Site visit: Maple Gold Mines works to boost resource in Quebec

Kiran Patankar cracks a grin as he points towards the boreal forest that stretches as far as the eye can see.“When you’re up here the first thing that strikes you is how vast the land that we control is,” the Maple Gold Mines (TSXV: MGM) CEO says after a breathtaking climb to the top of the headframe at the company’s flagship Douay property in northern Quebec.“When you’re standing here and you get a view of what the potential is, you can start to see some bedrock outcrop,” he says. “You can see a mill site there. You can see areas for tailings. I look around and I see a mine. I see a mine with a potential to grow along strike.”Douay is one of two gold projects that sit inside the 481-sq.-km land package that Maple has amassed along Abitibi’s Casa Berardi deformation zone, a major gold-bearing structure with strong exploration potential. The company recently added 128 claims at Douay, a 17% increase, to boost its total in the area to 905.Joutel projectMaple’s other priority is Joutel, which includes the past-producing Eagle-Telbel mine complex that Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX, NYSE: AEM) ran as its first operation from 1974 to 1986. During that time, Eagle-Telbel produced 1.1 million oz. gold at an average grade of 6.5 grams gold per tonne. Both projects sit within driving distance of three major gold mines: Agnico’s Malartic and Detour Lake operations and Hecla Mining’s (NYSE: HL) Casa Berardi. Past-producing mines in the area include Sleeping Giant, an orogenic gold deposit 50 km to the south, and Selbaie, a volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposit 66 km to the north.“When you look toward the northwest, you realize that along the Casa Berardi, which remains relatively untested in that direction, we control 50 more km of strike length,” Patankar says. “Then you look to the south, past the Cartwright Hills, and on the other side of that is Joutel. Everything in between is Maple. We’re not constrained by space. You don’t have a town here. You don’t have infrastructure to move. You can start planning things. Potential mining of a deposit like this is not out of left field.”Although Maple’s share price has done well this year, more than doubling in a rising gold price environment to C$1.55 Friday morning in Toronto, Patankar is disappointed that investors aren’t giving the company the respect – and the valuation – he feels it deserves. Maple’s market capitalization now sits at about C$81 million.“For a junior company to take on a something of this size and scale is almost unheard of,” Patankar told analysts during a briefing at the mining camp. “We don’t get any value for the exploration upside, and we don’t get any value for Joutel.”New drillingIn preparation for a resource update that’s scheduled for the first half of next year, Maple is planning to conduct 30,000 metres of new drilling between October and March. This will include 20,000 metres at Douay and another 10,000 at Joutel, Patankar says. No current resource exists for the former Eagle-Tebel mine.Douay hosts 10 million tonnes grading 1.59 grams gold per tonne for 511,000 contained oz. of gold, according to a 2022 resource. It also holds 76.7 million inferred tonnes grading 1.02 grams gold for contained metal of 2.53 million ounces.“I think we have the potential to get to 5 million oz. at Douay, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg,” Patankar told The Northern Miner in an interview during the site visit. “There’s not been a lot of drilling done below 500 metres. I expect growth to be substantial, but does it get to five? TBD.”Adds technical advisor and Maple board member Gérald Riverin, a four-decade industry veteran: “We have a good lake here. We’re going to catch a lot of fish.”T-shirts worn by some Maple employees during the event conveyed a similar confidence: “Just Douay it,” they read.Near MatagamiLocated within the northern Abitibi Greenstone Belt, a world-class Archean gold district, Douay sits about 700 km northwest of Montreal and 55 km south of the mining town of Matagami, where Glencore (LSE: GLEN) previously mined zinc.Douay has direct access to Highway 109, a winding two-lane road that cuts through heavily wooded areas and features a seemingly endless succession of pickup trucks and lumber-laden 18-wheelers. The project is connected to the Hydro-Québec grid.Originally discovered by Inco more than four decades ago, Douay has never been mined. Quebec junior Vior explored the property in the 1980s, discovering the Douay West and 531 zones and completing a feasibility study. Vancouver-based Aurizon Mines took over in the mid-1990s, carried out infrastructure work and built a headframe at Douay West in 1996.As plans advanced, Aurizon discovered the larger Casa Berardi deposit nearby and shifted its focus, letting the Douay option lapse.Vior returned in the early 2000s, identified the Porphyry zone and completed a second feasibility study. Maple’s predecessor, Aurvista Gold, entered in 2011 through a joint venture that revived exploration.Nika zoneRenamed Maple, the company found the Nika zone in 2017. It became Douay’s sole owner last year after restructuring its venture with Agnico Eagle, which now holds a 13% stake in Maple following the company’s C$18 million financing from investors including Franklin Templeton.Until Maple’s arrival, “Douay was in junior mining purgatory. Capital was not available,” Katankar said. “If it had been held by a major with unlimited resources, they would have drilled the hell out of it. As a junior company you are always at the whim of the capital markets.”Douay remains open in all directions, with significant potential to expand mineralized zones both laterally and at depth. Recent drilling — including a 300-metre down-plunge step-out in the Nika Zone — “continues to demonstrate the potential for new mineralization outside the limits of the current resource model,” Maple says.2021 JVMaple also has high hopes for Joutel, which Agnico contributed to the companies’ joint venture in 2021. Located a short drive from Douay, Joutel spans 39 sq. km. The project is contiguous with Douay’s southern boundary and is also accessible via Highway 109, which cuts across the project area.Joutel’s main mine horizon, hosted in mixed epiclastic and pyroclastic rocks of the northern part of the Joutel-Raymond volcanic complex, extends into a sill-like microgabbro occurring close to the Harricana fault, Maple said.Crews at Joutel are targeting a near-vertical zone dubbed the MICH, the main iron carbonate horizon, which hosted most of the mine’s past gold production, says Daniel Johannsson, Maple’s senior geologist.“We’ve targeted some drill holes at depth near some stopes and we’ve revised it,” Johannsson said in an interview at Joutel. “We see more potential in shallow projections on our cross-plunge that trends to the south/southwest following this plunge up along this horizon that historically has been untested or very poorly tested.”Leftover goldThe plan to revive Joutel, which lies near the Harricana River, would require draining water that’s seeped into shafts and tunnels over the past 30 years. Maxime Bouchard, a geologist and vice president of Laurentia Exploration who is working with Maple in Abitibi, has no doubt that mining at Joutel will eventually restart.“At Joutel, there is leftover gold all over the place,” he told analysts. “If you combine Douay, Joutel and all the claims, it’s more like a district-size project.”Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com