Meston Lake Gold Property

The Property

The Meston Lake property (100% NSR) covers 74 mining claims (17,344 hectares) and is located in northwestern-Ontario within the underexplored Black Bear Greenstone Belt (BBGB).  The BBGB is bounded by the regionally extensive Stull-Wunnumin Fault Zone (SWFZ) and its splays, which feature several structural similarities and comparative hydrothermal alteration analogous to large gold deposits in the prolific Abitibi and Red Lake camps elsewhere in the Superior Province (Avery, 2011).  The property is located approximately 60 km north of the Community of Sachigo Lake First Nation with whom the Company has signed a Letter of Agreement supporting the exploration program.

Location, Meston Lake gold property.

Meston Lake gold property, Northwestern Ontario.
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Geology

Regionally, the Meston Lake Property is underlain by rocks of the Sachigo sub-province within the Superior Province, along the Stull-Wunnumin Fault Zone (SWFZ) within the Black Bear Greenstone Belt.

Sparse outcrop in the Meston Lake Property in conjunction with existing airborne magnetic data indicate that this area is primarily underlain by an intrusive suite of diorite to gabbro and variably foliated megacrystic granite, granodiorite, and rare tonalite.  Foliation within the granodiorite strikes east-west, dips vertically, and is most strongly developed in areas adjacent to the contact with diorite and gabbro intrusions.

The metamorphic grade within the belt is middle amphibolites facies based on the assemblage of amphibolites-garnet.  Adjacent to the SWFZ a retrograde assemblage of chlorite+feldspar+quartz+carbonate is seen to be developed (Avery, 2010).

Mineralization

• Reported historical mineralization on the property includes two priority precious metal targets and three secondary base metal targets*:
  1. Potential copper - gold zones described in drill logs as a semi-massive pyrrhotite - pyrite in fine to coarse grained mafic volcanics containing up to 2% combined chalcopyrite and arsenopyrite; and a second zone along strike consisting in strongly sheared mafic to ultramafic volcanic rocks intercalated with gneissic granodiorite containing up to 3% disseminated and stringers of arsenopyrite and approximately 1% chalcopyrite over 19.9 metres;
  2. Molybdenum – gold showing consisting of a narrow (10 centimetre wide) zone of 
     molybdenum within a broader interval of widely spaced quartz veinlets and variably silicified granodiorite exposed in several outcrops over a north-south elongate area measuring 350 metres by 130 metres wide;
  3. Potential magmatic copper - nickel - platinum group elements (PGE): a 340.8 metre historical drill hole is mineralized over a 209.3 metre section with a weighted average pyrrhotite-pyrite content of 6.5% within which a 35.4 m section contains a weighted average of 0.75% chalcopyrite.
  4. VMS-type mineralization reported from 6 drill holes that tested a 435 metre long EM conductor with the best hole containing from 1- 6% chalcopyrite and 1- 5% sphalerite over a 7.8 metre interval;
  5. Potential for copper deposit with disseminated and stringers of chalcopyrite from <1% to 5% in 
     fine-grain sediments over an 11.1 metre core hole interval.
  6. Anomalous gold grain counts from heavy mineral samples collected in 2002 in the Meston Lake area, including a sample with a total of 24 grains, 17 of which are pristine and therefore considered to be derived from local sources;

*Note:

(i) All reported contents and associated widths were derived directly from drill hole logs filed for assessment; and

(ii) There were no associated assay values.

Meston Exploration Models

Archean Gold

The significance of major crustal breaks as first order controls on Archean Gold mineralization is well documented (e.g. Bursnall, 1989).  In the Abitibi Greenstone Belt of northeastern Ontario and Quebec, gold deposits occur in two distinct linear trends which broadly coincide with the Kirkland Lake/Larder Lake/Cadillac and Destor-Porcupine Faults.  These “structural breaks” control the distribution of gold camps at a regional scale that host world-class gold deposits such as the Hollinger-McIntyre (31.4 M oz Au) and Kirkland Lake (21.4 M oz Au) mines, the 15th and 21st largest gold deposits in the world (Sillitoe, 2000).  Within the Abitibi Greenstone Belt, gold deposits are irregularly distributed in clusters along the main breaks, in a diverse number of host rocks and geological settings.  Deposits may be located in either proximal or distal settings with respect to the main break, but are always found on secondary or tertiary splays, not the main fault (Valliant and Hutchinson, 1982).  For example, in the Porcupine camp, the Dome and nearby deposits are located on secondary splays 400-1400 metres from the Destor-Porcupine Fault, whereas the McIntyre-Hollinger Mine and associated deposits are located about 5 kilometres off of the main break on sub-parallel faults. The majority of the gold deposits in all of the Abitibi camps occur within a 5 kilometre buffer on either side of the main fault.

