Connect with us

Uncategorized

The Williams Brook Gold Project – Puma Exploration (TSXV: PUMA)

Overview Puma Exploration is a Canadian-based mineral exploration company with precious metals projects located near the Famous Bathurst Mining Camp (“BMC”)…

Share this article:

Published

on

This article was originally published by Inside Exploration

Overview

Puma Exploration is a Canadian-based mineral exploration company with precious metals projects located near the Famous Bathurst Mining Camp (“BMC”) in New Brunswick, Canada. Their Williams Brook Gold Project, is comprised of 6 claim blocks covering more than 46,000 ha in an established and mining-friendly jurisdiction, near paved roads and with excellent infrastructure nearby. The land package is located near the Rocky Brook Millstream Fault (“RBMF”), a major regional structure formed during the Appalachian Orogeny and is a significant control for gold deposition in the region. To date, a large orogenic/epithermal gold system has been identified at Williams Brook through detailed surface sampling and the company has now identified 4 individual gold structures respectively called Cougar (“CGZ”), Jaguar (“JGZ”) and Panthera (“PGZ”) Gold Zones. But before we get into the details of this significant district scale discovery, lets have a look at the work that’s been done on the project to date.

The Williams Brook Gold Project History

The first gold discovery was made in 2005 by prospector David O’Neil, who was following up on some anomalous gold found in stream sediments and soil samples collected by Northgate Exploration in the early 1990’s. Up until Mr. O’Neil’s discovery no other work had been done on the property. In 2005/2006, Mr. O’Neil began prospecting the area and focused his efforts to the south of where Northgate had conducted their exploration work. The most significant discovery he made was an angular quartz float that assayed 33 g/t Au, 54 g/t Ag, and 0.98% Pb. Additional samples from the same area tested 3.5 g/t Au, 122 g/t Ag and 1.14% Pb and 0.56 g/t Au, 5.4 g/t Ag and 0.05% Pb.

Ultimately, this led to Blue Note Mining taking an interest prior to entering into an option agreement with Mr. O’Neil. They carried out a detailed soil sampling program in the vicinity of the gold discoveries as well as local reconnaissance rock, soil and till sampling, which identified up to 508 gold grain in a till sample.

In July of 2007/08, Vickers Geophysics Inc. carried out a gradient array survey and induced polarization survey over the gold anomalous area that outlined chargeability and resistivity anomalies. A dipole-dipole induced polarization survey was also carried out and there was a good correlation between some of the IP chargeability anomalies and anomalous values of gold in soil, float, and outcrop samples.

By 2009, Blue Note Mining optioned the claims from Mr. O’Neil and decided to do a drilling program shortly thereafter.The company was successful in making a new discovery when they cut felsic volcanic rocks with shallow intersections of 0.72 g/t Au over 38.0 meters (core length) in hole WB-08-03 and 0.91 g/t Au over 28.0 meters (core length) in WB-08-04. Higher grade mineralization was intersected in quartz veins and quartz veined felsic volcanic rock with up to 11.2 g/t Au over 2.8 meters (core length) in WB-08-11.

Between 2009 and 2012, several small-scale soil sampling campaigns were done over various areas of the claims until GeoVanCap Inc. acquired the property in January of 2012. After reviewing the data, the company carried out a work program that included geological mapping, prospecting, geochemical surveys and trenching. The 2013 mapping and prospecting program led to the discovery of an outcrop of a quartz vein. Grab samples from this outcrop returned values of 1.02 and 6.69 g/t Au by fire assay. This was followed up by collection of a larger, more representative sample that ran 50.8 g/t Au by metallic screen analysis. Geophysical surveys were carried out to follow up anomalous gold identified in earlier soil geochemical surveys; however, there was generally no significant correlation between geophysical anomalies and gold soil geochemical anomalies.

In May 2014, Hinterland Metals did some follow up testing and reconnaissance of the initial gold discovery.  Prospecting was carried out that returned 11.8 g/t Au from a quartz vein outcrop that had been previously sampled with assays up to 50.8 g/t Au. An angular quartz float sample located roughly 150 meters northeast of the quartz vein outcrop returned values of 244 ppb Au, 57.8 ppm Ag, 236 ppm Cu and 500 ppm Sb and 5000 ppm Pb.

