When it comes to the “Big Four”, we’re pushing forward on all fronts…

As I often stress, we have positioned our project portfolio in Ontario to give us multiple routes to discovery success.  

We continue to look forward to receiving the assays from our recent drilling at the Zigzag lithium exploration property. With spodumene being visible in all eight holes, the grades that come back could mark a key step forward. 

But alongside our work here, our exploration progress has continued across all three of our other drill-ready, flagship assets – Sunbeam, Esa, and North Hemlo. 

As with Zigzag, the goal at all three is to find economic quantities of metal we can commercialise to generate shareholder value. So, with this in mind, it’s a great time to update you quickly on where we’re at… 

New gold model at Sunbeam
Starting with Sunbeam, and many of you will have noted our encouraging update right at the beginning of this month. 

The key takeaway, in my eyes, is that the assays we revealed prove the presence of gold at grades of up to 4.98 grams per tonne (“g/t”) in porphyry rock at the project. You can see an example of visible gold in rock from Sunbeam’s Roy development in the image below.

Figure 1 – Visible gold in rock taken from the Roy development

These latest findings have the potential to be very valuable at Sunbeam. 

We already knew the project has the potential for high-grade gold mineralisation hosted in quartz veins. This was exploited at the historic mine in the early 20th Century, and we’re examining the potential for such systems to extend across the wider project area as I write. 

Now, we have the potential for a second type of gold at the project. 

And if we can find further evidence of lower-grade, bulk mineable gold mineralisation hosted in sheared, altered porphyries, it will ultimately extend Sunbeam’s potential for hosting multiple, substantial gold discoveries moving forward.

Palladium One JV Partner Activity at WPL
Moving on, and many of you will have also seen the latest nickel drill results from West Pickle Lake last week. 

It’s excellent to see our partner Palladium One continue to show such a strong commitment to exploration at the project. It’s also excellent to see that its work is yielding such strong results. 

One highlight from last week was an intersection of 1.8% nickel and 1% copper over 1.5m in an existing anomaly. Another was an entirely new nickel zone with intercepts returning up to 0.4% nickel and 0.2% copper over 2.7m. 

This additional evidence of mineralisation is good for us for two reasons. 

First, we have a 20% interest in West Pickle Lake. As such, we are exposed to any commercial interest it enjoys. 

Second, Palladium One’s repeated, high-grade drilling increases the chance of mineralisation continuing onto our 100%-owned, neighbouring North Hemlo licence area.  If we can make a discovery or secure a deal here, we will enjoy the entire benefit of any value it creates.

As our CEO Marc highlighted in the release, we will continue to pursue third-party interest in this sector of North Hemlo.

Figure 2 – West Pickle Lake (marked as Pezim II) neighbouring our North Hemlo project

Ready to go at Esa
We’re also ready to take major steps forward at Esa. 

We completed a soil sampling campaign at the project just before the snow started in December. Once we receive the results, we have the necessary permits in place and have completed the necessary preparations to follow them up with a drilling targeting a gold discovery.

As a reminder, our 4.5km shear zone at Esa has shown very high values of pathfinder minerals strongly associated with gold deposits in the Hemlo area. This could indicate an extensive gold system.  

Each one of our “Big Four” projects is advancing nicely. We’re excited to continue pushing forward at all four and hope to release multiple positive findings into the market over the coming weeks and months.