Slate Falls Property
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Slate Falls has yet to reveal the source of the numerous high-grade gold and silver showings identified over a 10-kilometre trend, where extensive deformation, folding, shearing, and faulting have been mapped,” Greg Lytle, President of Gold Finder.
Gold Finder (formerly GoldON) owns a 100% interest in the 5,100-hectare Slate Falls Property (the "Property") subject to an underlying 2% net smelter returns royalty. A discovery-stage project, Slate Falls represents an excellent risk-reward exploration scenario with fieldwork having identified at least 18 gold (Au) and silver (Ag) occurrences that have produced chip, channel, and drill core sample assays grading up to 861.3 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 3,025 g/t silver.
Located in the Patricia Mining District, the Property lies between the Red Lake and Pickle Lake gold camps in the southwestern extension of the Meen-Dempster Greenstone Belt that is hosted within the Uchi Subprovince, one of the most metal-endowed Archean greenstone assemblages in the world (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Slate Falls location within the greenstone belts of the Uchi Subprovince (click on image to enlarge).
The Fry Lake-Bamaji Lake Deformation Zone passes through the Property representing first and second-order crustal-scale structures that cut stratigraphy similar to and contemporaneous with the stratigraphy that hosts the past-producing Golden Patricia Gold Mine, which produced 620,000 ounces of gold at 15 g/t Au between 1988-1997 and lies 30 kilometres (km) to the northeast.
Figure 2: Sample 251150 taken from the Sanderson Showing (click on image to enlarge).
Mineralized showings identified on the Property include the Carpenter, Fly, FTM, J. Loon, L1, L15, Path, Sanderson, and Trail Zones. These occurrences are part of the Slate Falls Deformation Zone and extend for over 10 km in strike and 1.5 km in width within the Property's boundaries. All showings host high-grade Au-Ag mineralization and are related to regional fold axes and structures that provide traps for mineralizing fluids (see maps below).
The Property has seen sporadic exploration starting in the 1920s after the gold discoveries at Red Lake and Pickle Lake. Gold Finder's exploration efforts have focused on a few of the Property's historical high-grade gold and silver showings. Highlights of the latest fieldwork include mapping and sampling that returned up to 331.76 g/t Au and 3,025 g/t Ag from grab sampling of the shear-hosted polymetallic quartz veins at the Trail and Sanderson Zones (See news release of June 25, 2019). This was followed by an eight-hole diamond drilling program to further investigate the Au-Ag mineralization at the Trail and Sanderson zones, where the best result was a narrow interval of 78.5 g/t Au and 73.7 g/t Ag over 0.24 metres at Sanderson East (See news release of February 25, 2020).
Figure 3: Historical MAG and overlay of showings. Figure 4: High-resolution MAG and showings.
After the 2020 drilling program, it was decided to take a broader more detailed look at the entire Property to better understand the intricate structure, folding, shearing, and faulting that have been mapped. This broader look included hiring Prospectair Geosurvey to complete a new high-resolution heliborne magnetic (MAG) survey (See Figures 2 and 3 above for a comparison of historical and 2020 MAG surveys), and then hiring Orix Geoscience to complete a structural study incorporating the 2020 MAG survey data with all known lithological and mineralogical information and structural measurements.
The result of the Orix study is a far better understanding of the geological and structural framework of the Property, which is acutely demonstrated in the comparison of maps below from the Dinel & Pettigrew study of 2008 (Figure 4) and the Orix study (Figure 5).
Figure 5: 2008 Geological Study, Dinel & Pettigrew. Figure 6: 2020 Geological Study, Orix Geoscience.
The results of the Orix data compilation and reinterpretation study are as follows:
- A vastly improved geological map that has turned a ‘sea of green' into a concise stratigraphic and folded layering of various volcanic, ultra-mafic, and felsic intrusive lithologies.
- Extension of the greenstone belt into previously interpreted bounding felsic intrusive plutons.
- Three deformational events (D1, D2, and D3).
- Late syn-to-post D3 structures.
- Increased knowledge of the relationship between structure and known mineralization.
Many important mineralized occurrences are in/or proximal to either major early D2 generally dextral east-west shear zones or splays. Similarly, the intersection of late D3 north-northeast striking structures with early D2 east-west structures appears to control the mineralization structurally by creating or enhancing dilatational sites. Areas along the strike of the major shear zones as well as fault intersections, are key potential target areas for future exploration.
The results of the Orix study were incorporated into an independent Technical Report prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") - click here to download the Report.
Figure 7: Highest-priority target areas recommended for next phase of exploration.
The size of the Property was reduced in 2023 to preserve the highest-priority exploration areas as recommended for follow-up in the Technical Report. These target areas include, but are not limited to, the four areas numbered in Figure 7 above and summarized below:
1) The FTM Zone (traced for 500m) now appears to be associated with a fold axis proximal or along a felsic intrusive. This brittle environment, crosscut by north-northeast structures, can provide important traps and pathways for mineralization and thus presents a horizon as a target with high merit.
2) Probable ultra-mafic bodies were better defined by the airborne magnetic survey, and associated cross-cutting structural features make these lithologies conducive for possible re-mobilized Cu-Ni mineralization. Structurally damaged ultra-mafic bodies in the Uchi Subprovince are also important hosts for gold mineralization.
3) Gold mineralization associated with the Fly Zone is a sericite-amphibole schist in contact with an iron formation, and the associated structure is another target of high merit. Cross-cutting structural features should be investigated for sulphidation of magnetite, grunerite (amphibole) alteration, and shear-related quartz veining as a banded iron formation-hosted gold deposit model.
4) Structures hosting polymetallic mineralization, whether in volcanic packages or within syn-deformational felsic rocks such as the North Bamaji Pluton on the western side of the property, should be investigated for a possible Archean-related Au-(Cu) porphyry model deposit.
The Property is located approximately 5 km northeast of the community of Slate Falls, 90 km west of Pickle Lake, 120 km north of the community of Sioux Lookout, and 160 km east of Red Lake, Ontario. The community of Slate Falls is accessible by an all-weather road, and regionally, the area is well traversed by logging roads and trails. Slate Falls is also accessible by float- or ski-equipped plane charters from Pickle Lake, Sioux Lookout, or Red Lake. A major hydroelectric transmission corridor, extending from Ear Falls to Pickle Lake, crosses the Property (Figure 1).
Gold Finder owns a 100% interest in the Property subject to a 2% net smelter returns royalty held by EMX Royalty, of which the Company may purchase 1% for $1,000,000.
The technical information on this webpage has been approved by Mike Kilbourne, P.Geo., a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.