagnetic (PEM) survey was conducted along two conductive trends identified by litho-geochemistry to test for deeper strike extensions as potential drill targets.
The second area of mineralization occurs 3.0 kilometres to the east on ‘Grid B’ and has been intersected in only one drill hole, where 5.0 m of stringer and massive pyrite-pyrrhotite-chalcopyrite-sphalerite mineralization occurs at the felsic-mafic metavolcanic contact. The Grid B area, which is characterized by three north-striking, 250 to 2000 metre long electromagnetic anomalies (PEM) were only partially drill-tested and warrant thorough drill-testing. In addition to potential geophysical and litho-geochemical targets within the A and B grid areas, there are numerous other base metal sulphide occurrences on the Property that will also be re-evaluated by appropriate geological and geophysical methods. The litho-geochemical sampling carried out by Noranda indicates silica, iron, magnesium enrichment and sodium and calcium depletion, characteristic of a typical VMS-style alteration environment that bodes well for the Property to host potentially economic base and precious metal mineralization.
Several gold-bearing quartz veins hosted within northeast-trending, pyritic shear zones have also been reported to occur within south-central part of the Property. Of these, the two most significant veins (No. 1 and No. 2) located somewhere along the north and south shores of the Southwest Bay were discovered in 1927 by Scranton-Ontario Consolidated Mines Ltd. The company reported 0.725 ounce (or 20.55 grams) per ton gold from No. 1 vein and 3.53 ounce (or 100.07 grams) per ton gold from No. 2 vein (Parker and Atkinson 1992, Open File Report 5835). The exact locations of these two veins are currently uncertain and will be investigated in the upcoming field season.
