Maple Gold intersects 24.4 g/t gold over 1M within 11.4 g/t gold over 3m in Phase II drilling at Eagle

Maple Gold Mines Ltd. is reporting initial assay results from the first drill hole of the Company's Phase II drill program at its 100%-controlled Eagle Mine Property ("Eagle") in Québec. The Phase II program consisted of four (4) master diamond drill holes and one (1) daughter diamond drill hole totalling ~4,700 metres ("m") to test potential extensions of mineralization along and beneath the past-producing, high-grade Eagle-Telbel mine trend. The Company is also pleased to announce the appointment of Kiran Patankar as Chief Financial Officer, effective immediately.

Highlights:

• Drill hole EM-22-009 intersected 11.4 grams per tonne gold ("g/t Au") over 3 m, including 24.4 g/t Au over 1 m, to the north of the modeled main Eagle-Telbel mine horizon in the hanging wall microgabbro (see Figure 1 for drill hole locations)
• The new EM-22-009 intercept and other notable high-grade historical intercepts hosted in the same microgabbro unit (including hole 16-77: 26.7 g/t Au over 2.5 m and hole 16-71: 26.4 g/t over 1.4 m within 14.3 g/t over 2.9 m) all point to the potential significance of this favourable structural-stratigraphic target
• Limited historical drilling in the hanging wall (see Figure 1) was not typically assayed for gold as previous operators were not focused on this mineralization style and target type
• The Company has drilled ~16,450 m out of approximately 30,000 m planned in 2022 across its Québec project portfolio; Eagle assays have now been reported for ~5,400 m (representing 59% of completed Eagle drilling)

"These initial Phase II assays include the best result thus far from our 2022 drilling at Eagle and the location of the intercept holds great significance for our exploration targeting going forward, including Phase III drilling later this year," stated Matthew Hornor, President and CEO of Maple Gold. "While core cutting has recently been impacted by electrical issues at site, we are implementing temporary and permanent solutions to improve efficiency and we expect the assay backlog to ease in the coming weeks. I am also delighted to welcome Kiran in his expanded role with the Company and we look forward to his experience as we navigate through our strategic and corporate finance initiatives."

Interpretation and Summary of Results

The highlighted intercept in EM-22-009 is located to the north of the main modeled Eagle mine horizon in the hanging wall microgabbro. There is limited historical drilling in the hanging wall at Eagle and drill holes were not typically assayed for gold as previous operators were not focused on this mineralization style and favourable structural-stratigraphic target type. The new EM-22-009 intercept and other notable high-grade historical intercepts hosted in the same microgabbro unit (see Figure 2) are further indications of additional styles of gold mineralization at Eagle beyond the known Eagle-Telbel style mined historically and suggest multiple gold events that may provide for broader gold distribution than previously interpreted.

 
Figure 1: Geologic plan view map highlighting EM-22-009 intercept, completed Phase I/II drill holes at Eagle, historical drilling, known gold distribution >2 g/t Au and line of section in Figure 2.
 
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Figure 2: Cross section (100 m total width) highlighting EM-22-009 intercept and historical intercepts in the hanging wall microgabbro north of the main Eagle mine horizon. 
 
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The EM-22-009 intercept is significant because these results are not found within the broadly conformable horizon mined at Eagle in the past, but instead within a microgabbro some distance to the north, which is characterized by an increase in intensity of alteration and deformation associated with a quartz-carbonate-pyrite vein zone (see Plates 1 and 2), which the Company's geologists believe is structurally-controlled and therefore inconsistent with the syn-volcanic exhalative style of mineralization used as a predictive model in the past. Thus, in addition to pursuing favorable stratigraphic horizons (syn-volcanic exhalative gold mineralization), it is now justifiable to pursue superimposed structural targets (orogenic gold mineralization) as well. 

The Company's Phase I/II drilling at Eagle has confirmed that in addition to the conformable semi-massive pyrite horizon mined historically at Eagle-Telbel, multiple additional zones which may or may not be conformable, overlapping with the Harricana Deformation Zone, are also prospective. This includes not only the microgabbro interval, but also the Harricana Group sediments still further to the north. The Harricana Group sediments to Cartwright Group basalts contact may represent a further, largely untested target (see Figure 2). 

Phase III drilling at Eagle, which is expected to commence in Q4/2022, will follow-up not only on the best results of the first two drilling phases, but also on the results of previous downhole electromagnetic ("EM") surveys, on ranked airborne EM targets from the recently competed Mag-EM survey (see news from July 19, 2022), and on a recently completed high-resolution drone magnetic survey.

 
 Plate 1: Drill core from EM-22-009 at 991.3m; sedimentary interval within microgabbro unit, in 1m interval that graded 6.66 g/t Au. Note quartz-ankerite veinlets cutting sulfide bands. Visually similar to historically mined mineralization but located well to the north of the main Eagle mine horizon. 
 
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 Plate 2: Mineralized interval within sample from 992-993m that graded 24.4 g/t Au, in mixed altered microgabbro (left side) and sediment (right side). 
 
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Tags: Quebec / Exploration / Gold / All Articles