Toodoggone - Mcconnell Project: Geology of the Mcconnell Range - Serrated Peak to Jensen Creek, Parts of Nts 943/2 and 94d/15

The Toodoggone-McConnell Project was inititated in 1996 to map and evaluate a tract of Early Jurassic plutons and surrounding arc volcanic successions of Paleozoic to Jurassic age for base and precious metal mineralization. Bedrock mapping during the first year of the program focussed on a region south of the Finlay River and east of Thutade Lake, documenting local geology near known copper-gold porphyry targets the Kemess South deposit and Kemess North and Pine prospects (Diakow and Metcalfc, 1997). The current 1:ZOOOO scale mapping program expands this geology to the east and south into the McConnell Range, between latitudes 57’06’ and 56”39’ north, and longitudes 126’39’ and 126”25’ east (Figure I). The McConnell Range was divided into two contiguous map areas along the drainage line of Jensen and Theme creeks. The northern map segment, described in this report, ties into geological work completed in 1996 in the vicinity of the t&mess South mine. It illustrates the extent of older, Paleozoic strata as far south as Jensen Creek, and also provides a glimpse of strata low in the overlying Upper Triassic succession. Geology in the southern map segment of the McConnell Range between Jensen and Johanson creeks is reported by Legun (1998). The southern region is underlain by Upper Triassic strata that are progressively younger towards the south, which affords stratigraphic comparison to correlative rocks that host important stratabound copper deposits in the Upper Triassic Takla Group in the type-area to the west. Staging for this program was the Kemess South minesite. It is situated along the northwestern periphery of the study area, and requires only a short helicopter ferry into the McConnell Range.