Atty Property
The Atty property is located ~30 km south southeast of Finlay's Pil property and adjacent to Northgate's Kemess North deposit.
Finlay Minerals acquired the Pil claims pursuant to a Purchase Agreement with Electrum Resource Corporation dated July 29, 1999. Electrum is a private company owned 60% by John J. Barakso who is a director of the Company and 40% by members of his family. As part of the purchase consideration, the Company granted Electrum a 3% net smelter returns royalty.
The property is located in the southern part of the Toodoggone mining district of northern British Columbia. Co-ordinates are 57 08' north Latitude and 126 43' west Longitude on N.T.S. Map No. 94E/2. The property is located 440 air-kilometres north of Prince George and 8.5 kilometres north northeast of Northgate Mineral's Kemess copper-gold mine. Access to the property is by road from Prince George to the Kemess Mine (~540 km). Alternatively, regular charter flights from Prince George, Smithers, Kelowna or Vancouver to the mine are available. From the mine the property is accessed by a short helicopter flight.
A power line links the nearby Kemess Mine to the provincial electrical grid. Concentrates from the Kemess Mine is trucked out to the railhead at Mackenzie.
History
During the period 1969 through 1989, several operators explored mineral claims that included parts of what is now the Atty property. They included Kennco Explorations (Western) Ltd., Bishop Mines Ltd., ABM Mining, Inca Resources Inc., Texasgulf Canada Ltd. and its successor Kidd Creek Mines Ltd., Canadian Venture Corporation and Moondust Ventures. From 1990 through 1998 Electrum owned and explored the Atty property. Exploration work from 1969 through 1998 included soil, stream sediment and rock geochemical surveys, airborne and ground magnetic and VLF EM geophysical surveys, limited hand trenching and geological mapping.
The Company acquired the property from Electrum in 1999 and has established 11.6 kilometers of grid lines, 9.8 kilometres of magnetic surveys, 8.3 kilometres of IP surveys, collected 131 soil samples, 48 rock samples, and prepared a geological map.
In 2004 Finlay conducted a helicopter supported drilling program consisting of 7 holes totaling 1,653 metres on the Atty property. Exploration targeted coincident geochemical and geophysical (IP, magnetics) anomalies associated with the Atty Gossan Zone. In addition, soil and rock sampling and an induced polarization survey were completed over the Awesome Showing near the centre of the property.
Geology and Mineralization
The Atty property as with the Pil property is situated in the Toodoggone mining district, a mineral rich belt that is host to numerous porphyry (Cu-Au) and epithermal (Au-Ag) deposits. Several of these deposits are former producers and two, namely Kemess and Baker are in production. The regional geology is described in the Pil property description.
The Atty property is underlain in part by each of the Toodoggone Formation, the Takla Group and intrusive rocks (the Black Lake Intrusive Suite) of the similar age to the Toodoggone Formation. Takla Group volcanics, basaltic andesite flows and fragmental rocks underlie the central part of the property. In the southern part of the property some units of thinly layered ash tuffs exist. In the southwest corner of the claims there occurs a lobe of Toodoggone-age monzogranitic intrusive rock. The Takla Volcanics and Toodoggone Formation are found in distinct areas separated from each other by steeply dipping faults, the most prominent of which trend northwest.
A prominent feature on the property is an orange-brown gossan (Atty Gossan) situated on a steep west facing slope. Although developed in volcanic rocks of the Takla Group this gossan was thought to possibly reflect the effects of a buried and mineralized intrusion. The nearby Kemess North deposit is itself manifested by a large well-developed gossanous zone capping disseminated pyrite mineralization. This gossan forms an elongate east-west zone measuring approximately 3300 metres long by 800 metres wide.
The Kemess North mineralization, in order of abundance, includes pyrite, chalcopyrite, magnetite, hematite, molybdenite and digenite. Pyrite occurs as microveinlets and disseminations within the gossan zone. Its abundance varies from 0.5 to 10 per cent, and is directly proportional to the intensity of the fracturing and alteration. Economic mineralization consists of chalcopyrite and occurs in northerly trending veinlets, microveinlets, or, more commonly, as disseminations with pyrite, magnetite-hematite. Molybdenite has also been found to be spatially associated with the quartz-sericite-pyrite alteration zone as fracture fillings.
On the Atty property two types of base and/or precious metal vein mineralization are known. Mesothermal base and precious metal veins are found south of Attycelly Creek and an epithermal quartz vein breccia, the Awesome Showing, exists on the top of a ridge to the north of Attycelley Creek. Exploration data offers strong evidence that a third type, copper-gold porphyry mineralization, may exist on the property. Of the several mineral occurrences on the property two are notable.
The first referred to as the Kennco Veins are discrete veins in the order of 1/2 to 3 metres wide. Twenty two rock samples (S. Gower) across widths ranging from 0.5 to two meters contained an average of 41.6 g/t silver, 0.45% Cu, 0.73% Pb and 0.56% Zn. These veins are not the focus of present exploration but they are similar to veins commonly found peripheral to porphyry-style deposits. They are evidence that porphyry-style mineralization could exist on the Atty Property.
The Awesome prospect situated near the centre of the property is an excellent example of epithermal precious metal mineralization. Geologist C.F. Staargaard (1992) described the showing as follows:
"The Awesome prospect, situated within the Atty 5 claim, was found in 1982 by Kidd Creek Mines Ltd. Samples of quartz float occurring over an area about 800 meters long contained up to 4,300 ppb Au and 404 ppm Ag. These were derived from a +200 meter long and 20 to 40 meter wide silicified zone in Toodoggone volcanics. Two narrow trenches about 25 meters apart were opened across the zone immediately upslope from the highest grade float samples. Panel sampling in the trenches returned values of up to 730 ppb Au and 58.5 ppm Ag over 0.5 meters."
The geochemical signature, chalcedony and argillic alteration of the Awesome showing suggests it represents the high levels of an epithermal system. This showing has not been drilled.
In 2004 drilling on the Atty Gossan zone failed to intersect any porphyry style mineralization. However in three holes, zones of pyrite-magnetite mineralization associated with brecciated andesite were intersected over core lengths of up to 70m. Whether this represents the uppermost effects of a porphyry system is unknown.
In late 2005, Northgate announced the discovery of a new mineralized zone east of the Kemess North deposit which is situated approximately one kilometre south of the Atty property. Northgate plans to evaluate this new mineralized zone. Details of the Northgate discovery can be viewed here.
A review of the 2004 Toodoggone airborne survey reveals the presence of large potassium and thorium/potassium anomalies in the area drilled by Finlay as well as over the Awesome epithermal showing. Such geophysical signatures could be prospective for mineralization. Finlay plans to commission a detailed analysis of this data to assist with future work programs.
Northgate Minerals exploration success on the Kemess North deposit has prompted the Company to review the structure, geology and geophysical signature of the Atty South gossan that was drilled in 2004.
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