Longworth Property
Location and Access
The Longworth property consists of 71 claim units, is located in the western portion of the Hemlo-Schreiber greenstone belt and is in the vicinity of several showings and a number of past producers. The property starts approximately 6 km northeast of the Trans Canada highway and is easily accessible by the winter road (ATV trail) to Big Duck Lake.
Geology
The property is located within the Wawa sub province of the Superior structural province near the western end of the Hemlo-Schreiber greenstone belt. The property covers a portion of the mafic volcanics which lie north of the Terrace Bay batholith. The dominant rock type is mafic metavolcanics with iron formations and quartz veining. Minor felsic intrusive and metasedimentary units are also present. The rocks are affected by a regional east-west schistosity of greenschist facies metamorphism. The rocks have been folded and cut by faults and shears.(Gosselin 1984).
The area is often rugged with hills rising up to 100 meters above the streams and lakes on the property. There are many swamps and small, shallow interconnected ponds and lakes. They commonly form an angular pattern that is the result of faults striking NW and NE.
Area Mineralization
Over 25 gold occurrences have been documented in the immediate area. The Little Bear occurrence lies 1.8 km to the east. A one ton bulk sample from this occurrence taken in the late 1930’s is reported to have assayed 1,418 g/t gold. The Robert occurrence, assaying 2.49 g/t gold, lies 1.6 km west of the property and is hosted in sheared mafic-metavolcanics containing less than 10 % pyrite.
There are two key mineralized zones which have good potential to strike onto the claim block. The first is a copper occurrence owned by Pro Minerals, which lies 500 meters north of the property. Sulphides were first discovered and explored with surface work in 1921. Several test pits by previous operators have revealed base metal mineralization over an area of approximately 120 by 180 m in size. In 1950, sampling of a 15 meter long trench averaged a grade of 1.06% Cu (Robertson and Hainsworth). In 1998, the main trench and several old pits were re-sampled by Brian Fowler. Helicopter access was required to explore the property. The main trench (#7) exposes a 15 meter section of pyritized rhyolite which appears to contain a uniform abundance of finely disseminated chalcopyrite. The rhyolite abuts a quartz porphyry along its western contact. Assays from the property returned 1.66% copper and 15.2 grams/ton silver (98-27) from the main trench.
A second occurrence is a new (2010) gold showing owned by Bard Ventures, which lies 500 meters east of the south part of the property. The showing is on the north side of the hill where an area of smoky banded chert was located. This small area was expanded by removal of 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. Sample # 41707 was a chip sample from the northern end of the stripped area which represents a smoky chert that is highly magnetic. The sample assayed 3.32 g/t gold and 0.9 g/t silver. Sample # 41711 was a chip sample from the southern end of the stripped area and is extremely pitted, rusted and heavily mineralized calcite. This sample assayed 2.03 g/t gold and 1.6 g/t silver.
Property Mineralization
The primary target on the property is a “pyrite schist zone” originally mapped by Hopkins in 1922. This area was staked and held by claim #3574, as shown on O.G.S. Geology Map 30a. Little information is known from the results of the original claim holder. In 1983, the area was re-staked as part of the “Hemlo” rush. Megalode Resources performed a VLF/Mag survey over this area and identified several strong conductors. Megalode's conductor #7-34 appears to overlie the area of the pyrite schist zone discovered in the 1922 mapping. This conductor strikes in excess of 2 kilometers. Limited sampling (4 samples) along this conductor turned up trace gold and 2.8 g/t silver from a one meter wide massive sulphide zone within andesite.
A single drill hole (W-28) was put down on this conductor. The hole is believed to lie approximately 350 meters west, and along strike, of the mapped pyrite schist zone by Hopkins. The hole was drilled to a depth of 107 meters. The first 50 meters of the hole encountered highly chloritized and carbonatized andesite, where chlorite and calcite make up 65% by volume of the rock. This 50 meter section, containing 1-2% pyrrhotite and pyrite occurring in narrow elongated stringers was never sampled or assayed. Four other conductors were drilled as part of Megalode’s drill program. All remaining holes were thinly sampled and assayed even though significant sections of mineralization were encountered in the drilling.
Part of the present claim area was previously held by Brian Fowler in 2003. Fowler cut a small grid and completed a Mag/VLF survey with the help of OEC funding. A strong gossan was located within the vicinity of the “pyrite schist zone”. The rocks at this locale were enriched in potassium and depleted in sodium, calcium and magnesium, which possibly highlight an alteration system in the area. A quartz porphyry was noted 75 meters south-east of the sampling. The porphyry body may have acted as a heat engine for the alteration and mineralization found here.
Conclusion
Over 25 gold occurrences have been documented in the immediate area. Prior recommendations made by the Resident Geologist's Program, most recently (Schnieders, 1992), echo the sentiment that the Schreiber area remains a viable exploration target for gold and to some potential, for base metals. The problem that has persisted since the early days of the camp has been one of focusing on narrow, high-grade quartz veins and shear zones. Such targets are not considered viable by exploration companies and as a result have seldom been explored beyond a grass roots prospecting stage. With the recent development and evolution of a porphyry-related model for the Hemlo gold deposit, the Longworth Property offers some excellent targets for consideration.
