In April 2025, Nuvau submitted written confirmation to Glencore that it had met the $30 million expenditure requirement under the earn-in agreement, thereby earning the right to acquire 100% of Glencore’s interest in the Matagami Property.
On July 23, 2025, the Nuvau received written confirmation from Glencore that the Aggregate Expenditure Amount has been satisfied.
On July 23, 2025, the Nuvau entered into an extension agreement with Glencore whereby the Transfer Date associated with the Earn-in Agreement has been extended to September 21, 2025, to allow time for the parties to negotiate in good faith an amendment to the Earn-in Agreement in connection with certain of the conditions to completion of the Earn-In.
As of November 25, 2025, the parties are continuing to negotiate in good faith with a view toward concluding the amendment.
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Summary:
The Property constitutes an important zinc district, with most of the known VMS deposits spatially associated with extensive bands of felsic rocks that are divided into the North Flank, the South Flank and the West Camp. Regional metamorphism generally reached greenschist facies but locally amphibolite facies on the North Flank.
The general volcanic stratigraphy of the camp, as proposed by Sharpe Piché et al. and later modified by Pilote et al., is divided into the Watson Lake Group at the base, the Wabassee Group, and the Daniel Group at the top. The KT and all the major deposits are located at the interface of the Watson and Wabassee Groups. Some deposits are located near the base of the Wabassee group.
The Watson Lake Group
The Watson Lake Group is composed of two felsic units: (1) a poorly exposed lower dacite (500 m thick minimum; Piché et al. 1993) and (2) an upper rhyolite (1,500 m thick), termed the Watson rhyolite (2,725.9±0.8 Ma; Ross et al. 2014). Both show good evidence of submarine volcanic textures (Piché et al. 1993; Debreil, 2014). According to the geochemical classification of rhyolites associated with VMS mineralization , the Watson rhyolite (FIIIb type) is considered particularly fertile.
The Key Tuffite (KT)
Conformably overlying the Watson Lake Formation is the KT. Genna et al. described this unit as a distinct horizon composed of laminated chert/tuff containing localized disseminated sulphides (pyrite, sphalerite, and chalcopyrite). It is a marker horizon that occurs over an extensive area within Matagami that represent a hiatus in the deposition of volcanic rocks. The KT ranges in thicknesses up to 10 metres and its lithic chemistry indicates contribution of material from both the Watson Lake rhyolites and the overlying andesitic rocks of the Wabassee Group. Where hydrothermal activity occurred, there is an intimate association between the KT and both hydrothermal venting and sulphide precipitation.
The Wabassee Group
The base of the Wabassee Group marks the end of the main hiatus in locally derived lavas. The Wabassee Group, up to 3,000 m thick, mostly comprises massive or pillowed mafic lavas of basaltic and andesitic composition. However, local felsic units have been identified and are often linked to mineral deposit.
Structure
The district is subdivided in 2 main domains, North and South, separated by an important shear zone. This deformation zone has resulted in the major regional D2 deformation associated with the Opatica/Abitibi sub-provinces collisions . The North Domain is characterized by a stratigraphy and a structural grain of orientation E-W to ENE. The Southern Domain encompasses the historical South Flank, North Flank, West Camp and the Central Plain.
South Domain North Flank
The intensity of deformation is higher on the North Flank compared to the other felsic bands because of its proximity to the Opatica subprovince boundary. The North Flank has a WNW oriented stratigraphy, subvertically dipping with a northward polarity. The North Flank is a structural overlap involving the repetition or cutting of certain stratigraphic segments. The Wabassee Group is crosscut by the Dunlop Shear, and mainly composed of mafic rocks, with minor local felsic units. These formations overlie the Watson Lake Group. The North Flank is truncated by the Bell River Complex to the south and is intersected by the Daniel Fault to the west. The stratigraphy of the North Flank is not yet well understood due to its structural complexity.
South Domain South Flank
The South Flank is bounded on the north by the Isle Dieu Shear, on the west by the Daniel Fault, to the east by the Bell River Complex. The polarity of the South Flank is towards the SW and the dip varies according to the sectors. It varies from sub-horizontal in the Perseverance sector, to 40° in the central part, to 70° in the Bracemac-McLeod area. The southern limit of the stratigraphy is also cut by the Bell River Complex, but is crosscut by the gabbroic Galinée suite, a procession of pyroxenitic gabbros crosscut by pegmatitic gabbroic dykes.
South Domain Central Plain
The Central Plain is bordered to the north by the Allard River Shear which separates it from the North Domain to the east, by the Daniel Fault which separates it from the South Flank, and to the west and south by the McIvor Fault that separates it from the West Camp. The polarity of the Central Plain is northward, and the dip is sub-horizontal to shallow. Two volcanic formations have been defined in the Central Plain, these being the Wabassee Group overlain by the Daniel Group. A few felsic units are encountered locally, as well as mafic to felsic intrusions. To date, no significant mineralization has been discovered in the Central Plain.
South Domain West Camp
The West Camp is bounded on all sides by faults: the McIvor Fault to the east, the Gauchetière Fault to the west, and the Allard River Shear to the north, which separates it from the North Domain. The polarity of the layers goes from E to NW and the dip of the stratigraphy is subvertical. The structural framework of the West Camp is a mirror image to that proposed for the North Flank, i.e., the repetition of certain stratigraphic sections on longitudinal faults trending SW-NE. The west camp hosts the Caber, Caber Nord and PD1 deposits.
Mineralization
The massive sulphide deposits of the Property are composed of medium to coarse-grained pyrite, sphalerite, and chalcopyrite with lesser pyrrhotite and associated magnetite. They are noted for their high zinc and copper grades with silver and gold as auxiliary components. The deposits demonstrate a variety of geometries that indicate deposition as exhalites on the sea floor through precipitation in platter/mound-shaped deposits, with sulphide pinnacles, and as precipitation of sulphides beneath the sea floor as roots within Pipe facies. Sulphides exhibit a wide variety of textures. These range from massive to very well banded with locally developed breccia textures, replacement and cross cutting features as well as stringers. Mineralization developed within Pipe alteration as a root of a keel structure can exhibit banding that is perpendicular to stratigraphy as is demonstrated at Perseverance Mine.
At Matagami Lake, the mineralization was hosted in a mostly non-bedded, volcaniclastic felsic rock made up of formerly glassy angular clasts (possibly hyaloclastite) at the top of the Watson Lake rhyolite just below the KT.
On some mine levels, mineralization was isolated within the volcaniclastic felsic rock rather than sitting on top of it; some “lens-shaped masses” of volcaniclastic rock were also found within mineralization. Roberts (1975, p. 118) described the alteration and noted that “a discrete pipe-shaped structure has not been defined”; instead, the talc-actinolite units, which are the most altered rocks, “are conformable tabular masses with gradational contacts to chlorite-rich vitroclastic tuff”.
At Bracemac-McLeod, the mineralized lenses differ from those of the central part of the South Flank in several ways: (1) the two main lenses are located between two felsic units, the Bracemac and Watson Lake rhyolites, rather than at a felsic-mafic/intermediate contact; (2) the main lenses are relatively thin (<20 m), tabular, laterally extensive and concordant along the KT horizon; (3) alteration zones are subconcordant and extend into the hanging wall, although the chlorite alteration is most intense in the footwall. Also, in the Bracemac portion of the mine, smaller mineralized lenses occur in the Wabassee Group.
Deposit Type
According to classification, the Matagami deposits are in the bimodal-mafic system, hosted within a stratigraphy comprised predominantly of mafic rocks with fewer felsic rocks.