COPPER/NICKEL – MAYVILLE

Above: Map of southeast Manitoba showing the Mayville copper/nickel project

Project Highlights

• Poised for discovery with a dominant land position in the highly prospective Bird River greenstone belt with a direct comparison to the “Ring of Fire”
• Eagle drill program to outline the potential for a significant near-surface magmatic sulfide deposit to complement the Mayville deposit (32 MMt at 0.61% CuEq)
• First batch of Eagle assays returned 25.0 m at 1.47% CuEq and 20.0 m at 0.99% CuEq, located over 400 m apart, entirely outside current resource
• Low project carrying costs 
• Exploration agreement in place with Sagkeeng First Nation

Above: Outline of claim tenure on the north and south arm of the Bird River Greenstone Belt showing the Mayville deposit and the Eagle gabbro. 

Resource Estimate

The updated mineral resource estimate for the Mayville Project is provided in Table 1 below.  The new estimate was prepared by Micon International Ltd. (‘Micon’) and is reported in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 (“NI 43-101”) standards. The current mineral resource was estimated by Micon using an updated drill hole database and new mineralization wireframes that capture all compliant historical drill hole data sets.  Block grade interpolation was performed using Kriging Neighborhood Analysis (KNA). The resource modeling was completed by Micon in accordance with both CIM Guidelines and the relevant parts of the JORC Code, and in keeping with regulatory requirements for the filing of technical reports for mineral resource estimates at both the TSX Venture Exchange and the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX).  Micon used metal equivalent grades as opposed to net smelter return values (used in the previous estimate – RPA Inc., 2014) to align with the standards for resource reporting on the ASX. 

The Technical Report incorporating the new resource estimate is accessible on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).

Table 1. Mayville Pit Constrained and Underground Resource as of December 31, 2023

*SR = strip ratio

Notes to Accompany the Mayville Resource Estimate:

1. The effective date of this Mineral Resource Estimate is December 31, 2023.
2. The MRE presented above uses economic assumptions for both, surface mining and underground mining.
3. The MRE has been classified in the Indicated and Inferred categories following spatial grade continuity analysis and geological confidence.
4. The calculated cut-off grades to report the MRE are dynamic in nature following metallurgical recovery curves, the average COG for Mayville is 0.30 % Cu in surface mining and 1.37% Cu in underground mining.
5. The economic parameters used metal prices of US$9.0/lb Ni, US$3.75/lb Cu, US$23.0/lb Co, US$900/oz Pt, US$1,400/oz Pd and US$1,750/Au with specific metallurgical recovery curves detailed in tables 4.14 and 14.15 of the technical report (copper recoveries of 87% to high grade copper concentrate (28%) & nickel recoveries range from 50% to 68% to 10% nickel concentrate at Mayville), a mining cost of US$3.5/t in surface and US$80.0/t in underground. Processing cost of US$15/t and a General & Administration cost of US$3.2/t.
6. For surface mining the open pits at Mayville use a slope angle of 53°.
7. The block models for Mayville are rotated and use a block size of 10 m x 5 m x 5 m with the narrow side across strike (North-South).
8. The open pit optimization uses a re-blocked size of 10 m x 10 m x 10 m and for the underground the optimization uses stopes of 20 m long by 20 m high and a minimum mining width of 3 m.
9. Messrs. Alan J. San Martin, MAusIMM(CP) and Charley Murahwi, P.Geo. from Micon International Limited are the Qualified Persons (QPs) for this Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE).
10. Mineral resources unlike mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The estimate of mineral resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-political, marketing, or other relevant issues.
11. The mineral resources have been estimated in accordance with the CIM Best Practice Guidelines (2019) and the CIM Definition Standards (2014).
12. Totals may not add correctly due to rounding.
13. Equivalent (Eq) Grade Calculation: Mayville CuEq* = Cu% + ((Ni% x NiR x NiP) + (Co% x CoR x CoP) + (Pt g/t x PtR x PtP) + (Pd g/t x PdR x PdP) + (Au g/t x AuR x AuP))/(CuR x CuP).  CuEQ = copper equivalent grade.  R = metal recovery.  P = metal price.
14. The Mayville CuEq calculation assumes the production of separate Cu and Ni concentrates.
15. Metallurgical recoveries range as follows using input grades at the cutoff grade (low end) and 2 times the average open pit resource grade (high end):  Mayville: For the copper concentrate model: Cu: 86.5 to 86.9%; Ni: 5% (fixed); Co: (5% - fixed to nickel recovery); Pd: 42% (fixed); Pt: 35% (fixed); Co: 30% (fixed); For the nickel concentrate model: Cu: 5% (fixed); Ni: 42 to 69%;Co: matches nickel recoveries; Pd: 33%; Pt: 21%; Au: 10%.

Table 2. Contained Metal Values for the Open Pit Resources at the Mayville Property (Indicated Category only)

The updated open-pit resource estimate for the Mayville deposit includes 32.0 million tonnes in the indicated category with 0.40% Cu and 0.16% Ni and byproduct concentrations of cobalt, palladium, platinum and gold (0.61% copper equivalent grade). 

The previous resource estimate for the Makwa/Mayville project was published by RPA Inc. (2014) and supported a Preliminary Economic Assessment based on two open pit mines feeding a central concentrator to be located at the Mayville property.   Low base metal prices during the period of 2014 to 2020 precluded any significant new development activity and drilling at the Project.  However, with an improved outlook for copper prices and the increasing strategic importance of nickel as a critical metal, the Project ranks favourably for future exploration and development.

Compared to the previous published resource estimate for the Mawka/Mayville project (RPA Inc., 2014), the combined open pit resources (indicated category) increased by 12.4 million tonnes or 36.8%.  This increase is largely attributable to the inclusion of recent infill drilling (Makwa – 2022), improved metallurgical recoveries from testwork completed after the previous resource estimate was published, and a more favourable US dollar to Canadian dollar exchange rate.

Mayville Deposit

The Mayville magmatic sulfide deposit is a copper-rich disseminated sulfide deposit hosted by the western part of the ~17 km long late Archean Mayville mafic-ultramafic complex.  The Mayville deposit is approximately 1.5 km long, up to 200 metres wide, and has been delineated to maximum depth of ~500 metres.  It dips steeply to the south.  The deposit includes the Main Zone (Figure 2, below) and two satellite zones (not shown here) located at the eastern end of the deposit.  The two satellite zones have not been included in the current resource estimate.

The mineralization in the Mayville deposit occurs principally as disseminations of chalcopyrite and pyrrhotite with lesser pentlandite and pyrite hosted in what has been described as an intrusive breccia unit emplaced near the base of the Mayville Complex.

Figure 2.  Mayville Long Section (looking north) showing drill hole traces and mineralization block model

Figure 3: Representative cross section for the Mayville deposit, looking west, and showing the current Micon block model coded to copper grade and selected length-weighted average drill hole intersections for drill holes captured on this section.