Satori Resources
Satori Resources Inc. (STRRF) is a gold exploration company focused on exploring and developing the 100% owned Tartan Lake Gold Mine Project ("Tartan Lake") located in Flin Flon, Manitoba.
The property is approximately 2,670 hectares in area and consists of 20 mineral claims. The project was a past producing asset (historical production of ~ 47,000 oz Au) which hosts a significant amount of existing development including a 450 t/d processing facility, tailings, hydro power connection to the grid, a ramp portal with approximately 2,100 metres of underground development.1
The Company’s activities are currently directed towards exploration and development of mineral properties located in Manitoba, Canada. Satori’s principal project is the Tartan Lake Gold Mine Project, a mineral property which hosts a past-producing underground mine.
In 2010, the Project’s previous owner completed a National Instrument 43-101 (“NI 43-101”) compliant technical report which outlined mineral resources associated with the Tartan Lake Gold Mine. The technical report was filed under the SEDAR profile of St. Eugene Mining Corporation Limited on September 23, 2010. During the first quarter 2017, Satori completed an updated NI 43-101 technical report on the Tartan Lake Gold Mine Project which was filed on SEDAR on April 7, 2017.
Mineral Properties
Tartan Lake is owned 100% by the Company and is subject to a 2% net smelter return royalty (“NSR”). The Company has the right to buy-down the NSR at any time for $1 million per each 1%. During the nine-months ended September 30, 2017, the Company incurred a total of $388,368 (year ended December 31, 2016 – $403,226) of deferred exploration expenditures.
Tartan Lake Gold Mine Project, Flin Flon, Manitoba - 100% Interest
Overview and Project History
The Tartan Lake Gold Mine Project is located in Manitoba, Canada 12 kilometres (“km”) directly northeast of the town of Flin Flon. The Project is approximately 2,670 hectares in area and consists of 20 mineral claims. Tartan Lake is road accessible from Flin Flon by means of all-season gravel roads which turn north from paved Highway 10 over a total distance of approximately 29 km. The town of Flin Flon has all the services to support mineral exploration and mining and is accessed by highway, railroad, and regularly scheduled air service. Tartan Lake is serviced by grid electricity.
The Tartan Lake Gold Mine Project was operated by Granges from 1987-1989 with approximately 47,000 ounces of gold mined. The operation consisted of a 450 tonne per day gold processing facility with related infrastructure, a vent raise to surface, and a decline ramp providing access to 6 different Levels within the Main and South Zones to a vertical depth of 315 metres. In 1989 the process facility ceased operations due to low gold prices and a significant mechanical failure and was placed into care and maintenance, while the ramp and underground workings were allowed to flood. The electricity grid power connection and on-site heating remain operational.
Project Geology
The Tartan Lake Gold Mine Project is located within the Flin Flon greenstone belt (“FFGB”). The FFGB belt is a collection of tectonic assemblages that was assembled early in the evolution of the Paleoproterozoic Trans-Hudson Orogen. The portions of the belt exposed on or near surface are approximately 250 easterly by 75 northerly kilometres. The FFGB has undergone four major phases of deformation. These have contributed to the development of the major structures that host the gold mineralization at Tartan Lake. Sub-greenschist facies metamorphism is present in the southern of the property increasing to amphibolite facies to the north near the Kisseynew domain.
The Tartan Lake shear zone complex is a strong east-west trending zone, which contains the Tartan Lake gold deposits. Near the Mine the main shear zone forms the contact between the footwall gabbro/diorite intrusive to the south and the hanging wall Amisk Group rocks to the north. The shear zone is 30 to 50 metres wide, steeply dips to the north and trends to the west. Gold mineralization at Tartan Lake Mine is hosting within multiple sub-parallel, anastomosing quartz carbonate mesothermal veins hosted within steeply dipping east-west shear zones with a trend and plunge about 70° to the northwest. The gold mineralization is dominated by free gold with various associated sulphide minerals. The highest gold grades were associated with pyrite and chalcopyrite. Historically, much of the gold reported to the gravity circuit with the remaining recoverable gold extracted from the gravity tails through flotation/cyanidation.
