Acquired between 2012 and 2016, the 33,171 ha Fisher Property is located 135 km ENE of La Ronge, Saskatchewan. It is centred 2 km south of the Seabee Gold Operation's Santoy Mine, owned and operated by SSR Mining (formerly Silver Standard Resources).
The claims are accessible by an all season road from the nearby Seabee Gold Operation for the deployment of heavy equipment and exploration crews. Numerous lakes and the transecting Churchill River allow for access by fixed wing float/ski equipped aircraft from Missinipe/Otter Lake, a road accessible town located 100 km west of the property.
Project Highlights
- Excellent geology favourable for gold deposits
- Adjacent to the producing Santoy Mine
- Multiple untested geophysical/geochemical anomalies associated with favourable geology
- Numerous high-grade showings focused along a major structure
- Operated by the Fisher JV (an 80/20% jv between SSR Mining and Taiga Gold)
Geology
The property is located within metavolcanic, metagabbroic, epiclastic and metagreywacke units of the Glennie Domain and in the hanging-wall block of the north-south trending Tabbernor Lake fault system – a major crustal shear system transecting the Trans Hudson Orogen, that has been traced over 1500 km from the Wollaston Lake area of northern Saskatchewan to within 100 km of the Black Hills in South Dakota. Splays of the Tabbernor Lake fault system in the Laonil Lake region contain shear hosted quartz-tourmaline-pyrite-pyrrhotite-gold mineralized veins which typify ore-hosting structures at the Seabee Mine. The Seabee Mine, purchased by SSR Mining from Claude Resources Inc. in March 2016, has been in operation since 1991 producing a total of 1 million ounces as of Aug, 2012 at an average grade of 0.23 oz/ton Au (7.89 g/t).
The Glennie Domain contains in excess of eighty gold occurrences; nearly all occurrences are within or adjacent to greenstone belts; with an inordinate number of showings, including the Seabee orebodies, hosted in the Pine Lake Greenstone Belt. Gold-quartz veins occur in shear zones in a variety of rock types including volcanics, volcaniclastics, sediments, intrusions (both subvolcanic and younger post-volcanic suites), and migmatites. Splay faults off the Tabbernor Fault and their associated shear zones are the main controlling mineralized structures, especially where they are in contact with- or proximal to- major lithological contacts.
In light of the structural setting (proximity to the major crustal Tabbernor Fault) and style of mineralization in relation to this structure (gold associated with quartz veins and shearing with carbonate, chlorite and potassic alteration), the Fisher Property fits well into an Orogenic Gold deposit model with a greenstone host.
In detail, mineralization at the nearby Seabee Mine is hosted in shear zones related to the Laonil Lake shear zone which is a splay of the Tabbernor Fault. Field and underground observations at Seabee indicate that shear structures nucleated at rheological contrasts at contacts between felsic intrusive and mafic intrusive lithologies, with high grade zones forming at fault intersections that formed zones of transtension or dilation. Mafic host rocks proximal to the mineralized quartz vein systems have been altered to biotite, actinolite, and epidote. Two stages of mineralization were discussed at length by Schultz (1996): Stage I consists of quartz, tourmaline, k-feldspar and pyrite; and Stage II is confined within microfractures that cut Stage I – dominated by carbonate, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, tellurides and gold. At the microscopic scale, gold is preferentially sited at the intersection of Stage II fractures with Stage I pyrite.
History
The Fisher, being a very large property, is divided into six zones for the purposes of exploration and discussion, these zones are identified on the project map:
- Eilser Lake - central west, centred approximately 7 km west of the Tabbernor Lake Fault.
- Georges Lake - south west, centred approximately 7 km west of the Tabbernor Lake Fault.
- Trapp Lake - north east, centred along the axis of the Tabbernor Lake Fault
- Tabbernor Lake - central east, centred along the axis of the Tabbernor Lake Fault
- Kettle Falls - south east, centred along the axis of the Tabbernor Lake Fault
- Truscott Lake - a separate block located NW of the Seabee mine property
Much of the area has been mapped at varying scales by the Geological Survey of Canada and the Saskatchewan Geological Survey between 1956 and 1992.
