Overview
The Gold Dome project area consists of 423 contiguous quartz claims, covering approximately 9,500 hectares. The property is located within the Mayo Mining District on NTS map sheets 115P/9 and 115P/16. The claims cover Scheelite Dome and the upper parts of Highet and Johnson Creeks. Gold Dome is an intrusion-related gold target with the potential for bulk tonnage sheeted vein style deposits and high-grade skarn, replacement and vein style deposits. Over 50,000 ounces of placer gold was historically mined from Highet Creek which drains the property.
History
Initial, small scale placer mining in the Gold Dome area started in the late 19th and early 20th centuries following the discovery of placer gold in Johnson Creek in 1884 and in Highet Creek in 1903. Highet Creek has yielded the largest amount of placer gold in the Mayo region and small scale placer mining continues today. Hardrock exploration commenced in 1916 with the discovery of the Hawthorne Vein by local prospectors and continued intermittently to the late 2000s. Early exploration programs focused on limited soil sampling, mapping and trenching prospecting for hard rock gold and tungsten. In the mid-1990’s the area hosted several small scale RC and diamond drill programs as well as further soil sampling and airborne geophysical surveys. Best results from this time include 84.3 g/t Au over 4 metres in trench, and 1.5 metres at 10.68 g/t Au, 353 ppb gold over 74.6 metres including 7.64 g/t Au over 1.5 metres in core. The 2000s saw continued small scale exploration and drilling programs with highlights of: 1.7 metres at 24.42 g/t Au, 10.08 m of 2.39 g/t Au in core near surface.
In 2009 Golden Predator conducted an 17 diamond drill hole drill program focused on the Toby, Hawthorne and Tom zone targets for a total of 2,416m. A follow up program in 2010 completed 14 diamond drill holes and 28 RC drill holes as well as 1.3km on trenching over five target areas.