Last Updated: May 25, 2018
The 2017 exploration program was the first significant program completed by OK2 Minerals on the Kinskuch Lake Project. The project was designed to evaluate all three target areas on the property (Big Bulk, VMS and Golden Mickey); however, given the more advanced stage of the Big Bulk target, the bulk of work was focused on advancing it near to the point of diamond drill hole selection. The program was successful in advancing all three targets and was especially successful in proposing and adding credibility to a new tilted porphyry model for the Big Bulk target. The name Big Bulk refers to the historic terminology for the mineralized system at the south end of Kinskuch Lake but is also used by other companies in the area to describe their target areas so is now only used by the Company to differentiate between the three target areas within our claim block.
During the period from June 3rd to August 3rd, 2017, the Company completed an helicopter airborne geophysical survey over its Kinskuch Lake property as part of a cost-sharing agreement with Hecla Mining Company (NYSE: HL) whose mineral claims in the Kinskuch area, completely surround the Company's Kinskuch Lake property. The survey was conducted by Geotech Ltd. of Toronto and utilized a helicopter-borne ZTEM (Z-Axis Tipper Electromagnetic) system, which detects the natural, (or passive), fields of the earth as a source of transmitting energy. A total of 331.5 line-km of geophysical data were acquired over the Company's claim blocks during the survey. Hecla was the operator of the program. The survey operations were based out of Stewart, British Columbia. During the acquisition phase of the survey data quality assurance and preliminary processing were carried out in the field. Preliminary and final data processing, including generation of final digital data and map products were completed at the office of Geotech Ltd. in Aurora, Ontario. ZTEM is ideal for detecting and mapping deeply buried porphyry-hosted targets and structurally controlled sulphide mineralized targets. The Company's Kinskuch Project has both types of copper-gold porphyry targets as well as VMS (volcanogenic massive sulphide) targets on the 50 sq. km property.
The Kinskuch ZTEM survey has provided additional information about the resistivity and magnetic susceptibility distributions within the project area. Interpretation of the data has identified three potential zones of interest within the Company's Kinskuch Lake project.
Kinskuch Lake Block
Pre-field office studies and map compilation led the Company's consultants geologists to believe that the historic model for the Kinskuch Lake-Big Bulk porphyry system was incorrect and it was not vertical but in fact sub-horizontal. Historic mapping indicated that Kinskuch Lake area was located within a paleobasin where subsequent deformation tilted basin stratigraphy near the porphyry system to subvertical beds that young to the east. This data was collaborated by a June field visit undertaken by the BC Geological Survey, the University of British Columbia (UBC), and the Company's geologists Gayle Febbo. Their mapping agreed with historic measurements and also indicated a tilt of approximately 90 degrees to the east in the area of the Big Bulk intrusive complex.
What our team also noted were several east verging thrust faults which in one place on the Dolly Varden-Big Bulk claims (north of the Bonnie Zone and adjacent to the Company's Kinskuch Lake block) had emplaced core zone alteration on top of higher argillic alteration. Deformation on the eastern part of the target resulted in moderate tilting around the Bonnie Zone inferred from moderate dipping beds to the north. This model gave Company's geological consultants a vector towards the center and western part of the Kinskuch Lake claim block for potentially hosting further core zone alteration and mineralization.
The 2017 field program initially focused on the western part of the Kinskuch Lake claim block south of the historic Seebee zone and west of the historic Nickie zone. This area had seen limited rock sampling, possibly due to the presence of significant overburden but also likely due to limited brightly oxidized phyllic altered outcrops. It became apparent to Company's consultants that the bulk of historic rock sampling had been done in gossanous outcrops and even on the outcrop scale, more silicified and less oxidized portions of outcrops were often unsampled. More often than not, these outcrops with little oxidation were due to much higher silicification, often in the form of sheeted copper-gold bearing quartz veins. This western area was terminated to the west by a dextral strike slip fault but remained open under till and then under Kinskuch Lake to the east. Further prospecting via motor boat of the islands within Kinskuch Lake revealed more sheeted quartz vein mineralization across the lake and up to the Bonnie Zone. Several islands had not been historically sampled but one, the location of historic drill holes BB03-07 and BB03-08, showed that the majority of historic sampling had occurred in the downgraded phyllic altered parts of the island as opposed to the intact sheeted quartz veins.
