York River Claim. Claim # lot 11, con. 14, Dungannon Twp. Hastings Co., Southern Ontario

Transcription

1 York River Claim Claim # lot 11, con. 14, Dungannon Twp. Hastings Co., Southern Ontario Submitted by: Chris Fouts, Vice President Bancroft Gem & Mineral Club 29 Jade Bay Road, R.R.#1 Bancroft, ON K0L 1C0 (613) on behalf of: Bancroft Gem & Mineral Club Box 1749, Bancroft, ON K0L 1C0 DATE: July 10, pages 1

2 LOCATION: Claim is located on lot 11, concession 14, Dungannon Township (G-3144), Hastings County, Southern Ontario. The claim is roughly 12 km east of Bancroft, Ontario, and can be found on topographic map 31F/4, and Geological Map OGS ACCESS: From the intersection of Highways 62 and 28 in the Town of Bancroft, head east along Highway #28 for 11.1 km to a bridge over the York River. Just past the bridge (east side), turn left, (north) onto a road that leads to the former bridge s abutments. Just before the river, stay to the right and continue along a single lane dirt road which follows the east bank of the York River. Follow this road for 2400 m to a cleared area which appears to have been a former sand pit, and park here. Just before the sand pit is a single lane road heading north. Take this road for about 300 m to a small cleared area which has the road going left to short distance to a hunt camp and has a trail leading slightly to the right and uphill. Take this trail for about 300m to a hunting tree stand. From here travel through the bush northwards until you hit the claim line between CP#2 (to the east), and CP#3 (to the west). This route seems to be the best access to the claim found so far. HISTORY: This claim was originally staked by Chris B. Patrie June 22, 2007 and recorded in the name of Wolverine Exploration & Mineral Recovery. In September 2007 prospecting work in the form of reconnaissance was done by Wolverine. In May 2010 Wolverine performed further prospecting work for nepheline, corundum and granite. The Bancroft Gem & Mineral Club acquired the claim from Wolverine in the spring of 2011 and filed assessment work (prospecting) on July 23, The claim is held 100% by the Bancroft Gem & Mineral Club. This area has been the focus of exploration and mining activity in the past. The Goulding-Keene Quarry, lot 12, conc. I; Morrison Quarry, lot 10, con. III; and Davis Quarry, lot 9, conc. IV, are on nepheline syenite pegmatites which were worked in the 1930 s for nepheline/feldspar rock used for ceramics and glass production. Corundum has been reported from lot 18, con. I; lot 12, con. II, and lot 12, con. IV & con. V. Sapphire grade corundum has been found in this area, and a cut blue sapphire from here is in the collection of the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa. TOPOGRAPHY & VEGETATION: Elevation at the York River is about 980 m asl. In general, the topography consists of gentle to steeply rolling hills, generally trending SW-NE, separated by lowland, often swamps, bogs or lakes. The York River runs through a valley cutting the Madawaska Highlands. The valley area is boggy and swampy and relief is no more than 10 to 20m. Our claim includes part of a granite gneiss ridge which has very steep sides and reaches a height of 1350m asl. Forest cover is mixed bush including maple, poplar, balsam, and birch, with minor beech, cedar and pine trees. The southwest to west side of the claim has trees mostly about years old, while the south and eastern sides of the claim have the odd mature tree with abundant saplings. The juvenile bush, along with numerous recent blow downs currently make travel through parts of the claim very slow and tedious. 2

3 GENERAL GEOLOGY: The bedrock is part of the Canadian Shield, Grenville Province, Bancroft Terrane, and is described in Geology of Ontario, Ontario Geological Survey, Special Volume 4, part 2, and Hewitt & James, The area is dominated by the Great Bend Granite, the Mallard Lake Gabbro intrusion to the east, both intruding calcareous metasediments, plus a band of nepheline syenite rock, (the Hastings Highlands Gneiss Complex; Hewitt & James, 1956). Each of the nearby former quarries, (Goulding-Keene, Morrison and Davis), are located in nepheline syenite pegmatites. Corundum occurs in the band of nepheline syenite rock. A skarn tactite zone, located along the east bank of the York River, about 400 m north of Highway #28, is world famous for quality specimens of grossular garnet (hessonite), vesuvianite, and diopside, among a long list of other minerals. The area has been mapped by Lumbers & Vertolli, 1998, Hewitt & James, 1956, and Adams and Barlow, 1910, and described by Moyd, 1949, Gummer & Burr, 1946, Thomson, PURPOSE OF WORK: The Bancroft Gem & Mineral Club has purchased this claim and wishes to pursue exploration here to determine the possible presence of corundum, especially facet-grade sapphire, or any other collectible mineral material. Finding such occurrence(s) we would determine the quality, accessibility and practicality of a commercial venture or public mineral collecting site. Our plans are to prospect the claim to obtain an overview of this area, (traversing claim lines, trails, and roads), then flag a grid over the claim towards mapping it in detail. Nepheline syenite, and syenite outcrop, will be closely examined, sampled, and possibly trenched to determine any favourable mineralization. ASSESSMENT WORK PERFORMED: Assessment work was performed on July 7, 2013 by the author, (Chris Fouts, Vice- President of the Bancroft Gem & Mineral Club). Work consisted of reassessing access to the claim site, locating claim post #2 (CP#2), and investigating and recording outcrops in the south and southeast portion of the claim. The weather was hot (28 o C), partly sunny and cloudy, and extremely humid. After loading pertinent waypoints into a GPS I traveled in my personal vehicle (green Jeep) to the claim site, arriving about 11:30 am, on July 7, After parking at the sand pit I travelled along what looked to be an old trail leading northwards towards the claim. After a short distance of about 175 metres the trail seemed to dissipate and so I bushwhacked northwest to the area of the number 2 claim post. I identified the south boundary claim line and located CP#2, whereupon I took a GPS reading and photographs. From here I investigated any outcrops I found, although outcrop generally was rare due to extensive glacial till cover. I returned to the vehicle at 5:20pm and proceeded home. Rock types encountered include red granite, pink and grey syenitic gneisses, and white/grey nepheline syenite. The data recorded is tabulated in Figure 2 and Table 2. Waypoints were recorded using a Garmin GPSmap 62s; all points are located in Zone 18T. Outcrop was 3

