Early bird stakes claims in Southwest

While most fortune-seeking juniors and investors joining the recent stampeded to Yukon Territory are scrambling to acquire properties in the highly prospective White Gold area located in the central Dawson Range and the eastern Selwyn Basin districts, a few canny explorers are quietly staking claims far from the heavy traffic in the southwestern corner of the territory.

Solomon Resources Ltd. is one such explorer who has reported making a recent play in the region in a big way. Solomon July 18 reported the acquisition of a 100 percent interest in the Rosie Claim Group located in the Whitehorse Mining District of the Yukon, just days after reporting the staking two other claim groups in the underexplored southwestern quadrant of the territory. The Rosie Claim Group located about 58 kilometers (36 miles) north of Destruction Bay, YT, and 107 kilometers (66 miles) northwest of the village of Haines Junction, YT, comprises 216 claims covering an area of 4,515 hectares (11,157 acres).

Solomon July 14 reported staking a 100 percent interest in the Outpost Claim Group, also located in the Whitehorse Mining District about 50 kilometers (31 miles) west of Haines Junction and comprising 71 claims covering 1,484 hectares (about 3,667 acres). On July 11, the junior also reported staking a 100 percent interest in the Pacer Claim Group, located in the Whitehorse Mining District about 5 kilometers (3 miles) west of Haines Junction in the Front Ranges of the Kluane Mountains of the Yukon Territory and comprising 212 claims covering 4,432 hectares (10 952 acres).

"Ongoing work by the Yukon Geological Survey has drawn new attention to the Kluane Front Ranges and nearby Ruby Range, and recent staking activity suggests that junior exploration companies looking to acquire new and prospective ground outside of the heavily staked Dawson Range and Selwyn Basin Gold Districts of the Yukon are turning their attention to this region," said Solomon President and CEO Randy Rogers, in announcing the acquisitions.

Proven exploration team

Vernon, B.C.-based Solomon Resources said it is focused on the acquisition, exploration and development of quality mineral properties worldwide. With a project generator business model, the junior said it is particularly suited to its ongoing interest in the Yukon because it has a wealth of intellectual capital and experience.

Solomon is managed by a proven team of exploration geologists who were involved with the discovery and development of a number of significant mineral deposits, including the Snip and Eskay Creek deposits in British Columbia and the Brewery Creek deposit in the Yukon Territory.

A former Royal Canadian Mounted Police securities investigator and geologist, Randy Rogers is president and CEO of Solomon. The junior's management team also includes Ron Netolitzky, who has more than 36 years experience in the mineral exploration industry. Recognized as "Prospector of the Year in 1991," Netolitzky played a key role in the discoveries of the Snip, Eskay Creek and Brewery Creek mines in western Canada and continues to search for new deposits elsewhere around the world.

Solomon's current mineral properties include a portfolio of gold and copper exploration projects in Canada, a tin project in Alaska and two uranium properties in Mongolia as well as a steady stream of property submissions and exploration concepts under development including gold, copper, nickel, platinum and palladium projects worldwide.

Among the junior's current projects are Ten Mile Creek Gold and Aishihik-Kluane projects in Yukon Territory and the Cry Lake Gold Project in British Columbia and the Sleitat Mountain Tin Project in Alaska.

On July 7, Solomon reported on its exploration of Ten Mile Creek, which comprises 309 mineral claims located about 30 kilometers north-northwest of the White Gold Property of Kinross Gold Corp. and 60 kilometers north of the Coffee Gold Project of Kaminak Gold Corp. Solomon holds an option from Radius Gold Inc. to earn a 51 percent interest in the property.

Based on encouraging results from 2010 exploration, including the identification of four significant soil geochemical anomalies, Solomon field crews mobilized to the Ten Mile Creek property May 1 and eight discrete mineralized targets have been identified for detailed follow-up this season.

The 2011 exploration program will include 3,000 soil geochemical samples as well as mechanized trenching in the Jual Vein System and the newly discovered Skukum, Jack London, Sourdough Joe and Klondike Kate zones.

An airborne geophysical survey comprising 589 line-kilometers of VLF-EM, magnetometer and spectrometer were under way in early July.

Solomon said it also plans to complete 6,000 feet of reverse circulation drilling on the Jual claims in August and a further 1,000 meters of diamond drilling in September, once the results of earlier work are in hand.

Gold potential in Rosie claims

The junior, meanwhile, staked the Rosie Claim Group to protect a highly prospective epithermal gold target indicated by regional stream geochemical surveys and the discovery in 2010 by the Yukon Geological Survey of an outcrop of highly silicified altered quartz feldspar porphyry near the top of the Ruby Range batholith, likely the result of a high sulphidation epithermal system.

Silicic and potassic alteration in the outcrop has the appearance of the high-sulphidization, epithermal style mineralization found above and adjacent to deeper porphyry systems. The silicic alteration is likely the result of highly acidic, low pH fluids infiltrating the host rock.

Solomon said the Rosie Claim Group is highly prospective for epithermal gold in quartz stockworks. The regional geology is conducive to epithermal and porphyry style mineralization in the upper reaches of the Ruby Range batholith and Rhyolite Creek Volcanic-Plutonic Complex. Regional stream sediment geochemistry data shows anomalous gold values coupled with one or more of copper, molybdenum, arsenic, mercury and antimony.

Recent work by the Yukon Geological Survey suggests a compelling similarity between this portion of the Coast Belt of Southwest Yukon and the prolific Juneau Gold Belt of Alaska.

