The Voisey’s West Nickel Project – Avante Mining (TSXV: AVA)

Introduction

Avante Mining Corp. (TSXV: AVA) is a Canadian-based exploration company with a diversified portfolio of mineral projects in British Columbia and Labrador, Canada. With a primary focus on Battery Metals, the company has recently acquired The Voisey’s West Nickel Project just 50 km north of the Voisey’s Bay mine, which boasts nickel grades in excess of 1%. This project will be the primary focus in 2023. The company also owns the LMSL Copper Gold & Silver Project in the Nicola Mining Division of British Columbia and is surrounded by and along trend with three major mining operations. This project underwent a full suite data analysis by Earthlabs (formerly known as “GoldSpot”), with permits in hand, LMSL is ready to be drilled. The third project held by Avante is the Blackdome Gold Project, an early-stage gold and silver property located in the Clinton Mining Division of British Columbia. This asset has good upside potential based on results from the sampling that has been done at surface. All three assets are in mining-friendly jurisdictions and Avante is well-positioned to capture growth opportunities while building long-term shareholder value.

The Voisey’s West Nickel Project

The Voisey’s West Nickel Project is located 50 kilometres northwest of Voisey’s Bay Ni-Cu-Co (nickel-copper-cobalt) mine and 70km west of the town of Nain, in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The area is remote with the only access being by helicopter or float plane which regularly operate out of Nain, which also has daily air service and weekly coastal boat service.

Figure 1: Project Location

Physiographically, the property is mostly barren of trees consisting of rolling hills with moderate relief on an upland plateau with an average elevation of 500 metres. Numerous small ponds are abundant with some marshy areas, but the property has excellent outcrop exposure of up to 50 – 60 % in some places although large till blankets are common that can be upwards of 25 metres thick. (See Figure 2)

Figure 2 – Flying towards the Voisey’s West Project via Helicopter.

Following the discovery of The Voisey’s Bay deposit, increased regional prospecting led to the discovery of three pyrrhotite-chalcopyrite-pyrite showings located on the Property, namely, the Long Pond, All About-it, and No Baccy. Initial surface grab samples from the Long Pond and All About-it Showings returned up to 1.36% Ni & 0.58% Cu, and 1.05% Ni & 1.53% Cu respectively. Initial chip sampling at the No Baccy Showing returned up to 0.71% Ni & 0.85% Cu over 2.3 metres (Saunders & Scott, 2003).

Work continued on the Project through 1995-1996 and 2001-2008 which resulted in the identification of a primary mineralized corridor occurring over approximately 2 kilometres centered on the Property, and the drilling of a 14-meter intersection averaging 1.02% Nickel. (See figures 3 and 4 for cross sections of drilling on the All-About-It and Long Pond Zones.

Figure 3 – All-About_It Cross Section of Drilling

Figure 4 – Long Pond Cross Section of Drilling

An Airborne VTEM/MAG survey completed in 2008 outlined numerous EM conductors and coincident Magnetic anomalies giving better definition to current targets and identifying new ones which have not all been tested. It also has shown that the two mineralized trends (see Figure 5 below) can be traced for several km and leaving several high priority targets untested.

Geology and Mineralization

Geologically, The Voisey’s West Nickel property is located in the Paleoproterozoic Churchill Province of Labrador, slightly west of the regional suture which separates the Churchill Province and the Archean Nain Province to the east. The eastern Churchill Province consists predominately of quartofeldspathic and metasedimentary gneisses derived from a variety of plutonic and sedimentary rocks. The eastern Churchill Province rocks are intruded by the multi-phase, Mesoproterozoic Nain Plutonic Suite (NPS) composed primarily of anorthosite, troctolite, diorite and granitoids. The Tasisuak Lake Property is predominantly underlain by rocks of the Tasiuyak Paragneiss. These are intercalated with lesser orthogneiss and are intruded, presumably, by rocks of the NPS and later diabase.

Sulphide mineralization at the Tasisuak Lake showing consists of two types;
1) massive Pyrrhotite and Graphite within gneissic rocks with low nickel-copper-cobalt content and
2), disseminated, stringer and semimassive Pyrrhotite, Chalcopyrite and Pentlandite hosted within mafic intrusions. Thus far this style of mineralization contains up to 40% sulphides and returned individual assays up to 2.0% Ni, 0.85% Cu and 0.08% Co from chip sampling in 1996, 2.2% Ni, 1.1% Cu and 0.06% Co from drill core in 2005 and 2.15% Ni, 4.02% Cu, 0.04% Co and 1.01 g/t PGE+Au from drill core in 2008.

