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Canada

Novador (Val-d'Or East) Project

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Overview

Mine TypeOpen Pit & Underground
StagePermitting
Commodities
  • Gold
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
  • Drift & Fill
  • Longhole stoping
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SnapshotThe Novador Project (formerly Val-d’Or East) project is a district-scale land package comprising 436 square kilometers and represents one of the largest land holdings in the Val-d’Or mining camp. The property is host to three past producing mines (Beliveau Mine, Monique Mine and Bussiere Mine) and falls along four regional mine trends, including 14 kilometres of strike length along the prolific Cadillac Break.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Probe Gold Inc. 100 % Indirect
The property consists of three distinct claim blocks. The Pascalis-Courvan-Senore claim block is 100% owned by Probe Metals. The Monique claim block is contiguous to the Pascalis-Courvan-Senore block. The Lapaska claim block, which is non contiguous with the PascalisCourvan-Senore block, is 100% owned by Probe Metals.

Contractors

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Deposit type

  • Vein / narrow vein
  • Mesothermal
  • Orogenic

Summary:

The Val-d'Or mining camp is well known for its lode gold deposits and copper, zinc, silver, and gold volcanogenic (VMS) deposits. Gold mineralization from the Val-d'Or mining camp has been classified as greenstone-hosted quartz-carbonate vein deposits or mesothermal or late-orogenic lode gold deposits associated with shear zones or extensional fractures.

Most of the gold resources on the Val-d’Or East Project have been delineated in three areas: Pascalis gold trend deposits, Courvan gold trend deposits, and Monique gold trend deposits. These generally consist of a complex system of veins composed of quartz, carbonate, and tourmaline with disseminated and/or blebby pyrite. The auriferous zones are commonly associated with shear zones and extensional fractures. Mineralization is concentrated in veins and/or in adjacent lithologies that are strongly altered due to hydrothermal fluid circulation.

Pascalis Gold Trend
The Pascalis gold trend hosts the New Beliveau, North Zone and Highway deposits. The New Beliveau and North Zone deposits are centered on a series of north-northwest trending sub-vertical intermediate dykes, forming a swarm identified over 3 km long, 1 km wide and 1 km deep.

The New Beliveau deposit, which encompasses the past producer L.C. Beliveau mine, is hosted within a sub-vertical microdiorite dyke oriented at N345° and perpendicular to the trend of volcanic formations. It is located about 2 km east of the Bourlamaque batholith margin. At the former L.C. Beliveau Mine, three parallel dykes named West, Main and East constitute the main swarm of diorite dykes. The thickness of the individual dykes varies from 5 to 15 m individually, but reaches 30 m combined. At the mine, 90% of the veins and gold mineralization is hosted inside the Main dyke. With an average thickness of 10 m, the mineralized zones were originally traced to 580 m vertical depth over a 300 m strike length. This suggests an extension at depth towards the west.

The extensional and shear veins form 3 to 20 m thick tabular shaped mineralized envelopes with orientations varying between 90° to 110° and dips of 25° to 35° to the south. They can reach a few hundred metres laterally in an east-west direction as well as in the axis of the dip. Free gold grains can be observed in veins and at the surface or in fractures within coarse euhedral pyrite crystals.

57 volcanic and three dyke zones were interpreted from the surface to 900 m depth in the New Beliveau deposit, and 25 volcanic and three dyke zones up to 500 m depth in North deposit. All the deposits remain open to the west, east, south, and at depth.

The Highway showing was the first significant gold occurrence discovered on the property in 1931. It is located 1,000 m northwest of the former L.C. Beliveau. The gold mineralization with the notable exception that the veins are hosted within a competent gabbroic unit instead of diorite dykes. The mineralized system comprises 24 subparallel tabular zones dipping 30° to 40° to the south and striking 75° to 90°. Two zones steeply dipping to the south were also interpreted. For now, the Highway gold system can be traced over 400 m east-west by 500 m north-south and to a depth of 500 m. The Highway zone remains open to the south, east, and at depth.