As early as 1956, regional-scale geophysical surveys were being conducted over much of the greater property area and ground-based reconnaissance efforts were discovering and sampling gold mineral showings.
Eisler and Georges lakes area (western portion of the property area)
The bulk of exploration work in the western area of the Fisher Property, the Eisler and Georges lake areas, occurred between 1985 and 1991.
In 1984, because the Seabee Mine mineralization is a time-rock analogue of the rocks at Eisler Lake, Claude Resources acquired the ground and completed geochemical sampling with positive results. In 1985, gold mineralization in the George Lake area was first noted by Claude Resources and subsequent prospecting, geological mapping, soil geochemistry and ground-based geophysical surveys identified numerous targets, some of which were trenched with encouraging results.
In 1986 mapping and sampling was carried out on geochemically coincident mineralized quartz-rich zones. A drill program in 1987 confirmed the presence of a major shear system up to 18.6 m wide containing elevated sporadic gold, indicating that ore-forming processes had been active in the area.
In 1988, work including airphoto lineament analysis, reconnaissance and detailed geological mapping and prospecting, plus soil and bulk till sampling at grids established at Eisler Lake and George Lake were conducted. The Camp and Shoreline veins at George Lake were sampled and noted as being good Seabee Vein analogues.
At Georges Lake, following up on the encouraging trenching results, drilling was carried out in a 1991, 13-hole drill program which also yielded promising results. Despite this, the Georges and Eisler lakes area remained dormant until 2007 when an airborne geophysical survey was flown designed to identify the structural fabric of the area, this was the last work carried out prior to Eagle Plains acquisition.
Trapp Lake to Tabbernor Lake Area (north and central east portion of the property area)
Three airborne geophysical surveys were flown between 1957 and 1980 focussing on locating conductive structures. These efforts yielded no significant results.
Ground-based work in 1966 relocated the Wilbert Showing located along the west side of Tabbernor Lake where sampling returned up to 1.26 oz/ton Au, 9.5% Cu and 0.58 oz/ton Ag.
In 1968 a significant ground-based program in the area located numerous small mineralization occurrences were noted dominated by the presence of chalcopyrite with pyrite, grab samples were collected and analyzed for base-metals and uranium but not gold.
In 1975, a ground-based geophysical survey was conducted over the larger Wilbert Showing area with no significant geophysical anomalies being detected.
Geological mapping was completed in the north-central areas of Tabbernor Lake in 1981. Mineralization was noted in passing as fault hosted ‘spot occurrences of disseminated pyrite, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite and malachite’. Follow up was not recommended in favour of other targets to the west and south.
In 1985 Claude Resources, having acquired the property in 1984, prospected the east and west sides of Tabbernor Lake while another program prospected the southern side. Results of the program were deemed very successful and follow up detailed prospecting and geological mapping was recommended.
In 1986 two types of ground-based geophysics were carried out over the Wilbert Showing area along with prospecting, rock sampling and geological mapping and showed there is good correlation between topographic lineaments and linear magnetic lows.
The last documented work prior to Eagle Plains was in 1987 when a high resolution geophysical survey was flown over the larger property area.
Kettle Falls
Prior to 1957, there is no recorded work history within the Kettle Falls area. In the early years (1957-1970) most of the recorded work consisted of airborne geophysical surveys, with some follow up ground work.
In the early 1980’s, airborne geophysics were completed along with ground-based reconnaissance geological mapping and sampling. The ground work located mineralization in areas north and south of Kettle Falls returning anomalous values for gold and silver.
In 1985, Claude Resources completed ground-based geophysical surveys identifying two anomalies on the east shore of Uskik Lake, on the north and south side of the falls. Both anomalies have coincident responses for other types of geophysical surveys and were recommended for follow up prospecting.
