Jackfish Lake & Kellyn (JFK) Project
- Combined 206 contiguous claim cells covering approx. 41 square kms on the Schreiber-Hemlo Greenstone Belt.
- Straddles the contact zone of the Terrace Bay Batholith with mafic volcanic rocks which host several nearby mines and deposits including Northshore (1.2moz Au), Gold Range, Ottise and Jeddar deposits.
- Multiple gold (+silver-lead-copper) occurrences assaying up to 85g/t Au in quartz veins/stockworks and altered granodiorite on JFK property.
- Kellyn area hosts several REE, gold/base metal workings and occurrences, and a copper-gold soil anomaly, with a geochemical signature possibly analogous to the world-class Hemlo gold deposit, 80 kms to the east.
- Area historically underexplored, presenting an opportunity for new discoveries – useful historical data inventory, but little drilling.
The property is located 20km east of Terrace Bay on the Schreiber-Hemlo Greenstone Belt north of Lake Superior and is traversed by Trans-Canada Highway 17. The Belt is host to the giant Hemlo gold mine 80km to the east. The property has been superficially explored in the past which has led to the discovery of several areas of high-grade gold bearing veining within, and marginal to, the granitic rocks on the eastern margin of the Terrace Bay Batholith, but little drilling has been carried out.
The Schreiber-Hemlo greenstone belt consists of Archaean metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks into which the Terrace Bay batholith was emplaced. The property encompasses the eastern part of the Terrace Bay batholith, a massive granodiorite intrusion, and the surrounding felsic and intermediate to basic metavolcanic rocks. Geological and structural targets analogous to Hemlo exist in the greenstone rocks of the northern part of the property.
Apart from the giant Barrick-operated Hemlo mine which has produced more than 21Moz gold to date, several other mines and deposits of significance have been found in the region, including Generation Mining’s Marathon palladium/platinum/copper/gold project about 50km to the east where a positive feasibility study has recently been announced.
Of particular interest is the occurrence of a series of gold deposits elsewhere along the margin of the Terrace Bay batholith. These include Ready Set Gold’s Northshore deposit (1.2Moz Au) approximately 28km southwest of Jackfish Lake, which is currently at advanced exploration stage. Other historic mines include Gold Range, Otisse, Jeddar and Empress – the latter being located just 4km from Fulcrum’s Jackfish Lake-Kellyn property.
In comparison to the western end of the Terrace Bay batholith, the eastern part has been underexplored. Nevertheless, prospecting, trenching and geophysical work has highlighted the structural complexity of this area, along with several zones of strongly gold-mineralised quartz veining within the altered margin of the Terrace Bay granodiorite and adjoining metavolcanics. Small-scale excavation and mining was carried out historically on some of these zones, others were discovered more recently.
On the Jackfish Lake property three zones of shallow-dipping, altered quartz-carbonate veins and vein stockwork containing high-grade gold values have been discovered along a probable NW shear zone over a distance of about 1.5km. These are North Zone (up to 48.9g/t Au), Hematite Zone (up to 4.3g/t Au) and Cliff Zone (up to 34.7g/t Au). The veins contain suphides, dominantly pyrite, chalcopyrite and galena and are hosted within altered granodiorite. At the Cliff Zone the granodiorite itself between quartz veins hosts disseminated sulphides with up to 430ppb Au.
On the northern part of tenement block on the Kellyn property historic exploration identified a series of mineral showings and workings trending N-NE over more than 1km in sheared mafic intrusives and granodiorite, with quartz-carbonate veining. This trend mirrors that of the historic Empress gold mine, 3km to the NW of Kellyn which has seen previous small-scale production. These zones at Kellyn are gossanous and contain up to several percent disseminated sulphides. Copper staining is found locally throughout the sheared areas – gold values up to 85g/t are recorded in quartz veins, while a separate vein set is highly anomalous in silver-tellurium-lead-bismuth – assaying up to 454g/t Ag.
In addition to the bedrock mineralisation at Kellyn, detailed soil sampling has located a complex soil anomaly in an area of no exposure up to 500m north of the main bedrock showings which might represent a porphyry-type target. Anomalous elements in soils include gold, silver, zinc, lead, mercury, molybdenum, antimony and tellurium, with a clear copper-gold association.
At Jackfish Lake, probable shear-controlled quartz veins bearing high gold grades and lower-order gold occurrences in adjacent granodiorite host rock occur over a significant area near the margin of the Terrace Bay batholith. This suggests that the eastern marginal zone of the intrusive may be similarly prospective to the well gold-endowed western marginal zone. The prospective eastern contact zone has not been systematically explored.
The unusual range of anomalous elements on the contiguous Kellyn block, such as molybdenum, barium and mercury is suggestive of a porphyry- or Hemlo-style occurrence. Significantly anomalous rare earth elements also occur, associated with lamprophyre dykes as well as quartz veins. A similarly unusual suite of anomalous elements in a soil anomaly to the north also marks this out as a target for follow-up testing.
