Hartless Joe/Byng
Hartless Joe has been sold to Strategic Metals Ltd. ATAC Resources can earn back 50% by fulfilling certain conditions. This epithermal gold-silver project is situated in south-central Yukon within the northern extension of the Stikine Terrane, which spans the length of British Columbia and extends north into central Yukon. The Stikine Terrane is the largest of the five terranes comprising the Intermontane Belt and consists largely of Triassic and Jurassic volcanic and sedimentary rocks. It is host to numerous gold-silver deposits and occurrences including the Eskay Creek gold-silver mine, Premier Gold Mine, Equity silver mine, Toodoggone camp, Sulphurets, Red Mountain and Galore Creek. These deposits cover a variety of genetic classifications, ranging from epithermal to mesothermal veins, replacement bodies, volcanogenic massive sulphide lenses and porphyry zones. The richest of the deposits is Eskay Creek, which reportedly contains 4 Moz gold and 153 Moz silver. Galore Creek is one of largest and highest grade, undeveloped porphyries in North America and is currently in the pre-feasibility stage of development.
The Hartless Joe project area covers a portion of Stikine Terrane that measures roughly 80 by 40 km. It is underlain by the Mid Triassic Joe Mountain Formation, which consists of sedimentary, mafic volcanic rocks and feeder dykes. These rocks are overlain by the sediment-dominated Whitehorse Trough Supergroup. Several Cretaceous intrusions and one Jurassic intrusion are mapped within the project area, along with a complex system of imbricate faults and fault arrays. Gold-silver lode and copper-gold-silver-molybdenum porphyry occurrences are documented within the project area. Regional geochemical stream sediment surveys have yielded intermittent strongly anomalous values for gold (1810 ppb), copper (120 ppm), mercury (244 ppm), and silver (1.6 ppm). The area is heavily glaciated.
Reconnaissance scale mapping, prospecting and soil sampling at Hartles Joe and Byng properties have discovered gold- and silver-rich, quartz-sulphide veins, shears and breccias, some of which exhibit low sulphidation epithermal affinities.
Both properties cover alpine ridge systems separated by U-shaped glacial valleys. Bedrock exposure is limited to areas above 1400 m elevation because of glacial deposits and thick vegetation. The Hartless Joe claims were purchased from a local prospector and the area has received limited exploration intermittently since 1967. This work identified two areas of gold bearing quartz vein talus yielding up to 251 g/t gold and 4540 g/t silver. The 2005 program consisted of contour soil geochemical sampling and prospecting, which confirmed the presence of high grade gold-silver vein talus previously sampled in the southern part of the property and identified four new areas of mineralization within the central and northern parts of the claim block. The dominant mineralization type discovered to date is clearly structural, however, examples of stratigraphically controlled gold-silver bearing material were also documented. Several areas of anomalous gold response were outlined, some of which are not associated with the known occurrences.
ATAC acquired the Byng claims, situated roughly 15 km east of the Hartless Joe property, by staking in November 2005. The claims cover a similar geological setting and have been explored in a similar manner as the Hartless Joe property. Limited grid soil sampling yielded up 1660 ppb gold within a north-northeast trending anomaly measuring roughly 500 by 50 m. Quartz vein talus sampled in the vicinity of the anomaly reportedly returned 4 g/t gold, 121 g/t silver plus 4.62% copper while nearby quartz-healed shear mineralization assayed 127 g/t gold. Similar material collected 1.5 km to the southeast yielded 58 g/t gold. Although the mineralization appears to be structurally controlled, its age and relationship to Cretaceous rhyolite bodies remains unclear. A zone of silicification that has been described as a sinter and/or a porous silica healed breccia is located in the nothwestern part of the claim block.
The Hartless Joe project area hosts a number of impressive gold-silver occurrences yet has received only cursory levels of exploration. These occurrences are both structurally and stratigraphically controlled and exhibit many characteristics found in deposits hosted by the same belt of rocks in northern BC. Regional geochemical stream sediment survey results in the vicinity of the Hartless Joe project area coupled with the presence of abundant intrusive activity and well defined structural corridors suggest the possibility of multiple zones of "bonanza type" gold-silver mineralization. In light of this ATAC proposes an aggressive exploration program with a regional component designed to identify new targets plus additional property work designed to advance the Hartless Joe and Byng properties to drill stage.
