Emerald interest resurfaces in Yukon

Vancouver In the autumn of 1998, field geologist Bill Wengzynowski sparked a flurry of exploration activity by discovering an occurrence of emeralds on Expatriate Resource‘s (EXR-V) Goal Net base metals property in the Yukon. A lot of water has past under the bridge since then and now Expatriate has inked a deal allowing privately held YK Group to evaluate the gemstone potential of its adjacent Finlayson land holdings.

Under the deal, the YK Group can earn a 60% stake by paying $80,000 and spending $500,000 over five years. The agreement covers two properties; one is known to host beryl mineralization in felsic schists, and the second is the much larger Finlayson base metal property. Comprising 2,900 claims, the gemstone holdings on the property will be reduced to 500 claims on the third anniversary and to 200 claims on the fifth anniversary. Expatriate will retain a 1% gross revenue royalty on any gemstones, as well as having all of the base, precious and ferro-alloy metals right on the claims. The junior will also receive 150,000 shares in a public company to be formed by the YK Group.

Having spent more the $20 million exploring for massive sulphides in the region, Expatriate’s database will be used by the YK Group to define possible targets.

Dubbed the Crown showing, the 1998 discovery marked the second known occurrence of emeralds in the northern Territories. The first discovery was made in 1997 when Whitehorse-based prospector Ron Berdahl found vanadium-rich emeralds near the Lened tungsten showing in the westernmost Northwest Territories, adjacent to the Yukon border.

The Lened property hosts emeralds associated with phlogopite schist developed along the contact zone between a rare-element pegmatite and Devonian-Mississppian black shales. The emeralds are vanadium-rich, transparent to translucent emeralds and are up to 2 cm long and 0.50 cm wide.

The Crown showing marks a much larger and more promising zone of mineralization. Realizing the prospect for economic emerald mineralization, Expatriate launched a separate project called Regal Ridge. Located in the southeastern Yukon between Ross River and Watson Lake, the project hosts emeralds within schists and quartz-tourmaline veins. Exploration during 1999 defined an 800-by-400 metre area of emerald material and subsequent sampling and processing of 7 cubic metres of subcrop and talus material yielded about 5 kg of colluvial-elluvial placer emeralds. However only a tiny proportion of the crystals were of gem quality.

In June 2001, Expatriate inked a deal allowing privately-owned True North Gems to acquire a 50% interest in 93 of its mineral claims covering the initial discovery. Exploration that year demonstrated that emerald-bearing material has been developed in vertical cross structures as well as within stacked, shallow dipping zones. Mechanical trenching uncovered a new zone of emerald mineralization some 200 metres east of the area 4 zone. Trenching also showed that emerald-bearing horizons occur with greater frequency in the upper 100 metre section of the deposit.

Early in 2002, True North Gems picked up an additional 22.8 sq. km of ground extending beyond the western boundary of the Goal Net property. The new project area, currently known as Regal Annex project, hosts the same geological signature as the Regal Ridge project area. By March, the company closed a deal to purchase a 100% interest in the Regal Ridge property by agreeing to pay $500,000 to Expatriate. Expatriate retains the right to explore for precious and base metals on the property.

This year’s exploration program by True North consisted of camp and mill site construction, geological mapping and prospecting, reconnaissance geochemical soil sampling, drilling and bulk sampling. Road construction and pilot mill installation were completed by July 4. The emerald-bearing material was crushed, sized, washed and passed over a moving belt for hand-picking by a four-person crew.

The mineralization is marked by Cretaceous granite body, which intrudes chlorite schist and along with pegmatite and aplite dykes, has deposited emerald and tourmaline mineralization with associated carbonate, sericite and phlogopite alteration of the host rock. The mafic schists occur within the Fyre Lake metavolcanic unit that crops out over a large part of the Finlayson district. Underlying the felsic volcanic rocks is the focus of Expatriate’s base and precious metals exploration. The granitic intrusions are enriched in beryllium and tungsten. The veins form a complex structural network with the vein intersections appearing to be the most promising.

True North Gems completed a small 5-hole drill program aimed at determining the continuity of mineralization at depth. The drill intersected zones of alteration with quartz, carbonate, sericite, phlogopite and tourmaline. The company also collected 8 bulk samples totaling 114 tonnes from trenches in four different zones on the property. These samples were processed on site yielding 53.5 kg of emerald concentrate. The concentrate is currently under going sorting, cutting and evaluation.

On the reconnaissance front, the company traced pegmatite float to yet another new mineralized area, the SW #1 vein. Prospecting to the west of this vein then led to the discovery of three additional emerald showings.

Emeralds are a chromium-bearing beryllium silicate mineral and considered the rarest of precious gemstones with only a few localities known in North America. Globally, the major emerald districts are characterized by clusters of emerald occurrences.