Between 2014 and 2020, when Puma acquired the project from Mr. O’Neil with very limited exploration being performed in the area.

More Current Exploration

In April of 2020, Puma Exploration (PUMA) signed an option agreement to acquire a 100% interest in the Williams Brook Gold property. Immediately they launched a ground truthing exploration campaign aimed at verifying the extent of the current gold mineralization found by the previous operators and prospectors. At the time, most anomalies were still open in all directions and follow-up work had never been carried out for drilling target generation. The first round of the exploration incorporated large areas of detailed prospecting and mapping over the entire William Brook Property with a main focus on the southern part on the Williams Brook property that included the main gold bearing zones shown on the map in figure 1.

Figure 1

In the Fall of 2020, the company sent a team into the field with the prospector who owned the claims and did a small sampling campaign. Their efforts were very successful and it ultimately lead to the discovery of what is now a district scale high-grade gold system. The first discovery zone for Puma came on the site they call The O’Neil Gold Trend. This is the southern most showing of the OGT which was first named the O’Neil Gold Discovery Zone. It was found on the side of a steep embankment high above a small creek in an outcrop that was an exposed at surface with multiple quartz veins running throughout the rock.

We will give you the details but first watch this short Video of the Head of Investor relations, Mia Boiridy talking about the initial discovery.

Head of Investor Relations and VP of Corporate Development, Mia Boiridy discusses the initial discovery on the O’Neil Gold Trend

O’Neil Discovery Zone

The O’Neil showing (outcrop) consists of an altered and brecciated rhyolite injected with quartz veins and quartz stockworks. The main vein is rusty and contains disseminated sulphides such as sphalerite, galena, and chalcopyrite (see figure 3). Following the hand and shovel cleaning of the main vein, surrounding quartz stockworks and veinlets within the rhyolite were found, sampled, and reported respectively high-grade gold of 8.24 g/t Au, 6.14 g/t Au, 3.57 g/t Au and 1.14 g/t Au Prior to Puma’s 2020 Exploration campaign.

Puma’s highest grade gold sample at O’Neil was 128.0 g/t Au from a quartz vein which was followed and sampled for over a length of 10 meters. Additional samples included 109.5 g/t Au, 38.8 g/t Au, 21.0 g/t Au, 7.38 g/t Au, 6.63 g/t Au, 5.55 g/t Au, and 2.94 g/t Au. The average gold grade of this quartz vein was 30.86 g/t Au over 10 meters which was estimated by chip and grab samples collected continuously every 1.5 meters along the main vein as seen in figure 2.

Figure 2
Figure 3

Once these results were received, Puma made a deal with the prospector and started a very detailed trenching and sampling program which overlapped into 2021. The trenching program quickly became a stripping program as they immediately had success in uncovering several large vein sets just a few meters below the surface marking the beginnings of the O’Neil Gold Trend.

2021 EXPLORATION

They kicked off the year by flying a district-scale Airborne VTEM survey (3,900km) over the Williams Brook Gold Project and interpretation clearly identified a major geophysical signature which correlated with a contact between the Rhyolite and Sediments that was discovered during their stripping program and thus extended the O’Neil Gold Trend to 7 kms of strike potential ( See Figures 5 & 6).

Through 4,500 meters of trenching and stripping, over a 700m by 200m area and surface sampling approximately 200 grab samples, the company identified 4 more Gold Zones at surface along the OGT. The total of all 5 zones were named from southwest to northeast: O’Neil, Pepitos, Lynx, Chubby, and Moose and extend almost 700m. The names have changes but for now we will go with their old names to avoid confusion.

