The Aquilon Property

1. OVERVIEW

Aquilon’s Gold Showings.

The Aquilon project covers 68 km2 of the Aquilon greenstone belt, in the La Grande subprovince of Quebec. This is an advanced exploration project on which more than 32 gold showings have been discovered so far. Some of these showings are defined by gold grades that are among the highest ever intercepted in Quebec:

  • 834.4 grams of gold per tonne (g/t Au) over 1.7 m (Moman showing), including 3,527.4 g/t Au over 0.4 m;
  • 116.5 g/t Au over 2.3 m (Moman showing);
  • 425.3 g/t Au over 0.6 m (Moman showing);
  • 133.7 g/t Au over 0.8 m (Fleur-de-Lys showing);
  • 26.7 g/t Au over 0.4 m (Muscovite showing).

Gold mineralization is associated with felsic horizons of volcano-sedimentary units of the Aquilon greenstone belt. It occurs mainly in two forms, namely high-grade vein-type mineralization, defined along a NE-SW trending topographic lineament, and lower-grade mineralization contained in volcaniclastics and associated with disseminated to semi-massive sulphides.

 

2. LOCATION

The Aquilon property is located in Quebec, Canada, on the territory of Eeyou Istchee James Bay. It is accessible in all seasons via the James Bay road and the Trans-Taïga and is located about 10 km south of the Laforge-1 hydroelectric power station. It is also located less than 60 km from Pourvoirie Mirage, which offers accommodation, meals and an airstrip. The Aquilon property consists of a block of 140 claims covering an area of 68 km2.

 

3. GEOLOGY OF THE PROPERTY

Geology of the Fleur-de-Lys Showing.

The Aquilon greenstone belt is mainly composed of four lithological units, namely mafic and felsic volcanic units, ultramafic units and iron formations. The western part of the property is characterized by an erect anticline regional fold, plunging moderately to the NW. It is bordered by polyphased tonalitic intrusives of the Coates Suite and tonalitic and dioritic gneisses of the Brésolles Suite. The property is centered on a bimodal volcanic sequence with a core occupied by a felsic calc-alkaline complex. The rocks of the Aquilon volcano-sedimentary belt were metamorphosed to lower to upper amphibolite facies and locally retrograded to greenschist facies. Structural data and overprint relationships indicate that the western part of the Aquilon volcano-sedimentary belt has undergone at least five ductile and brittle deformation events, namely D1 to D5.

 

4. TYPE OF MINERALIZATION

Gold mineralization is associated primarily with felsic complexes of the Aquilon greenstone belt. Currently, two types of mineralization have been identified on the property:

1) Orogenic vein gold mineralization:
This type of mineralization is mainly present along a topographic lineament called the Wolf Corridor. This zone is defined by 24 high-grade gold showings distributed laterally over more than 4 km. Several of these showings, including Lingo-3-West, Fleur-de-Lys and Moman, form N-NE oriented shallow dipping ore shoots. Mineralization is hosted within quartz veins with minor amounts of calcite and occurs as coarse gold grains associated with minor amounts of sulphides (pyrite-pyrrhotite ±chalcopyrite ±sphalerite ±galena). The walls of the veins expose hydrothermal alteration in sericite and pyrite of varying intensity.

2) Gold associated with semi-massive to disseminated sulphide horizons (pyrite-pyrrhotite ±chalcolpyrite):
This type of lower grade mineralization is hosted in various types of lithologies on the property including felsic to intermediate volcaniclastics, basalts, lapilli tuffs and tonalitic intrusions. It occurs in the form of multi-centimetric to metric bands enriched in pyrite, pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite. These zones show large muscovite and disseminated pyrite alteration halos.

 

Examples of vein gold mineralization found on Aquilon:

5. AGREEMENT

Since December 14, 2022, the Aquilon project has been held in joint partnership with Sirios Resources Inc. and Sumitomo Metal Mining Canada Ltd. Sumitomo can earn an initial 51% interest in the project by paying a sum of $200,000 at signing to Sirios and incurring an aggregate of $4.6 million in mineral exploration expenditures, on or before the third anniversary of the option agreement. Sirios will be the operator during this earn-in period, entitled to a 10% management fee. A firm commitment of $1.6-million will be spent on the property during this earn-in period.

Sumitomo can earn an additional 29% interest in the project, for an aggregate of 80%, by incurring an additional aggregate of $10 million in mineral exploration expenditures, on or before the sixth anniversary of the option agreement.

Following the earn-in of an 80% interest, Sumitomo and Sirios will form a joint venture in respect of the project. In the event a joint venture participant’s interest is diluted to below 10%, it will convert its joint venture interest to a net smelter return (“NSR”) royalty of 2%.

This agreement has made it possible to set up a major large-scale exploration program that will begin in the winter of 2023.

 

6. EXPLORATION PROGRAM

The 2023 exploration program on Aquilon (more details here) began in February with a till geochemical survey (map below), an Induced Polarization ground geophysical survey (map below) as well as a series of mechanically excavated trenches. This winter program will be followed in the summer by intensive fieldwork including additional soil and rock sampling as well as geophysical and geological surveys in order to advance the property to a drill-ready stage by the end of 2023.

Discovering gold from prospecting to advanced exploration.
Sirios generates and manages its mining exploration projects by working closely with its partners, fully respecting communities and the environment, as well as utilizing the latest advanced technologies.