Location:
Quebec, Canada
Size:
161,025 ha
Stage:
Grassroots
Deposit Type(s):
Orogenic Au, Intrusive-related Au, VMS, Ni-Cu-PGE
The Chebistuan Project is a 161,025 hectare, district scale, greenfields exploration project located in the northern region of the prolific Abitibi Greenstone Belt. The property is one of the largest contiguous land packages in the Abitibi covering over 100 kilometers of prospective ground along a crustal scale deformation zone and regional sedimentary-volcanic rock contacts.
The project is currently held under an exploration agreement and venture option with Newmont Corporation. The Agreement provides an option for a two-phased exploration earn-in over 3 years, where Newmont can earn a 51% interest in the Chebistuan Project through certain exploration expenditures and cash payments to Kenorland. The initial phase of the agreement consists of a property-wide geochemical sampling program, target definition and testing. Newmont then has the option to earn an additional 29% interest for a cumulative 80% interest (phase two earn-in) in the Chebistuan Project over 6 years by completing a 43-101 compliant pre-feasibility study on a minimum 1.5 Moz Au resource as well as meeting certain cash payments to Kenorland. The parties may continue to explore and develop the property through an 80% Newmont, 20% Kenorland joint venture or, in the case of a construction decision, Kenorland can elect for Newmont to finance its portion of mine development cost. If Newmont elects not to continue with the phase two earn in, then ownership interest in the project will switch to 51% Kenorland and 49% Newmont.
Location and Access
The Chebistuan Project is located 30 kilometers west of the town of Chibougamau, Quebec: the largest town in Nord-du-Quebec, which provides excellent infrastructure and an experienced local workforce for exploration and mining activities. Project access is excellent with provincial highways flanking the southern border of the property along with an extensive logging road network and high-voltage power transmission lines crossing the property.
Geology and Mineralisation
The Chebistuan Project is located in the Abitibi Greenstone Belt, which is comprised of highly deformed packages of Archean volcanic rocks, siliclastic sedimentary basins and coeval intrusive rocks. Deformation along major corridors began in the northern Abitibi with the docking of the Opatica terrrane and progressively verged southward forming major gold deposits between 2700 Ma at Detour Lake in the north to < 2670 Ma along the Cadillac – Larder Lake & Porcupine – Destor deposits in the south. The property covers a major deformation zone which juxtaposes two different volcanic assemblages, a similar relationship is seen at the Detour Lake deposit. First order gold-controlling structures are often located on the margins of clastic sedimentary basins in close proximity to volcanic rocks. The Chebistuan property covers 140kms of these gold prospective contacts.
The property is located 30km west of the Chibougamau mining camp and 5km west of the Chapais mining camp (6.5 Moz Au; 2.7 Blbs Cu of historic production). The Chibougamau camp has historically been mined and explored for Cu-Au mineralization but the recent discovery of the Nelligan deposit (IAMGOLD – Vanstar Resources) highlights the regional potential for orogenic gold mineralization which has been overlooked in the past.
Exploration History
Spatial analysis of compiled historical exploration data identified the Chebistuan Project as a region of very low exploration maturity when compared to the other areas within the Abitibi Greenstone Belt. The 372 drill holes located within the 161,025 hectare project area were predominantly targeting geophysical anomalies potentially related to copper-gold systems similar to those of the Chibougamau Cu-Au Mining Camp. Very little systematic regional exploration has been conducted on the property. Provincial regional soil sampling during the 1980’s focused on sampling O-Ah horizon and lacked adequate detection limits to target low levels of Au in glacial sediment. Stream sediment sampling during the 1980’s was restricted to the eastern portion of the property with a focus on base metal exploration, lacking analysis for Au or other precious metals.
Summary of exploration activities conducted by Kenorland Minerals
The Chebistuan Project was acquired by Kenorland through map staking in December 2019 and was optioned to Newmont Corporation July, 2020. During the summer of 2020 Kenorland collected approximately 4500 B-horizon soils (till substrate) on a 1250m x 200m grid covering the entire property as a first pass reconnaissance-style surface geochemical survey (Phase 1).
During the Phase 2 exploration campaign, the Company carried out a detail geochemical survey consisting of approximately 2,100 infill B-horizon soil samples (glacial till substrate) along with 225 C-horizon till samples analyzed for gold grain counts. Sampling was conducted within 20 areas of interest (AOIs), covering broad multi-element geochemical anomalies identified from the previous Phase 1 property-wide regional till sampling program carried out in 2020.
The results of the Phase 1 and Phase 2 surveys have outlined multiple gold and pathfinder element anomalies within the Deux Orignaux AOI. During the fall of 2021, a prospecting campaign, including the collection of 204 rock and boulder samples was completed over the Deux Orignaux AOI to aid in the geological context of the soil anomalism. In addition, a detailed airborne magnetics survey was also completed covering three target areas. In early 2022, the Company plans to complete and induced polarization (IP) to advance the project towards drill targeting.