“Gold grain anomalies of this scale are amalgamated responses from a cluster of gold zones. They normally indicate a large gold system or district rather than a single gold zone…”
Think District, Think Scale: Atlantic Gold/ Meadowbank/ Hope Bay/ Casa Berardi/ Aurion Resources/ Meliadine… all these discoveries made from gold grain-in-till dispersal trains of smaller size than those on TPK!
The TPK property is a large property, approximately 30 x 20kms consisting of 2,431 claims or 47,796 hectares. The property is managed by sub-dividing the property into three sections: Big Dam, Annes and New Growth (Figure 1). The property is 100% owned by Northern Superior. The Company has worked closely with Neskantaga First Nation under an EEBA originally signed in 2006 and recently extended for three years in the fall of 2019 ((see Northern Superior press release, November 19, 2019).
Located in northwestern Ontario, the TPK property can be explored year-round, facilitated by a modern field camp. The camp is serviced during the winter either by winter road and/ or ski plane and in the summer by float plane. A trail system extends west into the Big Dam area of the property from the camp and can be extended across the property to hook up with a winter road that connects to either Webequie, Pickle Lake or the Musslewhite Mine (Figure 2).
Figure 1. The TPK property. Large, 30 x 20kms, 2,431 claims, 47,796 hectares and 100% owned by Northern Superior Resources. The property can be explored year-round serviced by a modern field camp, winter road, ski plane and float plane. Trails emanating west from the camp facilitate easy access to the Big Dam area. A proposed trail extending across the property links up to a winter road servicing Webequie to the NE and Pickle Lake and the Musslewhite Gold Mine to the west.
Figure 2. The TPK property is located in NW Ontario, just 50kms west of the Ring of Fire and connected by winter road to the Musslewhite Gold Mine and Pickle Lake (west) and the First Nation community of Webequie (east).
Structure plays an important role in the deposition of economic deposits of gold. Most gold camps hosted in Archean terranes are associated with secondary splays emanating off a major fault. One example such a structural setting is the Malarctic- Val d’Or gold district which is hosted within secondary splays extending off a major inflection of the Larder Lake-Cadillac Fault. For the TPK property, a similar structure setting exists, whereby secondary splays extend off an inflection of the regional Stull-Wunnummin Fault (Figure 3).
Identifying and tracing the source of gold grain-in-till dispersal trains in glaciated terrains is a very effective method of discovering gold deposits. Many notable gold mines have been discovered through this exploration technique, including Atlantic Gold, Meadowbank, Hope Bay, Casa Berardi, Aurion Resources and Meliadine.
Most gold grain dispersal trains extending from a gold deposit may be 200m wide and extend 3kms from source. Recovering 15-25 gold grains from a 10kg basal till sample is considered an excellent signal of a significant gold source. If the majority of those gold grains are “pristine”, the basal till sample site would be considered within close proximity to the source (200m or less).
Figure 3. Most gold camps are usually associated with secondary splays extending from an inflection point of a major fault(s). A similar structural setting is associated with the TPK property whereby secondary splays extend across the property from an inflection within the Stull-Wunnummun Fault.
Within the Big Dam area of the TPK property (southeast third of the property), a unique geological feature, a gold grain-in-till apron, has been defined. This “apron” is 6kms wide with a dispersal of gold grains from source of up to 11kms is the largest such feature reported in north America. It is important to bear in mind that gold grain anomalies of this scale are amalgamated responses from a cluster of gold zones. They normally indicate a large gold system or district rather than a single gold zone. Number of gold grains recovered from 10kg samples of basal till within this apron reach as high as 1258 grains, a remarkable number. Just as important, many of these samples consist of gold grains that are pristine (average 90%) (Figure 4).
Bottom line: you cannot get this number of gold grains over such a large area unless you have significant gold mineralization exposed at the bedrock surface for glacial ice to erode, transport and deposit within a relatively short distance from source (≤200m).
Within the Annex area (northern third of the property) a second remarkable dispersal of gold grains occurs. The Keely Lake gold grain-in-till dispersal corridor is not as wide as the Big Dam apron but is still 3.5km wide with a dispersal of gold grains from source of 13.5kms (Figure 5). Recall, that a gold grain-in-till dispersal train dispersed from many gold deposits is maybe 200m wide with a dispersal of 3kms.
The number of gold grains recovered from 10kg basal till samples associated with this corridor is very high at 1302 grains, again most of which are pristine (average 90%). Recall again that 15-25 gold grains recovered from 10kg basal till samples is an important indicator of gold mineralization, and that pristine grains indicate close proximity to source (≤200m).
Figure 4. The “Big Dam” area gold grain-in-till dispersal apron. A unique geological feature indicating that a gold grain anomaly of this scale is an amalgamated response from a cluster of gold zones. The potential for this area to host multiple head frames is exceptional.
