North of 60 Mining News - The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

Tectonic Metals Inc. June 25 announced that it has added a new gold property in the Goodpaster Mining District and acquired a dataset that will assist the company's exploration across this gold-rich region of Alaska's Interior.

The new property, known as Maple Leaf, is roughly nine miles (15 kilometers) northeast of Tectonic's Tibbs project and about 31 miles (50 kilometers) east of Northern Star Resources Ltd.'s Pogo gold mine.

The Tectonic team staked this 11,840-acre (4,791 hectares) block of state of Alaska mining claims after carrying out a thorough desktop analysis of the Goodpaster district and site visit to confirm the presence of high-grade surface mineralization.

Regional-scale, northeast-trending structures are known to control mineralization throughout Alaska's Eastern Interior region, including the Pogo and Fort Knox gold mines. Maple Leaf is adjacent to two such structures – the Black Mountain Tectonic Zone to the west, which appears to host high-grade mineralization at Tibbs and Northern Star's Brink gold prospect about six miles (10 kilometers) southeast of Tibbs, and the Mount Harper lineament to the east.

Rubicon Minerals Corp. explored the Maple Leaf area in 2006 and 2007. Surface sampling carried out by Avalon Development Corp. identified gold and pathfinder minerals at the Maple Leaf prospect, including one grab sample with 19.1 g/t gold, along with associated bismuth, arsenic, and tellurium. This combination of gold and pathfinder elements is similar to the geochemical signatures of the Pogo (gold-bismuth-arsenic-tellurium) and Kinross Gold Corp.'s Fort Knox (gold-bismuth-tellurium) deposits, as well as mineralization identified at Tibbs (gold-bismuth-arsenic-antimony).

Rubicon completed a limited drill program at the Maple Leaf prospect in 2007, consisting of 1,105 meters in four holes. While this drilling intersected weakly anomalous gold, it failed to intersect the gold-bearing sugary quartz veins observed at surface.

In addition to Maple Leaf, two other prospects have been identified across the larger property staked by Tectonic – American Eagle and Tourmaline Ridge.

Situated about 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers) northeast of the Maple Leaf prospect, American Eagle consists of a 400- by 50-meters ridgetop cut by 5 to 10% sheeted white quartz veins with coarse grained bismuthinite, a bismuth mineral. Limited historical grab sampling returned values of up to 3.03 g/t gold, 3,880 parts per million bismuth, 5,160 ppm arsenic, and up to 494 ppm molybdenum.

About 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) west of Maple Leaf, Tourmaline Ridge consists of tourmaline-bearing paragneiss (a metamorphic sedimentary rock). Historic sampling of the tourmaline-rich rocks by Avalon returned weakly elevated gold values, along with bismuth and arsenic. Tectonic said the intensity and extent of the massive tourmaline suggest high levels of fluid flow related to intrusive activity.

No work has been completed at any of the prospects on the Maple property since the exploration by Rubicon in 2007.

"The Maple Leaf property exhibits potential for intrusion-related mineralization within a favorable structural corridor, and Tectonic is excited to apply our understanding of structurally-hosted mineralization to analyze the project and other accretive opportunities in the district," said Tectonic Metals Vice President of Exploration Eric Buitenhuis.

This analysis has gotten a head start with the acquisition of a comprehensive, non-public dataset from Rubicon containing information on Maple Leaf, Tibbs, and the greater Goodpaster Mining District. This dataset consists of geological, geophysical, and geochemical information, including diamond drill logs and core from exploration work Rubicon carried out at multiple prospects during a C$3 million multi-phase program completed in 2007.

To acquire this data, Tectonic has agreed to issue 300,000 of its common shares to Rubicon.

"The Rubicon dataset was assembled during a period of intense exploration activity in the Goodpaster District, similar to what we're witnessing in the area today," said Buitenhuis. "A large amount of data and information relating to mineral properties in Alaska is non-public and privately held, and by acquiring this data, Tectonic gets a jump start in analyzing the Maple Leaf property."

Author Bio

Shane Lasley, Publisher

Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.

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