Fontbonne Lake
Location, Access, Description
The Fontbonne property consists of 17 mining claims totalling 877 Ha in Preissac & La Pause townships (NTS 32D08), 30km southwest from Amos (Abitibi, Qc) and 45km northeast from Rouyn-Noranda (Abitibi, Qc). The claims are wholly owned by Globex and are not subject to any underlying royalties or third party interests.
The western part of the property is quite flat and swampy with not much outcrops. Relief in the eastern part of the property is more irregular with elevations comprised between 300 and 340m on top of a hill with several caps of rocks facilitating observation and surface working in the vicinity of the Kerwin showing. The property is covered with boreal forest vegetation.
One can easily access by road from Preissac village to both southern and northern limits of the property. A VTT is then needed to navigate within a rich network of old exploration trails within the Fontbonne property.
Geology and Mineralization
The Fontbonne property is located in the Archean Abitibi Greenstone Belt, within the Superior Province of the Canadian Shield. Rocks of this area are composed of mafic and ultramafic (UM) volcanics of the La Motte-Vassan Formation and sediments of the Caste Formation separated by the ESE South-Manneville Fault. The property is surrounded by the La Motte, Preissac and La Pause Archean Batholiths.
All these rocks are ESE-oriented and were verticalized and metamorphosed to the greenschists facies after successive tectonic events during Archean and Paleoproterozoic. Numerous mineralized occurrences are associated with both Preissac and La Motte batholiths in the vicinity of the property. Mo-Bi pegmatites are observed both south and northeast of the property. A beryllium showing located around 7km NE of the Fontbonne property in the peraluminous La Motte Batholith indicates a possibly fertile regional-scale context for Rare Metals pegmatites (Li, Cs, Ta).
The Fontbonne property hosts the Kerwin showing which consists of clusters of galena, sphalerite and minor pyrite-chalcopyrite hosted in a 0.5m-wide quartz-calcite vein located in a ESE shear zone within the volcanics. Rusty pyrite-rich horizons associated with minor silver anomalies are observed north of the South-Manneville fault within the Caste sediments.
History
Public data mentions the discovery by prospectors in 1940 of a quartz-carbonate vein containing silver-rich galena, sphalerite, and minor pyrite and chalcopyrite. A 38 feet deep shaft was sank in 1949 and channel samples returned up to 68g/t Ag, 15.79% Pb and 7.6% Zn over 1.5 to 3.75ft (GM 07132). Belville Zinc and Copper Mines Ltd. undertook a 1,358 ft DDH campaign in the vicinity of the Kerwin showing in 1952 (GM 1902-B) intersecting up to 2.01% Zn, 1.68% Pb and 3.23g/t Ag over 2.10m (P-2).
Several geophysical surveys and field mapping campaigns have been undertaken sporadically between the 60’s and 80’s. During the early 2000’s, Gosselin and Turcotte executed prospection, geophysical surveys including magnetism (Mag), electromagnetism (EM) and induced polarization (IP), as much as trenching and channel-sampling on the Fontbonne property (GM60226, GM60934, GM61306). These works highlighted a strong ESE conductor and polarizable axis extending on at least 1.2km explained by the existence of pyritic horizons within Caste sediments. Trenching exposed the Kerwin vein on at least 70m within mafic volcanics, just south of the South-Manneville fault.
Between 2015 and 2018 Globex conducted several geological mapping and grab sampling campaigns in order to check for lateral extensions of the main vein which could be observed in place up to 150m west of the Kerwin showing. Globex then undertook a short DDH campaign during fall 2021 to verify the continuity of mineralization between 0 to 60m depth. Every hole intersected the main mineralized vein both east and west of the Kerwin showing. Best results included 1.09% Pb, 0.66% Zn and 1.09g/t Ag over 2.00m in hole FB21-03.
Resources and Potential
No resource has ever been estimated on the Fontbonne property.
Although the economic potential of the silver-zinc-lead system seems to be limited, the property benefits of an underexplored potential for Rare Metals mineralization associated with LCT pegmatites. As fertile pegmatites are usually located up to 10km from the parent intrusion, the Fontbonne property benefits of the proximity of the La Motte peraluminous suite as a possibly fertile parent source. Field prospection, radiometric and geochemical surveys should be planned to verify Rare Metals potential of pegmatites in that area.