Main Zone
Twelve individual shears make up the Main Zone which is located in the gabbroic complex near the contact between the metagabbroic and metavolcanic rocks. The historic gold resources are predominantly hosted in the Main Zone. Two gold-bearing lenses that strike 090°, dip steeply to the north, and plunge steeply (70°) west to northwest make up the Main Zone. The first lens is 60 m long and 90 m high, extending to the 90 m Level of the mine. The second lens is 40 m long near surface expanding to 200 m long at the 200 m Level and 150 m at the 300 m Level of the mine. The 2nd lens is located 5 to 10 m in the footwall of the first lens.
The Main Zone mineralization was accessed by a 2,100 m long, 4.3 m high by 4.5 m wide decline to a depth of about 315 m below surface. Mineralization is defined to ~575 m below surface. The average width of historic stopes was 7.8 m.
South Zone
A set of veins in the footwall of the Main Zone form the South Zone which are interconnected and subparallel. These shears are entirely in the gabbroic complex. The South Zone consists of three smaller blocks of historic resources. Lens 3b was interpreted by Claude to be a possible extension of the South Zone. Granges intersected it in drill holes in 1995 and 1996 and based on the host rocks, structural setting and mineralization appear to be similar to the Main Zone. The zone is defined to ~275 m depth below surface.
Southeast Zone
The Southeast Zone is to east and is hosted by the same east-west trending shear zone as the South Zone. It is also entirely in the gabbroic complex. Like the South Zone it is also similar to the Main Zone based on the structural setting and mineralization. There is no underground development in the Southeast Zone but a drift was about 75 m away when the mine shut down. The zone is known to ~200 m depth.
Exploration Expenditures
As at September 30, 2017, the capitalized acquisition and exploration expenditures at Tartan Lake were $1,791,594 (December 31, 2016 - $1,403,226). There have been no fundamental changes to the Tartan Lake Gold Mine Project, however, due to overall market conditions, on December 31, 2015, the Company applied an industry-based impairment charge against the Tartan Lake asset of $1,071,892. Additionally, there was a change in the asset retirement obligation assumptions at December 31, 2012, which resulted in an increase of $103,205.
Underground Resource Estimate
On February 23, 2017, the Company announced a new resource estimate for its 100% owned Tartan Lake Gold Mine Project, located within the prolific Flin Flon mining district, in Manitoba, Canada. The mineral resource estimate was prepared by Mining Plus Canada Consulting Ltd. (“Mining Plus”) in accordance with NI 43-10 and as set out in the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum Definition Standards for Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves. The results are summarized in Table 1 at a range of cut-off grades.
Table 1: 2017 Mineral Resource Statement, Tartan Lake Gold Mine Project
| Cut-off Grade | Tonnes | Grade (g/t Au) | Au Ounces |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indicated Resources | |||
| 0.0 g/t | 4,720,000 | 2.42 | 367,000 |
| 2.0 g/t | 1,820,000 | 4.97 | 290,000 |
| 3.0 g/t | 1,180,000 | 6.32 | 240,000 |
| 4.0 g/t | 830,000 | 7.55 | 201,000 |
| Inferred Resources | |||
| 0.0 g/t | 1,210,000 | 1.92 | 75,000 |
| 2.0 g/t | 450,000 | 3.74 | 54,000 |
| 3.0 g/t | 240,000 | 4.89 | 38,000 |
| 4.0 g/t | 140,000 | 5.93 | 27,000 |
The Mineral Resources exist over a strike length of 625 metres down to a maximum depth of 575 metres below surface in the Main Zone and 275 metres below surface in the South Zone. The Main and South Zones remain open along strike and down-dip beyond the limit of the current resource model.
In the 2017 resource estimate update for the Tartan Lake Gold Mine Project, based on a 3.0 g/t Au cut-off grade, mineral resources in the Indicated category was 1.18 million tonnes grading 6.32 g/t Au for 240,000 ounces of gold. This represents a 90% increase in tonnes, 24% increase in grade, and 135% increase in ounces compared to the 2012 Mineral Resource Estimate. The increase in tonnes and ounces were due to the successful upgrade of mineral resources from the Inferred category. Mineral resources in the Inferred category was 0.24 million tonnes grading 4.89 g/t Au for 38,000 ounces. This represents a 77% decrease in tonnes, 7% decrease in grade, and 79% decrease in ounces compared to the 2012 Mineral Resource Estimate. A comparison between the 2012 and 2017 Mineral Resource Estimates is summarized in Table 2 below.
