Hemlo East: Gold
Ontario, Canada

Status

Currently under option to Barrick Gold Corp to earn an 80% interest.

Target

High grade Archean orogenic "lode" gold. The project hosts the interpreted eastern extension of the Hemlo Mine trend. The Hemlo Mine has produced over 23 million ounces of gold.

Location and Setting

The Hemlo East property is located in Northwest Ontario and has excellent infrastructure with access provided by the Trans Canada Highway (Hwy 17) from which all weather roads lead into the property. The Hemlo gold mine and the Company's property are located approximately 30 km east of the town of Marathon, Ontario.

Location map of the Hemlo East Property

Land Status

The Hemlo East property consist of 279 unpatented mining claims covering ~5,719 hectares. The property is 100% owned by Metalcorp a wholly owned subsidiary of Palladium One.

In June 2012, Metalcorp sold three claims (referred to as the Hemlo Annex property) on the western end of its property to Barrick Gold Inc. for $100,000 cash and a 2% net smelter royalty.

In November 2020, Metalcorp entered into an earn-in agreement with Barrick Gold Inc., relating to MetalCorp's Hemlo East gold property. The Earn-In Agreement provides that Barrick has the right and option to earn an 80% interest in the Hemlo East Property

In 2021 Barrick declared force majeure due delays obtaining an Exploration Permit and thus being unable to complete the required exploration expenditures.

Geology and Mineralization

The Hemlo East property cover part of the Archean aged Hemlo greenstone belt, which in turns forms part of the Wawa Sub province, which is hosts to several active and historic gold mines, the largest of which is the Hemlo mine with over 23 million ounces produced to date.

On the northwestern part of the property, immediately east of the Hemlo Mine, the overall structural and stratigraphic setting, as well as the nature of the alteration, are very similar to the Hemlo deposit. The continuous alteration zones in this generally poorly exposed area also host local gold occurrences. These have been drill-tested in part in the past, but generally to relatively shallow depths (see Longitudinal Section). MetalCorp intends to further test the mineralized and altered zones, both along trend and to depth.

The Gouda Lake Zone

Exploration work on the Hemlo East property discovered a gold occurrence, called Gouda Lake, and base metal mineralization contained in the Heron Bay - Playter Harbour rock sequence. This same sequence of rocks underlies the Big Lake property located 12km southwest where a copper - zinc massive sulphide discovery was made in 2006.

The eastern part of the Hemlo East property hosts the Gouda Lake gold zone which is underlain by Hemlo-like rocks with the mineralization hosted by an east-west striking, 20-metre-thick zone of quartz-sericite-pyrite (2-25%) schist containing 2-5% sphalerite (zinc sulphide) and trace galena (lead sulphide). Minor amounts of chalcopyrite (copper sulphide) and streaks of molybdenite (molybdenum sulphide) occur locally. Assay values have ranged from as high as 21.0 g/t gold, 648.0 g/t silver and 2.0% zinc. In 1996, Placer Dome Canada Limited, which optioned the ground from Lac Minerals, estimated an inventory of 253,000 tonnes @ 4.1 g/t Au at the Gouda Lake zone (this historically-reported estimate is not 43-101 compliant) (a qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves; accordingly, The Company is not treating the historical estimate as mineral resources or mineral reserves).

Recent Exploration

Beginning in 2009, a systematic review of the Hemlo East Property began, including airborne magnetic and electromagnetic surveys, and a drill program on the Northwestern part of the property, near Cedar Lake. This drill campaign was intended to test the deep extension of the Egg Lake Horizon and comprised of one-hole exceeding 1200 meters in depth. The hole contacted the zone, at a depth of 1000 meters or more below surface, and the best intercept provided a result of 0.85 g/t over 7 meters. This confirmed that the gold bearing horizon is indeed present along that trend. Further work may be done to further test those areas.

In mid-2010, a decision was made to further investigate the Gouda Lake zone. The effort began with an IP (induced polarization) survey to confirm the location of the zone originally identified by Lac Minerals and was followed up by a 3000-meter drill campaign.

The drilling effort, completed in November 2010, proved that the horizon is not only much more extensive than the original Lac Minerals reports indicated, but also had significantly greater potential for base metals than was previously shown. Highlights from the drill campaign included.

• 19.7 g/t gold and 155 g/t silver over 1.2 meters in hole HEGZ 10-16
• 2.2 g/t gold and 388 g/t silver with 2% combined base metals over 0.8 meters in HEGZ 10-14
• 11..4 g/t gold and 253 g/t silver over 1.34 meters in HEGZ 10-20.
• 11.15 g/t gold and 200 g/t silver over 1.5 meters in HEGZ 10-24.

Overall, the drilling campaign indicated that the zone has at least one main trough, approximately 200 meters in width, open down plunge. The main plunge has shown considerable true width and grade.

• Hole HEGZ 10-15 grades at 2.25 g/t gold, 98.3 g/t silver and 1.36% combined base metals over 4.46 meters.
• Hole HEGZ 10-16 grades at 5.41 g/t gold and 47.13 g/t silver over 4.76 meters.
• Hole HEGZ 10-20 grades at 5.22 g/t gold, 145.3 g/t silver, and 1.03% base metals over 4.99 meters.
• Hole HEGZ 10-24 grades at 3.83 g/t gold, 90.9 g/t silver, and 0.9% base metals over 6.00 meters.

Work shows that this system has the potential to be very extensive, as past drilling shows the trend continues 1.2 km or more to the north.

Click to view the overall results of the Gouda drilling

Total field Magnetic map of the Hemlo East Project, Hemlo Annex property, adjacent Barrick Gold property, and location of the Hemlo Gold mine

Geology map of the Hemlo East Project

Cartoon Long section, of the Hemlo gold deposit and drilling on the Hemlo East Project

Cross section of the Gouda Zone, Hemlo East Project

Proposed Exploration Program

Barrick currently responsible for planning and implementing any exploration programs on the Property.

Agreement and Terms

The Hemlo East property consist of 279 unpatented mining claims covering ~5,719 hectares. The property is 100% owned by Metalcorp a wholly owned subsidiary of Palladium One.