Further prospecting, mapping, and sampling was completed to the east up the Bonnie and Bonnie East zones to the edge of glacial ice. The Company's geological consultants noted several xenoliths (up to ~30x30m) of sheeted quartz vein core mineralization that had minimal or no historic sampling. Given the sub-horizontal porphyry model the location of core zone mineralization represents the core of a porphyry system over ~3km. Many of these mineralized outcrops have been intruded by later P3 diorites which have effectively cannibalized mineralization and depressed copper and gold grades. Evidence for this also includes the presence of smaller sheeted quartz vein xenoliths distal to the mapped core zone. The area under Kinskuch Lake between the Bonnie Zone and the Nickie Zone represents an untested region with the potential to host a larger intact body of core zone mineralization. In total 42 rock samples were taken within core zone mineralized rocks and they averaged 0.57% Cu and 0.35 g/t Au (see news release dated Sept 12, 2017). Given these impressive grades at surface exploration diamond drilling is warranted on the covered regions under Kinskuch Lake on this promising target.
Outside of the core zone mineralized areas geologists were also successful at characterizing the style of mineralization responsible for the often extremely high grade grab samples throughout the property. A late epithermal Au-Cu±Ag±Pb±Zn veining event took place after the porphyry emplacement. The majority of this mineralization is located on the southern flank of the porphyry system in addition to the upper parts (East) of the system where it overprints an upper breccia body (Bonnie and Bonnie east).
Historic drilling often displayed low grade intercepts interspersed with higher (ore) grade intercepts. This can now be explained by intercepts mainly consisting of later P3 diorites with either xenoliths of sheeted quartz vein mineralization and/or intercepts of epithermal veining. Given the new geological and alteration interpretations historic drill logs will need to be reanalysed based upon their elemental ratios. Those intercepts with Cu:Au ratios around 1-1.5:1 with little to no base metals should be classified as core zone mineralization or higher level breccia whereas those with higher base metal concentrations can be attributed to later epithermal veining. Although the epithermal mineralization on the property often carries spectacular grades it will be important to focus on the porphyry style mineralization for future drill campaigns since it will be more likely to add up to a significant resource.
Outside of historically worked areas, Company's geological consultants made a discovery of a new zone of quartz stockwork within QSP altered diorites. This region at the southern end of the Kinskuch Lake property was freshly exposed due to recent glacial retreat. This area only saw two days of work in the 2017 field program but it will require more work in future field seasons, which will need to be done in September when annual snow and ice melt is at its maximum. This area represents an exciting new target given the Midnight Blue porphyry showing to the south. In theory, this N-S orientation of porphyry style mineralization shows many similarities to the Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell camp where large Cu-Au porphyries are spaced several kilometers apart along a N-S axis within a paleobasin.
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Silver Basin Block (a.k.a. Golden Mickey)
2017 field work on the Silver Basin (a.k.a. Golden Mickey) claim group was limited in its extent. Field crews spent two days visiting the Silver Basin target examining the area around a historic adit and to confirm the style of mineralization present. One sample returned 24.2% Cu, 7,688 g/t Ag, 16.5 g/t Sb, and 1.45% Zn (see news release dated Sept 12, 2017). The mineralization is characterized by a 30cm wide lens of massive tetrahedrite, chalcopyrite, and malachite within argillites that dips at a shallow angle into the cliff face. Given the proximity to the Dolly Varden Silver property and their ongoing success, this area remains of interest.
VMS Block
Due to poor weather conditions for helicopter access, limited work was performed on the VMS claims. An attempt was made to locate areas of sericite altered volcanics with the best sample returning (D00015656) 0.11 g/t Au, 5.91 g/t Ag, and 3.08% Zn. Future work will require geophysical targeting for narrowing down areas of mapping and sampling within this rugged part of the claim package.
Sampling of historically located mineralization proved to have the potential for the project to host economic Pb-Zn-Ag mineralization and future work will be required to evaluate the potential of this project. One note of interest is that stream sediment sample (D00015805) returned 0.65% Cu and 0.65 g/t Au. This sample potentially indicates the presence of porphyry style mineralization extending east of the Big Bulk system and onto the VMS claim package. Future work on the project should not be limited to identifying the potential for VMS style mineralization but also investigate the potential for bulk tonnage porphyry style mineralisation. The recently completed ZTEM survey did locate a magnetic anomaly in the vicinity of this anomalous sample so future work should investigate this region.