Hopeful
Greisen Silver Tin
Deposit

64 claims ~1300 hectares
Minfiles: 105P 047

In Brief:
      • 98,248 t at 557.8 g/t Ag for 1,761,949 oz Ag, with 0.1% Sn (historic)
      • Resource open to expansion along strike and at depth
      • Additional untested targets across property

Hopeful is an under-explored, high-grade, near surface silver greisen vein system with an open historic resource and multiple untested anomalies on the property.  It is located relatively close to infrastructure in a prolific Yukon mineral belt.

Cross section through the Mattagami zone, which hosts the existing resource estimate. This section remains open at depth in fractured metasediments, and contains drill intercepts up to 2.82 kg/t silver over 3.2 m.

Project History

The Hopeful, or Zeta, project was staked in 1983 by Noranda Ltd.  Subsequent drilling by Noranda and Danra Resources Ltd. on one of the property's target zones revealed two subparallel vein faults with an estimated resource of 98,248 t at 557.8 g/t Ag for 1,761,949 oz Ag, with 0.1% Sn.

The project was re-acquired through staking by Ron Berdahl in 1994.  ATAC Resources optioned the project from Berdahl in the mid 2000s and drilled 865 m in six holes, confirming the nature and grade of the Mattagami Ag mineralization, which remains open along strike in both directions (drilling has only tested 260 m along a larger mineralized trend) and down dip (no drill holes have penetrated below 90 m from surface, though Ag, Pb and Sn values all increase with depth).  ATAC dropped their option following their discovery of sediment-hosted gold in what is now the Rackla Gold Belt.  The property has not yet seen an economic evaluation.

Geology & Mineralization

Hopeful is underlain by Ordovician to Silurian sediments of the Road River group, which have been locally hornsfelsed by a granitic Cretaceous stock belonging to the Tombstone plutonic suite.  Exploration thus far has concentrated on the Mattagami zone, where two steeply-dipping vein faults contain high concentrations of silver, lead, tin and antimony.

Outside of the Mattagami zone, comparable silver occurrences and multi-element geochemical anomalies on the property have received little attention.  Surface mineralization has thus far only been found on exposed ridge crests; there is no reason to expect it does not also occur in the valleys where overburden and vegetation mask bedrock.  Little detailed mapping, prospecting or soil sampling has been done on the overall property.  Expansion of the Mattagami Zone and investigation of additional zones and anomalies holds the potential to significantly expand the existing resource.

Infrastructure

The Hopeful property is in an ideal environment to host a large-tonnage, high-grade silver deposit.  It is situated some 95 kilometers west of the world-class Keno Hill silver camp (historic production of over 6.6 million kg Ag), and 100 kilometers east of Dawson City, in the highly productive Tintina mineral belt.  Hopeful is roughly 15 km north of the Clear Creek access road, and only 4 km from an old winter bulldozer trail.

For more information on the Hopeful project please contact us.