The Brown-McDade deposit was the first vein system discovered in the Mount Nansen camp and has produced approximately 34,000 ounces (1058 kg) of gold and 131,000 ounces (4,075 kg) of silver from 225,000 metric tonnes of ore since production began in November, 1996. Production rates have varied since the mill start-up but the carbon-in-leach (CIL) plant is currently operating near capacity at 700 metric tonnes per day. Mining at the Brown-McDade open pit has exposed two separate and distinct deposit types. The first type is gold-silver vein mineralization hosted by a massive feldspar porphyry dyke. These fine-grained quartz-sulphide veins and vein breccia are enclosed by silicified and/or intensely clay-altered brecciated feldspar porphyry. The feldspar porphyry dyke has intruded along an igneous-metamorphic contact that has been mined over a strike length of 50 m in the southern portion of the pit. The second deposit type that occurs at the north end of the pit consists of a siliceous, sulphide-rich breccia in a pipe-like structure hosted by metamorphosed carbonate and clastic rocks of the Nasina Assemblage. The pipe is elongate in plan with a high-grade core approximately 15 m wide and 25 m long surrounded by a low-grade envelope consisting of quartz-sulphide stringers in a silicified breccia. The deposits are separated by a northeast-striking fault which truncates and offsets the main vein-dyke mineralization. The ore is composed of fine-grained quartz and sulphides in narrow veins or as matrix to a breccia of silicified and pyritized wall rock fragments. Unoxidized ore contains dark grey silica and pyrite, arsenopyrite, sphalerite, galena, sulphosalts, bornite, stibnite and chalcopyrite. Gold is genetically related to the pyrite phase of the mineralization and occurs as 5 to 50 micron-sized inclusions in pyrite grains. Oxidation of sulphide minerals extends to depths of up to 70 m and a large portion of the gold grains have been exposed by oxidation of the sulphides and post-depositional cataclastic fractures in the pyrite. The silver mineralogy is not as well understood but appears to be related to the base metal sulphide mineralization.

This project was undertaken to evaluate the potential to economically recover additional metal values from the 4.6 million tons of Keno Hill flotation tailings which grades 3-4 oz/t silver, 0.8% lead and 0.9% zinc. The study determined that the higher grade portion of the tailing, containing some 1.0 million tons at 5.35 oz/t Ag, responds well to cyanide heap leaching with a silver recovery of 50-60%. The testing data suggests that heap leaching is economically feasible at the current silver price of $US5.50/ounce and a currency exchange rate of 1.35 in favour of the US dollar. The response to gravity and flotation concentration was poor.

On-going compositional studies of gold from placer and lode deposits and occurrences in western Yukon provide new insights into their nature and origin. Two main compositional populations are present in placer and lode deposits in the Klondike District. The dominant population has high fineness and low mercury content, and appears to be mainly derived from lode sources in the Lone Star, King Solomon Dome and lower Gold Run Creek areas. A second population of low fineness, high-mercury-content gold is derived from lode sources on the left limit of Eldorado Creek and in the headwaters of Bear and Last Chance creeks. Placer gold in the Sixtymile District was not derived from epithermal vein occurrences like those in the Sixtymile River valley but rather has compositions more similar to Klondike-type metamorphogenic veins. Placer gold in Scroggie Creek in southern Stewart River map area appears to be derived from intrusion-related vein occurrences.

The Highet Creek area, 25 km northwest of Mayo, has been mined for placer gold continuously since 1903 by many individual operations. In this study, samples were taken from the Main Gravel units along the creek and the mineralogy of heavy concentrates analyzed. The gold morphology and variation of gold concentrations at different sample sites were examined.

A new research project was begun in 2002, aimed at better understanding the nature and origin of copper-gold mineralization and its main host rocks at the Minto and Williams Creek (Carmacks Copper) deposits in west-central Yukon. This will also help to further constrain exploration models both on a property and a regional scale. Field work in 2002 confirmed that the main host rocks for both deposits are variably deformed plutonic rocks (diorite and quartz diorite at Williams Creek and mainly granodiorite at Minto). Mineralization formed prior to the ductile deformation that has affected these units. Mineralized granodioritic gneiss from Minto and apparently post-mineralization quartz diorite at Williams Creek yield U-Pb ages of ~194 Ma and ~191 Ma, respectively; thus the mineralization appears to have formed at essentially the same time as the host intrusions. Reconnaissance Pb- and S-isotope analyses of sulphide minerals from both deposits also indicate a likely magmatic source for the mineralization.

From 2017-2019, framework metallogenic studies were completed in the eastern Yukon-Tanana upland in eastern Alaska. Numerous previously undated plutons known or suspected to contain components of porphyry, epithermal, and intrusion-related gold systems and associated deposit types were sampled for age and zircon trace element determinations between the Black Mountain area and the Yukon border, north of the Tanana River and south of the Yukon River. A collection of 54 samples were collected by Douglas Kreiner (USGS, Alaska Science Center). Zircon grains were separated from each sample. The samples were examined by U-Pb analysis by laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) in a USGS laboratory in Denver, CO. These geochronologic data are reported in a separate USGS data release https://doi.org/10.5066/P9RANVXY. The zircon samples were later analyzed for trace element characteristics by Douglas Kreiner using the Sensitive High Resolution Ion Microprobe with Reverse-Geometry (SHRIMP-RG) at the Stanford-USGS laboratory in Palo Alto, California. The samples represent several discrete periods of magmatic activity, ranging from 56.5-360.3 Ma. The Paleozoic ages are of host rocks that were previously unidentified and collected for regional framework geology. The bulk of analyzed samples are between 68-72 Ma. Other specific periods of mineralization range from 100-112 Ma and 180-211 Ma.

From 2017-2019, framework metallogenic studies were completed in the eastern Yukon-Tanana upland in eastern Alaska. Numerous previously undated plutons known or suspected to contain components of porphyry, epithermal, and intrusion-related gold systems and associated deposit types were sampled for age and zircon trace element determinations between the Black Mountain area and the Yukon border, north of the Tanana River and south of the Yukon River. A collection of 54 samples were collected by Douglas Kreiner (USGS, Alaska Science Center). Zircon grains were separated from each sample. The samples were examined by U-Pb analysis by laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) in a USGS laboratory in Denver, CO. These geochronologic data are reported in a separate USGS data release. The zircon samples were later analyzed for trace element characteristics by Douglas Kreiner using the Sensitive High Resolution Ion Microprobe with Reverse-Geometry (SHRIMP-RG) at the Stanford-USGS laboratory in Palo Alto, California. The samples represent several discrete periods of magmatic activity, ranging from 56.5-360.3 Ma. The Paleozoic ages are of host rocks that were previously unidentified and collected for regional framework geology. The bulk of analyzed samples are between 68-72 Ma. Other specific periods of mineralization range from 100-112 Ma and 180-211 Ma.