CSE: RKL
The Old Timer Property is a 1,915 hectare road-accessible property located in southern British Columbia, approximately 17 km southeast of Nelson. The Property represents the northern-most gold occurrence in the Ymir Camp. On the property, and elsewhere in the Ymir Camp, gold mineralization occurs in quartz-filled shear zones, with the most productive veins following regional scale north to northeast structures associated with Middle Jurassic convergence and accretion. In general the strongest gold mineralization is in sheared and metasomatic rocks near the Nelson intrusive contact.
Eight zones of mineralization are known on the Old Timer Property, the Old Timer, Pathfinder, Summit, Elise, Loki, Idun, Freya and Bragi occurrences. All are northeast-trending quartz-filled shear zones within Ymir Group metasediments. The Old Timer and Pathfinder showings represent different portions of the same mineralized structure. Similarly, the Elise and Summit showings are located along a common structure, which is interpreted as the southwestern continuation of the Old Timer-Pathfinder structure that has been offset by the Clearwater Creek fault.
Quartz veins on the property vary from cm-scale veins to in excess of 1.5 m in thickness, and from massive veins to quartz-filled tectonic breccia. Mineralization is developed in shoots that rake obliquely in the plane of the vein. These shoots are lensoidal in plan view and tend to have a greater vertical component than horizontal. Understanding the shoot geometry is a key component to developing this style of deposit. The best gold values are obtained from the more massive veins. Similarly, the best gold grades are obtained from veins with the highest sulfide content. The strongest gold values also tend to be associated with elevated lead values and the presence of galena in quartz is a good indicator of gold mineralization.
Numerous historic exploration pits, adits and shafts are present on the Old Timer property, but the majority of this work is undocumented. More recent exploration work includes several soil and rock geochemical and ground geophysical (mag, VLF) surveys. Most of the work has focused on the Old Timer occurrence, where a 100 m portion of the vein was stripped off. In 1980, 25 tons were mined from this area and shipped to the Trail smelter, returning an average grade of 0.116 oz/t Au and 2.5 oz/t Ag (Fenwick-Wilson, 1984).
A total of 35 diamond drill holes were drilled on the property between 1988 and 2005. The majority of the historic drilling was completed over a 750 m strike length along the Old Timer shear zone. Drilling identified one mineralized shoot, located generally under the Old Timer trench, with 2 additional shoots suggested by holes drilled approximately 100 and 325 m to the southwest. Highlights from drilling included 5.37 m grading 4.4 ppm Au, 2.9 m at 17.6 ppm Au, 1.52 m at 19.8 ppm Au, 3.66 m at 13.2 ppm Au and 4.8 m at 13.3 ppm Au.
Three new zones of mineralization were discovered on the property during the 2020 work program. Detailed geochemical surveys indicated that veins could be traced using this method and the geophysical survey showed that magnetics provides a method for differentiating the granodiorite intrusive from hornfelsed metasediments to the west. Magnetic data also appears to be effective at identifying vein structures and post-vein faults. The Idun occurrence is a promising new discovery and a high priority for further exploration. It covers a strong, persisent magnetic linear feature and 2 parallel, northeast-trending structures with quartz veining. Numerous historic exploraiton pits are present in the Idun area and a sample from the dump of one working returned 9.8 ppm Au. Strong gold values were also returned from a detailed soil geochemical line over the Idun structure, 180 m on-strike to the southwest from the main pit. The area encompassing the Idun occurrence, including the on-strike extensions to the north and south, are undrilled and untested by any modern exploration. This area is a high priority target for further work. Further work is also required at the Loki and Old Timer occurrences.