Project 81 – Noble Mineral Exploration (TSXV: NOB)

Introduction

Noble Mineral Exploration Inc. is a Canadian-based junior exploration company holding several highly prospective properties in some of Canada’s most prolific mining jurisdictions. Operating as a project generator, Noble de-risks projects through data compilation and exploration in order to generate option agreements and joint venture exploration programs to benefit shareholders. Projects include;

• Project 81 ~25,000+ ha – Nickel-Cobalt/VMS/Gold property in the Timmins-Cochrane area of Northern Ontario
• Nagagami ~ 14,600 ha – Niobium and Rare Earths in the Nagagami River Carbonatite prospect near Hearst, Ontario
• Boulder ~ 4,600 ha – VMS/Copper/Gold property just outside Hearst, Ontario
• Buckingham ~ 3,700 ha -High grade Graphite property in the Outaouais area of South Western Quebec
• Cere-Villebon ~ 482 ha – Copper-Nickel-PGM property near Val d’Or, Quebec
• Laverlochere ~ 518 ha – Nickel-Copper-Cobalt-Gold and PGM property near Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec
• Island Pond ~14,400 ha – VMS/Copper/Gold in Central Newfoundland
• Holdsworth ~ 304 ha – Gold Project near Wawa, Ontario

In addition to the exploration assets, Noble also holds various royalties and interests in other companies and projects within the mining and exploration sector. Operating under a project generator model has allowed The Company to capitalize on projects through JV’s and spin outs that result in Noble having a robust portfolio of equity positions.

• Canada Nickel Company Inc. – 2.9 million shares + 2% Royalty on all Noble staked claims in 5 townships in the second deal with CNC
• Spruce Ridge Resources Ltd. – 18 million shares
• Go Metals Corp. – 1.4 + 800,000 warrants
• MacDonald Mines Exploration Ltd. – 350k shares
• Private Company #11530313 Canada Inc. – 50/50 JV on certain claims within Project 81

For the purpose of this report, the focus will be on Project 81 and the projects within it.

Summary

History of project 81

Noble Property Acquisitions and Joint Venture Agreements –

• Project 81 Claim Acquisitions & Joint Ventures
• Crawford Transaction
• MacDiarmid Properties
• Crawford Annex and Concurrent Option Transactions
• Project 81 Nickel Target Consolidation
• Further Project 81 Consolidation Transactions with Canada Nickel

Project 81 Exploration Projects

• Crawford Nickel Annex and Expanded Nickel Project 
• Kidd 2.0
• Lucas
• Dargavel

Conclusion

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History of Project 81

The history of Project 81 is long and complex, but it goes back to the turn of the century when Northern Ontario was becoming a hotbed of exploration.  Due to the Silver mines of Cobalt and the gold discoveries in the Timmins area along the Abitibi Greenstone belt into Quebec, the area has seen multiple phases of exploration whereby claims have changed hands several times. What really put Timmins on the map though was the discovery by Texas Gulf Silver of a major VMS deposit in Kidd Township in 1963. Now known as the Kidd Creek Mine and one of the richest mines in the world, producing over 160 million tonnes of high-grade base metals. As you can imaging, that garnered a lot of attention and with that came a flurry of exploration drilling in and around the Timmins area.  However, a large portion of the land that Project 81 now encompasses was owned by a logging company and saw little to no mineral exploration activity until Inco got the rights to test geophysical targets around the time the Kidd Creek Deposit was discovered.

INCO Limited, a Canadian mining company and the world’s leading producer of nickel for much of the 20th century, did the bulk of the exploration work around the Timmins area but they were not interested in low grade high tonnage nickel deposits, as the value of these types of deposits were unknown and for the most part overlooked. So, while everyone was looking for the next Kidd Creek, these already identified nickel sulphide targets, sat untouched and exploration in these townships all but stopped in the 1980’s until Noble Mineral Explorations acquired the rights to the property in 2011

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Noble Property Acquisitions and Joint Venture Agreements

The Company’s Project 81 is comprised of a mix of patented properties and mining claims located in the Timmins-Cochrane area of Northern Ontario. The original portion of the Company’s Project 81 is comprised of patented properties located in 16 townships in the Timmins, Iroquois Falls and Smooth Rock Falls area of Northern Ontario. Over time, the Company has acquired additional mining claims that are in the vicinity of those patented properties, either by staking or through acquisitions or earn-ins from other parties.

Figure 1 – Noble Mineral Claim Boundary

The purchase price for the original patented properties in Project 81 consisted of $6,500,000 in cash, 600,000 common shares of the Company and the grant to the vendor of a 5% net smelter returns royalty (“NSR”) from the sale of minerals produced from the property.