Project History

• The property was originally explored in 1994 by Consolidated Magna Ventures and Viscount Resources in a joint venture. This exploration included a helicopter AEM survey, regional mapping, prospecting, stream sediment and rock sampling, trenching, detailed geological mapping, ground geophysical surveys.
• Diamond drilling got underway in 1995 with 23 holes totaling 1800 metres
• An additional 16 holes totaling 1700 metres were drilled in 1996. Although drill logs are available for the 1995 and 1996 drill holes, assay certificates for drill core samples were never submitted with the original assessment report. Results from these drill holes are quoted from the assessment report but sample intervals and grades cannot be verified.
• Vulcan Minerals Inc. staked the property and performed compilation work in 2001, followed by geochemical and ground geophysical work (UTEM survey) by Falconbridge Ltd in the same year.
• Pursuant to an option agreement with Vulcan Minerals, detailed geological mapping, ground geophysical gravity, UTEM and magnetic surveys were undertaken by Nortec Ventures Corp. in 2004.
• In 2005, Nortec drilled 14 holes totaling 2335 metres.
• An Airborne VTEM/MAG survey completed in 2008 outlined numerous EM conductors and coincident Magnetic anomalies giving better definition to current targets and identifying new ones which have not all been tested. It also has shown that the two mineralized trends (see Figure 5 below) can be traced for several km and leaving several high priority targets untested. The Company is in the process of completing a detailed data review and geological modeling program which will aid in planning future work programs on the Property.
• The claims had enough credits to keep them in good standing between 2008-2020 until prospector, Darrin Hicks claimed the property.
• On November 23rd, 2022, Avante Mining entered into an agreement to acquire 100% interest in the Voisey’s West Project.

Figure 5 – Voisey’s West drill collar location map over TMI magnetics with EM anomalies

Select Historic Drilling Highlights

Historic drilling on the property was focused on at-surface, shallow-targets along two NNW-trending EM anomalies associated with steeply dipping mafic dykes. Minimal work has been done to understand the deeper-seated structural architecture or the potential of sulfide accumulations within the feeder source such as that observed within the Voisey’s Bay Intrusive Suite.

Current and Ongoing Exploration

The Company gained access to the core storage facility in Happy Valley – Goose Bay, NL, managed by the Province of Newfoundland & Labrador where all the historical core for the Property is stored. The primary focus was to do a detailed review of diamond drill core samples from the Long Pond and All-About-It zones to identify geological controls on mineralization and gain important information from intervals lacking complete assays for critical elements such as cobalt, platinum, palladium, and gold.

Historic Grade Highlights being investigated in further detail:

• C1-2 (Long Pond): Historic grade of 0.72% Ni, 0.38% Cu over 3.72m
• C1-4 (Long Pond): Historic grade of 0.63% Ni, 0.35% Cu over 3.48m
• C3-2 (All-About-It): Historic Grade of 0.47% Ni, 0.16% Cu over 23.7m

Other Drilling Highlights with existing complete assays include:

• 08-LP-55 (Long Pond): 0.80% Ni, 0.85% Cu, 0.03% Co, 0.36 g/t PGE + Au over 14m
• 08-AA-60 (All About-it): 1.02% Ni, 0.51% Cu, 0.03% Co, 0.35 g/t PGE + Au over 14m
• 08-AA-62 (All About-it): 0.42% Ni, 0.19% Cu, 0.02% Co, 0.19 g/t PGE + Au over 36m
• 08-NB-64 (No Baccy): 0.75% Ni, 0.22% Cu, 0.02% Co, 0.32 g/t PGE + Au over 6m

Avante’s staff laid out the historic diamond drill holes and compared the original drill logs to the core. Where a minimum of half-core existed, samples were collected through mineralized zones including shoulder samples into the regional sedimentary and mafic gneisses that host the mineralized mafic intrusive zones. From the historic drilling, a total of 32 samples were collected from three holes drilled in 1995 and 1996, and samples were submitted to Eastern Analytical, an ISO 17025 certified lab.

