Trailbreaker Acquires the Wheaton Gold Property, an Orogenic Gold Prospect in BC's Underexplored Turnagain Placer District
(TheNewswire)
July 7, 2025 – TheNewswire - Trailbreaker Resources Ltd.(TBK.V) (“Trailbreaker” or “theCompany”) is pleased to announce the acquisition of the Wheaton Goldproperty, an orogenic gold prospect located 60 km east of the Villageof Dease Lake, British Columbia (BC). The property covers theheadwaters of multiple placer gold-bearing creeks, including AliceShea Creek, source of the famous 52 troy oz ‘Turnagainnugget’.
Highlights of the Wheaton GoldProperty
2,223 hectares in size, covering roughly 2 km x 9 km(Figure 1).
Located 60 km east of Dease Lake, BC, with extensivetruck and ATV trail access throughout the claims, servicing historicand current placer mining operations.
Covers the headwaters of the placergold-bearing Wheaton and Alice Shea creeks, which are famous as thesource of some of BC’s coarsest gold nuggets. This includes thefourth largest nugget ever found in BC, the ‘Turnagain nugget’,weighing 52 oz gold (Au) (Figure 2)
The project represents one of BC’s most underexploredplacer gold districts, with very limited hardrock exploration workdone to date.
A three-hole, 304.7-meter diamond drill programcompleted in 1986 yielded numerous gold intercepts, including 5.38 g/t Au over 3.05 m (from28.96m depth)
Historic gold-in-soil values up to 32.3 g/t Au, andhistoric rock grab samples up to 11.25 g/t Au ,have been returned.
Daithi Mac Gearailt, CEO ofTrailbreaker, commented: “We are excited to add the Wheaton Gold property to our portfolioof gold and copper exploration projects. Now that the claims have beenconsolidated, this is a great opportunity to explore the area of ahistoric discovery hole that has yet to receive follow-up exploration.This is one of the few placer districts left in BC where a hardrocksource of the placer gold has yet to be found. We are currentlydesigning a robust exploration program and will be providing updatesas soon as they are available.”
Location and Access
The 2,223-hectare Wheaton Gold property is located approximately 60 kilometers east-southeast of the Village ofDease Lake in northwestern British Columbia and can be accessed byall-terrain vehicles utilizing the Boulder Mine Road. The property canalso be accessed by float plane chartered from Dease Lake to BoulderCity Lake. Historic placer mining trails provide good vehicle accessto much of the property.
Giga Metals Corporation has proposed a major road andtransmission line to its advance-stage Turnagain nickel-cobaltdeposit, located 10 km to the east. This would bisect the northern endof the Wheaton Gold property, further bolstering the potentialeconomic viability of the area.
Figure 1: Locationof the Wheaton Gold property with historic explorationhighlights.
Placer Mining History
Placer gold was first discovered at the mouth ofWheaton Creek (formerly Boulder Creek) in 1932 and shortly afterwardson Alice Shea Creek, a small tributary of Wheaton Creek. TheWheaton-Shea placer camp marked the last major placer gold discoveryin BC, with a total of 7,756 oz of placer gold mined from WheatonCreek between 1932 and 1945, and a total of 331 oz Au mined from AliceShea between 1936 and 1940. Alice Shea Creek produced the coarsestplacer gold in the drainage, with one nugget weighing over 52 oz (theTurnagain nugget, Figure 2) and numerous nuggets weighing from 1 to 16oz. Modern-day placer mining continues to this day at the mouth ofWheaton Creek, with over 20,000 oz of placer gold estimated to berecovered to date.
Figure 2: The 52oz Turnagain nugget, discovered in Alice Shea Creek in1937 1 .
Hardrock Exploration History
Wheaton Zone
The northern portion of the property, covering thepresent-day placer operations near the mouth of Wheaton Creek, hasseen the least amount of hardrock exploration within the property,having undergone only one documented significant program, completed in1986 by Supreme Resources (Supreme). That year, Supreme conducted asoil geochemical survey followed by a mechanical trenching programwhich returned very encouraging results, and identified stronglyanomalous gold-in-soil values up to 32,300 ppb Au. Trenching withinthese soil anomalies returned rock gab samples up to 11.25 g/t Au.During the same year, Supreme tested this zone with 3 shallow diamonddrill holes totaling 304.7 meters (Figure 3). However, only limitedfollow-up work in the last 39 years has been documented.
