The Justice area was acquired by Eagle Plains Resources as a prospecting permit in 2006. The Justice and Sass showings, composed of sphalerite hosted in Devonian carbonates, were located in 2007.
The Justice property is located 250 km north-east of Ross River, YT and 210 km south-west of Norman Wells, NT. and is accessed by air from the Willow Handle Lake camp, 20 km to the north.
The claims were staked at the beginning of November 2008 to cover the Justice showing are and some of the prospective SEDEX stratigraphy.
Geology
The Justice area sits at the base of the Misty Creek Embayment in the Devonian Grizzly Bear Formation in a set of broad anticlines and synclines. The Devonian Earn Group overlies the Grizzly Bear Formation and is a prospective unit to host SEDEX style mineralization. The area sits in the hanging wall near the edge of a large thrust fault.
Regional geologic mapping by the Geological Survey of Canada shows the area of the Justice showing is located in Earn Group shales. The tongue of Grizzly Bear carbonates to the west of the showing in reality extends to the Justice showing. The Justice showing is hosted in a thin layer of Grizzly Bear limestone that is surrounded by siltstone and shale of the Earn Group. The mineralization is found along the base of a 30 meter cliff and is represented by pods of green-orange sphalerite and to a minor extent galena in large recessive nodules. Mineralization is found over a strike length of approximately 230 meters. The mineralization is not pervasive but some pods are high grade, returning 27% Zn and 1.3% Pb in one 2007 grab sample and 36% Zn in another.
The Sass showing is hosted in a thin layer of Hume Group carbonates within the Earn Group. The mineralization is focused in two locations separated by approximately 300 m with a low grade zone between them. The mineralization is located in a fold hinge and consists of pale yellow sphalerite cement in a dolostone crackle breccia. 2007 chip samples returned values of 7.6 % Zn over 1 m at the east end and 1.8 % Zn over 1 m at the west end of the mineralized zone.
Geochemistry
The goal of silt sampling in the Justice Area was to investigate the mineral potential of the undivided Earn Group rocks. Since the majority of the bedrock underlying the Justice claim is Earn group siliclastics, only samples taken from basin rocks were used for the analysis of samples within the claim. No new rock samples returned anomalous values and no new soil samples were taken.
New silt samples were only taken from the undivided Devonian Earn Group to the north of the claim. No new samples returned anomalies similar to the highly anomalous samples from 2007. The 2007 samples that returned high anomalies in zinc, silver, copper and cadmium were from the DME2 Formation. Only arsenic returned weak anomalies from the silt samples taken to the north-east of the Justice showing from the undifferentiated Earn Group.
Work Recommendations
The Justice showing is a high grade carbonate hosted Zn-Pb showing with good potential in the shales to host SEDEX style mineralization. The Sass showing, located along the same structure to the south-west of the Justice showing, indicates there is potentially much more mineralization here than is exposed at the surface. Zinc, cadmium, copper, and silver silt geochemical anomalies are located along strike between and to the west of the Justice and Sass showings. The zinc/cadmium anomaly combination is characteristic of sphalerite mineralization and the suite of anomalous elements are characteristic of SEDEX mineralization.
Detailed geologic mapping of the DME2 Formation has not been conducted on the Justice Area. The members of the DME2 Formation present at the Axe and Snake showings have significantly narrowed down the target area and are likely present within the Justice Area as well. Detailed geologic mapping is recommended for the Justice Area.
It is not yet apparent whether the Justice and Sass showings are part of the vent complex of a SEDEX system or or merely a localized carbonate-hosted Zn-Pb system. Statistical analysis of silt samples on this claim indicates that the DME2 Formation has the potential to host SEDEX style mineralization. This unit should be followed up more thoroughly and a possible connection between mineralization in the limestone and the shales should be explored. To do this, soil lines should be run across the contact between the carbonates and shales near the Justice showing and geologic mapping and prospecting of the DME2 Formation is required.
Updated October 3, 2012
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