Location
Cross River’s McVicar Gold Project encompasses the recent consolidation of multiple properties in the Lang Lake greenstone belt located in the Patricia Mining Division, approximately 150 km east of Red Lake, and 80 km west of Pickle Lake, in NW Ontario, Canada.
Property Details
The newly consolidated McVicar land package creates a district-scale (over 11,500-ha) gold play that covers the main structural elements of the entire Lang Lake Belt.
Highlights
The McVicar project covers all the major fertile structural and geologic elements of the belt, which is bound to the south by the major NW trending Bear Head Fault zone (within which Golden Patricia is situated). Drill intercepts to-date at McVicar include (AFRI 20000007971):
- 6.46 g/t Au over 10.09m (including 29.86 g/t over 1.86m),
- 5.5 g/t Au over 3.6m,
- 11.72 g/t Au over 1.52m,
- 33 g/t Au over 1.86m,
- 5.0 g/t Au over 2.74m, and
- 9.3 g/t Au over 2.02m
The property is underlain by mafic to felsic metavolcanic rocks with interbedded iron formation, mafic to felsic intrusive rocks, and later tonalite intrusions, and is cross-cut by multiple major NW trending shear structures and secondary splays. The property hosts 3 known styles of gold mineralization, including 1) altered tonalite intrusions (e.g., Shonia occurrence: MDI 52O11SW 00007), 2) discrete auriferous quartz veins (e.g., Chellow Vein: MDI 52O11SW 00004), and 3) mineralized shear zones (e.g., Altered Zone: MDI 52O11SW 00012, North Flexure Zone: MDI 0000000 00284).
The highest gold grades discovered to-date are found at the Chellow Vein outcrop; where narrow (less than 20cm) quartz veins carrying sulfides and local visible gold are exposed for a strike length of approximately 125m. BHP Minerals Canada conducted exploration work in the early 1990s at the Chellow Vein, returning a series of 34 channel samples that were cut normal to the vein at approximately two-meter intervals along the length of the vein exposed in the trenches. The average value of the 34 samples was 28.8g/t gold. Three samples (#1078, #1090, #1096) returned bonanza-grade assays of 578.1 g/t Au, 533.5 g/t Au, and 412.5 g/t Au, respectively. Resampling by Prospector Consolidated Resources in 2002 yielded more high-grade results including a smoky-grey quartz vein grading 827.4 g/t gold. Very limited drill testing below the known showings in the early 1990s did not yield significant gold results, however, the Cross River technical team believe the Chellow Vein is hosted in a much broader (1-2km wide) high-strain or deformation zone characterized by a series of parallel-trending shears that have not been systematically tested.
Shear-hosted gold mineralization in the Altered and North Flexure Zones has been drill-tested historically and returned results including 6.46 g/t Au over 10.09m (including 29.86 g/t over 1.86m), 5.5 g/t Au over 3.6m, 11.72 g/t Au over 1.52m, 33 g/t Au over 1.86m, 5.0 g/t Au over 2.74m, and 9.3 g/t Au over 2.02m, among numerous other high-grade intercepts (summary of historic drilling listed in Wildcat Exploration Ltd, 2013 report). Structural interpretation along this shear corridor using airborne magnetic data from 2011 has revealed several potential structural splay zones associated with the Altered and North Flexure occurrences, suggesting opportunities for new discoveries along with trends and parallel to these significant previously known occurrences.
Among the 26 other mineral occurrences known on the McVicar property (primarily gold) is the Lang Lake porphyry copper deposit with an inferred resource from 1971, on the western extent of the property. The eastern extent of the property including the Cannon Lake area has seen little exploration, however, mapping by the OGS in 2016 revealed high-intensity east-west shearing, iron formations, and quartz veining.
The Cross River technical team is compiling data and plans to execute a systematic exploration program at McVicar, aimed at high-impact discoveries in favorable geologic domains which host gold in Archean lode gold systems elsewhere in the Uchi subprovince:
- Mafic-felsic contacts
- Shear zones
- Iron formation
- Pressure shadows
- Intrusion margins
- Fold hinges
All of these elements are located on the McVicar land position, and the significant gold endowment already known on the property (including numerous >500 g/t Au samples) suggests that the untested traps and structures are highly prospective for new discoveries.
References
https://greatbearresources.ca/projects/overview/
http://www.geologyontario.mndm.gov.on.ca/mndmfiles/mdi/data/records/MDI52O11SW00007.html
http://www.geologyontario.mndm.gov.on.ca/mndmfiles/mdi/data/records/MDI52O11SW00004.html
http://www.geologyontario.mndm.gov.on.ca/mndmfiles/mdi/data/records/MDI000000000284.html
http://www.geologyontario.mndm.gov.on.ca/mndmfiles/mdi/data/records/MDI52O11SW00012.html
http://www.geologyontario.mndm.gov.on.ca/mndmfiles/afri/data/records/52O11SW2002.html
http://www.geologyontario.mndm.gov.on.ca/mndmfiles/afri/data/records/20000007971.html