Sky Lake | NewOrigin Gold

Sky Lake Gold Project

Significant land position with the potential to host Tier 1 near-surface orogenic gold deposits

Click here for the NI 43-101 Sky Lake Gold Project report

Overview

NewOrigin holds 100% of the mining rights to the Sky Lake Project which covers 9,100 hectares over a 27 km long strike length. Sky Lake is situated within the Uchi Sub-Province of northwestern Ontario, which has produced over 40 million ounces (“Moz”) of gold including Evolution Gold’s Red Lake Mine (~26 Moz produced), Auteco Minerals Pickle Crow Mine (~1.4 Moz produced & 2.23 Moz JORC Inferred Resource) and the recent LP Fault discovery (pre-resource) on Kinross’s newly acquired Great Bear Project.

NewOrigin is initially targeting drill testing in the Koval Zone, an Induced Polarization target to the east and an iron formation contact zone to the north east. In January of 2022, NewOrigin acquired 100% interest in the Koval patented mining claims from Barrick Gold Corp. Historical drill results from the Koval Zone contain broad zones of gold mineralization including 6.26 grams/tonne gold (“g/t Au”) over 22.7 metres (“m”) including 8.78 g/t Au over 16m within 100m of surface.

Property Location

The Sky Lake Property is located in Ontario, 310 km northwest of Thunder Bay and approximately 30 km southwest of the Town of Pickle Lake. Pickle Lake is a mining town with excellent infrastructure to include a commercial airport, hotel, well established power grid along a paved highway and available heavy equipment and contractors local to the area. Sky Lake is a significant gold exporation project on the south west end of the Pickle Lake Gold District consisting of 446 single cell mining claims, 28 patent claims and a Mining License of Occupation.

Historic Exploration & Land Consolidation

NewOrigin’s Sky Lake Project hosts the historic “Koval” gold deposit, which was discovered by surface prospecting in the 1950’s. At that time an initial gold resource was outlined where gold mineralization was traced by shallow drilling over a ~1.5 km length strike length. In the 1980's exploration was conducted by Lac Minerals Ltd. following their major discovery at Hemlo. Lac Minerals was subsequently taken over by Barrick Gold Corp. where the historic Koval gold deposit has sat dormant for over 30 years. Since 2009, NewOrigin has strategically acquired 100% interest in the 27-km long claim package surrounding Koval to provide NewOrigin a dominant land position in a very prospective mining camp.

Geology

The Sky Lake Property is within the Archean-aged Meen-Dempster greenstone belt. This is one of a number of arcuate, deformed and segmented greenstone belts stretching across northwestern Ontario. These greenstone belts host important operating gold mines, past producing gold and base metal mines and new deposits under development. In particular, Sky Lake shares the same geological environment as the important Red Lake and Pickle Lake gold districts.

The property lies within the Confederation Assemblage, a mixed volcano-sedimentary sequence which can be divided into three stratigraphic sequences: a northern mafic volcanic assemblage, a central mixed intermediate to felsic volcanic and sedimentary assemblage, and a southern volcaniclastic sedimentary assemblage. The Northern Assemblage consists predominately of mafic volcanic flows and near its southern margin contains intercalated iron formation and altered rock. Partially explored gold occurrences are documented in these altered and iron-rich rocks. The Central Assemblage is a complex sequence of intermediate to felsic volcanic flows, breccias and tuffaceous rocks separated by sedimentary units and occasional mafic flows. The Koval deposit is associated with altered, pyritic and sericitic felsic schists within the Central Assemblage. There is a distinct boundary or “break” between the Central Assemblage and the extensive Southern Assemblage. The Southern Assemblage although poorly mapped, appears to consist of a thick sequence of greywacke, shale and graphitic sedimentary rock, intercalated with lenses of felsic volcanics.

*The historic Koval gold resource is not compliant to National Instrument 43-101

Koval Patented Claims

In January 25, 2022 NewOrigin acquired 100% of the mining rights to the Koval patented claims from Barrick. Barrick holds a 0.5% Net Smelter Return (“NSR”) royalty on the Koval claims and a portion of the Sky Lake claims package. Barrick retains a 51% back in right where the 0.5% NSR is exstinguished on exercise of the back in right. A further 2.25% NSR is due on the patented claims and a 2% NSR royalty payable on a group of claims surrounding the patented claims. NewOrigin holds the option to buy back a portion of the additional NSR royalties.