In 1987, a high resolution geophysical survey covering much of the Kettle Falls Zone noted the area as moderately magnetic undifferentiated gneiss associated with north-northwest shearing.
Truscott Lake
In 1990, the eastern half of the Truscott Lake Zone was prospected resulting in the delineation of the Island Showing, a north-trending gossan up to 15 m wide and 30 m long with anomalous Au samples assaying up to 8.6 g/t. Anomalous rock samples were also collected approximately 0.5 km SW of the Island Showing. Despite the encouraging results, no work has been reported on the property since 1990.
Fisher Project Zones:
The Fisher Project is comprised of 6 zones:
The (1) Eisler Lake and (2) George Lake blocks are centred approximately 7 km west of the Tabbernor Lake Fault. The (3) Trapp Lake, (4) Tabbernor and (5) Kettle Blocks are centred along the axis of the Tabbernor Lake Fault and occur north to south respectively. The (6) Truscott Lake block is located in a separate block to the NW of the Seabee Mine property.
Eagle Plains Exploration - Pre Spin-out of Taiga Gold Corp.
Kettle Falls and Tabbernor Lake
Eagle Plains staked the Kettle Falls area in 2012, recognizing the gold potential in the Seabee Camp and associated Tabbernor Fault system which transects the current property.
Field work in 2013 and 2014 included prospecting, regional mapping, an orientation soil geochemical survey and channel rock sampling at the newly discovered WTF (Fisher) showing. Gold results were very encouraging. Samples from north and south of the falls and follow-up channel sampling of the WTF showing returned highly anomalous gold and silver results. Prospector, Wayne Fisher of Crystal Springs, SK was instrumental in the discovery of the WTF showing, which has now been re-named “Fisher” in remembrance and recognition of Wayne’s contributions to discoveries in the region.
Encouraged by this, Eagle Plains staked additional tenure on-strike and conducted follow-up fieldwork in 2015 on a 1 km square grid over the new Fisher Gold Showing. Work consisted of geological mapping, soil and biogeochemical surveying, and a 7.46 m of channel sample over a newly discovered gossanous outcrop returned anomalous Au results. A ground-based geophysical survey was conducted over the Fisher grid.
A second mineralized outcrop similar to the 2014 Fisher Trench was located along strike approximately 170 m to the northeast. Moss pulling exposed up to 8 m of strongly altered volcanics with trace disseminated pyrite, plus minor milky quartz veinlets. Eight continuous channel samples over this zone returned anomalous base- and precious-metals values.
The 2015 soil geochemical program expanded on the successes of the 2014 orientation survey. Good spatial correlation between soil geochemical anomalies and ground-magnetic high trends were utilized to design follow-up surveys completed in 2016 which were funded by SSR Mining.
Truscott Lake
A 2013 field program consisted of prospecting and geochemical sampling. At the Island Showing a continuous 13m chip sample was collected across the conformable mineralized orientation returned values of 0.92 g/t Au over 3.0 m.
A biogeochemical survey over the entire island that is host to the showing was successful in bracketing anomalies significant in elements which are known to be elevated in alteration zones of the Seabee Mine.
Traverses were conducted over the several areas of the property with one completed ~5 km east of Easton Lake to ground-truth historical airborne EM conductors. The result being that the area remains prospective due to the confluence of favorable geophysical, geological contact and structural features.
Eagle Plains 2016 Exploration Program
The 2016 exploration program consisted of three components:
- Acquisition and compilation of satellite airphoto orthoimagery
- A significant 2 phase ground-based field-program conducted over several areas of the property
- An airborne geophysical survey flown over the majority of the property area.
The 2016 exploration program began with the acquisition and compilation of satellite airphoto orthoimagery for the entire Fisher Property to assist in field traverse planning and on-the-fly lineament analysis. Ground crews then began the field program and the airborne geophysical survey commenced.
