The claims of the Orchid Property are 100% owned by Taiga Gold Corp. and were acquired in 2014 with additional claims added in 2016 and 2017. The 11179ha project lies 90km WNW of Flin Flon, MB and is accessible by fixed wing aircraft and winter road from the village of Pelican Narrows located 16km NE which in turn is serviced by an airport, Hwy 135 and hydro-electric power.
Project Highlights
- Excellent geology favourable for gold deposits
- On-trend with the producing Seabee Gold Operation
- Significantly underexplored with encouraging early results
- Numerous untested geochemical anomalies
- Numerous high-grade Au showings focussed along a major structure
Geology
The Orchid Property is located 70km SE of the Seabee Gold Operation within metavolcanic, metagabbroic, epiclastic and metagreywacke units of the Glennie Domain. The property is transected by the N-S trending Tabbernor Lake fault system – a major crustal shear system that has been traced over 1500 km from northern Sask. to North Dakota. Splays of the Tabbernor Lake fault system include shear-hosted quartz-tourmaline-pyrite-pyrrhotite-gold veins within greenstone of the Glennie Domain.
The Glennie Domain of the Trans-Hudson Orogen contains in excess of eighty gold occurrences and one gold producer, the Seabee mine at Laonil Lake. Nearly all occurrences are within or adjacent to greenstone belts particularly the Pine Lake Greenstone Belt. Gold-quartz veins occur in shear zones of a variety of rock types and also in close spatial association with a major stratigraphic break that separates two distinct assemblages of supracrustal rocks and two major suites of intrusions.
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 Orchid Property fits well into an Orogenic Gold deposit model with a greenstone host.
History
The area has been geologically mapped, progressively in more detail, by the Geological Survey of Canada and the Saskatchewan Geological Survey in 1929, 1958, 1978, and 1990
In 1957, Mansa Explorations Ltd conducted an airborne magnetic and electromagnetic geophysical survey over the Tabbernor Lake fault area of the SE extension of the property. Weak to moderate EM and magnetic anomalies were detected and a prospecting program followed-up in 1967 discovering two vertical shear zones corresponding to the Tabbernor Fault Zone. The shears range from 6m to 12m and contain disseminated pyrite and chalcopyrite. No samples were assayed.
In 1969 an airborne magnetic survey to the north of the property located a major N-S feature, representing the Tabbernor Fault Zone with a strong magnetic expression, and strong indications of faulting, cross faulting and/or major lithological changes in the northern portion of the property.
Between 1986 and 1987 mapping and prospecting revealed that the northwestern portion of the property area is predominantly underlain by volcanic greenstone intruded by various phases of granitoid bodies providing a geological fabric favourable for the development of gold-bearing shear systems. Two anomalous zones were outlined and trenched.
In 1988, geological mapping, lake-sediment sampling, outcrop trenching, and a ground-based geophysical survey was conducted in the northwestern portion of the property. The survey outlined one major N-S trending conductor just north of Wing Lake, which coincides with a previously known mineralized trench. Additional trenching revealed outcrops of sheared volcanic greenstone associated with quartz veins and disseminated chalcopyrite and pyrite.
In 1989-1990 Placer Dome conducted two large programs including 1:5,000 scale mapping, ground-based geophysical surveys, trenching, and extensive till, lake sediment, soil, and rock sampling. The initial focus was in the northwestern portion of the property where intrusive contacts near Wing Lake are an important control on shear-hosted mineralization. This program revealed the potential for the Lariviere Lake area with the initial discovery of the Till and Eureka Zones which yielded a 5.58 g/t Au soil sample and a 12.75 g/t Au grab sample respectively. As with the Prongua Lake area of the property and various orogenic gold deposits globally, the intrusive contact zone in this area is important for gold-bearing shear structures.
In 1991 Placer Dome conducted a ground-based geophysical program over the north end of Lariviere Lake and drilled the resultant anomalies. Seven holes were completed with best result being 2.84 g/t Au over 1.0 m from an intrusive-hosted shear zone with associated sulphide mineralization.
