Kenorland Minerals (TSXV: KLD) said high-grade gold assays from the winter drill program at its Frotet project in Quebec bode well for an initial resource.
Highlights include hole 24RDD197 that returned 4.7 metres grading 24.16 grams gold per tonne from 83.5 metres depth, including 0.4 metre at 261.2 grams gold in the R2 trend, Kenorland said on Tuesday. Hole 24RDD215 assayed 9.5 metres at 9.1 grams gold, including 1.2 metres at 45.92 grams gold from 45.4 metres depth at the R6 trend.
Hole 24RDD213 cut 4.5 metres grading 16.11 grams gold from 16.5 metres downhole, including 0.4 metre at 163.7 grams gold in the R1 trend. The company published results from 18,448 metres across 27 holes in total at the project in west-central Quebec.
“The 2024 winter program marks another milestone at the Regnault high-grade gold deposit, with over 100,000 metres drilled to date,” Kenorland CEO Zach Flood said. “The increased density of drilling across the vein system will lend towards a comprehensive update of the geologic model, which will pave the way for a future maiden resource estimate.”
The results at Frotet, about 800 km north of Montreal in the Chibougamau region, come almost one month after Centerra Gold (TSX: CG) took a 9.9% stake in Kenorland as part of a $9.9-million private placement. Centerra joined Sumitomo as one of the junior’s biggest backers. The Japanese company agreed in January to end a joint venture at Frotet in which Kenorland had a 20% interest, in favour of full control while Kenorland gets a 4% net smelter return royalty. That deal closed in February.
The winter drilling program at Frotet was aimed at boosting confidence about the vein system geometry and grade continuity at the site along the R1 and R5 to R7 mineralized structures. It was also aimed at seeing how these intersect with the R2 trend.
Infill drilling along R1 has returned significant assays. Hole 24RDD213 showed 4.5 metres at 16.11 grams gold from 16.5 metres, including 0.4 metre at 163.7 grams gold; and 24RDD202 returned 12 metres grading 5.94 grams gold from 208.1 metres, including 2.5 metres at 21.99 grams gold and 1.9 metres at 31.09 grams gold.
Drilling has confirmed the geometry of parallel shear hosted veins along the R1 main mineralized structure striking east to west with a steep north dip, Kenorland said.
The 393.7-sq.-km Frotet project is adjacent to Troilus Gold’s (TSX: TLG) namesake past-producing gold-copper mine that produced 2 million oz. of gold and almost 70,000 tonnes of copper between 1996 and 2010.
Kenorland shares were flat at C$0.94 apiece on Tuesday morning, valuing the company at C$69.3 million. Its shares traded in a 52-week range of C$0.57 and C$1.19.