Courvan Gold Trend
The Courvan gold trend (CGT) extends over 2.5 km along the Bourlamaque eastern margin and up to 2 km inside the batholith in its southern part. The CGT comprises the Bussiere, Creek, Bordure, Southwest, and Southeast deposits. The latter is opened to the west, north, south and at depth. Gold mineralization is structurally controlled by several major shear zones and faults, striking 250° and dipping 75° to the north to sub-vertical, dividing the CGT into structural blocks.

Quartz-tourmaline-carbonate veins form echelon networks with a sub-horizontal to moderate dip to the north. When the frequency and grade of individual veins are high enough, they can form tabular mineralized envelopes with an average thickness of 3 to 15 m and strike up to a few hundred metres in an east-west direction as well as in the dip direction. A second type of gold veins sub-parallel to the shear zones is also observed. They have an average direction at N250° and a dip of 70° towards the north-west. Historically, they represented a small proportion of the ore extracted from the Bussiere mine. The mineralized zones are primarily hosted in the Bourlamaque granodiorite and show rather limited extensions in the volcanic rocks. The vein systems indeed seem to develop better in the granodiorite offering better competence compared to volcanic rocks. Diorite dykes injected in the granodiorite can also contain mineralized veins, but they represent less than 2% of the mineralized zones of the deposits.

Monique Gold Trend
The Monique gold trend (MGT) hosts 17 important gold zones, including the G Zone from the former Monique mine open pit and numerous other gold occurrences intercepted by drilling. Inside the MGT, gold-bearing zones are related to mesothermal lode gold deposits and found principally along two main west-northwest trending sub-parallel deformation corridors in the Jacola Formation, about 150 to 200 m wide and extending over 2.5 km along strike. The first G-J-P deformation corridor is located in the center part of the property and follows roughly the contact between an ultramafic unit to the north and basalts to the south. This corridor contains the former Monique open pit. The second A-BI-M corridor, approximately 150 m to the south, encompasses the upper portion of the southern volcanic domain composed of mafic to andesitic-basalt flows, volcaniclastics, and hyaloclastites. Both corridors are injected by multiple metric feldspar (± quartz) porphyritic intermediate dykes, often containing gold mineralization. The interpreted mineralized zones have general orientations of N270 290° with dips of 70° to 82 ° to the north.

The mineralized zones of the MGT consist of shear veins and/or a stockwork of quartz-tourmaline carbonates veins with disseminated to coarse pyrite. The auriferous zones are commonly associated with shear zones and extensional fractures. Mineralization is concentrated in veins or in adjacent lithologies which are strongly altered due to hydrothermal fluid circulation. The quartz vein systems are mainly parallel to the stratigraphy and to the deformation zones. Gold is generally associated with 1% to 5% finely disseminated pyrite, and visible gold is common in the quartz and carbonate veins and veinlets. The zones vary in thickness between 2 to 10 m in general and reach up to 30 m. Mineralized zones can extend more than 900 m laterally and they have been traced by drilling to a vertical depth up to 600 m.

Three main structural types of gold-bearing mineralization are observed, primarily consisting of (1) replacements and veins subparallel to shear zones; (2) vein arrays associated with riedels, detachment surfaces and late faults/fractures 10° to 25° relative to shear foliation, and (3) extensional/conjugated sub-horizontal veins secant to the shear envelope.

Reserves

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Comminution

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Processing

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Production

CommodityProductUnitsAvg. AnnualLOM
Gold Payable metal koz 2,583
Gold Metal in doré koz 2072,584

Operational metrics

Metrics
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* According to 2021 study.

Production Costs

CommodityUnitsAverage
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* According to 2021 study / presentation. Cash costs: 1,029 CAD/oz

Operating Costs

Currency2021
Combined mining costs ($/t mined) CAD 4.49 *  
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* According to 2021 study.

Project Costs

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OP/UG OpEx $M CAD  ......  Subscribe
Processing OpEx $M CAD 600
G&A costs $M CAD 123
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Personnel

Mine Management

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