4 investigated by chipping off fresh surfaces of outcrops with a 3 lb. mini-sledge hammer and observing with a hand lens, pocket knife and magnet. CONCLUSIONS: This work pretty much confirms that the south end of this claim holds little or no interest for the Bancroft Gem & Mineral Club. The south end is composed of red syenite granite, granite gneiss, and fine grained, strongly sheared pink and grey gneisses, (which border the granite). My recommendation to the Club would be to drop the unit on the south end of the claim and further investigate the north end the claim. Access to the north end maybe facilitated by travelling westwards from the road that leads to the Morrison and Davis Quarries. As well, the Club should stake the E ½ lot 12, con. 14, Dungannon Twp. and explore this area for suitable geology. Travel through the bush in this region is slow and arduous due to many ridges and relatively steep hills between 5 to 15m in height, the juvenile bush in many areas, and the great number of wind fallen trees encountered. Table 1 Assessment Work Party for July 7, 2013 NAME ADDRESS PROSPECTORS LICENCE Chris Fouts, Geologist 29 Jade Bay Rd., R.R.#1, Bancroft, ON K0L 1C0 Licence # Table 2 Rock descriptions from recon work UTM coord (Zone 18T) Rock Type Description / Claim post #2 GPS marked & photographed / syenitic gneiss grey, fine grained, well foliated 339 o / E 35 o, fsp 75%, bio 25% / syenitic gneiss pink, fine grained, foliated 342 o / E 35 o / granite gneiss pink, fine grained, fsp 75%, qtz 20%, bio 5% / granite gneiss pink, fine grained; fsp 70%, qtz 30%; no mag / granite gneiss red, fine grained, fsp 60%, qtz 30%, blk mica 10%, trace mgt; mag / nepheline syenite white & black, medium grained, equant tex., fsp 50%, nepheline 15%, bio 25%, hbl 5%, zircon trace / pink and grey syenite gneisses pink & grey, fine grained, well foliated, strike 351 o, dip 44 o E Table 3 Expenses & Costs Time Geologist, (Chris Fouts) day field work $250 ½ day report work $150 Mileage C. Fouts, Bancroft 41 km TOTAL /km $16.40 Total claimed expenses $

5 REFERENCES: Adams, F.D. and Barlow, A.E., 1910; Geology of the Haliburton and Bancroft areas, Province of Ontario; GSC; Memoir 6. Easton, R.M., 1992: The Grenville Province and the Proterozoic history of central and southern Ontario; in Geology of Ontario, Ontario Geological Survey, Special Paper vol. 4, part 2. Gummer, W.K. and Burr, S.V., 1946: Nephelinized Paragneiss in the Bancroft Area, Ontario; The Journal of Geology; v. LIV, no. 3, p.137 Hewitt, D.F., 1961: Nepheline syenite deposits of southern Ontario; ODM, Annual Report, v. 69, pt. 8 Hewitt, D.F. and James, W.F., 1956; Geology of Dungannon and Mayo Townships, Ontario; Ontario Department of Mines Annual Report 64 (8). Lumbers, S.B. and Vertolli,V.M., 1998; Geology of the Bancroft Area; Ontario Geological Survey Map 3385, scale 1:50,000. Moyd, L., 1949; Petrology of Nepheline and Corundum Rocks of Southeastern Ontario, American Mineralogist, v. 34, no.9 & 10. Thomson, J.E., 1943; Mineral occurrences in the North Hastings area; ODM Annual Report v. 52, part 3. APPENDI Fig. 1 Location map for claim Dungannon Twp., Hastings Co. 5

6 Photos from assessment work Claim post #2, Claim post #2 with GPS Claim post #2 with GPS Clam post #2 and author 6

7 4 Claim # Lot 11 Con. 14 Dungannon Twp. Fig. 2 Geology map from data collected July 4, 2011 and July 7, Approx. contact of rock types LP I I I I I I I" I Approx. edge of slopes Outcrop Red Granite Gneiss CF _ : """" Syenitic Gn 1ss x-cf I metres 7