History

In 1824, explorer Samuel Black diarized many unusually colorful gossans in the headwaters of the Findlay River system. In 1915, prospector Charles McClair mined alluvial gold from the gravels of a creek north of Toodoggone Lake that would later bear his name. In 1929, Cominco explored several base metals showings in the region (Smith, 2019).

Kennco Explorations (Western) Limited staked the Chappelle claims in 1969. Conwest Exploration Ltd. optioned the property in 1973 from Kennco and constructed an airstrip at Blake Lake and a road to the property prior to dropping the option in 1974. DuPont of Canada Exploration Limited acquired the property in 1974 and in 1979 the decision to put the property into production Dupont/Baker mine was made. Multinational Mining Inc. acquired the mineral rights from Dupont in 1985. Sable acquired the Dupont/Baker mill infrastructure in 1989 from Dupont to process material from the Shasta mine, and subsequently acquired Multinational Mining Inc. and their claims (Smith, 2019).

The Baker group, formerly referred to as the Chappelle group, was discovered in 1969 by Kennco Explorations (Western) Limited. Several quartz vein structures were identified, which included the discovery of the ‘A’ vein.

A Vein

Conwest Exploration Ltd. optioned the property in 1973 and constructed an airstrip at Black Lake and a road to the property prior to driving a 200-metre adit to further the explore ‘A’ vein. Underground diamond drilling was carried out during this time, but no encouraging results were returned and the property option was terminated in 1988 (Carter, 1988).

In 1974, DuPont of Canada Exploration Limited acquired the property and completed 8,700 metres of diamond drilling and 460 metres of underground development on the ‘A’ vein structure over a five year period. The mine was put into production as the Baker mine in 1979, and an airstrip was constructed at Sturdee River Valley to facilitate air freighting of all equipment which included a 90 tpd mill (Carter, 1988). Referred to as the DuPont/Baker ‘A’ deposit at the time, the Baker Mine was operated by DuPont Canada during the period of 1981 to 1983 as an underground and open-pit gold-silver mine. The operation involved a 90 tpd whole ore cyanidation plant, using the Merrill-Crowe process (Carter, 1988). Sable acquired the Baker site, including the processing facility in 1989 and subsequently modified it to a flotation circuit with optional concentrate cyanidation (Smith, 2019). The A-vein saw the majority of its exploration between 1974 and 1984, with a total of 12,381 metres of drilling completed over 159 holes (Smith, 2019).

B Vein

The Multinational ‘B’ deposit, located adjacent to Adit Creek and upstream of the ‘A’ deposit, was a high grade gold-silver-copper deposit from which flotation concentrates were shipped off-site. This mine was intermittently operated by Sable between 1991 and 1997 (Craft, 2003).

No reliable historical resource or reserve estimate could be located for either the Multinational ‘B’ or DuPont ‘A’ deposits. Craft (2001) reports that DuPont of Canada Exploration Ltd. produced 95,000 tons from the DuPont ‘A’ between 1981 and 1983, at an average production grade of 0.9 oz/t gold equivalent and that Sable produced 17,500 tons from the Multinational ‘B’ deposit at a grade of 0.5 oz/t gold, 5 oz/t silver, and 1% copper (Smith, 2019).

The B-vein saw the majority of its exploration between 1986 and 1988, with a total of 11,935 metres of drilling completed over 104 holes (Smith, 2019).

Black Gossan

The Black Gossan target saw sporadic exploration between 1997 and 2017. In 2002, at the Black Gossan, 9 Diamond Drill holes were drilled by Sable, two trenches were excavated and a soil grid was expanded (ARIS, 2020). In 2004, Sable drilled three holes into the Black Gossan Zone. This was to be a progressive program that explored deeper into the zone. The deepest hole that was to go 600 m was stopped at 166.76 m due to squeezing ground. The drilling did demonstrate that a copper-gold system exists and is increasing in grade with depth (ARIS, 2020). In 2006, at the Black Gossan, Sable Resources drilled two NQ sized diamond drill holes, totaling 170.7 metres. These were abandoned at the porphyry target due to poor ground conditions. The holes intersected propylitic altered Takla Group volcanics over their entire length. Pyrite accounted for 1 to 2 per cent and was the only sulphide noted. No assays were completed (ARIS, 2020). In 2017, 3 of the 5 diamond drill holes tested the Black Gossan zone; BK17-01, BK17-02, and BK17-05. The total metres drilled on the Black Gossan zone in 2017 was 1,153.97 metres of the 1,811.86 drilled metres completed that year.