Hole DDH-86-01, the first of the 1986 program,encountered several gold-enriched intervals associated withfault-controlled quartz-carbonate breccia, including:
5.38 g/t Au over 3.05 meters (from 28.96 meters)
1.23 g/t Au over 3.05 meters (from 38.10 meters)
1.88 g/t Au over 3.05 meters (from 47.24 meters)
0.89 g/t Au over 3.05 meters (from 68.58 meters)
0.34 g/t Au over 3.05 meters (from 102.11 meters)
3.46 g/t Au over 2.44 meters (from 139.29 meters)
The other two holes underwent very limited sampling,with only two samples taken from DDH-86-02 and one from DDH-86-03, allreturning trace gold values.
This work by Supreme resulted in the first and onlydiscovery of hardrock gold mineralization that could be linked to thesource of the rich placer gold deposits along the lower portion ofWheaton Creek.
Figure 3: Locationof the 1986 diamond drill program above Wheaton Creek.
Pacific Bay Minerals, a junior mining company, held theground from 2015 to 2024 but conducted very limited exploration. Muchof Pacific Bay’s efforts were focused on mining jade boulders ratherthan on hardrock gold exploration. Their most significant workincluded a 2021 property-wide airborne magnetic survey that defined anopen-ended NW-SE trending linear magnetic low feature that correlateswith the 1986 discovery hole by Supreme. This is interpreted topotentially represent a listwanite-altered fault zone (Figure 4).Listwanite and listwanitic alteration is extensively documented aroundAlice Shea Creek (expanded upon below).
This survey provided several new exploration targetswhich have not been tested to date. Severaleast-west trending offsets occurring near the Wheaton zone mayrepresent potential structures associated with gold mineralization.
Figure 4: The 2021airborne magnetic survey completed by Pacific Bay Minerals displays asignificant NW-SE trending magnetic low which is interpreted to be alistwanite-altered fault zone. The 1986 drilling is located on themargin of this zone.
Shea Zone
The Shea zone is located along the headwaters of Alice Shea creek,close to the discovery area of the 52 oz Turnagain gold nugget. Thenugget was discovered in the upper extent of the drainage, narrowingthe search for the hardrock source.
The majority of the exploration work done at the Sheazone was done from 1985 to 1996, with several junior mining companiesconducting small-scale exploration surveys. This includes companiessuch as Powder Ridge Resources, Imperial Metals, Goldbank Ventures,and Loumic Resources.
Loumic Resources’ 1996 exploration program was themost robust, comprising 196 soil samples and 191 meters of mechanizedtrenching 4 . Reconnaissance soil sampling identified several anomalousgold-arsenic (As) zones (up to 161 ppb Au & 112 ppm As) that haveyet to receive follow-up exploration (Figure 5). Furthermore,trenching, targeting gossanous float immediately upslope from thelocation of the 52 oz gold nugget, revealed a listwanite outcropcontaining intense quartz stockwork and disseminated pyrite. Onlytrace gold values were returned; however, the mineralization andalteration are textbook markers for orogenic gold deposits. Thismarked the last significant gold exploration program occurring on theShea zone.
In 2011, First Point Minerals Corp was the last juniormining company to work the property; however, they focused on nickelmineralization rather than gold. Gold analysis for rock grab samplesduring the 2011 program utilized a 4 g/t detection limit, much higherthan fire assay detection limits commonly used.
Figure 5: Historichardrock exploration along Alice Shea Creek, with the approximatelocation of the discovery of the 52 oz Turnagain nugget.
Geology, Deposit Model, andMineralization
The Wheaton Gold property is underlain bynorthwest-trending, complexly folded and faulted ultramafic rocks ofthe oceanic Cache Creek terrane, and by metasedimentary rocks of theKedahda Formation (Figure 6).
