Apogee Minerals Ltd. (“Apogee” or the “Company”) (TSXV: APMI) is pleased to announce that the Company is planning field programs consisting of geophysical work at its Pine Channel and Shasko Bay Projects, located approximately 40 km west of Stony Rapids, Saskatchewan which is the logistics and business hub for northern Saskatchewan.
Highlights:
- Upcoming geophysical program at Pine Channel is planned to include a 260-line kilometer, helicopter-borne, magnetic survey at 75m line spacing
- Excellent access with existing winter road to within 1km and central portions of the property accessible by boat or float plane
- Upcoming exploration program at Shasko Bay will include 148-line kilometers of infill, high-resolution, airborne EM and magnetic data
- Multiple untested geophysical anomalies associated with favorable geology at the projects; targets for multiple deposit models (Orogenic Au and Unconformity-U)
- Encouraging exploration to date including historical mineralized drill intercepts
Proposed Field and Geophysical Work at Pine Channel:
The northern part of the 8,878-hectare Pine Channel Property hosts numerous gold occurrences ranging from trace quantities to up to 870 g/t Au in grab samples. Shallow historical drilling has intercepted 0.6m of 63.50 g/t Au (Algold Bay, SMDI 1575), 1.75m of 5.27 g/t Au (ELA, SMDI 1574), and 0.5m of 407.96 g/t Au (North Norite Bay, SMDI 2183). The mineralization is interpreted to be closely related to northwest/southeast trending shear zones which are commonly identifiable in high resolution magnetic data.
Pine Channel Project Map:
https://www.apogeemineralsltd.com/_resources/images/pine-channel-project-map-figure-1.jpg
A 2024 exploration program is planned to include a 260-line kilometer, helicopter-borne, magnetic survey at 75m line spacing over areas of the property without detailed magnetic coverage and geologic mapping in the vicinity of the Algold Bay occurrence.
Proposed Field and Geophysical Work at Shasko:
The Shasko Bay uranium target is located on the south shore of Lake Athabasca. Airborne electromagnetic (EM) surveys in 2005 and 2007 identified conductive features on the property considered prospective to host unconformity and basement-style uranium mineralization. A 2007 drill hole (RL-07-01) intersected anomalous uranium at the unconformity in proximity to a modeled conductive plate, with additional plates untested by drilling. The upcoming exploration program at Shasko Bay will include 148-line kilometers of infill, high-resolution, airborne EM and magnetic data. The data from the survey will be used to model conductive structures to aid in future drill hole planning.
Shasko Bay Project Map:
https://www.apogeemineralsltd.com/_resources/news/Shasko-Bay-September-2023.png
Pine Channel Gold Property Summary:
The main deposit type that is being explored for at Pine Channel is structurally controlled vein-quartz (lode) gold deposits. Mineral occurrences on the Pine Channel Property contain predominantly gold, with rare base metal occurrences. Within the Pine Channel tenures there are eighteen historical showings reported by the Saskatchewan Mineral Deposit Index (SMDI).
Highlights from documented historical work and previously reported results include: North Norite Bay historical drill hole of 407.96 g/t Au over 0.5 m (SMDI 2183); ELA drill hole of 39.96 g/t Au over 0.55 m (SMDI 1574); Holes G-1 and G-3 which returned 3.20 g/t Au over 1 m (SMDI 2329); Occurrence No. 6 / Occurrence No. 8 trench samples which returned 90.6 g/t Au over 0.2 m (SMDI 1581); and Cole Lake Ni-Cu trench samples which returned 6.2 g/t Au, 0.01% Ni and 0.06% Cu over 3.0 m (SMDI 1583).