Figure 4 – O’Neil Gold Trend, Fall 2021

The sampling program was extremely successful, as can be seen below and led to Puma adding an additional 507 claims to the total land package increasing the size of the property from 12,700 ha to 23,770 ha. Then later in the same month they made two more property transactions which when combined, added 60 more claims to the total land package, again increasing the size of the property from 23,770 ha to 25,140 ha. (Figure 5)

https://www.nxtmine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/ae396608441b9a3f7313d8cf18425982.jpg
Figure 5

Highlights from the 2020/2021 sampling program (Also see Figures 5 & 6)

  • Pepitos assays grading : 52.1 g/t Au, 16.1 g/t Au, 15.0 g/t Au, 13.1 g/t Au, 4.87 g/t Au*
  • O’Neil new assays grading : 32.8 g/t Au, 23.1 g/t Au, 16.9 g/t Au, 8.24 g/t Au, 6.14 g/t Au*
  • Pervasive Silver-enrichment includes: 95.5 g/t Ag, 57.3 g/t Ag, 48.0 g/t Ag, 25.6 g/t Ag, 13.6 g/t Ag*
  • Lynx Gold Zone with selected grab samples* grading 241.0 g/t Au, 79.8 g/t Au, 74.2 g/t Au, 71.8 g/t Au, 63.5 g/t Au collected from bedrock with over 50 samples grading > 1 g/t Au.
  • Chubby (3.5 g/t Au, 1.2 g/t Au and 1.2 g/t Au) and
  • Moose (2.4 g/t Au, 2.1 g/t Au and 1.3 g/t Au)
https://www.nxtmine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/448edf12e8109d11f78cbf8a4d8ef15a.jpg
Figure 6

In June, Puma began drilling. The initial program was modest with a planned 2,000 m of drilling, targeting the Lynx Zone where they had the highest grade grab sample to date of 241 g/t Au. It didn’t take long for the team to start getting excited as they were finding visible gold in cores almost right away and hitting broad intercepts of alteration. With early drilling success and mounting interest, Puma immediately got to work and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Pabineau First Nation – Oinpegitjoig L’Noeigati (PFN) to collaborate on mutually beneficial initiatives in mining exploration in the traditional territory of Pabineau.

See here for more details – https://insidexploration.com/puma-exploration-signs-memorandum-of-understanding-mou-with-pabineau-first-nation-new-brunswick-canada/

Puma began garnering some attention from the mining world at this point, as this was developing into a promising project. One of the first institutions or groups to recognize the opportunity was Crescat Capital as they participated in a financing of $1.6 million and this money would see PUMA through the first drill phase and continued exploration of the broader land package.

See here for more details about the financing – https://insidexploration.com/puma-exploration-closes-1-6-million-financing-led-by-a-strategic-investment-by-crescat-capital-for-960000/

If you’re interested, Crescat, Quentin Hennigh does a weekly roundup called “Crescat Gets Activist on Gold” covering projects they are invested in. Having watched many myself, I can tell you that they give great insight and geological break downs and are well worth the time to review.

Check them out https://www.youtube.com/@crescatcapital3641

Lynx Drilling Discovery

Then came the assays! Discovery hole WB21-02 intersected 5.55 g/t Au over 50.15 meters from surface! The mineralized and altered zone drilled includes two main high-grade intercepts of 9.88 g/t Au over 8.60 meters and 46.94 g/t Au over 3.85 meters. (See Figure 7) But the best part was that all the six (6) of the first holes intersected significant high-grade gold quartz veins and quartz networks within the altered and mineralized rhyolite.

Figure 7

President & CEO, Marcel Robillard sat down to talk with us just after the discovery was made and you can feel his excitement. This is just the preview and the link to the full version is posted at the end of this video.

President and CEO, Marcel Robillard discusses the maiden drill program and discovery of high grade gold in New Brunswick.

For more details and images of the discovery hole click here https://insidexploration.com/major-gold-discovery-in-new-brunswick-puma-exploration-drills-5-55-g-t-au-over-50-15-meters-on-initial-drilling-at-williams-brook-gold-property/

Following the receipt of assays, PUMA accelerated their exploration plans and announced a phase 2 of their drilling campaign with a goal of completing 10,000m . They also contracted three excavators, two trucks and one bulldozer to keep extending the kilometric altered and gold-mineralised corridor along the highly potential O’Neil Gold Trend in preparation for the upcoming drill program.

