Snapshot
Introduction
Canarc owns a 100% interest in the prospective Windfall Hills gold exploration project, located in the same geological belt as and 90 kilometers (km) northwest of the Blackwater-Davidson gold discovery in central BC. Richfield Ventures made the discovery in 2009 and was taken over by Newgold in 2011 for $10.38 per share, valuing the company at more than $550 million. Newgold is now conducting a feasibility study to build a 500,000 oz per year open pit gold mine based on their updated resource estimate for Blackwater-Davidson contain 10 million oz gold and 65 million oz silver.
Location and Access
The Windfall Hills gold project is located 65 km south of Burns Lake, readily accessible by gravel logging roads and a lake ferry crossing in the summer-time, or by charter aircraft year-round. The project consists of the “Atna” properties, comprised of 2 mineral claims totalling 959 hectares and the “Dunn” properties, comprised of 8 mineral claims totalling 2820 hectares. These properties are situated within the same geological belt of Tertiary volcanic rocks as the Blackwater-Davidson gold discovery.
Exploration History
During the 1980’s and 1990’s, various junior exploration companies carried out more detailed geological, geochemical and geophysical surveys to define a broad, northeast-trending anomalous zone 2 km long by 1 km wide, marked by elevated gold and multi-element soil geochemistry, and several conductive or resistive IP geophysical targets. A 5 hole, 383 meter (m) drill program in 1988 returned assays up to 1 gram per tonne (gpt) gold and a 6 trench, 424 m rock sampling program in 1994 returned assays of 1.4 gpt gold over 6 m and 0.41 gpt over 42 m, still open for expansion.
In 1997, Atna Resources Ltd. completed a 44 km 3D-IP resistivity survey. They outlined three highly resistive zones that correlate well with three known soil geochemical anomalies and were interpreted to be large silicified zones within the host rhyolite volcanic rocks. Atna proposed a diamond drill program to test these IP targets but never carried it out. The properties lay idle until Canarc acquired them in 2011 and conducted further soil geochemical sampling to refine the initial drill targets.
Geology and Gold Mineralization
Early reconnaissance mapping and sampling identified a large zone of clay alteration and quartz stock-works carrying anomalous gold values within rhyolite to dacite volcanic flows, breccias, tuffs, sediments and hypabyssal intrusions of the Ootsa Lake Group. Gold mineralization is associated with quartz stock-works and alteration zones of silica, pyrite, K-feldspar, sericite and clay. Anomalous gold, silver, and arsenic values appear to be associated with areas of more intense multiple-stage silicification and brecciation. Rock-chip samples have returned values up to 5.7 gpt gold and numerous samples assayed over 1.0 gpt gold.
Current Status
Canarc completed a phase 1 exploration program in 2011 to re-establish geological and geochemical controls provided from previous work and conduct focused geochemical sampling to better define the known target areas. Canarc has outlined two gold-silver geochemical soil anomalies on the properties within the area of previously defined IP-resistivity anomalies to help define the initial drill targets. Canarc is seeking a partner to conduct a Phase 1 drill program at Windfall Hills and test for “Blackwater” type bulk tonnage epithermal gold-silver mineralization.
Garry Biles, P. Eng, President & COO for Canarc Resource Corp, is the Qualified Person who reviewed and approved the contents of this section.