Government mapping in the Pine Channel area dates from 1913, with the first industry work reported in 1950. A total of 51 assessment reports have been filed within the current Pine Channel tenure area. Past operators include Golden Rule Resources Ltd. and Colchis Resources Ltd. who were both active on the project during the 1980’s, the last sustained period of exploration in the area. The most recent work prior to Eagle Plains acquiring the claims in 2018 was in 2013 when the area was flown with an airborne Variable Time Domain Electromagnetic (“VTEM”) survey focused on locating targets for diamond exploration. There has been a total of 6,066 metres of diamond drilling in 115 historic holes completed within the current Pine Channel property claim boundaries with the majority of the holes completed less than 100 metres in length. Although the wide-spaced drilling did intersect significant gold mineralization in places, much of the drilling was completed using thin diameter core which is considered ineffective for assessing the high-grade “nuggety” gold shears and veins found at Pine Channel.
The first recorded systematic exploration work on the Pine Channel property was in 1950 by Goldfields Uranium Mines. The first significant program on the property was in 1980 by Golden Rule Resources who completed 246 line-km of airborne EM (INPUT) and magnetic surveying. Follow-up groundwork located 11 significant occurrences. From 1985-1988 Colchis Resources completed VLF-EM geophysics, biogeochemical surveys, prospecting, soil sampling and trenching followed by shallow diamond drill testing of selected targets.
The Pine Channel project lies within the Tantato Domain which is composed of highly deformed gneisses which form the eastern margin of the Archean Rae Craton. Metamorphic rocks which have been subject to varying degrees of strain form the majority of the property area.
In 2019-2020, Eagle Plains completed field programs focused on prospecting and mapping in areas of known mineral occurrences. The work confirmed the widespread occurrences of auriferous quartz veins and associated shear systems in the Pine Channel property. Analytical results from the seventy-two rock samples collected in 2020 range from 6 ppb Au to 68,400 ppb Au. Twenty-three of the samples returned greater than 1 g/t Au, and eight returned greater than 10 g/t Au. The most encouraging of the known showings are the ELA Shaft showing (SMDI 1574) and Occurrence No. 6 and No. 8 (SMDI 1581), which both demonstrate anomalous gold geochemical results and potential for extension of known mineralization along strike.
Shasko Bay Project Summary:
The Shasko Bay Project is located along the southeast shore of Lake Athabasca in Northern Saskatchewan, 20 km southeast of Fond-du-Lac, and proximal to the Company’s Pine Channel Project. The claims are accessible by boat, barge, winter road or float equipped aircraft from the village of Stony Rapids, which has all season road access to it. The Project is currently owned 100% by Eagle Plains Resources Ltd. (TSX-V: EPL), with an underlying 2% NSR in favour of Eagle Royalties Ltd. (CSE: ER).
The Project was staked by Eagle Plains in early 2023 in recognition of both the gold potential (with basement-hosted auriferous quartz veins and associated shears that strike onto the property from the Pine Channel Project); and for the unconformity uranium potential that is so well known in the district, in close proximity to basal contacts of the Athabasca Formation. Apogee has acquired the right to earn-in up to an 80% interest in the Project from Eagle Plains under the terms under the Underlying Agreement for minimal staking costs as it lies within the Area of Mutual Interest (“AMI”) around the Pine Channel Project.
Between the late 1960’s to the early 2000’s the region was explored for uranium and gold by various companies. The Fond Du Lac Uranium deposit is the most significant discovery in the region to date and is located 24 km to the NW-W. Work in the area consisted of seismic reflection studies, multiple types of airborne and ground-based geophysical surveys, geochemical surveys, prospecting, mapping, trenching and four separate drill programs which intersected multi gram-per-tonne gold assays (up to 6.8 g/t Au over 2.1m) from quartz stringers in the Athabasca sediments. The underlying basement metasedimentary rocks, starting at 226m depth, also recorded mineralization in the form of disseminated pyrrhotite, pyrite, chalcopyrite and rare sphalerite, galena and molybdenite. The last drill program intersected anomalous uranium in the Athabasca sandstone (up to 18.4 ppm) concluding with recommendations to drill test several additional targets.
The above results were summarized from SMDI descriptions and assessment reports filed with the Saskatchewan government. Management cautions that historical results were collected and reported by past operators and have not been verified nor confirmed by a Qualified Person, but form a basis for ongoing work in the Pine Channel and Shasko Bay property areas.