The northern portion of the Wheaton Gold propertycovers fault-bounded metasedimentary rocks of the Mississippian toTriassic Kedahda formation which include heterolithic argillite withwispy silt laminae, thinly bedded sandstone, and rare discontinuouslimestone beds. This Kedahda sedimentary package is separated from theultramafic rocks (peridotite, dunite, pyroxenite) of the Cache Creekterrane by a northwest-southeast trending thrust fault.
Figure 6: Regionalgeology and neighbouring projects of the Wheaton Gold property.
The Wheaton Gold property demonstrates potential for orogenic“motherlode-style” Au-bearing quartz vein deposits, such as thepast-producing 4.2 Moz Bralorne-Pioneer mine in the Bridge Lake GoldCamp, southwestern British Columbia, and the world-famous SierraNevada mining district in California which produced over 100 Moz ofplacer and hardrock ‘lode’ gold (Figure 7). The Wheaton Goldproperty is analogous to these deposits, as all are hosted by oceaniccrust accreted onto ancestral North America and spatially associatedwith significant coarse placer gold deposits. Furthermore, the lodegold deposits at both the Bridge Lake and Sierra Nevada gold districtsare associated with listwanitic alteration of peridotites, quartzveining, and major fault structures, all of which have also beenmapped in the Wheaton property area.
Figure 7: Orogeniclode gold camps along the Cordillera (modified from Nelson et al.,2013 5 ).
There have been no major orogenic lode gold deposits delineated todate within the northern Cache Creek terrane. However, several largeplacer gold camps have been established, commonly accompanied byhardrock showings and small gold deposits indicating potential sourcesof the rich surficial placers. Nearby examples of orogenic goldshowings within the oceanic Cache Creek terrane include theYellowjacket deposit (130,000 tonnes grading 5.8 g/t Au) situated inthe Atlin Goldfields, and the Keystone Showing (historic drillintercepts include 9.1 g/t Au over 12.2 m within a quartz porphyrysetting) in the Thibert placer district. Both of these are associatedwith quartz veining and listwanitic alteration.
The Erickson gold camp, ~100 km to the north-northwest, is not hostedby the Cache Creek terrane, but is surrounded by the McDame Creekcoarse surficial placer gold deposits, where the second-largest placergold nugget ever recorded in BC, weighing 72 oz, was discovered. AtErickson, which comprises several past-producing gold mines, lode goldis characterised by quartz veins hosted by listwanite. Average gradesranged from 10-20 g/t Au for a total of 315,000 oz Au minedhistorically. The Erickson camp includes the Taurus deposit, currentlyowned and being advanced by Cassiar Gold Corp., which has delineatedan indicated resource of 0.4 Moz Au and an additional inferredresource of 1.9 Moz Au 6 .
Placer miners have reported that many of the placergold nuggets recovered from the Peacock workings of Wheaton Creek,which directly drains the area of drill hole DDH-86-01, containinclusions of altered pyroxene and serpentine, and that some goldnuggets are still fused to quartz fragments. These observations by theplacer miners further suggest the placer gold in Wheaton Creek has anearby source.
Terms of the Option Agreement
On July 1 st , 2025 (the “Effective Date”),Trailbreaker signed an option agreement (the “Agreement”) withCordilleran Properties (the “Optionee”) of Kamloops, BC. Subjectto the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange, Trailbreaker has theoption to acquire a 100% interest in the Wheaton Gold property bycompleting the following:
- (a) paying to the Optionee $10,000on the Effective Date;
- (b) paying to the Optionee $10,000 onor before the first anniversary of the Effective Date ;
- (c) paying to the Optionee $15,000 on orbefore the second anniversary of the Effective Date;
- (d) paying to the Optionee $25,000 or issuing to the Optionee$25,000 worth of Trailbreaker common shares (“Shares”) on orbefore the third anniversary of the Effective Date;
- (e) paying to the Optionee $75,000 or issuing to the Optionee$75,000 worth of Shares on or before the fourth anniversary of theEffective Date; and
- (f) completing $1,000,000 of expenditureson or before the fifth anniversary of the EffectiveDate.
