Critical Metals - Tuya Volcanics
June 2025
THE TUYA VOLCANIC PROJECT is a new GRASSROOTS MINERAL PROPERTY, located in an unexplored part of northwest B.C., in map zone 104J and the Atlin Mining Division.
The TUYA VOLCANIC PROJECT was staked as a collaborative effort by a B.C.-based prospecting syndicate to secure a unique site that is prospective for 11 OF CANADA’S 31 CRITICAL MINERALS in a novel depositional environment. It is a rare untested mineral prospect and represents a novel geological hypothesis that could open up new exploration approaches in the Cordillera.
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The TUYA VOLCANIC PROJECT is centered on a unique confluence of extremely high-order BC Geological Survey regional geochemical stream (RGS) samples.
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A cluster of adjacent sample sites are anomalous in 11 of Canada’s critical metal elements, as shown in the table below. This may be the highest-order stream geochemical gallium anomaly in the province (multiple adjacent sites >99.9 percentile) with a coincident titanium-cobalt anomaly.
The importance of gallium is given new urgency by Chinese export bans; it is an integral component of modern computer chips, among other uses.
The Tuya Volcanic Project is located astride a series of very young Holocene aged volcanic cones intruding a thick basinal succession of Mississippian-Triassic shales and limestones of the Whitehorse Basin.
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The high RGS samples seem to drain off “Tuya” style volcanic calderas – formed where volcanos vented underneath thick continental glaciers.
The prospectivity of caldera-hosted rare-earth element (REE) mineralization has recently come into prominence, with world-class REE resources identified at the McDermott Caldera (Nevada) and Roundtop Caldera (Texas).
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Similarly, the project’s location within the potentially natural gas-bearing Whitehorse Basin may echo the Rocky Mountain carbonatite belt, which hosts economic REE mineralization where volcanic stocks intruded a hydrocarbon-rich sedimentary basin in Paleozoic – Mesozoic time, before orogenic deformation.
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Similarly, the association of gallium with high-order aluminum and iron enrichment in the RGS results invokes comparison to the REE bauxites of the Caribbean, which are emerging as important potential critical mineral sources.
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Overall, the extent and duration of volcanism in the area, plus the presence of permeable Permian limestones and shale formations, confirms both an energy source and a prospective “trap” for mineral deposition and enrichment. These characteristics affirm the potential for a mineralizing system, and the possibility of a new exploration target.
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This potential appears to be reflected in the BC Geological Survey mineral potential ranking (BCGS Open File 2024-05), which identified “moderate” prospectivity within the general target area, despite a paucity of exploration history or MINFILE occurrences (Figure 3). The recognized geothermal energy potential of the area confirms an energizing depositional source and active hydrothermal system, and the shale and limestone stratigraphy open potential for a variety of favorables deposition settings.
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The likely rhyolitic volcanic stocks – as indicated by the high Na in the RGS data – represents an emergent REE target in the district, as pioneered by Etruscus Resources Corp. at their Pheno claim, elsewhere in the northern cordilleran volcanic belt.