Larder Project, Ontario, Canada
View Interactive Property MapLarder Project Highlights
- Prolific gold camp in a stable jurisdiction
- Hosts 3 high-grade gold deposits over 4.5km
- 2019-2021 drilling connected all 3 deposits for 4.5km strike and over 1 km at depth
- 2021 MRE of 388,000 Indicated oz Au plus 933,000 Inferred oz Au between In-Pit and Underground Resources across all 3 deposits
- Significant near-term exploration upside at all 3 deposits, in addition to advanced satellite prospect Kir Vit
Larder Gold Project Location
Gatling’s Larder gold project hosts three high-grade gold deposits along the Cadillac-Larder Lake Break, 35 km east of Kirkland Lake – a well-established gold camp that has produced over 70 million ounces of gold. The project is 100% owned by Gatling and is comprised of patented and unpatented claims, leases and mining licenses of occupation within the McVittie and McGarry Townships. The 3,370 ha project area is positioned 7 km west of the Kerr Addison Mine, which produced 11 million ounces of gold and it straddles approximately 9 km strike length of the Cadillac-Larder break. All parts of the Larder property are accessible by truck or all-terrain vehicles on non-serviced roads and trails.
Central to the Larder Gold property is the Cheminis deposit (the "Cheminis Mine"), which includes a vertical shaft to a depth of 1,085 feet with six levels, of which the deepest is at 1,035 ft. Intermittent past production from the Cheminis Mine has totaled approximately 260,000 tons at a recovered grade of approximately 0.104 ounces Au/ton.
Gatling’s 2021 Mineral Resource Estimate
Gatling has conducted a new global mineral resource estimate (MRE) in accordance with NI 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects of 388,000 ounces of gold in the Indicated category and additional, 933,000 ounces of gold in the Inferred category across all three gold deposits.
The global estimate includes open pit and underground mineral resource estimates in the Indicated and Inferred categories for the Fernland, Cheminis and Bear gold deposits. This mineral resource estimate incorporates the full drilling database available, including 237,000 m of historical drilling and 58,000 m of new drilling completed by Gatling between January 2019 and July 2021, on the three deposits.
Gatling Drill Program Success and Upcoming Exploration Objectives
Gatling commenced drilling in 2019 with an initial 10,000 m program that was successful in connecting all 3 deposits and has continued into 2021. The 25,000 m drill program planned for 2021 (see Press Release dated January 7th, 2021) has now been completed and due to the recent success at the Bear deposit, its program has been expanded in scope beyond the original program. In addition, exploration will continue through Q4 and into 2022 with a focus on several key objectives and targets:
- Bear Deposit. Expanding the Bear deposit along strike to the West towards the Cheminis deposit, East towards the historic Kerr Addison Mine (11 Moz Au historically mined) and following up on high-grade gold plunging targets in both vertical directions.
- Fernland and Cheminis Pit Expansion and at Depth. Fernland and Cheminis deposits have both demonstrated near-surface gold mineralization that extends at depth with predictable high-grade, south-easterly plunging gold mineralized zones. The deposits have exhibited solid in-pit resource numbers that will be followed up with an aim to extend the current limits of the pit, in subsequent exploration programs. The deposits are also open at depth with exploration primarily focused on the upper 500 vertical meters, providing an excellent opportunity to add underground ounces to their current gold mineral resource estimates.
- Kir Vit Prospect. The current 5,000 m drill program at Kir Vit is nearly complete after testing the north-east south-west shears zones discovered in the 2020 outcrop stripping campaign. The drill program will also continue to explore intrusion-related and conglomerate hosted gold mineralization as the prospect continues to develop all three gold trends simultaneously. The northern part of Kir Vit consists mostly of the Timiskaming Conglomerate that has proven to host high-grade gold in Phase I of drilling. Current follow-up of this type of mineralization is underway, and if Gatling can continue to exploit this mineralized horizon, the entire northern portion of Kir Vit will become highly prospective.
- Swansea Zone. Explore the Swansea zone that hosts over 4 km of favorable Cadillac-Larder Lake Break geological units yet has only 19,000 m of historical drilling. The Swansea zone is located 2.5 km west of the Fernland deposit and is significantly underexplored considering its location along the break. Drill program permitting is underway.
- Regional Exploration. Multiple priority targets are being evaluated by the Gatling technical team and will be explored in future programs. Some of the high-priority targets include intrusion-related gold zones, conglomerate/unconformity horizons and structural trends identified in both AI targeting and LiDAR structure detection.
Gatling’s Deposits and Prospects
Fernland Deposit
- 50,000 m drilled. 115,000 Indicated oz Au and 156,000 Inferred oz Au (combined in-pit and underground)
- Gold mineralization is mostly associated with the south shear-hosted mafic volcanics with the north zone being a secondary zone at depth
- Fernland is open at depth and to the east within both the north and south zones of the deposit
- Near-surface gold mineralization at Fernland is captured within three pits proposed in the NI 43-101 technical report, the larger of which will extend 650 m by 250 m and to a depth of 185 m
Cheminis Deposit
- 105,000 m drilled. 165,000 Indicated oz Au and 238,000 Inferred oz Au (combined in-pit and underground)
- The three main mineralized zones at Cheminis are lithologically controlled and occur within northern mafic volcanics, an ultramafic corridor, and southern mafic volcanics with most of the mineralization in the south zone
- The maximum depth of mineralization recorded thus far is 1 km
- Two pits have been proposed to easily capture mineralization within the upper 200 m of the deposit. The main pit shell is 490 m long, 280 m wide, and 200 m deep
Bear Deposit
- 140,000 m drilled. 108,000 Indicated oz Au and 539,000 Inferred oz Au (underground)
- Majority of the high-grade gold at the Bear deposit sits within the steeply dipping north zone within quartz carbonate vein sets and is the highest grade deposit of the three at the Larder Gold Project
- Bear spans across 1.5 km of strike and down to 1.5 km in depth
- Bear is open to the east and west as well as at depth with a steep-easterly plunging direction
- The highest potential for high-grade gold expansion resides at the Bear deposit along strike, at depth and outside existing modelled grade shells
Kir Vit Prospect
Three new gold trends discovered since 2019 which include:
- Intrusion related
- Conglomerate hosted
- Shear hosted
Drill hole highlights
- 13 of 16 holes intersected mineralization >1.0 g/t Au; 500 m strike discovered
- 5.9 g/t Au over 3.0 m
- 5.1 g/t Au over 3.0 m
- 4.0 g/t Au over 2.0 m
Channel Sample Highlights
- 16.2 g/t Au over 1.0 m in a shear zone
- 2.8 g/t Au over 7.0 m including 8.2 g/t Au and 4.4 g/t Au
2021 Drill program
- Designed to target newly identified NE-SW trending shear zones and intersections of structural complexities
- ~ 5,300 m drill program completed
Nathan Tribble, P.Geo. has approved the information contained in this web page. Mr. Tribble is the Vice President Exploration with the Company and is a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101.