At the time they were acquired, the patented properties included surface (including timber) and mineral rights, although the Company later sold the surface rights (and retained mineral rights only on the patented properties) to pay off the balance of the purchase price owed.

In 2012, the Company acquired three mining claim blocks, totaling 12 claim units, located in the Kingsmill and Aubin townships of Northern Ontario. These claim blocks are now included within the Project 81 area.

In 2013, the Company sold, for consideration of $500,000, its buyback rights with respect to the 5% royalty retained by the vendor on the patented properties included within Project 81. The proceeds were applied to the purchase price for Project 81.

The Company subsequently acquired mining claims from Metals Creek Resources Corp. in Lucas Duff and Tully Townships that are contiguous to properties in Lucas Township that were acquired in 2011 (and included in Project 81) and have been identified by the Company as containing a gold target. The purchase price consisted of two cash payments for a total of $50,000, and the issuance of 75,000 common shares on closing and a further issuance of 75,000 common shares on or before June 1, 2012 and the grant to the vendor of either a 10% NPI or 2% NSR with a right to repurchase 50% of either for the payment of $1,000,000.

In 2012, the Company acquired three mining claim blocks, totaling 12 claim units, located in the Kingsmill and Aubin Townships in Northern Ontario. These claim blocks are within the Project 81 area. The purchase price for these claims was comprised of a cash payment of $35,000 plus 60,000 common shares of the Company (ascribed a fair value of $31,500), with the vendor retaining a 2% NSR and the Company having the right to buyback up to 1% of that NSR for a payment of $1,000,000. The Company is also required to pay the vendor an annual advance royalty payment that currently stands at $10,000, until the commencement of commercial production on the property acquired (and advance royalty payments being deducted from the NSR payable by the Company). The Company also retains a right of first refusal on the residual 1% NSR, should the vendor elect to sell this interest at any time. During fiscal 2017, the vendor agreed to accept common shares of the Company in lieu of cash in settlement of the 2015 and 2016 advance royalty payments.

During the year ended August 31, 2015, the Company recognized an impairment charge of $3,645,942 against Project 81, primarily reflective of the general declines seen in commodity markets. The recoverable amount was determined based on fair value less cost of disposal which was calculated on the basis of the market capitalization of the Company. During the years ended August 31, 2021 and 2020, no impairment charges were recognized.

On August 25, 2017, the Company entered into an Option and Joint Venture Agreement providing a group of private investors an option with respect to Project 81 interests within Carnegie Township. The optionees can earn a 51% interest in a portion of the subject properties located in Carnegie township by carrying out exploration expenditures of $1 million within the first year of the arrangement. The optionees would then have the right to earn an additional 24% interest in those properties by carrying out additional exploration expenditures of $1 million within one year after earning the initial 51% interest.

On May 4, 2018, the Company signed an Option and Joint Venture Agreement providing Spruce Ridge Resources Ltd. (“Spruce Ridge”) the right to earn up to a 75% in specific target areas in the part of Project 81 lying within Crawford Township, Ontario. Pursuant to that agreement, Spruce Ridge was granted the right to earn an initial 51% interest in the subject Crawford property by (i) making a cash payment of $50,000 (received) by an agreed deadline, (ii) making a second cash payment of $50,000 (received) approximately six months later and (iii) incurring not less than $300,000 of exploration expenditures in the first year of the option period and a further $700,000 of exploration expenditures no later than the end of the first 18 months of the option. As required by that agreement, Spruce Ridge initially issued 3,000,000 Class A common shares (received and ascribed a fair value of $90,000) to the Company, and an additional 3,000,000 common shares were later issued to the Company (received and ascribed a fair value of $120,000). Also, as required by that agreement, Spruce Ridge issued 5,000,000 warrants (received and ascribed a fair value of $148,000) having a term expiring five (5) years after issuance, and an additional 5,000,000 exercisable warrants (received and ascribed a fair value of $200,000).

After earning the additional 51% interest, under the agreement Spruce Ridge had the right to earn an additional 24% undivided interest in the Crawford property by issuing 2,000,000 common shares to the Company and incurring a further $1,000,000 of exploration expenditures within the first three years of the option period. This agreement with Spruce Right provides that the Crawford property will be operated as a participating Joint Venture.

