With great potential ready to be unlocked, Fokus Mining Corporation’s Galloway gold exploration project is located along one of the most prolific gold faults in the world.
Fokus Mining Corporation is dedicated to the acquisition and exploration of precious metal deposits in the province of Quebec in Canada. The shares of Fokus trade on the TSXV (FKM), OTC Markets (FKMCF), and Frankfurt (F7E1).
The company currently concentrates its efforts on the Galloway project which is strategically located near several gold deposits that have been discovered along one of the most prolific gold breaks, the Cadillac-Larder Lake Fault. This is the host of the mining camps of Kirkland Lake, Noranda, Cadillac, Malartic, and Val d’Or.
More than 100 million ounces of gold have been extracted from those mining camps to date and several discoveries are still being made on the belt including a large new underground mining operation named Odysssey. This is adjacent to the Canadian Malartic mine which was until recently the single largest gold producer in Canada.
About the Galloway gold exploration project
The Galloway gold exploration project is located about 30km west of the town of Rouyn-Noranda (40,000 people), along the paved Trans Canada Highway. A railway and a hydro line also follow the same highway.
Workforce skilled and experienced in mineral exploration and mining is available in the region. The city of Rouyn hosts numerous service and mining-related companies and a commercial airport.
Galloway consists of three mining concessions and 95 mineral claims covering a total area of 2,668 hectares. The property consists of many claims along a 3km wide corridor and has a total length of 10km.
Bordering properties
The Wasamac property borders Galloway to the east, northeast, and southwest sides and was recently acquired from Yamana Gold by Agnico Eagle (Agnico acquired Yamana’s Canadian assets). The last reserve estimate produced by Yamana was 1,900,000 ounces of gold in the proven and probable category and they were contemplating an underground mining operation.
Another private company, Gold Candle Limited is reassessing the former Kerr Addison gold producer about 15km west of Galloway, just across the Ontario border. Over 12 million ounces of gold were produced on the property.
Fokus’ past mineral claims
When the decision was made by Fokus to concentrate its efforts on Galloway, it owned a portfolio of other mineral claims in Quebec. The best two base metals projects were optioned and sold to Mosaic Minerals for common shares of Mosaic.
Thereafter, Mosaic acquired 50,000 acres forming nine 100% owned projects in a geological environment favourable to the discovery of lithium properties in the Quebec James Bay Territory. Here, several favourable pegmatites containing lithium showings have been identified.
Multiple gold indices have been discovered at Galloway over the years
As exploration work has been carried out in different parts of Galloway on and off dating back to the mid-1920s, there were valuable data readily available when Fokus took over the project in 2020 with numerous gold indices discovered over the years.
The government had also flown the area to provide detailed topography of the region, a very useful tool in identifying structural elements that are key in determining sectors where mineral-rich fluids could be carried to the surface.
Also of particular interest were the results of the last drill campaign completed in the period of 2009 to 2012 by the predecessor company. About 14,000 meters of diamond drilling showed the potential of a large syenitic complex on the western portion of the property.
This limited programme, nevertheless, allowed clear identification of three mineralised zones: Moriss, Hendrick, and the GP gold mineralised zones. These three zones form what is called the Golden Triangle of the project.
The project’s Golden Triangle
The Hendrick showing was discovered in the 1980s. It is located 500 metres south of the Moriss and GP zones. The Hendrick zone is genetically related to the Renault Bay syenite and it lies within or close in proximity to what seems to be an apophysis of the intrusion.
It is thus related to the GP and Moriss zones due to the strong similarities between them in the nature of the gold mineralisation, its distribution and geochemistry, as well as the spatial relation.
Hendrick is mostly covered by a thick layer of cobalt sediments. It has now been identified over a length of 700 meters and is still open.
The GP showing lies immediately at the contact with the syenite stock. It consists of pervasive gold mineralisation with an envelope of 230 metres in length by over 100 metres in width.
The Moriss showing discovered by geophysics in 2019 lies about 500 metres west of the GP zone. It is the only one of the three zones that carries high-grade gold values.
An initial resource estimate for those three zones was completed in March 2023 after Fokus conducted a 40,000 metres drill campaign over a period of two years. An inferred resource of 1,419,000 ounces of gold was estimated at a gold price of US$1750 per ounce and the gold recovery was estimated to be about 90%.
Still in the western part of the Galloway project, a large syenitic porphyry gold corridor containing significant gold values exists over several kilometres from the Hendrick zone to the Hurd zone.
As part of it, a discovery of a new gold zone located just east of the GP zone: the results of the first 12 drill holes of this Renault Bay zone were released and indicate a significant gold presence near surface. Another gold zone has been identified about 700 metres east of the GP zone with hole number GA-21-59 in April 2022.
In retrospect, it is only the beginning of a major endeavour for Fokus on the Galloway project as the company will prioritise infill drilling and testing lateral extensions and will continue to drill the recently discovered RB mineralised zone in the near term to try to increase and better qualify the gold resource on the western portion of the project.
Moreover, a high-definition survey completed by Fokus on the entire property indicated several new targets. With so many targets on the entire strategically located property shown one more time by an independent study prepared by ALS Goldspot Discoveries, the experienced Fokus team is well-positioned to grasp this opportunity.
