Projects
Contact Bay Project
Overview
Company’s Contact Bay Property is located 12 kilometres south-southwest of Dryden Ontario, NTS map sheets 52F/10, centered at UTM 506,711mE, 5,502,380mN. The Property is halfway between Thunder Bay, Ontario and Winnipeg, Manitoba, less than 350 km from each.
Exploration, Development and Production Hightlights:
Historic work on the Property includes the old Rognon Mine, also known as Wachman Mine, located on the north side of Contact Bay. The Old Rognon/Wachman Mine produced 22.2 oz of gold and 0.5 oz of silver from 49 tons milled while in operation between 1916 and 1918. Development is reported to be a shaft 106 ft deep with 307 ft of lateral development on two levels, including a raise to surface from the first (50 ft) level. Stripping and pitting was extensive over the vein length of 1500 feet. Past data from the area includes historical grabs up to 6.5% Cu and 3.5% Ni, along with platinum and palladium concentrations up to 280 ppb on the southeast portion of Contact Bay.
The Company has also flown airborne EM and MAG surveys over the entire Contact Bay project, which should help identify further targets. Additional exploration work on the property will include drilling and surface exploration with a focus on Copper, Nickel and PGEs.
Historical Work:
Exploration began in the late 1800s, contemporaneous with the establishment of Dryden. Shortly after the First World War, mining exploration became particularly active in the vicinity of Larson Bay on Wabigoon Lake. Initial efforts focused on gold exploration, but by 1911, nickel-copper mineralization was discovered at Meridian Bay on the south end of Eagle Lake. The amount of exploration fluctuated over the subsequent decades, with a notable increase from the late 1970s to the early 1990s.
There are five mineralized showings listed in the government mineral deposit inventory. These include two gold showings in the vicinity of Contact Bay, associated with greenstone volcanics in the northeast corner of the Property, and three nickel and/or copper showings in the southern part of the Property, associated with ultramafic/mafic intrusives.
Contact Bay - 2023 Program Highlights
Heritage Mining recently announced its geophysical interpretation for its Contact Bay property. Highlights from 2023 include defining two substantial mafic-ultramafic intrusive bodies with multiple Ni-Cu-PGE Targets:
- Nabish Lake Area (Ni-Cu-PGE) (~ 5km long, up to 1km wide, over 1km in depth)
- North Nabish Lake Area (Ni-Cu-PGE) (~ 2km long, 1km wide, over 1km in depth)
These highlights, coupled with findings from the Company’s recent prospecting program, suggest geological similarities to other Archean Ni-Cu-PGE occurrences and deposits in the area.
Next steps include a prospecting program, induced polarization surveys and follow up diamond drilling designed to evaluate the Ni-Cu-PGE and Au target areas. With year-round access to the property and significant infrastructure already in place, Heritage has the ability to work on the project all year round.
Geological Setting and Mineralization
The Property lies within the Eagle-Manitou Lakes Greenstone Belt (aka Atikwa Domain), and within the Western Wabigoon Subprovince of the larger Superior Province.
The Superior Province is divided into 19 sub-provinces which consist of a mix of metasedimentary, metamorphic, volcano-plutonic, and plutonic domains.
The Wabigoon Sub province of northwestern Ontario is a 900 km long by 150 km wide east-west trending volcanic/plutonic belt. It comprises Meso-to-Neoarchean metavolcanic and subordinate sedimentary rocks cut by Meso- to-Neoarchean oval granitoid batholiths and gabbroic sills and stocks. It is divided into a western, isotopically juvenile, mainly Neoarchean Wabigoon Terrane and an eastern, recycled, mainly Mesoarchean Marmion Terrane. The Wabigoon Terrane corresponds to the Western Wabigoon Region. The Wabigoon Terrane comprises interconnected, inward-facing, mafic metavolcanic dominated greenstone belts with subordinate felsic metavolcanic and sedimentary rocks wrapped around oval batholiths.
Proposed Ore Deposit Model
Greenstone belts are economically important repositories for mineralization, e.g. VMS, komatiite-associated nickel deposits, and orogenic lode gold deposits. The Property has the potential to host more than one deposit type.
The most attractive of these are:
- Archean Lode Gold: Structurally controlled gold bearing quartz veins.
- Magmatic Nickel-Copper (Ni-Cu), and PGE: Ni-Cu and PGE mineralization associated with ultramafic to mafic intrusive rocks.
Archean Lode Au Deposits
Deposits belonging to Archean orogenic lode gold mineralizing systems comprise epigenetic mineralization that formed as a result of focused fluid flow late during active deformation and metamorphism of volcano-plutonic terranes. They can occur in any lithology and formed at a range of paleo crustal levels through site-specific and local physical and chemical processes. All Archean orogenic lode gold deposits formed through broadly similar geologic processes, with the unique character of individual deposits resulting mainly from variations at the depositional site.
The 3.1-2.6 Ga Superior Province is second only to the Witwatersrand Basin in terms of historic gold production. Some of the largest gold deposits of the western Superior region are hosted in continental sedimentary-volcanic rock sequences, e.g., Red Lake Camp and the Musselwhite Deposit with 5.4 Moz past production plus reserves and resources, circa 2012. The part of the Superior Province is dominated by approximately 35 distinct 2.77-2.70 Ga greenstone belts hosting most of Canada’s largest gold deposits, i.e., Timmins District and the 20 Moz Hemlo Deposit.
Magmatic Ni-Cu-PGE-Cr-V
Magmatic Ni-Cu-PGE-Cr-V Deposits formed in a variety of geologic environments and periods. PGE-Cr-V deposits predominantly occur in large, layered intrusions emplaced during the late Archean and early Proterozoic into a stabilized lithosphere. The magmas ascend through trans-lithospheric sutures characterized by limited extension and rifting. The laterally extensive ore layers (so-called reefs) formed through hydrodynamic phase sorting when the central portions of large, incompletely solidified magma chambers subsided due to crustal loading. The bulk of global PGE-Cr-V resources occur in the largest layered intrusions, namely the Bushveld complex of South Africa, the Great Dyke of Zimbabwe, and the Stillwater complex of the USA. Due to the large size (tens of kilometers) and limited complexity of the deposits and their host intrusions, they are relatively easy to locate and delineate. As a result, the search space is relatively mature, and few new discoveries have been made in the last few decades.
Local and Property Geology
The Property includes examples of most the major regional lithologic units, including the Lower Wabigoon Volcanics, Eagle Lake Volcanics, Mafic Intrusives and Atikwa Batholith.
Royalties, Agreements and Encumbrances
The Property is 100% owned by HML subject to varying royalties held by EMX Properties (Canada) Inc., Bounty Gold Corp and Transition Metals Corp and are subject to varying option obligations.
The claims comprising the EMX portion of the Property are subject to a 3.0 % net smelter return royalty (NSR), with a 1.0% buyback for US$1.5 million, and the Transition Metals Corp claims are subject to 2.0 % NSR once the option is exercised, with a 0.5 % buy back for $1.0 million. There is no royalty associated with the Bounty Gold Corp. property option. There are no other underlying royalties or financial obligations on the property, other than those owed the government and legislated requirements to local First Nations upon commercial production.
