Little Bear Lake Property
Introduction
The Little Bear property consists of 51 claim units and is roughly rectangular in shape, 3.6 kilometers long in the north/south direction and 2.4 kilometers in the east/west direction. The town of Schreiber lies 4 km to the southwest of the southern boundary of the property. The past producing Winston Lake Zinc Mine lies 15 kilometers to the northwest. The property surrounds a leased claim which hosts the Little Bear high-grade gold occurrence. Access is via poorly kept gravel road north from the town of Schreiber to Big Duck Creek, and from there, via all-terrain bike trail to the property. Alternatively, one could fly by fixed wing aircraft from Pays Plat to Big Bear Lake, situated on the south-eastern edge of the property. There is an ATV trail cut from Big Bear Lake to Little Bear Lake.
Regional Geology
The property lies in the east-west trending Schreiber-White River greenstone belt of the Archean Abitibi-Wawa-Shebandowan Subprovince of the Superior Province of the Canadian Shield. In the Schreiber area the belt is composed of generally east-west trending, north-facing, mafic metavolcanics with minor metasediments and mafic intrusive rocks. The rock types found on the property fall within the volcanics and sediments of the Big Duck-Schreiber Greenstone Belt which is believed to be part of the Abitibi-Wawa Volcanic Sequence.
The most important structural feature of the Big Duck-Schreiber Region is the east/west trending anticline which neatly divides the area between its north limb and its south limb. The core of the anticline is occupied by a large granitic body. The anticline is cut at a high angle by F-2 synclines and anticlines. Regional metamorphic grade varies considerably in the area. The direction of the variance is from north to south. The rock types in the southern portion of the Big Duck-Schreiber area show a lower greenschist facies metamorphic grade. Moving north to Big Duck Lake the metamorphic grade increases to upper greenschist-lower amphibolite facies. Still further north, the grade of metamorphism increase to amphibolite and granulite facies.
Property Geology
The predominate rock on the property is basalt, however, separating the basaltic flows are a number of different types of sedimentary rock. In the northern portion of the property, there occurs graphitic shale and sandstone. The unit strikes east/west and dips vertically. The shale is black in color, due to the presence of graphite. It also displays pyrite in blotches along the bedding planes. The shale unit overall is very finely bedded and has a thickness of two meters. There is a five channel Questor airborne conductor located on the property that coincides with this graphitic zone.
Overlying the shale is a dark grey, poorly bedded, dirty sandstone. Pieces of shale within the sandstone indicate the sandstone to be younger than the shale. The younging direction on the property is to the south. The sandstone is composed of plagioclase and chlorite with minor quartz grains. The unit has a thickness of three to four meters.
Overlying the sandstone is a 10-15 meter wide conglomerate bed containing only two
pebble types, granite and fragments of the underlying sandstone. The bed's matrix is the same as the sandstone. This unit can only be traced across 300 meters and narrows considerably to the west and east. There is a six-channel Questor airborne conductor that coincides with this sedimentary group.
In the south portion of the property, that is up section, the interflow sediments become narrow, banded chert horizons. The chert beds vary from 0.1 to two meters in thickness and are composed of finely bedded white to clear chert. Their lack of length and their highly contorted nature make taking an accurate strike and dip unrealistic. From the center of the property to the southern boundary the interflow sediments become magnetite rich. These sediments take the form of the typical banded oxide iron formations so common in the Schreiber area. The formations can be traced across the entire width of the property in the southern claim. As opposed to the east/west strike in the northern portion of the property, the strike of the iron formation is northwest to southeast, but the dip is equally steep. The rock consists of alternating one to two centimeter wide bands of magnetite and chert. The unit width varies from one to four meters. Secondary pyrite is found in the iron formation.
To explain the occurrence of such a wide variety of sedimentary rock within the basalts, one can look at a change from a reducing environment of deposition (graphite) to an oxidizing environment of deposition (magnetite). There would appear to have been a general decrease in water depth during deposition at basalt flows, with time.
Local Showings
Little Bear Occurrence
The property surrounds a leased claim which hosts the Little Bear Occurrence. The occurrence was discovered in 1935 by E. McKenzie while surface prospecting. A 2.4 meter by 1.5 meter shaft was sunk to a depth of 5.5 meters along with trenching and pitting. A one ton bulk sample taken from the occurrence in 1936 was reported to have an average grade of 1,419 g/ton gold. The claims lapsed and were re-staked by J.E. Halonen in 1946. Spectacular samples of quartz containing visible gold and possible tellurides have been taken from the property. The single leased claim is still held by the Halonen family.
Schreiber-Pyramid Occurrence
Just 800 meters south of the property boundary is the Schreiber-Pyramid Occurrence. Previous work dates back to early 1930’s when auriferous quartz veins on the property were trenched and bulk sampled by Kenecho Gold Mines. Records indicate that 150 tons of ore was mined at an average grade of 17.6 g/t gold from the #1 vein in 1937. In 1969 Zenmac Metal Mines Ltd. drilled five holes, totalling 243 meters, on a base metal showing (#2 vein) north of the Schreiber Pyramid adit (#1 vein). Drill holes intersected minor quartz veining and pyritic shear zones, with the best intersection returning 4.6% Cu and 19.2% Zn over 0.55 meters at a vertical depth of 15.24 meters from massive sulphides (chalcopyrite-sphalerite-pyrrhotite) in a chloritic shear at a contact between volcanic and sedimentary rocks. In 1984 Corporation Falconbridge Copper acquired the Schreiber-Pyramid property to re-evaluate its base metal potential in light of the nearby Winston Lake discovery. Grab samples of the #2 vein by Falconbridge assayed as high as 31% zinc and a one foot channel sample yielded 13.77% zinc. Further, a grab sample from the #1 vein directly above the Schreiber Pyramid adit, assayed 45.2 g/t Au. In 1987, the Ministry of Northern Development of Mines and Forestry (MNDMF) visited the property and sampled both the #1 and #2 veins. Two samples from the #1 vein assayed 13.06 g/t gold and 26.75 g/t gold. A sample from the #2 vein assayed 17.5% copper, 7.1% zinc and 139 g/t silver.
Twomey Iron Formation
In 1992 a Thunder Bay prospector, Tim Twomey, sampled a 4 meter wide iron formation which returned 4.85 g/t gold. This showing lies just 175 meters south of our property, and the unit appears to strike onto our ground. In addition, sampling by Twomey from quartz vein immediately south of our property (along the power line) assayed 10.48 g/t gold.
Property Showing
An OEC-assisted work program in 2010, uncovered a gold showing on the Little Bear Lake property. The target for this area was an intense magnetic response located on the north side of a hill (UTM 482473E and 5410891N) just south of a small pond. At this location an area of smoky banded chert was uncovered by removing moss and debris to approximately 1m by 6m oriented in a north south direction. To the south, the stripping was lost in a heavily pitted rusty rock. The chert is highly magnetic, contains crystals of specular hematite and heavily mineralized calcite. Assays from the zone averaged 1.5 g/t gold over the 6 meter width. The northern 2 meters of the zone carried 3.3 g/t gold. The zone remains open along strike and width and warrants further work.
Conclusion
In light of the new discovery of a moderately wide mineralized zone on the property, coupled with high grade gold (1,419g/t), copper (17.5%), zinc (31%) and silver (139g/t)occurrences in the immediate area and it's relatively un-explored history, the Little Bear Property has high potential to host a lode gold or VMS style deposit. The claims are currently under option to Bard Ventures. Bard is actively seeking a joint-venture partner to assist in exploration on the property.