Avery (2010) compares the size of the regional structures in these prolific gold camps versus the Stull-Wunnumin Fault which bounds the southern margin of the Meston Lake Property indicates, the SWF is almost twice the length of the Abititbi breaks.  Although known gold resources developed to date along the Stull Wunnumin Fault are trivial in comparison to the Abitibi and Red Lake camps, this may be due to historical and geographical rather than geological factors.  The primary differences affecting the rate of discovery in the two regions is the relative remoteness of this portion of northwestern Ontario, and consequently, the significantly lower level of historical prospecting and exploration activity.  Given the high potential for the discovery of world-class gold deposits along the regional faults in Archean terranes, the challenge is to identify prospective geological settings where this potential is enhanced as in the Meston Lake area (Avery, 2010).

Magmatic Ni-Cu PGE

Magmatic deposits containing exploitable quantities of nickel, copper, and platinum group elements (PGE) are associated with variable quantities of localized sulphide concentrations in mafic and ultramafic rocks typically of Archean and Paleoproterozoic age. There are two principal subtypes of deposits (Eckstrand and Hulbert 2007):

• Reef-type or stratiform PGE deposits, which occur in well layered mafic/ultramafic intrusions (Merensky Reef and UG-2 chromitite layer of the Bushveld Complex, South Africa; J-M Reef of the Stillwater Complex, Montana; Main sulphide zone in the Great Dyke, Zimbabwe).
• Magmatic breccia type, which occurs in stock-like or layered mafic/ultramafic intrusions (Platreef deposits of the northern Bushveld Complex, South Africa; Lac des Iles deposit and Marathon deposit, Ontario).

Some Ni-Cu-PGE deposits occur as individual sulphide bodies associated with magmatic mafic and/or ultramafic bodies. Others occur as groups of sulphide bodies associated with one or more related magmatic bodies in areas or belts up to tens, even hundreds of kilometres long, know as districts (e.g. Sudbury, Thompson, Noril’sk-Talnakh, Kamalda, Raglan).

Bedrock geology, Meston Lake gold property, Northwestern Ontario.
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Meston Lake Exploration History 2010

2010

• Completed a prospecting and bedrock mapping program.

2011

• Staked an additional 80 mining claims or 18,665 hectares of ground.
• Completed an airborne, total magnetic field survey consisting of 4,702 line kilometres.
• Completed a review, sampling and submission for geochemical analysis of all historic core identified on the property.
• Completed a 350 sample, overburden sampling program.
• Review of drill core from the Sherritt Gordon drill program, early 1970’s complete, 50 core samples collected.
• Competed a prospecting program.
• Completed the clearing of three historic grids and cut an additional grid over reported areas of mineralization for ground geophysical surveys.
• Initiated ground geophysical surveys.

Outlook

• Compile and interpret data from exploration programs completed 2011.

Airborne geophysical survey, Meston Lake gold property, Northwestern Ontario.
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References

Aurora Platinum Corp. (2002). AEM Gold Project: 2002 Exploration Program Summary.  Ontario Assessment File 228001.

Avery, R.A.. (2010). Evaluation of the Meston Lake Property.  Meston Lake: Red Lake Mining District, Ontario.  Report for Northern Superior Resources Inc. September 2010.

Bursall, J.T. (1989).  Mineralized Shear Zones, GAC.MAC Short Course Notes, Vol. 6, 229p.

Eckstrand, O.R. and Hulbert, L.J. (2007).  Magmatic Nickel-Copper-PGE Deposits.  In Goodfellow, W.D. ed., Mineral Deposits of Canada: A Synthesis of Major Deposit Types, District Metallogeny, the Evolution of Geological Provinces, and Exploration Methods: Geological Association of Canada, Mineral Deposits Division, Special Publication No.5, p. 205-222.

Sherritt-Gordon Mines Limited. (1975). Report of Diamond Drilling Area of Winters Lake Report Number.  Assessment Reports 53J04NE000200, 53J04NE8181.

Sherritt-Gordon Mines Limited. (1975). Report of Diamond Drilling Area of Matthews Lake.  Assessment Reports 53J05SE0005, 53J05NE0006, 53J05NE0007.

Sillitoe, R.H. (2000).  Enigmatic Origin of Giant Gold Deposits, in Geology and Ore Deposits 2000: The Great Basin and Beyond, Geological Society of Nevada Symposium Proceedings pp. 1-18.

Valliant, R.I. and Hutchinson, R.W., 1982.  Stratigraphic Distribution and Genesis of Gold Deposits, Bousquet Region, Northwestern Ontario in Geology of Canadian Gold Deposits, Proceedings of the CIM Gold Symposium, Sept. 1980.  CIM Special Volume 24. Pp. 27-40.