Summary:
The ore deposits and mineralized occurrences on the various claim blocks of the Property share many characteristics with the following deposit types: orogenic gold (e.g., Fenelon deposit, Bug Lake, Martiniere West and Grasset Gold), intrusion-related gold (e.g., Fenelon deposit) and volcanogenic massive sulphide (“VMS”) deposits (e.g., Martiniere East).
Fenelon Block
The Fenelon Block is almost entirely covered by overburden, with depths ranging from 5 m to over 117 m (20 to 35 m on average). The block covers approximately 14 km of the Sunday Lake Deformation Zone (SLDZ).
The area of the Fenelon deposit is located within 2 km north of the SLDZ and is also covered with approximately 20-30 m of glacial overburden. The area is mainly underlain by a turbiditic sedimentary basin and the eastern margin of the Jérémie Pluton.
The Fenelon deposit comprises four gold-bearing domains: the Gabbro Zones in the gabbro sill complex, the Tabasco and Cayenne and Contact zones in sedimentary rocks, the Area 51 Zone in the Jérémie Diorite and adjacent sedimentary rocks, and the RipleyReaper zones in the southern extension of the Jérémie Diorite along the northern contact of the SLDZ.
Gabbro Zone
The Gabbro Zones consist of seven (7) mineralized zones from northeast to southwest: Trinidad Scorpion, Fresno, Chipotle, Anaheim, Cayenne 3, Habanero and Serrano.
Two different types of mineralization are distinguished: 1) massive, laminated or brecciated silica- sulphide zones along mafic dyke contacts or as isolated, irregular, metre-scale lens-shaped bodies inside the mafic dyke complex, and 2) narrow, lenticular or commonly tabular zones of silica-sulphide sericite alteration associated with smallscale (1-30 cm) shear zones primarily positioned along narrow dyke contacts.
Gold mineralization is concentrated in the silicified envelopes and is associated with pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite and pyrite. Sulphides are mainly disseminated, although where silicification is locally more intense, they are contained in quartz veins. Pyrrhotite is the dominant sulphide, accounting for up to 30% of the silicified envelopes by volume, with intervals of massive pyrrhotite up to several centimetres wide. Chalcopyrite content generally varies from trace amounts to 15%, locally up to 40%. When present, pyrite occurs in trace amounts or up to 2%. Marcasite has been observed in drill core and is locally associated with gold mineralization. Native gold is common in drill hole intersections and the wall rock of underground workings. The grain size of visible gold can reach 4 mm.
Tabasco, Cayenne, and Contact zones
The mineralization is discrete with a low sulphide content (<5%) and weak quartz veining. It is mainly associated with silicification and sericitization. Gold intervals are associated with a pyrrhotite- chalcopyrite-sphalerite-arsenopyrite-pyrite-galena assemblage. Pyrrhotite alone often reflects barren intervals, indicating that gold was carried with chalcopyrite. Sulphides appear as disseminated blebs in the matrix or are found in quartz veins and as isolated stringers or semi-massive to massive veinlets and veins less than 10 cm thick. The sulphide content is generally proportional to gold grade. Arsenopyrite and pyrite appear early in the paragenesis. Free gold is common and is observed in quartz veins and the adjacent wall rock along fractures or at sulphide boundaries. The highest-grade intervals are associated with zones of massive to semi-massive sulphides, intense silica and sericite alteration, and quartz veins.
Most of the mineralization is pre- to syn-ductile deformation. Gold-sulphide-bearing veinlets, strings and blebs are sheared and stretched parallel to the foliation and stretching lineation. Sulphides have been observed in the axial planes of isoclinal folds and within the pressure shadows in boudinage necks. Chalcopyrite and free gold occasionally occur in brittle fractures perpendicular to sheared veins, indicating that part of the mineralization was remobilized late in the deformation history.
Area 51 zon
Gold mineralization is mainly associated with isolated or regularly spaced subparallel sheeted translucent grey quartz veins that are generally 1-2 cm thick and rarely up to 5 cm thick.
Gold-bearing sulphides also occur as dissemination or as veinlets with chlorite selvages. Pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite are the major sulphides, followed by pyrite, sphalerite, arsenopyrite, marcasite and galena. Pyrite is more common in Area?51 than in other zones. Visible gold is commonly observed as isolated blebs in quartz veins or vein selvages. It is also found at sulphide grain boundaries or in fractures inside grains. White quartz-carbonate veins are late and unmineralized.
Ripley-Reaper gold zones
The mineralization is preferentially hosted in the more felsic phase of the Jérémie intrusion, which is surrounded (and intercalated with) the more mafic phase; however, mineralization also occurs in the mafic phase and the adjacent sediments. It is associated with a pervasive replacement silica-sericite alteration of the Jérémie intrusion that yields a relatively consistent distribution of gold grades. Higher-grade zones are associated with quartz veins containing visible gold and moderate sulphide content and arsenopyrite-pyrite+/-chalcopyrite stockwork veins.
Martiniere Block
Gold mineralization typically shows a close spatial association with greater amounts of: (1) disseminated to (rarely) semi-massive pyrite; (2) carbonate and/or quartz alteration and veining; and (3) brittle to ductile structures. Lithology and alteration are somewhat different on the Bug Lake and Martiniere West trends, resulting in a distinction between “Bug Lake-style” and “Martiniere West-style” mineralization.
The Bug Lake zones are divided into North and South zones, both centred on the Bug Lake porphyry and the BLFZ. The fault and porphyry dip an average of 60° to 80° to the east, exhibiting a ramp-flat structure in the North Zone and a more planar structure in the South Zone. Gold mineralization occurs adjacent to both the upper and lower contacts of the Bug Lake porphyry. The contact zones consist of ankerite- and/or dolomite-altered greenstone with 1-5% disseminated pyrite. They include one or more of 1) 0.1 to 10 m wide intervals of carbonate-quartz flooding; 2) veins and/or vein breccias; and/or 3) 0.1 to 1 m intercepts with 30-70% pyrite. Accessory minerals include tourmaline, telluride, arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite, galena and sphalerite. Vein breccias comprise angular fragments of coliform-textured carbonate-quartz veins, suggesting an upper crustal setting. Gold grades are highest in pyrite-rich intervals and strongly sulphidized wall rock. Veining is likely contemporaneous with alteration.
The Martiniere West and Central zones are hosted within the Martiniere West Trend. The Martiniere West Trend is stratigraphically concordant, 200 to 300 m wide, and defined by a weak deformation fabric, localized silicification and veining, and 1-5% disseminated pyrite. Elevated gold occurs throughout the Martiniere West Trend, but the highest grades occur within shoots hosted by silicified shear zones (“SSZ”) and/or sets of quartz-dolomite ± sulphide veins (“QDL”). The SSZs and individual veins range from 0.1 to 10 m and 1 to 40 cm wide, respectively. Gabbro within the Martiniere West Trend is markedly non-magnetic, providing a useful marker for rocks that could host anomalous gold. Grades within the SSZ and QDL intervals range from >10 g/t Au over a few metres to 1 g/t Au over several tens of metres.