The Lucky Joe property consists of 548 claims covering 11,453 hectares of the Dawson Mining Division located approximately 55 kilometres due south of Dawson City, Yukon. Lucky Joe is situated in close proximity to the Northern Access Road currently being built by Goldcorp to connect to the multi-million-ounce Coffee gold deposit. A seasonal 4×4 road provides access to within a few kilometres of the southern boundary Lucky Joe.
Lucky Joe was purchased from Golden Predator Mining Corp. in July 2017. It forms the northern half of the “Heart of Gold” project which also includes the Rosebute property. Together these two properties cover 25,840 hectares in the heart of the White Gold district forming one of the largest, most prospective projects in the area. Lucky Joe is located roughly 35 kilometres north of the Golden Saddle deposit owned by White Gold Corp., where historic estimates (Underworld and Kinross) of measured and indicated resources range from 0.8 to 1.0 million ounces of gold grading from 2.7 to 3.2gpt Au, and inferred resources range from 125,000 to 407,000 ounces of gold grading from 1.8 and 2.5gpt Au1.
The main mineralized zones on the property include the Lucky Joe Creek copper zone, defined by drilling, and Bear Cub and Ryan’s Creek trends, defined by soil geochemical anomalies, ground geophysical surveys, trenching and wide-spaced drilling2. Exploration on Lucky Joe dates back to 1970 when the Lucky Joe Creek copper prospect was discovered by Silver Standard Mines Ltd. (“Silver Standard”). Through to 1978 Silver Standard drilled approximately 2,538 metres in 15 holes on the Lucky Joe Creek and Bear Club copper zones. In 2001 Copper Ridge Exploration Inc. (“Copper Ridge”) purchased the remaining Silver Standard claims and optioned the surrounding claims from well-known local prospector Shawn Ryan. Up to 2010 Copper Ridge completed soil geochemical, mapping, and geophysical surveys, and drilled approximately 4,663 metres in 27 drill holes. The Ryan’s Creek gold zone was discovered as a result of this work. Lucky Joe was acquired by Golden Predator as part of a corporate reorganization completed in 2014.
The Lucky Joe Creek mineralization consists of disseminated chalcopyrite, pyrite and minor molybdenite within a northwest-trending zone roughly 800 metres long. Copper grades in drilling vary from 0.18% to 0.62 % Cu over intersections from 23 to 30 metres wide. The zone dips moderately to the southwest.
The Bear Cub trend is a northwest-trending, multi-element soil geochemical anomaly approximately 11 kilometres long. It varies from 500 to 2,000 metres wide. The core of the trend is defined by copper-in-soil values ranging from 385 to 4,400 parts per million copper (“ppm Cu”). Drilling has intersected numerous broad intervals of weak copper mineralization typically less than 0.2% Cu.
The Ryan’s Creek trend zone is a linear, north-northwest trending zone, approximately 7.0 kilometres long that is defined by coincident copper-gold soil and chargeability anomalies found along the eastern edge of a linear magnetic anomaly. Mineralization consists of disseminated pyrite and chalcopyrite with malachite, azurite and iron oxides within sericite schist. Wide-spaced drilling along a 2.8 kilometre segment of the Ryan Creek trend has cut several encouraging intervals including 0.36% Cu, 0.85gpt Au over 11.95m from 51.0m (LJ06-09), and 0.91% Cu, 0.50gpt Au over 7.3m from 8.5m (LJ07-19).
Recent Developments
In August 2017 Taku completed prospecting, rock sampling and soil geochemical surveys at various locations on the Lucky Joe property. The main focus of work was to locate the possible eastward extension of the White Gold’s Lira target located on the west boundary of Lucky Joe3. Past work on Lucky Joe has been almost entirely focused on copper targets. The limited drilling done on the Ryan Creek trend has returned several promising gold intervals. Moreover all the past work on Lucky Joe was done before the Golden Saddle and Coffee gold deposits were made. Going forward Taku intends to evaluate Lucky Joe for its gold potential.
- White Gold Corp. website – www.whitegoldcorp.ca consulted October 16, 2017
- White, D. (2010): Assessment Report 2010 Diamond Drilling, Lucky Joe Property, Yukon (unpubl.)
- White Gold press release dated June 5, 2017