By November they completed their initial drill program in the Lynx zone and had received all of the results. Here is the summary of drilling.

https://www.nxtmine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ad5c466a8caa146a1b1174d6a2adb5ed-scaled.jpg
Figure 8

COMPLETE SUMMARY OF THE FIRST PHASE INAUGURAL DRILLING PROGRAM AT WILLIAMS BROOK

  • The holes intersected continuous pervasive alteration and mineralisation from surface:
    • WB21-01 grades 1.30 g/t Au over 25.6m including 5.50g/t Au over 6.4m
    • WB21-02 grades 5.50 g/t Au over 50.5m including 46.94 g/t Au over 3.9m
    • WB21-03 grades 0.55 g/t Au over 37.6m including 7.81 g/t Au over 2.2m
    • WB21-05 grades 1.00 g/t Au over 26.4m including 12.64 g/t Au over 2.0m
    • WB21-06 grades 1.16 g/t Au over 48.7m including 16.92 g/t Au over 2.9m
    • WB21-07 grades 0.46 g/t Au over 25.6m including 5.40 g/t Au over 0.9m
    • WB21-08 grades 0.46 g/t Au over 25.5m including 8.96 g/t Au over 1.1m
    • WB21-09 grades 1.07 g/t Au over 36.0m including 15.52 g/t Au over 1.7m
    • WB21-10 grades 1.07 g/t Au over 14.4m including 4.17 g/t Au over 2.0m
    • WB21-12 grades 1.00 g/t Au over 40.6m including 6.93 g/t Au over 3.8m
    • WB21-13 grades 0.30 g/t Au over 49.4m including 7.53 g/t Au over 0.6m
    • WB21-14 grades 0.70 g/t Au over 28.4m including 16.7 g/t Au over 1.1m
    • WB21-16 grades 0.82 g/t Au over 78.8m including 5.11 g/t Au over 8.4m
    • WB21-17 grades 0.35 g/t Au over 110.5m including 4.85 g/t Au over 4.7m
  • Very high-grade samples collected at depth are representative of surface grab samples:
    • WB21-02 grades 69.9 g/t Au over 1.0m at 46.5m down the hole
    • WB21-03 grades 23.1 g/t Au over 0.65m at 56.85m down the hole
    • WB21-06 grades 72.1 g/t Au over 0.30m at 47.6m down the hole
    • WB21-14 grades 89.1 g/t Au over 0.20m at 33.6m down the hole
    • WB21-16 grades 48.1 g/t Au over 0.60m at 80.0m down the hole
    • WB21-17 grades 30.1 g/t Au over 0.60m at 107.0m down the hole
  • Significant gold mineralisation is extending in the deeper holes:
    • WB21-04 grades 2.84 g/t Au over 1.0m at 140.5m
    • WB21-07 grades 3.42 g/t Au over 0.35m at 149.65m
    • WB21-16 grades 25.3 g/t Au over 0.35m at 88.0m
    • WB21-17 grades 30.1 g/t Au over 0.6m at 107.0m
  • Significant high-grade gold mineralisation observed in the rhyolite is now recognized in the sediments thus increasing the potential size of the favourable corridor. These drill intercepts are listed here: 48.2 g/t Au over 0.4m, 22.2 g/t Au over 0.7m, 20.0 g/t Au over 0.5m, 19.9 g/t Au over 0.5m and 18.8 g/t Au over 0.5m.

Interestingly, their grab sampling program was starting to show a correlation with drilling and the first 380 surface grab samples illustrated perfectly the very high-grade gold enrichment contact between the sediments and the rhyolite. The overall average of the 380 samples collected was 3.14 g/t Au, which includes all the results from below detection limit to a maximum value of 199 g/t Au.

Meanwhile, The company had traced the mineralization on surface through excavation from Chubby to Moose and found visible gold in one of the veins.

Highlight Reel showing progress of stripping in 2021

To close out the year PUMA raised almost 6 million dollars through two separate financings which would see them through their planned 10,000 metre drill program slated to start over the course of the winter and allow them to expand their exploration efforts across the entire land package in 2022.

2022 EXPLORATION

They kicked off the year announcing new results from the grab sampling conducted in the fall from the newly stripped areas north east of Lynx. The results from those 50 grab samples received included 51.70 g/t Au, 28.70 g/t Au, 27.20 g/t Au, 23.10 g/t Au, 18.50 g/t Au* and really started to show that high-grade gold mineralization is both significant and continuous along the OGT.

