On April 7, 2022, Cartier acquired all issued and outstanding shares of Chalice Gold Mines Inc. that held a 100% interest in the Chimo mine (East Cadillac Property).
On May 6, 2022, Chalice Gold Mines Inc., which became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cartier, changed its name to Chimex Resources Inc.
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Summary:
Two gold deposits and several occurrences are known on the Properties: the historic Chimo mine and the West Nordeau Deposit.
The Chimo Mine and East Cadillac properties have geological potential for two main types of orogenic gold deposits: Type I: greenstone-hosted quartz-carbonate vein type (Dubé and Gosselin, 2007); and Type II: BIF-hosted gold mineralization type (Robert et al., 2007).
Gold mineralization in the area is typically concentrated along the Larder Lake Cadillac Fault Zone and related secondary structures. This is evident at the closed Chimo Mine and the West Nordeau Deposit, where gold occurs with quartz and arsenopyrite in longitudinal high-strain (“shear”) zones within the mafic volcanic rocks and in bands of semi-massive arsenopyrite and pyrrhotite associated, in the north part of the Chimo Mine Property with banded magnetite iron formation units (Sauvé et al., 1987).
Gold mineralization on the Properties occurs epigenetically in silicified lodes with disseminated sulphides, spatially related to banded iron formations and altered shear zones with temporally related quartz ± carbonate veins. When related to shear zones, gold typically occurs in volcanic units with disseminated arsenopyrite, pyrite and chalcopyrite. Graphite horizons are also common with this type of mineralization.
Chimo Mine Deposit
Mineralization at the Chimo Mine Deposit consists of five main mineralized structures.
Zone 1 generally follows the northernmost iron formation. Mineralization consists mainly of a juxtaposition of centimetric to decimetric veinlets of coarse arsenopyrite.
Zone 2 roughly follows the contact between the southernmost iron formation layer and a mafic intrusion.
Zone 3 is located along the southern contact of the schistose and carbonatized mafic intrusion. Mineralization consists, on average, of 3 to 5% disseminated sulphides and multiple veins of bluish quartz with good continuity.
Zone 5 lies within a schistose and carbonatized greyish lava and includes thin units of graphitic schist.
Zone 6 is similar in many ways to Zone 5. It consists of several subparallel en-echelon gold-bearing lenses.
Gold appears to be the last metal phase in the mineralized zones of the former Chimo mine. It is preferentially associated with arsenopyrite and some of the quartz veins.
Quartz veins rimmed by disseminated arsenopyrite have good gold grades. Visible gold is present within the veins and along the vein walls. Veins devoid of arsenopyrite have negligible gold grades, except the graphitic quartz veins containing visible gold.
Based on the nature of the host rock in the Chimo Mine Deposit, the mineralized zones have been divided into two types of lode deposits: semi-massive sulphide veins associated with iron formations (zones 1 and 2) and lenticular quartz veins associated with altered volcanic rocks mineralized with arsenopyrite (zones 3, 5 and 6).
These two types of gold mineralization are unlikely to be genetically distinct because they occur together in the Chimo mine and are likely the distinct manifestations of mineralization in different host rocks. Mineralization is associated with injections of quartz and sulphide minerals into sheared zones at the contacts between lithologies of contrasting competency and chemical composition.
These contacts promoted the development of deformation and micro-porosity in ductile rock and fracturing and brecciation in more competent rock, thereby promoting the circulation of hydrothermal fluids.
West Nordeau Deposit
Gold mineralization on the claims in the West Nordeau area occurs in four (4) distinct lenses or zones, known from north to south as North Zone, Zone 1, Zone 2 and Zone 3, in shear zones that transect the mafic volcanic rocks of the Trivio Group.
Gold is found in brecciated zones cemented with grey/smoky quartz lodes, veins or veinlets with brown tourmaline, carbonates and sulphides in an “en échelon” pattern within the wider deformation corridors (Jean, 1990).
All reported structures are more or less embedded into the regional schistosity, which dips 55°-70° towards 010°-020°. Zones 1 and 2 (for which historical reserves have been previously estimated) transect the claims in the West Nordeau area for 600 m along strike and have been intersected to 725 m depth. Nevertheless, it is reported that structures occupied by Zones 1 and 2, separated by 25 m of pyroclastic rocks in the eastern part of the Properties, merge into a single structure in the western part of the Properties.
The other mineralized zone, Zone 3 and North Zone are less well understood as they are poorly defined and have irregular continuity and inconsistent gold mineralization. Zone 3, located south of Zone 1 and Zone 2, and 30 m south of a graphitic marker horizon, has been defined along two traces of about 100 m each. Sporadic intersections show that the North Zone occupies a position some 30 m north of structures Zone 1 and Zone 2.