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"TINA" Selwyn Basin Gold Project, Hyland District, Yukon
The TINA Claims represent a Carlin-type gold exploration target in the heart of the well mineralized and virtually unexplored Hyland Gold District of the Selwyn Basin, Yukon. The 504 claim block TINA Property contains the 3 necessary components for the discovery of a sediment hosted gold deposit; 1) A Cretaceous intrusive heat source to mobilize gold, 2) Carbonate shelf sediments to afford gold mineralization deposition, and 3) Regional scale, fault structures to allow gold impregnated fluids passage through to overlying carbonate host rocks.
The exploration success at the RAU Property of ATAC Resources Ltd. was based initially on a reinterpretation of regional stream sample geochemisty within the platformal carbonate lithologies of similar age and composition of those within the Hyland Gold District portion of the Selwyn Basin.
The Tina Property was staked in late 2010 based on an Argus Metals Corp. detailed interpretation of historic regional geochemical data within the Carlin-type setting of the Hyland Gold District. The regional geochemical data review defined anomalous As, Sb and Au in stream sediments coincident with defined gold mineralization on the advanced Hyland Gold project to the NE. The well defined geochemical signature of the Hyland Gold Project afforded Argus management with the ability to select "look-a-like" geochemical and geological targets within the District. The Argus proprietary data set is an order of magnitude higher in density than the YGS and identifies and details these Carling-type gold mineralization targets where only a single anomaly can be found within the pubic data set.
Nevada's Carlin gold district is endowed with over 192 million ounces of gold distributed over several thousand square kilometres, including multiple >10-million-ounce high-grade deposits, making the region the third largest gold district in the world. This successful exploration model is currently being applied and refined within the Yukon's Selwyn Basin as these Carlin-type deposits occur in extremely specific tectonic settings with unique geological characteristics akin to the Hyland Gold District. The TINA Claims cover over 156km2 of such a setting within the Selwyn Basin carbonate sediments that could potentially host several Carlin style gold deposits.
Figure 1 Project Geology
i) Regional Geology
The Tina Property is located in the southeastern Selwyn Basin, a Late Precambrian to Middle Devonian tectonic element characterized by underlying marine and deep water derived clastic rocks. Deposition of sediments into the basin was restricted by the Cassiar platform to the southwest and the Mackenzie shelf to the east. It is considered part of Ancestral North America and records several episodes of pericratonic rifting with subsequent subsidence. Generally, the basin fill comprises shale, limestone, chert and grit that have been subdivided across the basin into many formations and distinct facies that may or may not be time-equivalent. Recent regional scale geological mapping of the area (Pigage et al., 2011) provides a framework for the regional and property-scale descriptions below.
On a regional scale the Tina property is located in an area of the Selwyn basin underlain by Precambrian (Yusezyu, Narchilla and Vampire formations), Lower-Middle Cambrian (Sekwi Formation), Cambrian-Ordovician (Otter Creek and Rabbitkettle formations), Ordovician (Sunblood Formation), Silurian-Devonian (Road River Group and undivided Nonda-Muncho-McConnell-Stone-Dunedin formations) and locally Eocene (Rock River basin) sequences. The sedimentary rocks were subsequently intruded by Cretaceous granite, quartz monzonite and granodiorite plugs assigned to the Selwyn Plutonic Suite. Collectively, they record a quiescent, subsiding continental margin punctuated by transgressive and regressive cycles, rifting, a receptacle for orogenic detritus from the north, collision of allochthonous terranes, mountain building and magmatism (Gordey and Anderson, 1993).
ii) Property Geology
The regional and Property geology is summarized from Perkins & Mustard (1981) and Black, 2010
There is a paucity of detailed Property geology for the Tina Property. Pigage et. al (2011) define the property to reside within the Vampire Formation-Narchilla Formation (undivided) which consists of dark grey to pale green, rusty tan-weathering, noncalcareous, pinstriped silty phyllite; lesser cream, quartzose sandstone and light grey-weathering siltstone; minor quartzose pebbly conglomerate to sandstone and grey, bedded limestone; locally metamorphosed to biotitegarnet- staurolite schist: trace interbedded silky, non-calcareous, maroon phyllites.
More work is required to define the property geology and this is a major focus of the proposed 2011 exploration program.
iii) Deposit Type & Mineralization
To date, no known mineralization has been described on the Property. The Property was identified and staked based on regional geochemical stream sediments survey analysis which included elevated and coincident Gold and Arsenic results. Argus Metals Corp. management is using the success of ATAC's Rau property exploration (staked, explored and drilled based on Au+As RGS stream sediment data) to identify potential gold mineralization targets. To date these theories have not been tested and there is no known deposit type or mineralization recorded on the Tina Property.
iv) Exploration 2012
Argus Metals conduct preliminary stream, soil and rock sampling on the western portion of the Tina Claims in the summer of 2012. This work verified and focused the historic anomaly that was the basis for the staking the Tina Claims. More detailed work is envisoned for the 2013 season as the company move the Tina project towards a drill ready status.
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