Figure 5. Keely Lake dispersal corridor, Annex area of the property. A second, very rare and strong dispersal of gold grains from source(s).
The Keely Lake dispersal corridor represents a distinct system from the apron defined in the Big Dam area. However, unlike the Big Dam area, most of the gold grains associated with the Keely Lake dispersal corridor appear to be associated with a bedrock contact between a belt of mafic volcanics and a diorite terrane. That is not to say there is/ are not additional sources for the gold embedded within the corridor, which may explain why the length of this corridor is so long.
Embedded within both the Big Dam apron and the Keely Lake corridor are high grade mineralized boulders. Many of these boulders are large (table sized) and angular indicating short transport distance from source. Again, as with the gold grains, the source of these boulders must occur at the bedrock surface in order for the glacier to pluck and transport them.
Within the Big Dam apron, boulders with high grade gold values as high as 94.2 g/t occur. The number of high-grade gold mineralized boulders are as high if not better than those associated with the Meliadine gold system (compare Tables 1a and 1b).
What is equally important is that many of these boulders occur within several distinct trains embedded within the apron (Figure 6).
Highlighted Big Dam Gold Assays |
||
---|---|---|
Year |
Boulders |
Gold g/t |
Collected |
Collected |
|
2010 |
484 |
94.2 |
2011 |
103 |
14.0 |
2017 |
255 |
24.7 |
Table 1a. Highlighted boulder gold assay values, boulders recovered within the Big Dam gold grain-in-till dispersal apron. Note that these values are as high if not higher than those recovered from the Meliadine gold system (see Table 1b).
Highlighted Meliadine Gold Assays |
||
---|---|---|
Year |
Boulders |
Gold g/t |
Collected |
Collected |
|
2010 |
209 |
27.9 |
2011 |
87 |
6.81 |
2013 |
675 |
65.6 |
2014 |
248 |
14.4 |
Table 1b. Highlighted boulder assays recovered from the Meladine gold system.
Like the Big Dam area, mineralized boulders occur within the Keely Lake dispersal corridor. Also, boulder geochemistry indicates high grade gold mineralization (up to 727 g/t Au). However, unlike the Big Dam area, mineralization also points to source(s) of high grade silver (up to 111g/t Au) and copper (up to 4.05%)(Tables 2a and 2b). This boulder geochemistry indicates a completely different mineral system, again emphasizing that this system is distinct from the Big Dam area.
Figure 6. Gold mineralized boulder trains, Big Dam area of the TPK property. The distribution of these boulders terminate at targets identified by the red circles (see “Targeting For Success” section of this summary).
Highlighted Annex Gold Assays | ||
---|---|---|
Year | Boulders | Gold g/t |
Collected | Collected | |
2011 | 101 | 727 |
280 | ||
2017 | 186 | 133 |
46.9 |
Table 2a. Highlighted boulder gold assay values. Boulders collected from within the Keely Lake dispersal corridor.
In fact, the distribution of the mineralized boulders indicates a distinct source for the gold- silver bearing boulders vs copper- silver bearing ones. The gold-bearing boulders appear to be sourced from the mafic volcanic-diorite contact. The copper-bearing boulders appear to be sourced from a strong NE-SW induced polarized geophysical trend associated with the contact between a gabbro plug and the diorite terrane (Figure 7).
Highlighted Annex Boulder with high Silver and Copper Assays |
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Year Collected |
Boulders Collected |
Silver ppm |
Copper % |
Au ppm |
2011
|
101
|
53.7 |
1.92 |
5.93 |
48.2 |
<0.01 | 727.0 | ||
46.0 |
2.35 | 3.37 | ||
37.7 |
1.46 | 2.13 | ||
2017
|
186
|
48.0 |
3.42 |
3.79 |
34.5 |
1.99 | 4.28 |
Table 2b. Highlighted boulder silver, copper and gold assay values. Boulders collected from within the Keely Lake dispersal corridor.
Figure 7. Distribution of high-grade gold-silver and copper-silver boulders indicate two potential and distinct sources of mineralization. Gold-silver boulders associated with the Mafic Volcanic/Diorite terrane contact and the copper-silver boulders associated with a strong geophysical IP trend at the contact between a Gabbro plug/ Diorite terrane contact.
A discovery core drill hole in 2010 intersected 25.87 g/t Au over 13.45m. This hole is associated with the Goose Lake target within the Big Dam area of the property. However, it was determined that the actual target at Goose Lake was missed. This was determined after re-logging drill core from this hole, and material from several other drill cores associated with this target: and putting the collar locations and drill hole traces into context with the local magnetic geophysical signature.