The pre-emptive resampling allowed the company to gain valuable insight into the geology controlling the distribution of mineralization within the system. It not only aids in verifying historic grades but also helps to gain a better understanding of the distribution of these overlooked critical elements. This work represents a small but important step and will be incorporated into the company’s geological modeling and targeting for the planned 2023 field work and drilling program.

Assays from this program were announced on July 6^th and they included high grade values up to 1.85% Nickel (Ni) over 0.9 metres from one of the high-grade intervals with a weighted average of 1.28% Ni over 4.4 metres.

Table 2: New assay results from historic core which confirm high grades of Nickel and Copper.

• C1-2 (Long Pond Area) originally reported as 0.72% Ni, 0.38% Cu, 0.02% Co, over 3.72m (Consolidated Magna Ventures Ltd. and Consolidated Viscount Resources Ltd.). Re-sampling assays graded 0.66% Ni, 0.44% Cu, 0.02% Co over 4 metres, with individual assays grading 1.2% Copper and 1.09% Nickel.
• C1-4 (Long Pond Area) originally reported as 0.63% Ni, 0.35% Cu, 0.02% Co over 3.48m (Consolidated Magna Ventures Ltd. and Consolidated Viscount Resources Ltd.). Re-sampling assays graded 0.45% Ni, 0.12% Cu, 0.01% Co over 6m, with individual assays grading up to 0.77% Ni, 0.24% Cu.
• C3-2 (All About It Area) originally reported as 1.15% Ni, 0.42% Cu, 0.04% Co over 5.23m (from 15m downhole) (Consolidated Magna Ventures Ltd. and Consolidated Viscount Resources Ltd.). Re-sampling assays graded 1.22% Ni, 0.33% Cu, 0.3% Co over 4.9 metres with individual assays grading up to 1.84% Copper and 1.85% Nickel.
• C3-2 historically reported interval of 23.7 meters was not fully resampled, however, the resampling results confirm the reported grades within the intervals that were resampled and confirms that the sampling procedures at the time were adequate and allows the verification of the reported interval grading 0.47% Ni, 0.16% Cu, 0.02% Co over 23.7 metres. The final 2 metres of this interval from the reported section ended with 0.55% Nickel in the Company’s assays of the historic core which matches well with the historically reported grades.

The presence of nickel-copper-cobalt-PGE sulphide mineralization within structurally controlled mafic intrusive rock suggests a similarity to the Voisey’s Bay and other sulphide-bearing mafic intrusives within the Nain Plutonic Suite. The imminent drilling program at the Voisey’s West project aims to help elucidate the nature of this system, its structural controls and source of mineralization.

Using this data, the Company has now verified the grades from historic reports, adding a more complete image of the different zones of mineralization on the project. The PGE+Au grades are consistent with 2008 drilling conducted by Nortec Ventures Corp in the Long Pond and All-About-It zones which show up to 1.02% Ni, 0.51% Cu, 0.03% Co, and 0.35 g/t PGE+Au over 14 metres (see press release dated May 31, 2023). Strengthened confidence can now be found in historic assays, which highlight approximately 1km of explored strike length inside of a 2.5km long section of geophysical anomaly located within the Company’s claim blocks.

2023 Exploration Drilling

Preliminary targets were identified from new geophysical modeling (see figure 6 below) and are planned to test VTEM conductors that have not been tested or exist beneath the historic drilling with 8 planned dill holes. Along with potential extensions of the No Baccy zone, the Company has also identified a jog, or bend in the main nickel bearing horizon located south of the All-About-It zone. This structure intersects the horizon that has shown nickel values of greater than 1% Nickel, up to 1.85% Nickel, as verified by the Company in the recent sampling program (see news release dated July 6, 2023).

Figure 6: 3D view of conductor plates (red) from VTEM survey over Total Magnetic Intensity (TMI) with proposed drill holes. The modeled image is approximately a 650 x 650 metre area including the All-About-It area and its southern extension6

On August 1st, 2023, Avante announced the mobilization of the drill rig to the Voisey’s West Project.

Initial drilling will focus on the areas with correlating VTEM conductors, magnetic and gravity anomalies located at the south of the All-About-It zone (see figure 6 above) and to the north of the No Baccy zone. These areas have not been properly tested and could represent locations where the flow of magma may have slowed during emplacement allowing gravitational settling of nickel and sulphides.

Updates will be provided as they occur.

Disclosure

At the time of creation, Avante Mining is a client of Insidexploration Analytics Inc.

Disclaimer

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