The province of Quebec is a powerhouse in terms of gold production in Canada. Quebec ranked second only to Ontario, having produced 599 tons compared to Ontario’s production of 737 tons, as recently as 2019.
In other words, the province of Quebec produces approximately 33 percent of Canada’s gold, with most of it coming from the province’s prolific Abitibi Gold Belt, which extends from Wawa, Ontario to Val-d’Or, Quebec.
With that in mind, companies like
Fokus Mining (
TSXV:FKM,
OTCQB:FKMCF,
Forum) are putting other regions in Quebec on the map thanks to its Galloway Property located 30 kilometres west of the Rouyn-Noranda mining district.
The property, which is easily accessible from Trans-Canada Highway 117 and sits adjacent to a major railway, consists of three mining concessions and 95 claims, spanning an area of 2,668 hectares. In tandem with this, over 100 million ounces of gold have been yielded from these camps over the course of a century, which puts Fokus Mining in good company.
Backed by a team with decades of mining and financial experience, the Quebec-based Fokus Mining is well-positioned to advance its Galloway property — and undertake major exploration projects that lead to discovering world-class deposits — which should be enticing to investors.
A World-class Land Package in Quebec In addition to its prime location, the Galloway property is the result of Hurd, Ogima Nord, Renault Bay, Sandborn, Perron, Cadillac, Francoeur and Lac Fortune claims blocks blending together.
Perhaps most notably, the project sits in the heart of one of the most prolific gold faults in the world — the Cadillac-Larder Lake Fault — in addition to being close to a wide range of mines and deposits such as the mining camps of Kirkland Lake, Noranda, Cadillac, Malartic and Val-d’Or.
“We are one of the few juniors who have access to such a large land position on an prolific belt where more than 100 million ounces of gold have been mined over the years,” Jean Rainville, president and CEO of Fokus Mining, told Stockhouse Editorial in an interview.
Rainville explained that the company’s current focus is the Galloway Property. The Galloway property was acquired by Fokus Mining
in August 2020 from Vantex Resources. Galloway sits in a region that is prolific for gold and copper exploration and production.
(Click to enlarge image) The company is currently in the middle of completing extensive exploration work on its 100 percent-owned Galloway property. Located in the Dasserat Township in Abitibi. The Galloway claims span a total length of 10 kilometres along the Larder-Lake-Cadillac-Break, including a 3km wide corridor of gold bearing structures.
Case in point, Rainville said that Glencore’s Horne Smelter, located in Rouyn-Noranda, has produced millions of pounds of copper which means Fokus Mining sits in good company.
“Fokus acquired the project because we believe this region has been over looked and under explored over the decades,” Rainville continued, adding that the land package was put together between 2009 and 2012 when an initial drill program of 17,000 metres of diamond drilling was completed. The results from that program confirmed the presence of strong mineralization on many areas of the property.
Located within the west portion of the Galloway property are three key zones: the GP Zone, the Hendrick Zone and the Moriss Zone.
The GP Zone consists of pervasive gold mineralization within a mineralized envelope of 230 metres in length over 100 metres in width and over 300 metres in depth. A wide range of gold intervals, all over 1 gram per ton (g/t) gold across widths exceeding 20 metres. To date, the best gold intersection has returned 2.19 g/t gold over 19.5 metres in hole VHD-09-13. The mineral resource estimate was done in 2013 indicated resources of over 18 million t at 0.41 g/t gold and inferred resources of 2.5 million t at 0.39 g/t gold using a cut-off grade of 0.21 g/t gold.
The Hendrick Zone was discovered by Kerr-Addison in the 1980s and is located 500 metres south of the GP and Moriss zones. The Hendrick zone is genetically related to the Renault Bay syenite because it lies within or close to what appears to be an apophysis of the intrusion. As such, its relations to the GP and Moriss zones bear similarities like gold mineralization, its distribution and geochemistry in addition to spatial relation.
To date, eight holes have been intersected at the zone over a 700 -metre strike length and are open in all directions. The Hendrick Zone is also made up of two parallel mineralized envelopes that are 150 metres and 170 metres thick, dipping north and plunging northwest.