Crawford Transaction

On November 14, 2019, the Company signed a definitive agreement to consolidate the Crawford Nickel-Sulphide Project (the “Crawford Project”), which is part of Project 81 and includes the area that had been optioned to Spruce Ridge, under the terms of an implementation agreement. The net result for the Company of the transactions under that agreement (the “Crawford Spin-out Transaction”) was:

• The Company received $2 million cash and 12 million shares of Canada Nickel (ascribed a fair value of $3,000,000) for the transfer of the Crawford Project, and at a special shareholder meeting on December 27, 2019 the Company received approval to distribute 10 million of those 12 million shares to its shareholders through a share exchange by plan of arrangement (the “Arrangement”), with the Company retaining the other 2 million shares of Canada Nickel. On February 25, 2020, the Arrangement closed and the Company proceeded to distribute 10 million common shares of Canada Nickel to its shareholders, with an ascribed fair value of $2,500,000.

• The Company issued Spruce Ridge a $1 million promissory note, repayable following completion of the Arrangement (repaid), and 10,000,000 common share units of the Company (each unit comprised of one common share and 1/2 common share purchase warrant, with each full warrant being exercisable at $0.15 per share for three years). The 10 million common shares were ascribed a fair value of $750,000, and the 5,000,000 warrants were assigned an aggregate fair value of $319,500 using the Black-Scholes valuation model, relative value method, with the following assumptions: dividend yield 0%, expected volatility 179.30%, risk-free rate of return 1.46% and expected life of 3 years. The $1 million promissory note payable to Spruce Ridge was unsecured, bears no interest, is due on demand. During the year ended August 31, 2020, the Company repaid this promissory note.

• The Company executed a series of agreements that resulted in the 5% royalty originally granted on the patented properties in Project 81 being reduced to a 2% royalty. In doing so, the Company issued 5,889,281 shares ascribed a fair value of $500,000 as consideration.

• The Company received 2 million common shares of Spruce Ridge, ascribed a fair value of $120,000.

On December 27, 2019, the Company’s shareholders approved the Crawford Project and on February 25, 2020, the Arrangement closed. Professional fees associated with this transaction were $264,740.

MacDiarmid Properties

On February 2, 2021, the Company entered into an agreement with International Explorers and Prospectors Ltd (“IEP”) to acquire the 39 mining claims (the “IEP Claims”) in MacDiarmid and Loveland Townships.

All 39 mining claims acquired are subject to a 0.25% net smelter returns royalty (the “First Nations Royalty”), and 4 of the mining claims acquired are also subject to a 2.0% net smelter returns royalty held by other parties (the “Existing Royalty”). Both the First Nations Royalty and the Existing Royalty will continue to apply. For the 35 mining claims that are not subject to the Exiting Royalty, a 1.75% net smelter returns royalty will be granted to IEP (the “IEP Royalty”). With respect to the Existing Royalty and IEP Royalty, the Company holds a right which, if exercised through a payment of $1,000,000, would vest in the Company 0.25% of the Existing Royalty (out of the total 2.0%) and 0.875% of the IEP Royalty (out of the total 1.75%). Terms of the transaction are as follows:

• payment of $25,000 cash by the Company (paid);
• issuance of 250,000 common shares of the Company (issued and ascribed a fair value of $32,500)
• transfer of 100,000 common shares of Canada Nickel from the Company’s holdings (Transferred and ascribed a fair value of $395,000); and
• the transfer of $500,000 of assessment credits to IEP at any time up to December 31, 2021 (transferred).

On April 14, 2021, the Company closed an earn-in transaction with Canada Nickel with respect to the 39 IEP Claims. In exchange for the option, Canada Nickel:

(i) issued 200,000 common shares of Canada Nickel to the Company (received and ascribed a fair value of $670,000),

(ii) forgave the $160,224 amount then owed by the Company to Canada Nickel (forgiven),

(iii) agreed to take all steps as are commercially reasonable to transfer $500,000 in assessment credits to the Company, and

(vi) agreed that the Company retained the right to acquire a royalty of between 0.25% AND 0.87% on the IEP Claims. Under the agreement, a 60% interest would vest in Canada Nickel if the latter funded at least $100,000 of exploration expenditures on the Claims within 18 months. An 80% interest in the Claims would vest in Canada Nickel if the latter funded at least an additional $150,000 (for a total of $250,000) of exploration expenditures on the IEP Claims within the first 36 months of the earn-in period. In this transaction, Canada Nickel is also responsible for exploration expenditures and other costs required to maintain the Claims in good standing (and to make certain related filings). In connection with this transaction, a gain on disposition of $377,724 was recorded on the Company’s statement of comprehensive income for the year ended August 31, 2021.

