The Lawyers-Ranch Project defines a 495 km2 land package in north-central British Columbia.
The project is within the historical Toodoggone Mining District, a re-emerging district with a similar geological history and potential mineral endowment to the prolific Golden Triangle to the west.
TSX.V: TAU | WKN: A3EP87 | OTCQX: THSGF
This project is quickly developing into one of Canada’s largest gold-silver projects. A 2022 Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) of the Lawyers project defined a mineral resource of 3.14 million ounces AuEq in the Measured and Indicated categories, and 0.415 Moz AuEq in the Inferred category1. The economic projection presented in the PEA is based on an open pit targeting the bulk-tonnage potential of the Lawyers resource. The Company is currently drilling deeper, high-grade targets at Lawyers that will likely add potentially mineable underground ounces to an updated PEA.
In addition to delineating the extent of underground potential at Lawyers, the Company has undertaken an infill drill program at Ranch intended to provide the density required for a maiden resource estimate. Potential resource material defined at Ranch will be evaluated in trade-off studies to identify whether it can be integrated into a conceptual mining plan within the anticipated updated Lawyers PEA.
Over 30 targets exist between the adjacent Ranch-Lawyers project, a fraction of which have been drill-tested. Drilling has confirmed the presence of multiple mineralized trends, and ongoing, property-wide ground exploration suggests there is significant potential for continued new discoveries at undrilled targets.
Lawyers-Ranch Project
Project Location and Infrastructure
Excellent infrastructure provides year-round road access to the Lawyers-Ranch Project. The Ranch project is accessible via a newly reactivated, all-season Ring Road that circumnavigates the Lawyers property. Additionally, the Sturdee Airstrip, 30 km from site, provides flight access to and from regional airports in Terrace, Smithers, and Prince George, BC. The projects are situated ~45 km from the Kemess mine’s hydroelectric power grid, a green energy power source.
Lawyers-Ranch Project HIGHLIGHTS
2 Gold equivalent (AuEq) calculated using 80:1 silver to gold ratio; price basis USD $1735oz Au, USD $21.75/oz Ag. AuEq resource includes 1,772 K oz Au at 1.18 g/t Au, 34.1 M oz Ag at 22.71 g/t Ag(M&I), 345 k oz Au at 2.20 g/t Au, 5.7 Moz Ag at 36.10 g/t Ag (Inf), with Au and Ag recovery of 92.4%and 75.6%
Lawyers-Ranch PROJECT MAP
QP STATEMENT
Results from both existent and ongoing samples were/are being analyzed at ALS Global Laboratories (Geochemistry Division) in Vancouver, Canada (an ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accredited facility). The sampling program is undertaken by Company personnel under the direction of Rob L’Heureux, P.Geol., and a secure chain of custody was and is maintained in transporting and storing of all samples. Fire assay with atomic emission spectrometry and gravimetric finish is utilized for gold assays when required (+10 g/t Au). Analysis by four acid digestion with 48 element ICP-MS was and is conducted on all samples, with silver and base metal over-limits being re-analyzed by atomic absorption or emission spectrometry. Rock chip samples from outcrop/bedrock are selective by nature and may not be representative of the mineralization hosted on the project.
Michael Dufresne, M.Sc., P.Geol., P.Geo., serves as a Technical Advisor and is the Qualified Person, as defined by National Instrument 43-101, responsible for reviewing and approving the technical content of all materials publicly disclosed by Thesis Gold, including the contents of this website.
Regional Geology and Mineralization
The Lawyers-Ranch Project are two adjacent land packages situated within the Stikine terrane (Stikinia), which spans much of northern British Columbia. Stikinia is the product of multiple episodes of volcanic arc formation involving prolonged periods of magmatic and volcanic activity. In northeastern Stikinia, rocks that reflect the volcanic and magmatic processes define the geology of the Toodoggone Mining District. Analogous magmatic and volcanic rocks in western Stikinia are responsible for much of the geology of the extensively explored and developed Golden Triangle.
During the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic, intrusive rocks and related volcanics of the Takla and Toodoggone groups (equivalent to the Stuhini and Hazelton groups in the Golden Triangle), were the driving source for the development of epithermal and porphyry style systems present throughout much of northern British Columbia. Across the Stikine terrane, the unconformable contact between Late Triassic, Takla/Stuhini rocks, and Early Jurassic, Toodoggone Formation rocks is widely recognized as being highly prospective for epithermal and porphyry style mineralization in both the Toodoggone district and the Golden Triangle. This contact is present at the northern reaches of the Ranch project and the southern reaches of the Lawyers project, emphasizing the widespread prospectivity of the rocks that define the geological framework.
Epithermal and porphyry style mineralization in the Toodoggone district is genetically related to Early Jurassic volcanic and intrusive activity; these deposits are dominantly hosted in volcanic rocks of the Toodoggone Formation, which comprise the bulk of the underlying geology at both Lawyers and Ranch. Epithermal style gold-silver mineralization at Lawyers and gold mineralization at Ranch is temporally associated with porphyry style gold-copper mineralization at the Kemess Mine approximately 45 km to the southeast. These deposit types can occur in extensional volcanic settings and tend to be concentrated along structures, or localized zones of rock fracturing and weakness, that provide more permeable pathways and conduits for mineralizing fluids as they rise to surface.
At Ranch and Lawyers, over 30 targets are spread along a ~25 km strike length that is centered around regional-scale NW trending structures that continue southeast towards the gold-copper porphyry at Kemess. The presence of regionally prospective stratigraphy crosscut by regionally extensive structures emphasizes the remaining potential for discovery beyond the currently defined limits of exploration.
History of Exploration and Development in the Toodoggone Mining District
Exploration in the Toodoggone Mining District began in the 1960s by prospectors drawn to the area by prominent rusty colored ridges and waterways. By the 1980s, numerous precious metal occurrences, prospects, and deposits were defined and discovered including porphyry gold-copper mineralization at Kemess, and epithermal style mineralization at Ranch and Lawyers.
Early discoveries in the Ranch and Lawyers project areas were the result of robust datasets containing geophysical, drill, and trench data as well as rock and soil geochemistry. These data helped define mineralization at the Amethyst Gold Breccia (AGB), Cliff’s Creek, and Duke’s Ridge zones, which comprise the Lawyers 2022 PEA resource estimate, and the Bonanza, Thesis III, and BV zones that were historically mined at Ranch.
Historical underground mining at Lawyers, owned and operated by Cheni Gold Mines Inc., began in 1989 and lasted until 1992. The mine produced 173,678 ounces of gold and 3,638,954 ounces of silver from 570,880 tonnes of material (recovered grade: 9.5 g/t gold and 198 g/t silver). In 1991, production at the Lawyers mine was augmented by over 40,000 tonnes of high-grade material (between 9.81 and 16.75 g/t Au) extracted from shallow surface pits At Ranch. This additional mine feed amounted to an additional 10,000 oz of gold production. The original mine plan outlined a 10-year mine life, but operations came to an early halt in response to declining gold prices and much of the historical resource remained in the ground after only 4 years of mining.
Exploration in the Toodoggone Mining District began in the 1960s by prospectors drawn to the area by prominent rusty colored ridges and waterways. By the 1980s, numerous precious metal occurrences, prospects, and deposits were defined and discovered including porphyry gold-copper mineralization at Kemess, and epithermal style mineralization at Lawyers-Ranch.
TSX.V: TAU | WKN: A3EP87 | OTCQX: THSGF