The Moriss Zone sits 500 metres west of the GP showing and is spatially associated to an apophysis of the main syenite intrusion. In 2009, the Moriss showing was first identified as a geophysical target and was discovered through drilling in October 2010. As it stands now, there appears to be three main gold-bearing zones, between 1.5 metres and 10.5 metres thick, at the near-surface level on the north zone, 60-70 metres depth on the Moriss zone and 115 metres to 135 metres depth in the new zone.
Coarse gold is often found in the Moriss zone, with assays over 30 g/t gold found with an uncut interval of 59.51 g/t gold over 6.2 metres in hole VPE-12-50. Free gold is also found in pyrite-rich smoky quartz veining, breccia and stockworks with massive intermediate tuffs.
Current Drilling at Galloway Following the acquisition of the property last year, Fokus raised C$5 million in
September 2020 to complete a drill program totalling approximately 40,000 metres at Galloway.
The company began the drilling program in November 2020. To date, the company has completed roughly 30,000 metres of diamond drilling. Drilling continues on the western part of the project where the company has been able to drill off three main targets. Assays from 20 of those holes are expected to be released in the next few months.
“We expect the results from this current drill program to be incorporated into an updated 43-101 resource estimate. To that end, we recently announced that Fokus has retained Innovexplo to carry out an updated mineral resource estimate on the GP Zone and initial estimates af the AuEq resources on the Hendrick and Morriss Zones’.
Rainville said the company has added a significant amount of drilling across the property, including the GP Zone, as well as the Hendrick and Moriss Zones, which weren’t considered in the initial resource estimated completed by SRK in 2012. As such, the goal of the updated NI 43-101 will be to help the company gain a better understanding of the geology of Galloway and to identify new geological targets for future drill programs for resource expansion The updated resource estimate will be further used to undertake a preliminary economic assessment at Galloway. Fokus anticipates this updated resource in Q2 2022 with the announcement of the initiation of the PEA shortly thereafter.
The Company’s Management Team Jean Rainville, President and CEO Jean Rainville brings over 45 years of experience to Fokus Mining thanks to his extensive experience in the mining industry and financial sectors. Between 2008 and 2018 he held the position of president and CEO of the private company, Blackrock Metals until he became a consultant in 2019.
Rainville’s previous work includes working as an engineer, fund manager and director of corporate finance while also serving as a director and advisor for several public companies. He has bachelor’s degrees in mining engineering and commerce, both from McGill University.
Sylvain Champagne, Secretary and CFO Sylvain Champagne holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Universite du Quebec in Abitibi-Temiscamingue. Champagne has two decades of experience working in the financial and mining sectors.
Steve Duchesne, Director Steve Duchesne is a founding partner of BiomassCarbon, ULC and has served as its president since 2015. Before Biomass, Duchesne ran Duchesne Advisory, LCC providing a wide range of advisory services. Before his career in finances and mining, Duchesne played in the National Hockey League between 1985 and 2002 and was a three-time All-Star. Following his NHL career, Duchesne stayed involved in hockey by co-owning an ECHL team and co-founding a hockey school.
The Investment Opportunity At present, Fokus Mining has a share price of C$0.11 as of October 25 and a market capitalization of $7.56 million. The company currently has over 70 million shares outstanding and over 104 million fully diluted shares.
Given the company’s massive land position in one of the most prolific gold faults in the world — the Cadillac-Larder Lake Fault — and being close to several mines and deposits, we believe Fokus Mining is vastly undervalued.
In addition to its Galloway property, the company has also inherited several other properties that are early stage but hold potential for base metals. To manage these properties, Fokus Mining created a subsidiary, Mosaic Minerals, to conduct drill campaigns on at least two different projects. These drill programs are expected to begin later this year.
With results from their fully funded drill program pending, an updated resource estimate expected in Q1 2022 followed by the initiation of a PEA on Fokus’ 100% owned Galloway property, this small cap name has plenty of room for growth.
For more information, visit
fokusmining.com.
FULL DISCLOSURE: This is a paid article produced by Stockhouse Publishing.