Drilling advances understanding of gold system at Frotet in Quebec

Kenorland Minerals’ (TSXV: KLD) Frotet project in the Frotet-Evans greenstone belt of Quebec, 100 km north of Chibougamau, is shaping up to be a potentially significant gold system, says Zach Flood, Kenorland’s president and CEO.

The junior gold explorer recently completed a 30-hole (8,591 metres) winter drill program at the Regnault gold discovery on Frotet, with 14 of the 15 assay results reported to date intersecting significant mineralisation. 

Highlights included drillholes 21RDD024, which intersected 5.72 metres grading 90.56 grams gold per tonne and 109.95 grams silver per tonne starting from 82.07 metres, and 21RDD037, a 250-metre step-out to the west of 21RDD024, returning 25.33 metres grading 6.29 grams gold and 7.59 grams silver from 132 metres.

The latest round of drilling has led to a much better understanding of the Regnault system, said Flood. “These initial drill results are very exciting, with the high-grade gold intercepts indicating the presence of a robust mineralised system. The drilling has also greatly improved our understanding of the orientation of the gold-bearing structures at Regnault.”

Discovered during an initial 15-hole drill program in early 2020, following two years of property-wide systematic regional exploration, Regnault lies within an area of no known mineral occurrences or historical drilling. The discovery hole, 20RDD007, intersected 29.08 metres grading 8.47 grams gold per tonne and 12.23 grams silver per tonne from 72 metres.

The latest drilling comprised step-outs from this initial drill program. This has delineated approximately 550 metres of mineralisation along a vein corridor called R1, which remains open to the east, west, and down dip.

The recent drill results, said Flood, confirmed “that we weren’t just lucky with our first pass drill program last year at Regnault but continue to intercept high grade gold mineralization and, most importantly, we’re now defining the structural controls of the system.”

As exploration has advanced at Regnault, he continued, “we’ve defined a footprint covering an area of two kilometres by 500 metres that hosts high-grade mineralisation along multiple structures.”

Following completion of the 2021 winter drill program in May, Sumitomo Metal Mining Canada Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japanese miner and smelter Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., has increased its stake in Frotet to 80% as part of an earn-in option agreement by providing an additional $4 million to fund further exploration.

A joint venture between Kenorland (20%) and Sumitomo (80%) will now advance the project, with exploration funded on a pro-rata basis. Kenorland will continue as the operator of the project, receiving a 10% management fee on the overall budget.

Kenorland and Sumitomo plan to conduct up to 20,000 metres of additional diamond drilling at Regnault, including infill and step-outs on the R1 vein, as well as targeting additional mineralized structures within the Regnault trend. This next phase of exploration is slated to begin in July. 

“We’re now moving into a more advanced phase of drilling that is designed to systematically infill and step out horizontally and vertically further along the R1 structure,” explained Flood. “Up to 10,000 meters of drilling will go directly into R1.”

Kenorland also plans to conduct surface exploration of its 161,025-hectare Chebistuan project in the northern Abitibi greenstone belt of Quebec, 30 km west of the town of Chibougamau.

The program will collect 800 infill B-horizon soil samples and 220 C-horizon till samples. Gold major Newmont (TSX: NGT; NYSE: NEM) will fund the program under an exploration agreement that includes a joint venture option. Under the agreement, Kenorland remains the operator of the project.

“We’re looking forward to working with Newmont to advance this extensive greenfield exploration project, where we plan to take the same approach as that adopted at Frotet,” said Flood.

In addition to Chebistuan, Kenorland has multiple other greenfields projects in Quebec and Ontario, including Chicobi, located in the central Abitibi Greenstone Belt, which is also optioned to Sumitomo Metal Mining.

On the other side of the continent, Kenorland is ramping up exploration in Alaska.

The company has recently kicked off a 4,000-metre initial diamond drill program on the Healy Project in the Goodpaster District of Alaska near the world-class Pogo gold mine owned by Northern Star Resources (ASX: NST).

The drilling is designed to test multiple large-scale gold in soil anomalies which were initially identified by Newmont in 2012 and 2013. Kenorland optioned the project from Newmont in 2018 and has conducted multiple exploration programs since then to refine drill targets.  

Also in Alaska, the company is advancing drill targets on its advanced stage Tanacross porphyry copper project, located near the border of the Yukon. The company plans to test these targets towards the end of the summer, wrapping up a very active field season in the state. 

“If there is one thing that’s certain, there is no shortage of exciting and impactful exploration happening in 2021,” said Flood. “Our goal is to make more discoveries, and to do that, we are pursuing aggressive exploration on multiple fronts.”

This article was first published by The Northern Miner. Read the original story here.