Little Steel Lake
Location and Access
The Little Steel Lake property consists of two claims (17 units) in Tuuri Township of the Thunder Bay Mining Division. The property is situated roughly 25 km east of Terrace Bay, Ontario at a point where the Steel River crosses the Trans-Canada highway. The highway cuts through the south-central part of the claim block, making for excellent access across the claims. A well-kept trail that leads to the mouth of the Steel River provides access to the southern part of the property, while a trail leading north to Johnny Lake provides access to the northern portion.
Regional and Local Geology
The claim block is located within the Wawa volcanic belt of the Superior province of the Canadian Shield. The belt consists of both volcanic and sedimentary rocks that have been intruded by Archean age rocks, ranging from ultrabasic to granitic. Late diabase and lamprophyre dykes intrude all rock types in the area. Large outcrop areas are abundant throughout the claim block. Existing government maps indicate the claims to be underlain mostly by sedimentary rocks, except in the western part where volcanics and gabbro are the dominant rock type. The regional trend of the lineaments and rock units is west-southwest. Greywacke and mica phyllite are the most prominent rock units within the property with subordinate amounts of slate and schists. Andesite and basalt form the bulk of the volcanic sequences inter-bedded with pyroclastic horizons. In many cases the sediments are difficult to distinguish from the intermediate to felsic tuff and may have been derived from pyroclastic rocks. Small masses and sill-like bodies of ultrabasic intrude the sedimentary and volcanic rocks.
The Terrace Bay batholith situated about four miles to the northwest of the property, has metamorphosed the country rock to the greenschist facies. This felsic intrusive is associated with several gold and base metal occurrence in quartz and quartz-carbonate veins, within shears and fault zones. In the southwest part of the property, galena sphalerite, pyrrhotite and pyrite are found in a graphitic schist. Values in silver and gold, in addition to lead and zinc, are reported to be present.
Previous Work
Gold was first discovered in the Jackfish Lake area in 1875 when Mr. D. McKellar found visible gold in a quartz vein at Victoria Cape. Subsequent activity in the area resulted in the discovery of the Empress Mine north of Jackfish Lake in 1895 and the Ursa Major mine 3 km north of the Empress Mine. In 1951 Simard-Swetz staked a Pb,Zn,Ag,Au showing on the south side of the CPR tracks just east of the Steel River. He carried out surface trenching on the main showing with the best results returning 3.4 g/t gold, 13.0 g/t silver, 0.53% lead and 0.21% zinc over a 3.6 meter wide chip sample. A reconnaissance mapping program had been completed by the G.S.C. and the O.D.M. prior to 1953-54 when J.W.R. Walker mapped the area at a scale of l in: 1/2 mile (Walker, 1967 via Woolham, 1987).
In 1982 the area became staked again due to the discovery of the Hemlo deposit and Silver Sceptre Resources explored the ground that makes up the current Little Steel Lake property. Silver Sceptre performed geochemical, geological and geophysical (I.P./VLF/MAG) surveys and limited drilling on their property. In a geological description of the property, Mr. David Bell (consulting geologist for Silver Sceptre) indicated that mineralization appears to be concentrated within an exhalative zone stratigraphically above a carbonate-rich ultramafic flow. The exhalative model proposed that the sulphides, carbonates, cherts and mineralization represent primary sediments precipitated out of geothermal muds and brines during a fumarolic period of volcanic activity. Sampling confirmed the presence of anomalous gold values in the favourable horizon for the exhalative model. Occurrences further east along this horizon (Little Steel highway and railway occurrences) contain anomalous zinc and copper. Silver Sceptre noted five strong EM conductors on the north side of the highway. Only one of these was drilled, leaving the other conductors as untested and intriguing targets for follow-up.
In 1993 Brian Fowler staked the property and subsequent re-sampling of the Simard-Swetz showing returned values up to 24 g/t silver, 1% zinc and 1% lead. The property was optioned in 1995 to Echo Bay Mines as part of a larger property. Echo Bay conducted prospecting, reconnaissance mapping and sampling prior to giving the property back to the vendors.