Drilling started on January 17th just north of the Lynx Zone as. the company continued to roll out impressive grab sample grades Only, this time the results came from the north east of Chubby where they had announced VG on surface. That grab sample containing the VG assayed 371 g/t gold making it the highest grade gold sample recovered to date. (For highlights of sampling from 2021 see figure 9)

https://www.nxtmine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/e3087e915137da6c19ae7cb06f4cfb21.jpg
Figure 9

Additional Selected grab sample gold results above 10 g/t Au from 2021 sampling program

Sample ID Au-GRA22 Sample ID Au-GRA22 Sample ID Au-GRA22 Sample ID Au-GRA22
Au g/t Au g/t Au g/t Au g/t
D248399 12.35 D248468 18.15 D248210 24.50 D279887 106.50
D249004 15.40 D248469 35.20 D248215 13.70 D279897 57.30
D249049 25.60 D248483 20.10 D248217 38.00 D279898 102.50
D248458 51.80 D248490 13.35 D248243 19.00 D279899 121.50
D248460 52.20 D248491 58.30 D248404 21.40 D279900 101.50
D248467 77.70
https://www.nxtmine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/adf7ee1250939f0c321d010692a03335.jpg
Figure 10

On March 1st Puma added more land to their already impressive land package. More details can be found here https://insidexploration.com/puma-exploration-signs-strategic-land-package-agreement-to-extend-its-williams-brook-gold-property/

By April results started rolling in from the drill program and they did not disappoint. On April 28th, Puma Reported the results of 19 holes of almost 40 holes drilled. The highlights included 34.93 g/t Au over 3.00 metres within a wider zone assaying 6.47 g/t Au over 16.90 metres in hole WB22-25, 22.28 g/t Au over 3.20 metres within a wider gold intercept of 3.97 g/t Au over 22.10 metres in hole WB22-36 and 1.00 g/t Au over 33.35 metres in hole WB22-26.

Full drill tables can be found here

https://www.nxtmine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/6e848a912688005334270b16b7e0a1ec.jpg
figure 11
Head of Investor Relations and VP of Corporate Development, Mia Boiridy discusses the Companies exploration efforts and results on the Northeast Extension

Over the course of the summer, Puma Raised 1.75 million through the excersizing of Warrants and spun out their copper assets into Canadian Copper, whereby shareholders received shares of the new co.

Learn more here – https://insidexploration.com/puma-exploration-announces-record-date-in-connection-with-a-distribution-of-common-shares-of-canadian-copper-a-strategically-focused-company-with-copper-exploration-projects-in-canada/

By September they had completed drilling and received all the remaining assays. Highlights include, 14.90 g/t Au over 3.60 m in hole WB22-96 and 10.96 g/t Au over 3.75 m in hole WB22-91. Important to note is that the high-grade intersections are typically included within a wider gold intersection such as 2.17 g/t Au over 25.10 m in WB22-96 and 2.00 g/t over 21.95 m in WB22-94

https://www.nxtmine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/494ce322105c0a97bff3e74e03779654-scaled.jpg
https://www.nxtmine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/dfa210ce9402271a3f8569005f14b319-scaled.jpg
Figure 12

Full table of results can be found here – https://insidexploration.com/puma-exploration-hits-multiple-high-grade-gold-intercepts-at-williams-brook/

October 17th, Puma adds more land – https://insidexploration.com/puma-exploration-secures-more-prospective-ground-at-its-williams-brook-gold-project/

With all the drilling and sampling out of the way at the OGT (Now called The Lynx Zone) the company set out to explore two new areas of interest in the Jaguar and Cougar zones which are on separate fault structures and separated by a few kilometers. Little did they know they would be announcing not one but two new discoveries at Williams 1 (Cougar) and Williams 2 (Jaguar)

Jaguar Gold Zone

https://www.nxtmine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/1fbffc01bdeffe0cf855647ed0cb217a.jpg
Figure 13
Chairman of Puma Exploration, Rejean Gosselin talking about one of Puma’s latest discoveries.