Upon completion of the Agreement, Trailbreaker willobtain a 100% interest in the property and the Optionee will retain atotal 2.0% Net Smelter Return (NSR) royalty, which may be brought downto 0.5% through a cash payment of $1,500,000 to the Optionee.
References
Alice Shea Creek BC minfile
https://minfile.gov.bc.ca/Summary.aspx?minfilno=104I%20%20005
Cukor, V. 1987. Diamond Drill Report for SupremeResources on the Jed Claims.
https://apps.nrs.gov.bc.ca/pub/aris/Detail/16332
Pacific Bay Minerals’ September 16, 2019 newsrelease
https://www.pacificbayminerals.com/news/wheaton-creek-property
Livgard, E. 1997. Exploration Report 1996. The Mt SheaClaim Group, for Loumic Resources
https://apps.nrs.gov.bc.ca/pub/aris/Detail/24891
Nelson, J.L., Colpron, M., and Israel, S., 2013, TheCordillera of British Columbia, Yukon, and Alaska: Tectonics andmetallogeny, in Colpron, M., Bissig, T., Rusk, B.G., and Thompson,J.F.H., eds., Tectonics, Metallogeny, and Discovery: The NorthAmerican Cordillera and Similar Accretionary Settings: Society ofEconomic Geologists Special Publication 17, p. 53–109.
Cassiar Gold website
https://cassiargold.com/projects/cassiar-gold-project/cassiar-gold-project/
About Trailbreaker Resources
Trailbreaker Resources is a mining exploration companyfocused primarily on mining-friendly British Columbia and YukonTerritory, Canada. Trailbreaker is committed to continuous explorationand research, allowing maintenance of a portfolio of quality mineralproperties which in turn provides value for shareholders. The companyhas an experienced management team with a proven track record asexplorers and developers throughout the Yukon Territory, BritishColumbia, Alaska and Nevada.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
Daithi Mac Gearailt
President and Chief Executive Officer
Carl Schulze, P. Geo., Consulting Geologist with AuroraGeosciences Ltd, is a qualified person as defined by NationalInstrument 43-101 for Trailbreaker's BC and Yukon explorationprojects, and has reviewed and approved the technical information inthis release.
Other
For new information about the Company’s projects,please visit Trailbreaker’s website at TrailbreakerResources.com and signup to receive news. For further information, follow Trailbreaker’stweets at , usethe ‘Contact’ section of our website, or contact us at (604) 681-1820 or at info@trailbreakerresources.com .
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange norits Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in thepolicies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for theadequacy or accuracy of this release.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements contained in this newsrelease that are not historical facts are "forward-lookinginformation" or "forward-looking statements"(collectively, "Forward-Looking Information") within themeaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and the UnitedStates Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.Forward-Looking Information includes, but is not limited to,disclosure regarding possible events, conditions or financialperformance that is based on assumptions about future economicconditions and courses of action; expectations regarding futureexploration and drilling programs and receipt of related permitting. In certain cases,Forward-Looking Information can be identified by the use of words andphrases such as "anticipates", "expects","understanding", "has agreed to" or variations ofsuch words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events orresults "would", "occur" or "beachieved". Although Trailbreaker has attempted to identifyimportant factors that could affect Trailbreaker and may cause actualactions, events or results to differ materially from those describedin Forward-Looking Information, there may be other factors that causeactions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated orintended. In making the forward-looking statements in this newsrelease, if any, Trailbreaker has applied several materialassumptions, including the assumption that general business andeconomic conditions will not change in a materially adverse manner. There can be no assurance that Forward-Looking Information willprove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differmaterially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly,readers should not place undue reliance on Forward-LookingInformation. Except as required by law, Trailbreaker does not assumeany obligation to release publicly any revisions to Forward-LookingInformation contained in this news release to reflect events orcircumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence ofunanticipated events.
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