Recent Area Exploration
The area immediately east of the Little Steel property has seen a great deal of success in recent years. In 1999, prospectors Duncan Michano and Brian Gionet put down three trenches on the northeast shore of Black Fox Lake over a series of quartz carbonate veins containing green mica-altered zones crosscut by quartz and Fe-carbonate veins with minor calcite and disseminated pyrite (approx. 511727m E, 5403762m N). Several rock samples showed above background values of Au, Ni and Cu. The highest gold value was 2.5 g/t (sample #288394 on TB 3014934). The strike length of the altered zone was noted to be 350 meters while dipping into the lake at both ends. In the same year Brian Gionet explored the area north of Johnny Lake as part of his Black Fox Lake project and discovered a carbonated shear zone with disseminated fine-grained sulphides. While prospecting the northeast shore of Johnny Lake he found some mineralized quartz. Gionet stated "more follow up prospecting along with mechanical stripping should be in this area to try and determine the source of the anomalous humus samples. A quartz vein with a small trace of galena was also found on the west shore of Johnny Lake. More work is needed in this area".
Prospector interest resurfaced after Operation Treasure Hunt in 2000 when the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines performed regional airborne geophysical surveys over the region. In December of 2001, a local prospector, Russel Renner, took a sample (BRR-2002-017) of float on the eastern portion of the Michano/Gionet Black Fox property, which contained visible gold. The sample, from claim TB 4208436, just 50 meters north of the Trans-Canada highway, assayed 172.1 g/t gold (approx. location 513600m E, 5404550m N). Sampling and assaying by the Ontario MNDM office in Thunder Bay has returned consistent results ranging from 165 to 189 g/t gold. The hydrothermally altered float samples (silica, sericite and iron carbonate with pyrite) consist of fragile angular blocks that are assumed proximal to their source location. In May 2002, prospecting by another local prospector, Duncan Michano, revealed a 30-meter wide zone of fuchsite-altered quartz carbonate veining (approx. location 513500m E, 5404750m N) on claim TB 4208436. Furthermore, on the same claim, a pit along an old trail revealed sheared quartz carbonate veins with abundant fuchsite and greater than 10% sulphides (approx. location 513150m E, 5404700m N). Finally, a mineralized zone was located in the northeast part of claim TB 4240821 (approx. location 513700m E, 5405450m N) that has similar properties to the high-grade gold float sample. The property was optioned to RJK Minerals.
During October 2002 and January 2003, RJK Explorations Ltd conducted an exploration program of plant tissue biogeochemical sampling and mechanical stripping. RJK reported grab samples assaying up to approximately 2.8 g/t. Au from Michano's zone in the northeast part of claim TB 4240821. The analytical results of the plant tissue biogeochemical sampling showed elevated Au values over the showing area in two sample sites (4.5 ppb and l .9 ppb Au) as well as three additional anomalous areas down ice from the showing. The property was, however, returned to the vendors and has since been re-optioned to Lund Gold. Lund Gold is expected to be drilling early in 2009.
In 2002, a cursory examination by Daniel Courtney, geologist, Kaministiquia, Ontario indicated low grade but significant anomalous platinum (117 ppb) mineralization in the gabbroic intrusive approximately 250 meters north of a small pond in the northwest part of the property. Courtney stated the geological mapping and geochemical sampling represented part of a 'first phase' of grass roots exploration and that further work on the property was strongly encouraged, given the high degree of potential for a significant PGE and/or Au deposit.
In addition, Galahad Metals is exploring their Bozema Lake property on the northern boundary of Lund's claims. One occurrence in the Bozema Lake area is in an extensive exhalite unit, and was penetrated by two drill holes by Gulf Minerals in 1980, including one with 10m of 8.65 % Zn (including 4.7 m of 16.9 % Zn). Galahad has had recent success in uncovering several interesting zinc intersections through their own drill programs and expects to be active again in this area. To the west, Galahad has recently optioned the Kellyn property from prospectors Wayne Richards and James Hamel. The highly prospective Kellyn property is comprised of a gold and base metal vein system that occurs along the contact between ultramafic rocks and a granitoid body. Historic data indicate that up to 2.72 oz/ton gold and 31.4 oz/ton silver were found on the property. One sample collected by Galahad Metals contains 26.8 g/t (0.84 oz/tonne) gold and two contain from 3 to 13 oz/tonne silver.
Current Property Exploration
The Little Steel Property was explored in 2009 using OEC funds by the current owners. Line cutting was contracted to Katrine Exploration and Development, Larder Lake, Ontario. The grid was established prior to a mag/VLF survey and consisted of 4.55 line kilometers of cut grid lines. The grid li