Selected gold assay results from historic drilling include near-surface drill core intervals of 6.26 g/t Au over 22.7m including 8.78 g/t Au over 16.0 m, 7.26 g/t Au over 19.4 m, 6.50 g/t Au over 16.8 m, 4.96 g/t Au over 13.0 m and 3.97 g/t Au over 14.2 m. These assay results were retrieved from historic mineral assessment files from the Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines (“MENDM”) where initial drilling by NewOrigin will attempt to confirm these historic results. In addition, reports sourced from MENDM files indicate a small non NI43-101 compliant gold resource.

The Company has also compiled a substantial geotechnical database of historic exploration work and drilling. Historic drilling data on the patent claims has been compiled from Ontario government files and internal reports authored by Lac Minerals Ltd. that were recovered by NewOrigin. A database of 133 drill holes totalling 13,954 m of drilling has been audited. Of these, 114 holes were in the vicinity of the mineralized zones, 105 of which had extensive, recoverable assay records. No assay data is available for the remaining nine (9) holes although it is assumed that, based on core log information, they penetrated one or more of these zones.

To identify the extent and continuity of historically reported gold mineralization, and investigate the accuracy of previous reporting, gold assay composites were modelled and extended across the area of drilling. Assay composites were loaded in 3D modelling software which identified three subparallel zones and several subsidiary zones. Each zone appears to exhibit pinch-and-swell structures both along strike and down dip, however this could be a function of the drilling pattern and amount of sampling completed by previous operators since core sampling was relatively sparse, based on visual observations. Where drill holes with low or no assays passed through these gold zones, the drill logs (if available) were assessed to see if the alteration and sulphide contents were similar to other drill hole intersection in the same zone.

NewOrigin Exploration

NewOrigin's field work has included modern, high resolution heliborne electromagnetic and magnetic surveying, soil sampling, geological mapping, rock geochemical and alteration studies, detailed grid work including Induced Polarization ('IP') geophysical surveying and a preliminary seven-hole diamond drill program. The Company has also compiled a substantial geotechnical database of historic exploration work and all drilling.

In 2019, the Company completed a “deep-looking” induced polarization (“IP”) survey consisting of 13 line-km in 8 separate lines covering 2 km's of strike length along the Koval gold zones. The survey was conducted by Dias Geophysical Ltd. with a modern, proprietary survey technology which returned readings taken from surface to an estimated depth of up to 400 m below surface.

In September of 2022, geochemical samples were collected over an area of approximately 2.5 square kilometres east of the Koval claims along a sequence of altered volcanic and sedimentary rocks. The program consisted of geological mapping, soil sampling and drill site reconnaissance focused on identifying possible eastward extensions to the Koval Gold Zone as well as along trend from iron-formation related gold occurrences northeast of the Koval Zone.

A total of 574 humus and 450 soil samples were taken at surface and 20 centimetres below surface, respectively. Lower analytical detection limits were 1 part per billion gold (“ppb Au”) for humus and 5 ppb Au for soils. A threshold for anomalous gold in humus was set at 4 ppb Au with 17 samples (3.0% of total humus samples) returning values of 4 ppb Au to a maximum value of 244 ppb Au. A threshold for anomalous gold in soils was set at 20 ppb Au with 20 samples (4.4% of total soil samples) returning values between 20 ppb Au and a maximum value of 931 ppb Au. Humus and soil samples containing anomalous gold complement each other well, delineating five new prospective target areas of interest. These results, when combined with results of earlier work, outline distinct clusters of anomalous gold in overburden across a 2 kilometre area east of the Koval deposit (Figure 1). Two grab samples of rock taken from outcrop nearby the surface expression of the Koval gold deposit returned 0.7 and 3.4 g/t Au, confirming the presence of significant gold grades occurring in localized bedrock exposures.

In November of 2021 NewOrigin received a 3 year drill permit which covers the historic Koval gold deposit area and extensions to the east and west. NewOrigin believes the most prospective areas to host a Tier 1 gold deposit lie within the volcanic and sedimentary rock sequence between the iron formation trend and the south break trend. Possible extensions and repetitions of the gold mineralization found at the historic Koval gold deposit were further refined by the September 2022 program. A summer 2023 drill program is planned to test within the Koval gold deposit area at surface and at depth, its easterly extension and possible series of en echelon structures to the north and south.