Drill traces in 2010 were oriented generally north to south in an attempt to intersect what at the time was thought to be mineralization associated with a west to east, magnetic geophysical trend in the Goose Lake area (Figure 8)(1st derivative magnetic data). What was ignored by the Company in control of the drill program at the time were breaks in the same magnetic signature suggesting additional structures aligned NW to SW. These were thought by Northern Superior to be critical in the process of gold mineralization. The NW-SW trend is more clearly observed in the lateral gradient magnetic data (Figure 9).
Re-interpretation of the Goose Lake area geophysics, coupled with re-logging of the core derived from this area illustrates the target aligned generally northwest to southeast. However, the target has clearly been faulted and displaced to the northwest. This is a critical observation as the drilling in 2010 clearly was missing the target (Figure 10). In fact, the discovery hole nicked the target, but did not drill through it. The drill traces should have been oriented east to west… turn the drill!
As it now stands, the system remains wide open along strike in both directions and at depth.
Figure 8. First derivative magnetic data clearly illustrating a west to east trend in the structural fabric of the rock. The orientation of the core drill traces in 2010 were generally aligned south to north in an attempt to intersect mineralization thought to occur with this trend. Breaks in this magnetic data suggests an additional NW to SE structural system.
Core drilling had also been completed west of the Little Crying Boy target in 2012. Several intersections of economic interest were intersected (TPK_12_30: 59.60 g/t Au, 92.3 g/t Ag, 3.19% Cu over 0.5m; TPK_12_34: 16.15 g/t Au over 1.5m; TPK_12_40: 7.85 g/t Au over 0.8m; TPK_12_43: 8.85 g/t Au over 1.0m)(Figure 11).
Figure 9. Lateral gradient magnetic data illustrates a completely different orientation to structure, northwest to southeast. In fact, a very strong NW to SE trend connects the Goose to Little Crying Boy targets, 3.2 kms. Gold grains and high-grade gold- bearing boulders are dispersed off this Trend a mineral target of 3.2kms!
Figure 10. Re-interpretation of the geophysics and drill core associated with the Goose Lake target defined mineralized material aligned generally north to south. However, there is clear evidence from the geophysics and the core material that the mineral system had been faulted and displaced. This explains why the orientation of the drill traces in 2010 only nicked the mineralized material and did not drill through it.
Figure 11. Summary of key core drill intersections completed in 2010 and 2012 in the Big Dam area of the property. Note, the targets at both Goose Lake and Little Crying Boy Lake have yet to be drilled, previous drilling programs failed to drill the actual targets.
In 2012 the Company initiated a regional overburden sampling program with the intent to test the westward extension of the gold-bearing system towards the New Growth area of the property. This was successful (more on this later), but more importantly it was clear that there was a strong dispersal of gold emanating from a target to the northeast (up-ice). Additional ground was subsequently staked (hence the Annex area of the property) and an additional till sampling program was initiated to try and track the dispersal of gold grains to source.
Unfortunately, it snowed early that fall and the company had to terminate its overburden sampling program not knowing if the source for the gold grain-in-till dispersal had been determined. As it turned out, the results from this program indicated it had not, and it was not until the Company was able to re-finance the project in 2017 was the Company able to complete the sampling program and determine the primary source of the gold grains and gold/ silver copper-bearing boulders.
However, in 2012, the Company still had flow through money to spend before year end and a core drill program was completed with the intent to better understand local bedrock lithologies and stratigraphy. Surprisingly, several intersections of economic interest for gold were intersected (see Figure 7). These intersections included: NG_12_003C, 4.62 g/t Au over 5.50m; NG_12_005C, 13.40 g/t Au over 1.90m; NG_12_007C, 1.2 g/t Au over 2.50m.
What was realized after the 2017 overburden sampling program was that the area drilled was actually within the “corridor” and not at the primary source, several kilometers to the northeast. This indicating the potential for additional areas of gold mineralization embedded within the gold grain-in-till corridor in addition to the primary source at the mafic volcanic-diorite terrane contact.
During the winter of 2020 the Company undertook a thorough review of all data with the focus of establishing clear core drill targets in the Big Dam and Annex areas of the property.
High-grade gold-bearing boulder data (see Tables 1a and b, Figure 6) and data associated with gold grains isolated specifically form basal tills collected directly over the bedrock surface (see Figure 11) and associated gold geochemistry was compiled and interpreted. From this till data alone, 5 exceptional targets are defined that require core drilling.
A geophysical inversion model derived from the Company’s geophysical data was developed for the Big Dam area of the property (Figures 12 and 13). From this modelling, two mineralized alteration zones were identified extending from the Goose Lake target. One striking north to south and a second striking south southeast towards the Little Crying Boy Lake target. These zones are known to be both mineralized and altered as they were intersected in the 2010 drill program.