Crawford Annex and Concurrent Option Transactions

On May 22, 2020, the Company closed a transaction with Canada Nickel whereby the Company (collectively, the “Crawford Annex Transactions”): (i) transferred to Canada Nickel certain patented properties and mineral rights adjacent to the Crawford Project (referred to in the context of that transaction as the “Crawford Annex”); (ii) granted to Canada Nickel five separate options to earn an up to 80% interest in five distinct areas of the Company’s Project 81; and (iii) entered into a partial assignment agreement whereby Canada Nickel would be assigned certain rights to acquire from other parties title to certain surface rights that are appurtenant to the patented mineral rights that make up part of Project 81. On May 5, 2020 at the Company’s annual shareholder meeting, the Company’s shareholders approved the Crawford Annex Transactions. In this transaction, the Company received $500,000 in cash and 500,000 common shares of Canada Nickel Company Inc. (ascribed a fair value of $615,000). Concurrently with this transaction, the Company repaid a $250,000 loan payable to Canada Nickel. The proceeds were allocated as follows:

i) Transfer of the Crawford Annex: $100,000 and 100,000 Canada Nickel shares (ascribed a fair value of $123,000). After transaction costs of $20,321 and the underlying carrying cost of these properties of $68,160, the Company reported gain on disposal of $134,519.

ii) Grant of the right to earn up to 80% interest in five distinct areas of Project 81: $400,000 and 400,000 Canada Nickel shares (ascribed a fair value of $492,000). After transaction costs, $810,717 was charged against exploration and evaluation assets, representing the value of the net consideration received for the properties under option.

Project 81 Nickel Target Consolidation

On November 16, 2021, the Company announced the execution of an agreement for the previously announced transaction to sell additional properties from Project 81 to Canada Nickel. Pursuant to that agreement, from Project 81 holdings approximately 1,231 patented properties and single cell mining claims in Crawford, Lucas, Nesbitt, Aubin, Mahaffy, Kingsmill, Mabee, MacDiarmid, Dargavel and Bradburn Townships were sold to Canada Nickel. The transaction was designed to consolidate all of the key nickel targets from the Company’s Project 81 land package such that they will be held by Canada Nickel, while allowing the Company to focus its exploration activities on gold/VMS targets in other areas of Project 81, as well as on other properties held by the Company. The transaction closed in December 2021, at which time:

• the Company transferred ownership to the applicable properties and claims to Canada Nickel;
• the Company retained a 2% net smelter returns royalty on approximately 720 claims in Mahaffy, MacDiarmid and Bradburn Townships that were grouped in three property areas, with that royalty being subject to a 50% buyback (which, if fully exercised, would reduce the Company’s royalty to 1%) for a payment of $1.5 million per property area if exercised during the first year after closing, increasing to $2.5 million per property area if exercised during the second year after closing, and further increasing to $5 million per property area if exercised at any time thereafter;
• the Company continued to hold the existing right to acquire a royalty of between 0.25% and 0.875% on a small number of claims in MacDiarmid Township, having acquired that right when it acquired those claims (part of the IEP Claims) earlier in 2021; and
• the Company was issued 3.5 million common shares of Canada Nickel as payment under this transaction (those shares being subject to a four-month hold period).

Further Project 81 Consolidation Transactions with Canada Nickel

As explained in greater detail in Noble’s management information circular dated February 4, 2022, in the financial year ended August 31, 2022 sold a total of approximately 200 MRO Patents held by Noble in Kingsmill and Mabee Townships, Ontario (the “Sale Properties”) to Canada Nickel. The purchase price payable by Canada Nickel was 500,000 common shares of Canada Nickel. In the Sale Transaction, Canada Nickel became responsible for paying all fees, taxes, charges and expenses of recording and registering the transfers of the Sale Properties. Canada Nickel also became responsible for paying any land transfer tax applicable to the transfer of the Sale Properties. The Sale Transaction was approved by Noble’s shareholders and the TSX Venture Exchange.

Additional Optioned properties to Canada Nickel

As explained in greater detail in Noble’s management information circular dated February 4, 2022, in the financial year ended August 31, 2022 the Company also optioned approximately 578 single mining claims in Mann, Hanna, Duff and Reaume Townships, Ontario to Canada Nickel (including mining claims which the Company has an option to acquire) (the “Option Transaction”). Pursuant to the Option Transaction, was required to make an initial payment to the Company of $100,000 and 250,000 shares of Canada Nickel. Based on the closing price of Canada Nickel’s common shares of $3.07 per share on the trading day preceding the announcement of the Option Transaction, those 250,000 shares of Canada Nickel were valued at approximately $767,500. The Option Transaction provides Canada Nickel the right to acquire a 60% interest in the properties subject to the transaction by incurring at least $500,000 of exploration expenditures on the properties by approximately December 31, 2021, and also making a further payment to the Company of $350,000, or at the Company’s option the issuance to the Company of 150,000 shares of Canada Nickel in lieu of that cash payment. In the transaction, Canada Nickel would also have the option to increase its interest to 80% by incurring additional exploration expenditures of at least $1,200,000 on the properties by approximately July 15, 2025. In addition, Noble would be due annual payments of $100,000, it retains a 2% net smelter return royalty on the staked claims that are subject to the Option Transaction (subject to Canada Nickel having the right to purchase 50% of that royalty (or 1.0%) for a payment of $1,000,000), and it also retains the right to purchase up to 25% of the royalties held by third parties on the other parts of the claims that are subject to the Option Transaction (with the Company transferring to Canada Nickel its right to purchase another 25% of those royalties).

