Wallbridge Mining Company Ltd.
Fenelon Gold Project
The Fenelon Gold project is located approximately 75 kilometres west-northwest of the town of Matagami, Québec, Canada. With the acquisition of Balmoral, Wallbridge increased its land position from 10.5 km2 to 739 km2 along the eastern extension of the Sunday Lake Deformation Zone ("SLDZ"), a major east-west structure in the northern Abitibi greenstone belt which hosts the Detour Lake mine in Ontario (Kirkland Lake Gold). The Fenelon Gold project is part of the Fenelon property, a group of contiguous claims and leases totaling 85.6 km2.
Since the acquisition of the Fenelon Gold project in late 2016, Wallbridge's exploration efforts have successfully expanded the Fenelon gold system with the discovery of Area 51 in late 2018 and the Lower Tabasco-Cayenne shear system in 2019, new geologic settings with extensive vein- and shear-hosted gold mineralization along and within the Jérémie pluton.
The Company’s 2020 drilling program is aiming at further defining the size potential of the Fenelon gold system and complete in-fill drilling in support of a maiden NI 43-101 resource estimate anticipated for mid-2021. The Company has also launched its Environment and Social Impact Study along with consultations with First Nations and surrounding communities with the intent of a sustainable and profitable operation in the near future.
Current Program
Wallbridge has a fully-funded, 70,000 to 80,000-metre drill program planned for 2020. Five drill rigs are focusing on exploration drilling from surface, doing large-spaced step-outs to define the footprint of the Fenelon gold system, and one underground drill rig is doing more closely spaced definition drilling of the Main Gabbro zones near the existing mine workings.
The main objectives of this program are to:
- Collect sufficient data to support a NI 43-101 maiden resource mid-2021
- Target an underground resource of +1 million oz (mostly in the Indicated category)
- Demonstrate the open pit resource potential of Area 51
- Expand the known footprint and depth extension of the Fenelon gold system and make new discoveries
On March 23, 2020, Wallbridge announced that it temporarily suspended operations at its operations at Fenelon in response to the order of the Government of Quebec with regard to the COVID-19 outbreak and currently the activities remain suspended until at least May 11, 2020. The Company had a fully funded 100,000 to 120,000 metres of drilling at Fenelon Gold planned for 2020. So far, up to the March 23 temporary shut-down, a total of approximately 26,000 metres have been drilled in 2020. Due to the temporary COVID-19 shut-down, the Company now estimates to be able to complete between 70,000 and 80,000 metres of drilling at Fenelon in 2020.
Prior work by Wallbridge:
Wallbridge initiated exploration immediately after the acquisition of the Fenelon Gold project. The first phase of work was comprised of a review of historic drilling and additional sampling of previously unsampled historic drill core followed by a drilling campaign in 2017 to expand the exploration target near existing infrastructure and above a depth of 150 metres.
Wallbridge has drilled a total of 101,484 metres in 369 surface and underground holes to the end of 2019. The Company has significantly expanded the footprint of the Fenelon gold system to 2 kilometres of strike length, 600 metres of corridor width along the Jérémie pluton and 850 metres vertical depth extent confirmed.
Brief History
Gold mineralization on the Fenelon Gold property was first intersected by Cyprus Canada in 1988. The Discovery Zone (now referred as Main Gabbro Zones) was discovered in 1994. In 1997, Cyprus and Fairstar reported a resource (uncategorized) of 252,000 tonnes at 14.2 g/t Au for a total of 115,000 ounces of gold1. In 1998, Taurus Resources acquired Cyprus’ interest in the joint venture. Between 1998 and 2004, the following advanced exploration activities were conducted on the Discovery Zone:
- Drill testing (>300 drill holes)
- Open pit bulk sampling (2001): 13,835 tonnes returning 4,245 oz of gold for a reconciled grade of 9.84 g/t Au at a calculated recovery of 97% (milled at the Camflo Mill)
- Initial underground test mining with bulk sampling (2003-2004): 8,169 tonnes returning 2,596 oz of gold for a reconciled grade of 10.7 g/t Au (milled at the Camflo Mill)
In 2004, then operator International Taurus Resources Inc. was forced into near-bankruptcy while preparing the property for underground production. The Company agreed to combine with American Bonanza Gold Mining Corporation (“American Bonanza”) to create a new company and also acquired Fairstar’s interest in the Fenelon Gold property.
