Fecteau Lake

The Fecteau Lake property is located in the Abitibi Subprovince of the Canadian Shield, about 10 km northwest of the Grenville Thrust. Rocks of the property are located at the base of the Urban-Barry Greenstone Belt (UBGB), a complex and ancient volcano-sedimentary sequence (2791 Ma) which is considered to be a fragment of the pre-Abitibi basement (Bandyayera et al., 2004b, Rhéaume and Bandyayera, 2007).  They are generally metamorphosed to greenschist facies and locally reached amphibolite facies ; the regional metamorphic gradient generally increases eastward towards the Grenville Front (Joly, 1990).

Rocks of the Fecteau Lake property are composed of mafic to felsic volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks of the Fecteau Formation which hosts the oldest rocks (2791 Ma) of the UBGB (RP2006-08). The Fecteau Formation forms a E-W-oriented volcano-sedimentary belt which pinches toward the NE between the Hébert Pluton to the north and the gneissic rocks of the Grenville Province to the south. The western portion of the Fecteau Formation is folded by the Fecteau Syncline.

The northern part of the property is occupied by the Tonalite and granodiorite of the large Barry Complex. The Urban Shear Corridor is the most important regional feature of the area ; it strikes about 1.5 km north of the Fecteau Lake property in a roughly E-W direction.

As for Rhéaume and Bandyayera (RP2006-08), the history of the area “comprises the formation of a pre-Abitibi basement consisting of ancient volcanic rocks (Fecteau Formation, 2791 Ma), the opening of an ocean basin and the formation of oceanic crust with the periodic development of island arcs between 2730 and 2707 Ma and the closing and imbrication of this basin during the Kenoran Orogeny”. This rich and long history involves the setting up of different styles of mineralization at each stage. Following Bandyayera et al. (RG2003-07), three major categories of mineralization have been identified in the Lac Hébert region: orogenic gold veins, volcanogenic massive sulfides, and Cu-Ni-Co ±PGE mineralization associated with ultramafic rocks. The volcano-sedimentary units of the UBGB have been considered until now as equivalent to volcanic cycle I (2720–2730 Ma) of the Chibougamau Segment (Bandyayera et al., RG2003-07) in which numerous base metal and gold mines have historically been brought into production.

Historical work in the property area succeeded in discovering three (3) gold deposits. The  Barry and Gladiator deposits are currently explored by Bonterra Resources. Measured and Indicated Resources of 1,413,000t @ 8.61 g/t Au have been calculated at Gladiator (NI 43-101 Technical Report, June 2021), while Measured and Indicated Resources calculated at Barry are 1,916,000t @ 2.68 g/t Au (same report). The Windfall deposit, located <30 km west of the Fecteau Lake property, has Proven and Probable Reserves at Windfall are estimated at 12.2 Mt @ 8.06 g/t Au for 3.16 million ounces of gold and grading 4.18 g/t Ag for 1.64 million ounces of silver (Andrieux et al., 2023 – NI 43-101 Technical Report Feasibility Study for the Windfall Project). The bulk of the gold mineralization is contained in extensive anastomosed networks of quartz-pyrite veins and pyrite-rich alteration zones.

 

The Fecteau Lake property hosts four (4) metallic showings with assays up to 6.50 g/t Au over 1m in DDH at Lac Fecteau Est and 1.56% Zn over 5.6m in DDH at Lac Fecteau NE.