Figure 2 – Consolidated table of details about project 81

Project 81 Exploration Projects

The Crawford Annex and Expanded Nickel Project

In early 2018, Noble completed a 1,031.3 line-km airborne helicopter MAG-EM survey and hired Orix Geoscience to conduct a data compilation of all known exploration activities on the property. Once the data was compiled, Noble, signed a joint venture deal with Spruce Ridge Resources whereby Spruce Ridge would earn a 75 percent interest in the Crawford Township Property on specific target areas having a size of up to 2000 hectares, including the Crawford Ultramafic Complex (CUC).

On September 27, 2018, the SRS Group, a private syndicate signed a binding Letter of Intent with Spruce Ridge Resources Inc to earn up to 50% of Spruce Ridge’s Option and Joint Venture Agreement with Noble Exploration Inc on its Crawford Township Property. During negotiations of that deal, Noble executed a fixed-wing 936.1 line km FALCON©, Airborne Gravity Gradiometer and magnetic surveys over the CUC. This was then followed by the application of Windfall Geotek’s Artificial intelligence, CARDS technology at the request of the SRS Group, which all but confirmed the CUC as a high priority target.

On November 15, 2018, Spruce Ridge, along with their JV partners in the SRS Group, announced the commencement of a four-hole diamond drill program that was aimed at testing a 3,000 metre long, coincident magnetic and gravity anomaly interpreted to be a differentiated ultramafic to mafic intrusive Crawford Ultramafic Complex (CUC). All four holes, totaling 1,818 metres, intersected nickel (Ni), cobalt (CO), platinum Group element (PGE) mineralization over very wide sections.

On March 1,2019, the discovery at Crawford was announced. Three of the holes intersected serpentinized dunite with persistent nickel values greater than 0.25% Ni over core lengths of up to 291 metres. Using a lower threshold of 0.20% Ni, long intervals are present in all four holes, with a maximum core length of 558 metres. Individual samples of 1.5 metre core intervals reported up to 0.669% Ni.

On June 11th, a minerology report was released, and the following minerals were identified as carrying most of the nickel and cobalt (in order of decreasing abundance): pentlandite (nickel-iron sulphide – 50%), heazlewoodite (nickel sulphide – 35%), awaruite (nickel-iron alloy – 15%) and minor godlevskite (nickel sulphide with minor iron).  The pentlandite, which dominates the nickel-bearing mineral assemblage, is considered most promising for economic nickel extraction.

In July 2019, Mark Selby was introduced to Vance White, CEO of Noble Mineral Explorations. Immediately upon the review of Crawford, Mark pinpointed several similarities to the Dumont project, which he spent 10 years developing from a greenfield discovery into a construction ready and fully permitted project as CEO of RNC Minerals. Knowing that he could leverage his experience, Mark opted to take part in this project and began to work with Noble, Spruce Ridge and the SRS Group to acquire the Crawford Ultramafic Complex under a newly formed subsidiary company that was to be spun out from Noble Mineral Exploration, called Canada Nickel Company. 

While the spin out and listing process got under way, Spruce Ridge started a second phase of drilling with an eight-hole infill program between the four holes, as well as step-out drill holes to the northeast and southeast.

October 1st, 2019 Noble announced the creation of Canada Nickel Company which then took control of the drill program from Spruce Ridge Resources.

On December 9, 2019 Canada Nickel announced the results of diamond drilling, totaling 5,267 m and all holes intersected nickel, cobalt and platinum -group element (PGE) mineralization. While waiting for approval to get a listing on the TSX venture exchange, together, President and CEO, Vance White and Mark Selby were able to negotiate terms to acquire and terminate the 5% royalty held by Resolute for $2 million in cash and a 2% royalty along with $500,000 worth of shares to Franco-Nevada. Franco-Nevada also waived certain rights, including the right of first refusal.

February 27^th,2020 Canada Nickel was spun out from Noble and listed on the TSXV at an IPO of $.25 CAD.