On October 20th, Puma announced a new discovery on what they called the Jaguar Gold Zone (JGZ). The JGZ is located on a separate trend, 7 kms away from the Lynx Zone. The initial discovery of this area actually came back in 2007/2008 but hadn’t seen any follow up until Puma decided to do some stripping and implement their very successful exploration model at Jaguar. As they excavated they uncovered a contact similar to the Lynx Zone area. However, there was something noticeably different about the mineralization. High-grade gold mineralization at the JGZ is found in altered rhyolite associated with pervasive pyrite mineralization (Figure 15) Unlike the gold hosted in Quartz veining at Lynx. So far, the JGZ hosts a gold-enrichment zone that spans 80 m by 50 m and remains open in all directions (Figure 14).

Highlights from the grab sampling at Jaguar include 18.30 g/t Au, 16.85, 16.30 g/t Au, 16.25 g/t Au, and 12.90 g/t Au respectively. Here are the highlights.

https://www.nxtmine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/e85315077ac3b74d0fe8e1bca84c0857.jpg
Figure 14
https://www.nxtmine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/c7c785be146ae275a8bf3e0f942589ca.jpg
Figure 15

Following the high-grade gold results from the initial stripping at the JGZ, additional and systematic sampling was conducted over the fall. A total of 98 additional samples were collected during this second phase of sampling which targeted the rhyolite/sediment contact with pervasive potassic-pyrite alteration and close to a major fault or its subsidiaries. The entire 98 additional new samples show an average grade of 1.91 g/t Au. and to date, a total of three hundred six samples have been collected at the JGZ with an average grade of 1.72 g/t Au. Ninety-five (95) samples assayed above 1.00 g/t Au (31%).

https://www.nxtmine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/4a30bbe1f8cdcde9fbaa93ddbd8bd83c.jpg
Figure 16

The gold-enrichment zone at the JGZ currently spans 80 m by 50 m and remains open in all directions. It is coincident with a large IP anomaly and holes drilled in 2008 by a previous operator (WB-08-03: 0.52 g/t Au over 55.00 metres, WB-08-04: 0.68 g/t Au over 41.00 metres and WB-08-05: 0.21 g/t Au over 64.00 metres) indicate that gold mineralization could be widespread and continue at depth.

What’s Important to understand is that this new discovery is like having a second project in your back yard. A little icing on the cake if you will. The proximity to Lynx makes it a very attractive asset when Lynx eventually goes into production. But it gets better! Not far away, looking towards Lynx, Puma made yet another discovery.

Cougar Gold Zone

On November 2nd, Puma announced that they had made a “Lynx Gold Zone” like discovery with gold in quartz veining about 4 km northeast of Lynx and 1 km southeast of the newly discovered Jaguar Gold Zone. The first round of assays returned highlight grades of up to 60.10 g/t Au and 25.20 g/t Au, 5.76 g/t Au, and 3.17 g/t Au respectively (See Figure 17). However if one paid attention they new this was coming because Puma was following up on a drill intercept of 54.20 g/t Au over 2.8 metres conducted by previous operators in 2008.

https://www.nxtmine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/aa83f4565e82beea672e05734fa60716.jpg
Figure 17

Simultaneously, while expanding their search efforts across what is becoming their district scale gold discovery, Puma had been drilling larger diameter core with a second drill rig at the Lynx Zone for an expanded met work program. This was partially because on November 17th, they reported that met testing of material from 2021 showed recoveries of up to 99.7% gold.

LYNX Metallurgy 2021/22

The Research & Productivity Council (“RPC”) of Fredericton, New Brunswick, an accredited laboratory, was contracted to conduct the preliminary recovery program on pulps and rejects from 3,000 selected high-grade and low-grade drill core samples collected during its 2021 drilling campaign.

A centrifugal gravity concentration test was conducted on the homogenised low-grade reject samples and at a grind size of 100% passing 1.0 mm, a concentrate grading 35.0 g/t Au was produced in 3.9% of the mass to give a recovery of 92% Au. Also, the test head grade was calculated at 1.49 g/t Au whereas the material measured 0.46 g/t Au, indicating that the material is subject to the nugget effect. And finally, a standard cyanidation extraction was completed on high-grade rejects, low-grade pulps and low-grade rejects and gold recoveries were 99.7%, 98.7% and 99.2%, respectively.