Figure 12. Geophysical inversion model produced for the Big Dam area. Two mineralized planes have been recognized both extending from the Goose Lake target where a discovery hole that assayed 25.87 g/t Au over 13.5m was intersected. The first extends south (red), and the second (purple) extends southwest towards the Little Crying Boy Lake target. See text for details and description of proposed drill program.
A two-phase drill program was subsequently developed that will test both the Goose Lake and Little Crying Boy Lake targets both economically and efficiently. Phase one drilling would test: a) the Goose Lake target with one collar from which an array of four drill traces would extend in generally an east to west pattern (689m); and b) the Little Crying Boy Lake target with two collars with an array of 4 traces to cover a broad area (1900m) (see Figures 12 and 13). Phase two is designed to build on any success from the phase one drilling with: a) testing the extension of the two mineralized alteration zones with a series of relatively short holes with five collars spaced north to south (790m); and b) testing the extension of the Little Crying Boy Lake target to the west and south with an additional two collars and three traces (900m)(see Figures 12 and 13).
Figure 13. Geophysical inversion model produced for the Big Dam area. See text for details regarding the targeting for a drill program, Little Crying Boy Lake area.
Mineral targeting in the Annex area was largely completed through the distribution and number of pristine gold grains (Figure 14), mineralized boulders (see Figure 7) and their association to known bedrock contacts and geophysical anomalies. In total, 8 holes (2400m) are planned to test 4 targets. Length of each hole will vary depending on what is observed in drill core.
Figure 14. Distribution of gold grains-in-till collected from basal till material.
Targets 1 and 2 (Figure 15)
These targets were defined by the abrupt termination of the head of the Keely Lake gold grain-in-till corridor, the distribution of those gold grains and the association to a bedrock contact between mafic volcanic and diorite terrane. Two holes for each target are planned.
Target 3 (Figure 15)
This target is defined by what appears to be an abrupt increase in the number of gold grains at this site, a very strong IP geophysical signature and the association to a contact between a gabbroic plug and diorite terrane. Two holes are planned to test this target.
Target 4 (Figure 14)
This target focusses on core drilling completed in 2012. Several drill core assays of commercial interest were intersected (see Section “High Grade, Drill Core Intersections: Amber Area”). Two holes are planned to test this area.
Figure 15. Targets planned to be tested in the Annex area from 7 collars, 8 drill holes.
Highlighted in the targeting section of this summary for the first round of core drilling were two of the 5 mineral targets identified in this area: Goose Lake and Little Crying Boy Lake. This leaves at least three additional, high-quality targets to test. Assuming success is achieved at any one of, or all 5 targets identified, factors controlling mineralization at these sites and the associated physical, heavy mineral, geochemical and geophysical signatures will be far better understood. These properties and related signatures could then be applied elsewhere within the Big Dam area, and for that matter elsewhere across the property, with the intent of identifying additional mineral targets.
One additional target worth highlighting here is the mineralized alteration zone connecting the Goose Lake and Little Crying Boy Lake targets. As previously mentioned, gold grains and mineralized boulders have been dispersed down-ice east southeast from this zone. This represents a target with a strike length of 3.2kms (see Figure 9).
A key potential source for the gold grains comprising the Keely Lake gold grain-in-till corridor have been identified at the head of the corridor. The other two identified, and to be tested, are embedded within the corridor itself. In part, these two targets were identified through an abrupt increase in the number of gold grains, particularly pristine ones, within the corridor.
The Keely Lake gold grain-in-till dispersal corridor is very large, 3.5kms wide by 13.5 kms long. To sustain the length of gold grain dispersal defined, additional source(s) for the gold grains are likely. Assuming discovery from the core drill program proposed, the Company will learn much regarding the controls on local gold mineralization and associated gold grain, till geochemistry and geophysical signatures. This knowledge will subsequently be applied elsewhere within the corridor with the expectation of additional mineral targets discovered and to test.
During the summer of 2012 Northern Superior undertook a regional overburden sampling and airborne geophysical survey to test the likely extension of the Big Dam gold mineral system west. This exploration program was extremely successful with the distribution of gold grains and geophysical signature clearly defining that the system associated with the spectacular Big Dam gold grain-in-till dispersal apron extends a further 29kms west through the New Growth area of the property (Figure 16).
Detailed interpretation of the results from the airborne magnetic geophysical survey identified 14 potential targets (Figure 17). Once discovery has been made in both or either of the Big Dam or Annex areas of the property the Company intends to pursue these targets aggressively with bedrock mapping and prospecting programs.
Figure 16. “Heat Map’ illustrating the distribution of arsenic in tills collected across the TPK property, the red colours indicating high levels of natural arsenic in the soil, a classic geochemical pathfinder element for gold.
Note:
Figure 16. Red circles represent 10 of the 14 areas identified from interpretation of the Company’s airborne magnetic geophysical survey as high potential for gold mineralization.