In 2005, a NI 43-101 compliant technical report reported Measured and Indicated resources after depletion of 47,927 tonnes grading 19.61 g/t Au (30,216 oz) and Inferred resources of 27,245 tonnes grading 12.79 g/t Au (11,203 oz)1. Additional drilling by American Bonanza was conducted from 2005 to 2008 (approximately 65 holes) targeting the Discovery Zone extensions and other targets on the property.
In late 2010, Balmoral Resources Ltd. (“Balmoral”) acquired American Bonanza’s Fenelon Gold property. In 2011, Balmoral drilled 41 holes testing the test lateral and down-dip/plunge extensions of the Discovery Zone and its eastern and northern ends. The drilling program extended some mineralized veins in the zone along strike and to a vertical depth of 250 metres.
In October 2016, Wallbridge completed the purchase of the Fenelon Gold property from Balmoral for a purchase price of $3.7 million and subsequently in March 2020 announced the acquisition of all of the issued and outstanding shares of Balmoral in an all-stock transaction valued at equivalent of $110 million, based on 28-day trading value of Wallbridge shares as of February 28, 2020.
Geology and Mineralization
The Fenelon Gold project is located in the northwestern Archean Abitibi Subprovince, in the northernmost volcano-sedimentary belt segment. It is located less than 1 kilometre north of the Sunday Lake Deformation Zone (“SLDZ”) and is mainly underlain by a turbiditic sedimentary basin and the eastern margin of the Jérémie Pluton.
The gold mineralized zones defined to date are structurally controlled and affected by ductile deformation. The mineralization shares many similarities with orogenic gold deposits in terms of metal associations, wall-rock alteration assemblages and structural controls. Secondary splays of the SLDZ have controlled the emplacement of a significant gold system along and within the Jérémie Pluton. Historically, exploration has focused on the high-grade shear zones hosted in the Main Gabbro area (location of the open pit and underground workings).
Three domains of gold mineralization are present on the property: The Main Gabbro zones, and the newly discovered Tabasco and Cayenne, as well as Area 51 zones. Gold is associated with disseminated pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite and pyrite, and minor sphalerite, arsenopyrite and marcasite. Native visible gold is fairly common in all zones.
The Main Gabbro area contains seven zones: the Fresno, Chipotle, Anaheim, Naga Viper, Paprika, Habanero and Serrano zones. These mineralized zones are restricted to a wide corridor of intensely altered gabbro between two panels of argillaceous sediments.
The Tabasco and Cayenne mineralized system occurs in turbiditic sediments between the Main Gabbro and the Jérémie Pluton. The zones trend northwest/southeast (130°) and dip steeply south. They form an anastomosing and sheared system with numerous secondary splays. The mineralization is discrete with a low sulphide content (<5%) and is mainly associated with silicification and sericitization. Gold intervals are associated with a pyrrhotite-chalcopyrite assemblage. Arsenopyrite and sphalerite are locally present. The best gold intervals associated with veining are in intersections with light grey quartz veins. High-grade gold intervals of more than 10 g/t over 0.5 to 1 m are common.
The Area 51 Zone is hosted in the Jérémie Pluton and its contact. It occurs as a series of parallel mineralized subzones grouped into two ENE-WSW trending corridors (Andromeda and Orion) parallel to the SLDZ. Gold mineralization is mainly associated with isolated or regularly spaced subparallel translucent grey quartz veins generally less than 2-3 cm thick.
Source: https://wallbridgemining.com/our-projects/fenelon-gold/
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IT Technician (Support IT), Fénélon Project
The technician IT will report to the Project Manager, the schedule is 4/3.