Expanded LYNX Metallurgical Testing 2022/23

Eight (8) HQ holes, for a total of 102 m, were drilled on three (3) main quartz veins in the Lynx Zone. Half of the core was sent to RPC for the recovery tests, and the other half was split and sent to the ALS Chemex lab for gold assaying. The core that was sent to RPC gets blended to make a representative sample for each hole which vary in length from 6 metres to 18 metres (See Figure 18).

https://www.nxtmine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/07f6e845dcaf0315329568b894f99dfc-scaled.jpg
Figure 18

The expanded metallurgical program is designed to better define the quality of gold mineralisation at the Lynx Gold Zone, identify opportunities and potential challenges and further optimize recoveries. The study will also provide Puma with a flowsheet for the processing a future bulk sample.

2023 EXPLORATION

In 2023, Puma announced the discovery of a brand new Gold Zone they are calling the Panthera Gold Zone (see Figure 19).

PANTHERA GOLD ZONE

The Panthera Gold Zone (“PGZ”) is located about 12 kilometres northeast of the Lynx Gold Zone (“LGZ”) along strike of the O’Neil Gold Trend. The discovery has the same geological characteristics as the other gold zones on the Williams Brook property: altered rhyolite containing mineralized quartz veins. Last fall, three (3) trenches were excavated for a total of 310 metres. The trenches exposed gold in quartz veins at surface that graded 9.87 g/t Au, 8.67 g/t Au, 7.45 g/t, 6.18 /gt Au, 5.92 g/t Au, 5.15 g/t Au, 4.05 g/t gold and 3.27 g/t Au.

This new gold discovery, similar to the Lynx Gold Zone, is located at the contact of a low/high magnetic anomaly and coincides with significant gold enrichment in soil samples collected by Puma in 2022 (See figure 20) . Puma’s soil survey was conducted over 3.8 km x 1.5 km and identified six (6) distinct gold anomalies over a 2.5 km trend. The success of the preliminary sampling on the newly identified Panthera Gold Zone is very encouraging, and follow-up work is planned for 2023.

https://www.nxtmine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/021cda927381735b48c935a8102f7199.jpg
Figure 19
https://www.nxtmine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/6977a3eecf71ca7add312005d3a386d3.jpg
Figure 20

Conclusion

With this most recent discovery, Puma is making a good case that they have a district scale gold system. Having secured a good chunk of land, the company is poised to make strides in 2023. Having been on this project 3 times in 2 years and seeing the progress and success this team is having. I firmly believe that Puma is just scratching the surface. When you walk this property and see the alteration on surface with large extentional vein sets and altered rhyolite with narrow vienlets of quartz throughout, it’s easy to see that this is the beginnings of a mine. Look forward to Puma having a strong year as they intend to drill deeper into the lynx Zone and begin to drill test their new discoveries at Jaguar and Cougar. Also, Puma still has plenty more discovery potential across their very large land package so don’t be surprised if you see additional discoveries in 2022. If they aren’t careful they are going to run out of cats to name them all after.

For more information please visit https://explorationpuma.com and be sure to check out their profile at Insidexploration.com/puma

Stay informed with Insidexploration, your number 1 source for Multimedia Due Diligence. We take you along on site visits, personal interviews, and in-depth analysis of the top mining and exploration companies on the market today.

Ways to connect with Insidexploration:

Website https://insidexploration.com
Follow us on Twitter – @insidexplr – https://twitter.com/insidexplr
Join us on Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/Insidexplr/
Youtube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZC6W8B-k3uo39V042iKcng
Linkedinhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/insidexploration/

Disclaimer

The content of this article contain forward looking statements and are subject to change. We caution the viewer that this report is for informational purposes and should not be considered investing advice. Prior to making investment decisions, we encourage you consult a financial advisor and always do your own due diligence.

References

The information contained in this article was obtained from various geological reports, news releases, sedar documents, the company’s website and presentations.

tsxv

Share this article:

Uncategorized

‘When it comes to M&A people just shoot in the dark’ – Bristow

Published

on

Continue Reading
Uncategorized

IRS To Boost Enforcement Workforce By 40% By Year-End 2024

Published

on

Continue Reading
Uncategorized

3 Magnificent Stocks to Buy on the Dip: February 2024

Published

on

Continue Reading

Trending