The Red Lake area hosts a variety of service providers that support mineral exploration, including drillers and analytical labs, resulting in exceptionally low exploration costs. BTU’s Dixie Halo project is close to all the infrastructure needed to build and operate a mine, with highways and roads on the property, as well as powerlines and a natural gas line crossing the property and there is plenty of water on the property. First Nations in the area have a long history of working with mining companies and have a good understanding of the exploration process and the benefits their communities will enjoy if a project is to become a producing mine. With a long history of operating mines in the town of Red lake there is a well-trained stable mining work force available and a full compliment of mining equipment suppliers in the area.
The geology of the Dixie Halo property is remarkably symmetrical with GBR’s project. There are many exciting targets across the property, that are supported by multiple lines of evidence including prospecting, geological data and geophysics. Currently the Company is focused on advancing the TNT, Dixie Creek & Gold in Till targets.
The Ontario Drill Hole Database reveals just how underexplored the Dixie Halo property is relative to the neighboring Dixie Project. Great Bear’s Dixie Project had more than 150 holes completed on it prior to them acquiring it. By contrast the BTU properties had only about two dozen drill holes completed on it historically.
Much of the BTU property position area is underexplored due to the fact that the area is almost entirely overburden covered and as such prospectors were unable to successfully explore the area using traditional methods.
The Dixie Creek target is bordered by Great Bear’s Dixie project to the north and east and is on trend with their LP Fault discoveries. Potential for high-grade gold is indicated through multiple lines of evidence:
The LP Fault structure hosts Great Bear's most recent discoveries, with results such as 31.33 g/t Au over 20.55m and 5.23 g/t Au over 78.75m. Great Bear has identified several gold occurrences immediately to the north and east of the Dixie Creek Target. In greenstone belts, it is not uncommon for splays off of main fault structures to contain as much gold as the actual main faults. BTU's Dixie Creek Target area hosts both the main LP Fault structure as well as many associated structures.
Tracing of anomalous gold in till sample results back to their source as a way to locate new areas of gold mineralization under overburden has been proven to be a valid, unique, and powerful way to discover new gold deposits. Examples of success include:
Pristine gold grains do not typically travel far from the location where they were scraped off the bedrock surface by the glaciers during the time of formation of the till material. The 2020 till sampling program has found up to 156 gold grains per 10 kg sample with additional sampling underway.
Red Lake is an ideal setting to apply artificial intelligence for gold exploration due to the amount of available data and known gold deposits. Windfall Geotek has analysed 1/3 of the property area (67 square km) and identified 35 gold exploration target areas, with additional data processing and AI investigations continuing for areas not yet completed. Site visits, till sampling, and geophysics are being used to qualify the AI targets and determine drill targets within them.
The polymetallic TNT target was discovered in [drill holes 12 and 13] when assays revealed elevated copper, gold, and silver values. Geophysics, including ground IP and resistivity, as well as airborne VTEM and downhole electromagnetics are being used to ascertain the footprint of the target and to define additional drill targets. The lithology, alteration, and mineralization encountered in all holes drilled in the TNT target, coupled with geophysical data, provide compelling indications of a large alteration system with copper, silver & gold mineralization.
With nineteen holes completed in the TNT area we now know it extends for more than 2,200 metres. The target is up to 500 metres wide – holes drilled to date are providing us with geological data and are rather widely spaced so they can act as platforms for downhole EM surveying. The TNT target is extensive, and the downhole & surface EM survey has served as a fast-track vectoring method.
Bruce DurhamFollowing the discovery of the TNT target, a ground Induced Polarization (IP) and Resistivity surveying program was undertaken on 200-meter spaced lines. An IP/Resistivity anomaly, defined by a chargeability high and a resistivity low, which is interpreted to be caused by the presence of higher concentrations of sulphide minerals, was used to plot the initial phase of drilling, with holes spaced approximately 200 meters apart in order to serve as a platform for downhole geophysical methods. All phase 1 drill holes contained alteration as well as elevated values of copper, silver and gold, with the best assay results coming from L12N.
The Time Domain Electromagnetic (TDEM) geophysical technique is a best practice method that is ideal for targeting massive sulphide mineralization. Survey work included down hole surveying and two phases of large loop ground surveying. Typical massive sulphide deposits range in conductance from 25 to 200 Siemens (S) or higher. Multiple conductors within the alteration footprint fall within the range of massive sulphide conductance, with best results to date coming from 5-10 siemen conductors.
First drill hole into highest conductance target completed with no massive sulphides intersected. Volcanology and Economic Geology expert Prof. Harold Gibson has been brought on as a consultant to review geological and geochemical data and integrate it with the geophysical model. Additional geochemical samples have been taken to better characterize rock types and alteration. A more sophisticated and predictive model that integrates geophysics, geochemistry, and geology in 3D GIS formats is being used to improve identification of the key elements of the TNT alteration and mineralization model and will lead to improved chances for subsurface discoveries.