In 1992 Homestake Canada completed a large and successful program of geological mapping, soil sampling, and trenching focussed on the intrusive contact in the southern portion of the property. The Orchid Au Zone (41.35 g/t Au) and Tim’s Showing (19.23 g/t Au) were discovered and the Till Zone was further explored yielding a 12.89 g/t Au rock sample that was collected from a nearby trench. This work outlined a NNE trend of anomalous Au mineralization straddling the intrusive contact.
In 1994 Consolidated Pine Channel located geophysical anomalies in the Lariviere Lake area using ground-based geophysical surveys. One drill hole targeting the down-dip extension of Tim’s showing was completed resulting in two separate intersections of 1 g/t Au over 1 m and 1.2 g/t Au over 60 cm related to shear hosted quartz veining.
Eagle Plains Exploration - Pre Spin-out of Taiga Gold Corp.
The Orchid project was acquired as a result of an internal research program conducted during 2013-2016 for highly prospective Au projects in western Canada. In 2016, a high-resolution airborne geophysical survey was completed over the property area. A comprehensive data compilation of all historic work was completed in early 2017, providing targets to investigate during a field program in the Summer of 2017 which included soil sampling in the eastern portion of the property over an untested tonalite-volcanic contact and returned prospective gold-in-soil anomalies. Other notable 2017 field results were grab samples that returned up to 61.30 g/t Au from the historical Orchid zone, and 52.43 g/t Au from Tim’s Showing. The rediscovery of the newly named Tiger Lily Showing found a 1.5 m wide quartz vein where channel sampling returning 6.17 g/t over 1.0 m including 10.11 g/t over 0.5 m. Soil geochemical sampling along strike from the Tiger Lily Showing contains highly anomalous gold (up to 847 ppb Au) in an area extending approximately 400 m from known exposures.
Taiga Gold Exploration
In 2018 a two-phase program was carried out comprising of:
- airborne drone magnetic survey
- follow-up surface field program of geological mapping/prospecting, and soil geochemical sampling
The airborne geophysics provided higher resolution magnetics over the Tiger Lily to Wing Lake showing areas, the Orchid to Terra/Tims’s showings area and new geophysical coverage from the north end of LaRivere Lake to near the Splay Lakes area.
The magnetic data assists in differentiating the major rock types and in particular locating areas where these contact. Northeast oriented topographic features coincident with magnetic lineaments become progressively dominant toward the center of the property and are interpreted to have had significant influence over the emplacement size and orientation of gold bearing veins and shears. The geophysical results, in tandem with all available historical results, were used to prioritize targets for phase two follow-up.
This portion of the program concluded that the majority of strongly anomalous gold mineralized samples are spatially associated with magnetic high zones and that some of the lithological contacts appear to be prospective for gold mineralization.
In May 2021, Taiga Gold initiated an inaugural 12 hole, 2139m drill program to test six zones of the Orchid Property and follow up the results of earlier programs that Taiga Gold and previous operators had conducted. Highlights of this drill program include:
- Tiger Lily: Drill hole OC21001 returned 2.28g/t Au over 0.98m within interval grading 1.57 g/t Au over 1.55m.
- Orchid East and West: Hole OC21005 returned 3.94 g/t Au over 1m. Another drill hole, OC21006, had two separate intercepts, returning 5.2 g/t Au over 0.78m from upper zone and 3.94 g/t Au over 1m from a lower intercept.
- Tim’s Zone OC21008: returned 2.09 g/t Au over 0.51m.
- Terra Au OC21010: returned 4.24 g/t Au over 0.51m.
This program tested a geological setting similar to that of the Seabee Gold Operation located 70km north of the Orchid Property. Drilling was designed as a broad approach to test multiple showing areas for gold mineralization located relatively close below the mineralized showings.
Future Work
Historic drilling had focused on the traditional exploration of features with low magnetic response. Taiga has developed a model that recognizes the magnetic high features as being more prospective. Drilling in 2021 confirmed this model with significant gold mineralization intersected in multiple locations determined to be highly-prospective and had never been drill tested. This drill program was designed as a broad approach to test for gold mineralization at relatively shallow depths at multiple showing areas. Future drilling may consider testing the more prospective veins identified in this program at depth, where, as seen at the Seabee Gold Operation, may have been emplaced as more considerable structures. Taiga Gold is encouraged by these drill results confirming significant subsurface gold mineralization in numerous locations of the property.
Updated September 8, 2021