The terms of the Crawford deal between Canada Nickel, Noble and Spruce Ridge can be found above under the heading, Noble Property Acquisitions and Joint Venture Agreements, subsection, The Crawford Transaction.

On May 22, 2020 the Company closed a transaction with Canada Nickel for the Crawford annex approved by shareholders May 5^th, 2020.

The terms of the Crawford Annex deal can be found above under the heading, Noble Property Acquisitions and Joint Venture Agreements, subsection, Crawford Annex and Concurrent Option Transactions.

On February 2, 2021, the Company entered into an agreement with International Explorers and Prospectors Ltd (“IEP”) to acquire the 39 mining claims (the “IEP Claims”) in MacDiarmid and Loveland Townships.

The terms of the Crawford Annex deal can be found above under the heading, Noble Property Acquisitions and Joint Venture Agreements, subsection, MacDiarmid Transaction.

On November 16, 2021, the Company announced the execution of an agreement for the previously announced transaction to sell additional properties from Project 81 to Canada Nickel.

The terms of the Nickel consolidation deal can be found above under the heading, Noble Property Acquisitions and Joint Venture Agreements, subsection, Further Project 81 Consolidation Transaction with Canada Nickel

On November 16, 2021, the Company announced the execution of an agreement for the previously announced transaction to sell additional properties from Project 81 to Canada Nickel. Pursuant to that agreement, from Project 81 holdings approximately 1,231 patented properties and single cell mining claims in Crawford, Lucas, Nesbitt, Aubin, Mahaffy, Kingsmill, Mabee, MacDiarmid, Dargavel and Bradburn Townships were sold to Canada Nickel.

The terms of the Nickel consolidation deal can be found above under the heading, Noble Property Acquisitions and Joint Venture Agreements, subsection, Option to Canada Nickel of Properties in Mann, Hana, Duff and Reaume Townships and Sale of Patented Properties in Kingsmill and Mabee Townships.

Figure 3 – Noble/Canada Nickel property boundaries

Today, the Crawford Nickel Project is the 5^th largest nickel sulphide project globally and advancing towards a feasibility study later this year. Canada Nickel has already completed a PEA and advancing towards the completion of the feasilbility study in 2023. The company has already completed vrious rounds of metallurgical work, filed for the construction permits, working on an Inviromental impact assesment, are engaged with 3 first nations groups and are actively advancing the project on all fronts, including but not limited to exploration work on the properties acquired in the option agreements with Noble.

Furthermore, Canada Nickel now holds a substatial land package covering 21 known nickel targets in the Timmins, Cochrane and Iriquois Falls area and have the support of Anglo American as a large shareholder and strategic investor. The vision is to develop a district scale, long life nickel mining operation and Noble will benefit as a large shareholder and joint Venture partner on several of the highly prospective properties that will one day support Crawford.  

For more information on the advancements of the various properties discussed please visit https://www.insidexploration.com/cnc or https//:www.canadanickel.com

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Kidd Creek 2.0 VMS Project

Project 81 – Noble Mineral Exploration (TSXV: NOB)

The Kidd 2.0 Project is focused on finding a satellite deposit to the world-famous Kidd Creek Mine just north of Timmins, Ontario. For the last several years, the Company and its partner(s) have been punching holes in various townships for geological purposes to gain a better understanding about the regional geology. Geophysical signatures of VMS deposits can be as small as a few hundred feet and finding them in a region covered by overburden with no outcropping can be very challenging. For this reason, Noble and its partners along with various consultants have done extensive data compilation and modelling.

The 2023 drill campaign will be focused on the Volcanic rocks of the Kidd Munro assemblage that have been periodically intruded by Nickel Copper (“Ni-Cu”) bearing mafic to ultramafic intrusions. The importance of this assemblage is that it hosts one of the world’s largest volcanogenic massive sulphide (“VMS”) deposits at Kidd Creek, approximately 15 kms to the south of the previously mentioned Crawford Nickel Sulphide project.

The campaign will be on claims acquired on August 24th, 2021, whereby the company made a deal for 310 patented and tenure identified mining claims, situated in Carnegie, Kidd, Wark and Prosser Townships, totaling about 6,600 hectares. The deal was a 50/50 partnership with Private Financing Company 11530313 Canada Inc., funded up by Robert Hirschberg and Dr. Sethu Raman (formerly the SRS Group), who have been very active in the Timmins mining camp over the last 35 years.

The terms of the Agreement were that The Private Company paid $250,000 to Galleon Gold, and Noble issued Galleon 2,000,000 common shares, making Noble and 11530313 each 50% owners of the claims.

