Tarsis gets new porphyry prospect in Yukon

If you ask Marc Blythe, president and chief executive of Tarsis Resources (tcc-v), there aren’t many companies like his that are looking for new projects in the Yukon.
“There are probably only one or two publicly listed companies looking for new projects and the rest of them are working on projects that have been known about for a long time,” he says.
“We’re out there generating new high-quality projects,” he explains, “and our business model is to find other companies that want to do option agreements with us.”
The Vancouver-based junior, spun off several years ago from Almaden Minerals (amm-t, aau-x), is perhaps best known for its Prospector Mountain property, optioned to Silver Quest Resources (sqi-v). Prospector Mountain, about 90 km northwest of Carmacks, lies within the Dawson Range, an un-glaciated portion of the Tintina gold belt, west of the Big Creek fault, about 15 km northwest of Northern Freegold Resources’ (nfr-v) Mountain project and 55 km southeast of Western Copper’s (wrn-t) Casino copper-gold-molybdenum deposit.
Other significant properties in the area are Capstone Mining’s (cs-t) operating Minto copper mine, 30 km to the northeast of Prospector Mountain, and Western Copper’s Carmacks copper project, currently in the permitting phase for mine operation, 55 km to the southeast.
Rock samples collected by Silver Quest during the first phase of exploration last year within the Bonanza zone confirmed highly anomalous assays reported in 2009, which returned gold values of up to 82.8 grams per tonne, silver values of up to 1,375 grams per tonne, and copper values of up to 11.65%. Silver Quest followed up with eight diamond drill holes (1,463 metres) late last year, and the results are pending.
“We’re really anxiously awaiting these drill results from Silver Quest,” says Blythe. “They’re overdue and will be out very, very soon.”
Tarsis’ 271 mineral claims (56.6 sq. km) at Prospector Mountain cover an area of hydrothermal alteration and mineralization that the company believes is indicative of both a porphyry copper-gold and epithermal gold-silver mineralizing environment. Copper-gold mineralized and K-silicate altered Cretaceous intrusive rocks outcrop on the project as well as banded quartz veins that have returned high silver and gold values from samples taken in historic work programs.
Elsewhere in the Yukon, Tarsis staked last June the White River property at the western end of the Nisling Range within the Tintina gold province and 11 km north of Koidern, a minor settlement on the Alaska Highway. Koidern is about 390 km northwest of Whitehorse. (About 15 km southwest of the property there is a 3,000-ft.-long grass airstrip at White River Lodge.)
Last October, the junior notified shareholders that prospecting and follow-up work in the main discovery zone yielded one select float sample containing 19.3 grams gold, 0.21% copper and 16.9 grams silver. A further float sample contained 8.52% copper and 6 grams silver, while another held 1,310 grams silver, 0.51 gram gold and 2.02% copper. White River’s main discovery zone is about 350 metres wide by 600 metres long.
“White River is pretty exciting because it’s a brand new discovery,” Blythe says. “There has been no historic work done there and we have found high-grade gold, silver and copper. We can even see the highway from the property. It’s amazing that in this day and age, you can find a property that close to the highway. There’s still great opportunity there.”
Blythe, a mining engineer who came to Canada from Australia with Placer Dome and later joined Almaden Minerals, also notes that Tarsis works closely with local First Nations even before it starts looking for new properties. “We try to talk to them very early on, before we even go out looking for things,” he says. “We ask them if there are any areas of sensitivity. We also try to employ them with contracting opportunities and other work.”
More recently Tarsis has staked a 100% interest in the Rosie property at the eastern end of the Nisling Range, about 100 km northwest of Haines Junction in the Yukon. Access to the property is by helicopter with the nearest road at the head of Aishihik Lake, about 18 km to the east. A winter trail terminates 4 km south of the property.
Rosie’s 186 claims (39 sq. km) feature strong potassic alteration and silicification within an underlying granodiorite host. Pathfinder element geochemistry from prior government stream sediment sampling is anomalous for arsenic, antimony and molybdenum (all in the 98th percentile) as well as having elevated gold (95th percentile) and copper (98th percentile) values.
Tarsis collected 31 locally derived talus samples that returned assays ranging from below detection to 0.03 gram gold per tonne, 1 part per million (ppm) to 244 ppm copper and below detection to 29 ppm molybdenum.
Blythe says he is encouraged by the alteration and pathfinder geochemistry which he interprets as indicative of a potential porphyry system, and notes that systematic, early stage exploration will begin in the spring.
He also notes that Tarsis will be doing more staking in the Nisling and Ruby ranges of the Yukon. “Those are underexplored areas,” he says.
And while Tarsis awaits a new exploration season in the spring, it is busy drilling in warmer climes over the Canadian winter.
“Companies that only have properties in the Yukon might see their share price lag over the winter because there is no news coming out but our property in Mexico puts us at an advantage,” he says.
Tarsis’ Erika project, an epithermal precious metals project in Mexico’s Guerrero state, is adjoined by properties that together have about 13 million oz. gold in resources, Blythe says, one of which is Goldcorp’s (g-t, gg-n) operating Los Filos mine. The other is Torex Gold Resources’ (txg-t) Morelos Norte project.
At presstime in Toronto, Tarsis was trading at 51¢ per share, within a 52-week range of 13¢-71¢.