The Coffee Project comprises numerous gold occurrences, including the structurally-controlled gold-only Coffee deposit, which is hosted in poly-deformed Paleozoic basement rocks of the Yukon-Tanana terrane and Mesozoic plutons situated in the northern Canadian Cordillera, west-central Yukon. The deposit has been interpreted as having characteristics of numerous deposit types over the project’s history including epithermal, reduced intrusion-related, Carlin-type, and orogenic gold, as well as combinations of deposit types. Recent mapping efforts and new geochronology highlight a previously unknown secondary phase of the Permian Sulphur Creek suite and led to the relocation of the Coffee Creek fault which is interpreted as a primary controlling structure of the Coffee deposit. A new structural analysis builds on previous depth estimates and suggests that the deposit formed at a relatively shallow depth of 1–3 km and together with the new map has outlined the structural history of the deposit in greater detail. New dike geochemistry suggests some mineralized Coffee dikes may be related to the Carmacks group volcanics or Prospector Mountain suite intrusives, which implies a Late Cretaceous age of formation. Field relationships and timing of regional faulting together corroborate a minimum age of formation of ~57 Ma. Available multi-element geochemistry highlights a subtle Au-As-Sb ± Ag-Pb-Te-W-Zn-K metal association that suggests a possible magmatic component to the mineralizing fluids at Coffee. Newly drilled shallow mafic intrusions adjacent to the Coffee Creek pluton serve as a potential source and may be coeval with movement on the Coffee Creek and Big Creek fault systems.

A new widespread, structurally controlled gold mineralizing system has been identified during the 2010 exploration drilling program at the Coffee Project, west-central Yukon. The Coffee Creek area is underlain by a sequence of shallowly to moderately south to southwest-dipping Paleozoic metamorphic rocks that are considered to be part of the Yukon-Tanana terrane and are intruded by the Cretaceous Coffee Creek granite along a west to northwest-trending contact. During the 2010m drilling program, structurally controlled gold mineralization was discovered in all major lithological units underlying the Coffee property. Importantly, these mineralized zones correspond to a number of discrete structural corridors. The gold zones are steeply dipping and characterized by extensive silicification in addition to sericite and clay alteration accompanied by variable As-Ag-Sb-Ba-Mo enrichment. Polyphase breccias of both hydrothermal and tectonic origin, in addition to andesitedacite dykes, are common within the gold-bearing structural corridors. The dominant sulphide is pyrite, although trace arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite and stibnite are observed locally. The similarity of breccia textures and alteration/sulphide mineralogy between all gold zones currently defined on the Coffee property implies a common mineralizing event.

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