2023 Exploration

The first point of interest for Noble is the fly creek rhyolite, which is a target of rhyolite intercalated with ultramafic rocks on an anticlinal structure which has been previously postulated to be the same age as the Kidd Creek mineralized rhyolites. In correlation with similar age dating, there is a report by Bleeker .W (1999)*, where it was proposed that faults that slice through the Kidd Creek mine fold have displaced the northern limb of the Kidd Creek Mine up to 2 km to the north.

Figure 4 – Fly Creek Rhyolite *Exploration Model for the Kidd Creek Mine. Adapted from Morgan, L.A., and Schulz, K.J., (2012)

Figure 5 – Geological Map of the Kidd Creek Area showing Relation of Area Rhyolites to the Kidd Creek Rhyolite

Using this information, Noble Minerals has completed strategic Induced Polarization surveys within 2 km of the Kidd Creek open pit on the Fly Creek Rhyolite (See Figure 5). The target of the program is rhyolite intercalated with ultramafic rocks on an anticlinal structure. It is postulated that these rhyolites are the same age as the Kidd Creek mineralized rhyolites.

In addition, the Fly Creek Rhyolite may be the faulted extension of the Chance Rhyolite where several Texas Gulf drill holes intersected lead, zinc and silver mineralization.

To the west, Noble has used Induced Polarization to investigate a property that lies within 600 meters and on strike with the Chance mineralization. This stratigraphic horizon also runs through the Kidd Creek Mine.

The primary target of the drill program will be a chargeability anomaly located within the Noble Project Area on Figure 1 and located about 2000 meters north of the Kidd Creek Mine. Figure 2 is a plan showing the location of the chargeability anomaly and proposed drill holes. Figure 3 is a pseudo-section with the corresponding resistivity and metal factor.

Figure 6: Plan showing the location of the chargeability anomaly, proposed drill holes, and mineralization encountered in past drill programs (yellow stars).

Figure 7: Pseudo-section with the corresponding resistivity and metal factor.

In July 2023, Noble received a grant from the Ontario Junior Exploration Program which will be applied to the 2023 exploration drill campaign due to take place this summer.

This section will be updated as progress is made.

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The Lucas Gold Project

The Lucas gold project lies within Lucas township just north of Kidd Creek and east of Crawford. The property is home to some historic drilling and was one of the first projects that Noble put any focus into on Project 81. Prior to any drilling and as with any project the company acquires, Noble did detailed data compilation and geophysics on the property in early 2018.

Figure 8 – Historical drilling highlights

In April of 2018, Noble announced the completion of 15 NQ size diamond drill holes totaling 3,183.93m over an approximate 650m strike length (Figure 8). Noble also discovered a total of 37 historical drillhole collars during this field program and all drill collars were sealed and flagged for future references if required.

Figure 9 – Plan Map of Noble Minerals 2018 Diamond Drilling and Historical Drill Holes

The main objectives of the 2018 diamond drilling campaign were three fold:

• Firstly, to locate the Au mineralized Pyrite+/-Chert+/-Quartz unit described in the historical drilling and to trace it along strike for approximately 650m of the 1700m strike length as interpreted from Airborne EM and MAG Surveys.
• Secondly, to determine the attitude and displacement of this mineralized unit with respect to the extensive faulting and displacement interpreted from historical drilling and Airborne Geophysical Surveys. Noble discovered additional shallow angle sub-horizontal faulting and displacement within this unit, and
• Thirdly, to determine the controls of the gold mineralizing mechanism/events, gold grade, and gold distribution within the pyrite+/-chert+/-quartz unit.

In order to realize the above objectives, 10 (ten) diamond drill holes were designed to test the attitude, displacement and strike length of the pyrite+/-chert+/-quartz mineralized unit, while 5 (five) diamond drill holes were designed to test the controls of the gold mineralizing mechanism/event. In so doing, a number of the historical drill holes were twined specifically historical drill holes L80-04, L80-13 and L81-36.

Table 1 – 2018 Drill table

Table 1 Continued

The next phase of exploration drilling on the Lucas Gold Deposit will focus on determining gold grades within the pyrite+/-chert+/-quartz zone over the 650m established to-date, and to extend by diamond drilling, the strike length of the Au mineralized pyrite+/-chert+/-quartz unit, along the 1700m EM conductor trend, as well as to define the vertical extension of the mineralized zone, which is currently open at depth. However, currently Noble feels that the project is far enough advanced and are actively shopping for a partner to expand the project or for someone to option it.

This section will be updated as progress is made.