The Ruby Range Batholith is a large plutonic complex which underlies the south and central portion of the claim group, locally composed of quartz diorite, tonalite and granodiorite with lesser amounts of diorite, gabbro and granite. The composition becomes more felsic up-section to the north culminating in voluminous amounts of quartz feldspar porphyry. The Rosie Claim Group includes outcrop of the Rhyolite Creek volcano-plutonic complex, the youngest porphyritic phase of the Ruby Range batholith and its volcanic equivalents and locally consists of intermediate volcanic flows, breccia and tuff, flow-banded rhyolite and felsic tuff, and rare mafic flows, breccia and tuff.

In addition to the newly discovered silicified zone, other discrete targets exist on the Rosie Claim Group. The contact of the Rhyolite Creek complex with the Ruby Range Batholith and Devonian Snowcap Assemblage on the eastern bank of Tyrell Creek encompasses an historic copper-molybdenum gold mineral occurrence and other targets in the northwest and southwest portions of the property include regional stream sediment geochemical anomalies in both the Rhyolite Creek complex and Ruby Range intrusives.

Historical mineral occurrences in the surrounding area suggest that prospects formerly thought to represent Casino-style copper-molybdenum-gold porphyry style mineralization are now believed to be associated with the upper-most and younger fractionated portion of the Ruby Range batholith. Historical regional aeromagnetic data, although fairly coarse, tends to support the exploration potential of the Rosie Claim Group and regional airborne magnetometer data flown by the Geological Survey of Canada and released July 14, corroborates the targeting of this property.

The junior said it would mobilize an exploration crew to the Rosie Claim property on July 20. Exploration will be based out of the ghost town of Silver City, YT, employing fly camps where practicable. Helicopter support is available at both Haines Junction and Silver City for crew deployment.

Stream sediment sampling will be used early in the season to corroborate historical company and RGS anomalies; prospecting and mapping traverses will narrow down areas for detailed follow-up. The 2011 program also contemplates the acquisition of 400 soil geochemical samples from the Rosie Claims.

Gold, copper showings on Pacer

The Pacer claims cover an historical gold occurrence and highly prospective epithermal gold and nickel-copper-platinum targets indicated by regional stream geochemical surveys and airborne geophysics as well as preliminary surface exploration conducted by Solomon in September 2010.

The Pacer showing was originally staked in 1966 by Golden Gate Exploration to protect an airborne magnetic survey anomaly.

The property was optioned to Noranda Exploration Co. Ltd. who explored intermittently from 1988 to 1989.

Gold was reported to occur with pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite in a quartz-carbonate stockwork cutting rusty siliceous argillite in the hanging wall of a serpentinized gabbro-peridotite sill 150 meters thick and at least 4,000 meters long.

A specimen from the main showing assayed 19.7 grams per metric ton gold and a nearby quartz-sericite vein returned 2.5 percent copper and 1.5 g/t gold.

High-grade copper float was found in foliated greenstone boulders in what is locally known as Thunderegg Creek downstream of the Golden Gate showing.

Noranda identified a gold-in-soil geochemical anomaly 1,500 meters long and 20 meters wide with values up to 1,270 parts per billion gold, extending north from the original Golden Gate showing. Rock samples taken from outcrop away from the main showing assayed as high as 3.1 g/t gold. Noranda abandoned the option on this property in 1991 as part of a corporate reorganization.

Solomon said the area has a rich history of placer gold mining, with early production reported from the Alsek River and associated drainages. Kimberley Creek, which drains the ridge south and west of the Pacer Claim Group, has been actively mined for several years and new placer claims have been staked immediately northwest of the Pacer Claim Group in the past two weeks.

A four-wheel drive road extends from Bear Creek on the Alaska Highway along the Alsek River valley and Thunderegg Creek to the southern portion of the Pacer property. Solomon field crews have upgraded the road access to the southernmost portion of the property in the past few weeks.

Solomon planned to mobilize an exploration crew to the property in late July. Stream sediment sampling will be used early in the season to corroborate historical company and RGS anomalies, while prospecting and mapping traverses on the existing claim group and two new targets will narrow down areas for detailed follow-up. The junior said the 2011 program also may include acquisition of 400 soil geochemical samples (300 from property grids to be established on the Pacer claims and 100 from ridge reconnaissance sampling.) Line-cutting will open up the middle reaches of Thunderegg Creek and surrounding slopes for preliminary exploration.

Gold, base metal potential at Outpost

The Outpost claims protect the northwesterly strike extension of the Pacer claims. The property lies along the northeastern flank of Outpost Mountain and encompasses the drainages of Silver and Boutelier Creeks.

The claims cover a highly prospective airborne geophysical anomaly in an area with anomalous stream sediment geochemical data. The airborne total magnetic and first vertical derivative anomalies trend sinuously northwesterly through the property and suggest that large-scale favorable mineralizing structures or large mafic/ultramafic intrusives may underlie this under-explored geological package and the proximity of the Kluane Ranges Intrusive Suite makes this a compelling target for epithermal gold and nickel-copper-platinum group mineralization.

The Outpost Mountain area has been intermittently explored since 1892 when Jack Dalton and E.J. Glave made an overland trip with four packhorses from the Chilkat River to the shores of Kluane Lake over a foot path, which the Chilkat First Nations had used for the preceding two centuries as a trading route to the interior of the Yukon.

Klondike prospectors used the Dalton Trail extensively during the 1898-1900 period in route to the goldfields of the Klondike, but prospecting in the Front Ranges was not established until about 1903 when Silver City was settled at the eastern end of Kluane Lake and became the center of mining activity in the region.

Silver City boasted a post office, N.W.M.P. post and Mining Recorder and a wagon road led east through the settlement of Champagne to Whitehorse.

The threat of Japanese invasion sparked the building of the Alaska Highway in 1942 and the Haines Road followed in 1944. Improved access in the post-war period brought on a brief exploration boom, though no lode mining production is known from the immediate area of the Outpost Claim Group. The area has a rich history of placer gold mining, with early production reported from Silver and Boutelier creeks.