The regional geology of the Tanacross area is dominated by middle to upper Paleozoic metamorphic rocks of the Yukon-Tanana terrane which have been intruded by Mesozoic to Tertiary felsic to intermediate plutonic rocks. The Project is located at the intersection between two major terrane-scale structures: the NW trending, arc-parallel Big Creek Fault and the NE trending, arc-perpendicular Sixtymile-Pika Fault.
Geology within the Tanacross Project includes a series of Late Cretaceous intrusive stocks, dykes and breccias emplaced into the metamorphic Lake George assemblage basement rock. Intrusive phases include granite, gabbro, pegmatite dykes, quartz-latite, monzonite, quartz-monzonite, quartz-monzonite porphyry, feldspar-porphyry, quartz- feldspar porphyry, intrusion breccia, granodiorite and diorite porphyry. The metamorphosed basement rocks intersected in drilling include orthogneiss, paragneiss, augen gneiss, schist, amphibolite and heterolithic gneiss breccia.
Historical exploration on the Tanacross Property has identified several target areas with known mineralisation including East Taurus, West Taurus, Bluff, East Denison, Pushbush and Big Creek. The more advanced prospects which have been the focus of historical drilling include East Taurus, West Taurus, and Bluff.
East Taurus has seen the most significant amount of historical drilling and hosts a well mineralised multi-phase porphyry Cu-Au-Mo-Ag system with a core of potassic alteration (k-feldspar-biotite-magnetite) and quartz stockwork surrounded and overprinted by later quartz-sericite-pyrite ± chlorite-illite alteration. The core zone of potassic alteration is elongated in an east-northeast to west-southwest direction, and Cu-Au-Mo-Ag mineralisation has been intersected by drilling over an 800m length, varying from 100 to 200m in width.
West Taurus encompasses a significant area of quartz-chlorite-sericite-pyrite-magnetite with local K-feldspar alteration containing quartz – molybdenite ± chalcopyrite stockwork veining hosted within intrusion breccias and quartz latite rocks. The system zones outward into widespread quartz-sericite-pyrite alteration.
The Bluff target contains a large alteration system characterised by overprinting zones of quartz-sericite-pyrite, chlorite-sericite, silicification, tourmaline, and rarely identified Kspar-biotite alteration. Intrusive rocks include a quartz-latite porphyry, feldspar porphyry, and tourmaline breccia pipes.
The paragenetic relationships between lithologies, style of mineralisation and alteration zonation on the Tanacross Project is typical of many calc-alkaline related porphyry copper-gold-molybdenum-silver systems. Age dating and lithological relationships suggest the intrusions, alteration and mineralisation forming the Taurus-Bluff mineralised centers spanned over approximately five million years from 67Ma to 73Ma. Significant Late Cretaceous calc-alkaline high level porphyry stocks occur elsewhere within the Yukon Tanana Terrane, including the Casino porphyry Cu-Mo-Au deposit (74.3 ± 0.5Ma), located along the Big Creek Fault system to the southeast in Yukon, Canada.