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Dargavel Gold Trend

The Dargavel Gold Trend is located within the Kidd-Munro assemblage of the western Abitibi Sub-province in Northern, Ontario. This assemblage is one of the most ultramafic-rich volcanic successions of any age in the world and is host to the giant Kidd Creek VMS deposit, an important example of bimodal-mafic (ultramafic) volcanic-associated massive sulphide (VMS) deposit, and the newly developing Canada Nickel Company (CNC-TSX.V-CNC) Crawford Ni-Co-Pd deposit, and NOB/CNC’s JV project, The Kingsmill Ni-Co-Pd deposit and the Lucas Gold deposit.

Figure 10 – Location of the Dargavel Gold Project.

What first attracted the Company to this project were a number of historical drill holes dating back to 1965. One in particular had anomalous gold results over 23.6 ft and anomalous platinum results over 9.6 ft. in drill hole 25013. Additional results were also promising with 3.05 g/t Gold and 2.86 g/t Platinum over 8.0 ft, but unfortunately, these holes are not NI 43-101 compliant.

After acquiring the property, Noble did a range of geophysics, including an Airborne Magnetic Gradiometer survey by BECI which they used to complete a Magnetic Inversion 3D Study through Geophysique Camille St-Hilaire Inc. of Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, and finally, they had Orix Geoscience do a regional geological interpretation on the Dargavel Gold Trend. Then in 2020, they announced the beginning of a drill program based on 10 targets identified for follow-up drilling.

Figure 11 – Drill Target Map

In May of 2020, Noble drilled 6 NQ size diamond drill holes totaling 1390.5m resulting in 822 core samples being sent out for assaying. The program was designed to test 6.5 kms of strike length of a well-defined structural feature identified by Airborne Magnetic & Electromagnetic Surveys completed in 2012 and in follow-up orientation EM & Mag surveys in 2017. The objective of the drilling campaign was to duplicate and expand on gold, platinum and palladium results published in historical drill hole (25013) drilled in the 1960 by CANICO and drill hole (K84-03) drilled the 1980’s by Chevron Canada Resources Ltd. Learn more about the program in this short clip.

Dargavel Gold Project – Noble Mineral Exploration (TSXV: NOB)

The results from the 2020 program found anomalous Au values but not with the same widths or grade as the historical. Uncertainty on the precise location of the historical drilling may be at fault. However, the program established that the Dargavel Gold Trend might be much larger and more continuous than originally thought.

Table 3 – 2020 Drill Results

As a follow up to this campaign, An Induced Polarization survey was done to identify areas of increased sulphide concentration within the gold horizon. This would give a clearer indication of where to drill in the next phase of exploration.

In January of 2022, the Company drilled 1,253 meters in seven holes. Lucky for Noble, the provincial government set up the Ontario Junior Exploration Program to help fund mineral exploration projects and this project qualified for a $200,000 grant. The The drill program was designed to again test historic gold values intersected by previous explorers in two separate areas as noted below with additional drilling to test IP signatures along strike for approximately 5.5 km.

Figure 12 – Drill campaign target areas

Targets

1) Dargavel Township is planned to test the area where past drilling by Chevron (1984) and Noble (2020) intersected the following values:

• 7.9 g/t gold over 2.0m within 2.6 g/t gold over 7.9m* (Chevron 85-4,)

And follow-up drilling by Noble intersected: 0.44 g/t gold over 38.5m* (Noble DAR-20-06,)

The Noble drill hole ended in mineralization and will be extended in order to define the true extent of the mineralization.

2) will test a drill hole drilled by Inco (1960’s) that intersected:

• 9.25 g/t gold over 0.3m plus 0.51 g/t gold over 10.7m and 1.24 g/t gold over 6.5m* (Inco Hole 27089 Figure 13)

* Historical results not 43-101 compliant, True widths not known at this time

Figure 13 – Historic Drill Hole Location Map

During the campaign, one hole was abandoned in overburden but in the six holes that reached bedrock, five had anomalous gold values.  (See Table 4)

Table 4 – 2022 Drill Results

As the results started coming in, Noble got very active in acquiring new projects and therefore efforts at Dargavel have slowed.

This section will be updated as progress is made.

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Conclusion

Project 81 presents a significant opportunity for the company. Having such a vast amount of land in a highly prospective mining camp that has seen very little exploration is unique. At this time the focus for exploration remains in Carnegie township on the Kidd 2.0 project but the company remains open to joint ventures and new opportunities. Furthermore, the additional properties the Company optioned and JV’d with Canada Nickel are actively being drilled and results are expected shortly.

For more information, please visit https://www.insidexploration.com/nob or https://www.noblemineral.com

Disclosure

At the time of creation, Noble Mineral Exploration is a client of Insidexploration Analytics Inc.

Disclaimer

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