The initial ground program included prospecting/regional geological mapping, soil geochemical sampling, till sampling, and a ground-based geophysical surveying. The second phase of ground work followed-up the results of the airborne geophysical survey and the phase I field work with prospecting/geological mapping, infill till sampling, soil geochemical sampling, and channel rock sampling of the best new targets. Below is a brief synopsis of the 2016 exploration activities conducted in various zones of the property area.
Georges Lake Zone
V.G. & Georges Lake showings
Historic high-grade mineralization at the V.G. and George Lake showings were located and verified in addition to the advancement of two new showings, the BC-trench and King Fisher. The BC-trench returned up to 143 g/t Au in grab samples and 30.1 g/t Au over a 30cm chip sample in a distinct shear zone within the Seal Lake granite SE of Georges Lake. The second new King Fisher Showing was discovered adjacent to a gold-in-soil anomaly, and returned up to 1.4 g/t Au in grab samples.
A combination of mapping/prospecting and magnetic geophysical surveys (ground and airborne) has allowed for a reliable refinement of the location of the Seal Lake granite contact with the adjacent mafic and ultramafic lithologies west of the granite stock.
Footprint Lake and Wek showings
Footprint Lake located in the eastern portion of the Georges Lake Zone is underlain by a north-trending topographic and magnetic low known as the Uskik Lake Fault. Splays off the Uskik Lake Fault are likely the main controller of gold and copper mineralization at two historic showings, Footprint and Wek. Sampling at the Footprint Trench returned up to 11.6 g/t Au in grab samples.
A soil grid was established to test between two of the main splay faults in the area and at least two anomalous trends were defined. Follow-up prospecting led to discovery of a new vein system with grab sample results of up to 19.4 g/t Au.
Eisler Lake Zone
Spark Lake is located in the northern portion of the Eisler Lake Zone adjacent to the boundary with SSR Mining's Seabee Gold Mine operation and their Santoy deposits. Despite its close proximity to these known deposits, it has seen remarkably little exploration. Airborne geophysical data and regional mapping clearly shows it to be along strike of the Santoy deposits and cursory examination has demonstrated the ubiquity of quartz veining. Till sampling has successfully delineated a promising well constrained target for future focused exploration approximately 1 km SE of Spark Lake.
Kettle Falls Zone
The key finding for 2016 is a new subtle gossanous mineralized zone discovered 450 m SW of the Fisher (WTF) showing in the central portion of the Kettle Falls Zone. This new area, coined ‘The Big Smoke’ hosts at least 3 north trending shear zones. Chip samples from two of the shear zones returned up to 2.6 g/t Au.
A third narrow NNE-trending high-grade anomaly coined the ‘Lightening Strike’ was also discovered and traced over a strike of at least 425 m.
Soil results and anomalous grab samples extend the known mineralized strike-length of the Fisher Showing to over 1100m.
Future Work
The following exploration work is recommended as a result of the discoveries made during 2016 and earlier programs. SSR Mining (Formerly Silver Standard Resources) had optioned the Fisher Project in Q3 of 2016 and is now directing exploration programming, information about their exploration program can be found below.
Georges Lake
Proposed work includes follow-up prospecting and trenching in the Kaz Lake area, infill and extension soil geochemical sampling and structural mapping in the King Fisher target area, and diamond drilling of the best untested targets, with infill drilling in vicinity of the historical V.G. Showing.
Footprint Lake
Additional prospecting, infill soil geochemistry followed by diamond drilling is recommended for the targets in this area.
Eisler Lake
Diligent prospecting and a soil geochemical survey is recommended for this target.
Kettle Falls
Diligent follow-up prospecting is recommended along the Lightening Strike trend. Induced polarization geophysical surveys may be helpful in further delineating ore-shoots to depth in advance of diamond drilling the best coincident geochemical/geophysical targets.
