Funds provided, in part, under the Individual Prospector Component of the Mineral Incentive Program administered by the Government of the Northwest Territories were used in years 2014 through 2017 to explore high grade gold quartz veins on the AYE and Handle mineral claims located near the south end of Highway 4 within Yellowknife City limits.
Veins range in width generally from 0.10m to 1.5m and are steeply dipping. Country rock is Yellowknife Group mafic volcanics and intrusives with granitic rocks occurring nearby. Faults and shear zones control the emplacement of veins and oreshoots seem to be related to flexures in strike and dip. Mineralization includes fine gold and sparse sulphides. Occasionally visible gold is observed.
Preliminary exploration work included prospecting, cleaning out old trenches dating back to the 1930’s and 1940’s, mapping and sampling. The best prospects were further tested by shallow diamond drilling, mini-bulk sampling and, in the case of the No.9 vein on the Handle property, by test mining to a depth of about 1.75m. Metallurgical testing using a standing wave table was performed on 20 kg composite samples of crushed and ground material from the principle orebodies
On the AYE vein an oreshoot 20.0m long, averaging 0.51m wide ran 22.4 g/T (0.65 oz/ton) and the No.9 vein on the Handle claim contained a shoot 10.0m long, averaging 0.30m wide containing 50.7 g/T (1.48 oz/ton) gold. Numerous other gold showings occur on the claims. The Fox vein contains a limited amount of very high grade multi ounce material.
If gold prices reach favourable levels these deposits might be profitably mined on a very small scale.