SSR Mining Exploration - 2016 to Present
Once SSR Mining had optioned the Fisher Project in Q3 of 2016 it directed the exploration programming. In 2017, SSR Mining's ground-based exploration efforts identified an extension of the Santoy Shear Zone on the Fisher project. This shear zone hosts the Santoy Mine and the extension of it is mapped from the Fisher's northern boundary located approximately 1.5km south of the Santoy Mine and for 7km to the south, it remains open along strike. A map identifying this shear zone can be viewed under the "Highlights" tab above.
In early 2018, SSR Mining commenced a significant drill program focused on the extension of this Santoy Shear Zone and confirmed several new zones including the Mac Zone. In early 2019 a drill program was conducted that targeted three zones, the Footprint, DD and Mac zones, the last drill hole of this program, hole FIS 19-035 located in the northen most portion of the Mac Zone intersected visible gold over a 6.5m interval with peak assays of 11.92 g/t over 0.73m and 7.31 g/t over 1.55m. This zone is open along strike to the north and to depth.
In 2019, a large summer program of prospecting, mapping and soil sampling was carried out. The prospecting program resulted in identifying a 13 km trend of high-grade gold along the Santoy Shear with numerous high-grade gold occurrences discovered. Notably, a cluster of high-grade samples up to 166.8 g/t were collected from an area 500m north and along strike of drill hole FIS 19-035. The structural interpretation of the geological setting in this area called the Mac North is similar to the high-grade zones at the nearby Santoy Mine Complex.
Other significant results of the 2019 summer program include:
- New target areas identified near border with Santoy Mine
- All-season Fisher camp being upgraded to a 42-person camp for 2020 winter work
- Planning and permitting underway for Winter, 2020 drill program
- The 2019 soil sampling program returned a significant amount of anomalous results over the 99th percentile. These results contribute to the prospecting program conclusions of identifying a 13 km trend of high-grade gold along the Santoy Shear
In late 2019 the exploration camp located in the central area of the Fisher property was doubled in capacity to accommodate a larger crew for the planned 2020 drill program. A 9,463m drill program was conducted in Q1 2020 testing 4 zones, Yin, Abel Lake, Mac North and Aurora. High-grade gold mineralization was discovered at 3 of the 4 zones tested, see fisher Project map for details. This drill program was curtailed slightly due to the COVID19 crisis and no ground-based summer program was conducted as a result. In late Q3 2020, a 3800m drill program commenced at the Mac North zone to follow up the earlier discovery there with results expected to be issued in early 2021.
On November 12, 2020 SSR Mining notified Taiga Gold Corp. that that it has satisfied its earn-in commitments and exercised the First Option earn-in relating to the Fisher Option Agreement, earning a 60% interest.
On January 5, 2021 SSR Mining notified Taiga Gold Corp. that it has exercised the Second Option earn-in relating to the Fisher Option Agreement, for a total interest of 80% in the Fisher Property. As a result, an 80/20% joint-venture has been formed between SSR Mining and Taiga Gold Corp. called the "Fisher JV". In order to execise this second option SSR Mining has paid Taiga Gold $3 million cash.
In February 2021 Taiga Gold announced the results of the field work conducted at the Fisher by partner SSR Mining during 2020. As mentioned, early 2020 drilling resulted in the discovery of high-grade gold in three separate zones, the Yin, Abel Lake and Mac North, this is in addition to the original discovery of high-grade gold at the Mac Zone in 2019. In Q4 2020 a 3570m drill program in six holes was carried out at the Mac North Zone. The results of this 6 holes program was the identification of consistent and continuous high-grade gold at the Mac North over a down-plunge area of 250m x 600m. This area is now planned for further drill testing targeting resource definition. To this time SSR Mining has spent in excess of $12m in exploration and has made cash payments of $3.8m to Taiga Gold Corp. and predecessor Eagle Plains. Going forward the Fisher property will be operated by the 80/20% Fisher JV and exploration programs will be funded 80% SSR Mining and 20% Taiga Gold Corp.
Updated February 19, 2021