Table 2: Comparison of 2012 vs. 2017 Resource Estimate at Tartan Lake (using a 3.0 g/t cut-off)
| Tonnes | Gold Grade (g/t) | Gold Ounces | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indicated Resources | |||
| 2017 | 1,180,000 | 6.32 | 240,000 |
| 2012 | 620,000 | 5.12 | 102,000 |
| % Difference | +90% | +24% | +135% |
| Inferred Resources | |||
| 2017 | 240,000 | 4.89 | 38,000 |
| 2012 | 1,040,000 | 5.27 | 177,000 |
| % Difference | -77% | -7% | -79% |
The drilling database utilized in the resource estimation was closed as of December 31, 2016 and comprises 501 diamond-drill holes totaling 79,600 metres including drill holes from the 2016 exploration program which consisted of 6 diamond drill holes totaling approximately 1,600 metres (see Satori news release dated December 7, 2016).
For the 2017 resource estimate, a total of 15 sub-parallel, three-dimensional (“3D”) wireframe grade control models were constructed. The 3D grade control models were built through visually interpreting the mineralized zones from cross sections using histograms of gold values. Polygons of mineral intersections were made on each cross section and wireframed together to create contiguous resource models in GEOVIA GEMS 6.7.3 software. The Tartan Lake grade control models define east-west trending, steep north dipping (75° – 85°) to steep south dipping gold zones. The gold zones extend for approximately 625 metres along strike and to depths of up to 575 metres in the Main Zone and 275 metres in the South Zone.
The Tartan Lake grade shells were used to constrain 1.0 metre composite values chosen for interpolation, and the mineral blocks reported in the estimate of the mineral resource. A block model in Metric Mine Grid space (origin: x – 1775, y – 4725, z – 2025, no rotation) with block dimensions of 5 x 1.5 x 5 metres in the x (east), y (north) and z (level) directions was placed over the grade shells with only that proportion of each block inside the shell recorded as part of the resource estimate (% Block Model).
Grades for Au (g/t) were interpolated into blocks by the inverse distance squared (ID2) method. Three passes were used to interpolate grade into all of the blocks in the grade shells. For Pass 1 the search ellipse size was set at 20 x 20 x 6 metres in the X, Y, Z direction (approximate range based on variography); for Pass 2 the search ellipse size was set at 40 x 40 x 12 and for Pass 3 the search ellipse size was set at 80 x 80 x 12. Blocks were classified as Indicated if they were populated with grade during Pass 1 and 2 of the interpolation procedure. Pass 3 search ellipse size was set to assure all remaining blocks within the grade shell are assigned a grade. These blocks were classified as Inferred.
Grades were interpolated into blocks using a minimum of 8 and maximum of 12 composites to generate block grades during Pass 1 and Pass 2 (maximum of 4 samples per drill hole), and a minimum of 4 and maximum of 12 composites to generate block grades during pass 3.
High grade composites were capped at 55 g/t gold (99.3 percentile) to limit their influence during the grade estimation, a total of 31 composite samples ranging in grade from 55.8 g/t to 199.5 g/t gold were capped to 55 g/t. Due to the relative sparseness of bulk density data, an average value is used for the resource estimation. A bulk density value of 2.85g/cm³ is used for the current resource estimate.
2017 Exploration Program
Exploration programs to in-fill and expand the existing resource model, as well as evaluate and test a number of gold showings and regional targets identified on the property. The Main and South Zones remain open along strike and down-dip beyond the limit of the current resource model at 575 metres and 275 metres below surface, respectively.
Commencing on June 12, 2017, the Company undertook a limited drill program focusing on the South Zone. This drill program was designed to step-out from known mineralization and expand the high-grade gold resources in the Main & South Zones as well as increase its understanding of the structural and lithological controls on mineralization. In addition to drilling, this program included a regional compilation of the property to identify exploration potential throughout the 2,670 hectare property.
Upon completion of the program, a total of 2,045 metres were drilled in 6 diamond drill holes. The results of the program both confirmed and provided a basis for further exploration of the South Zone portion of the resource model, developed in November of 2016, which is found in the NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate in the “Tartan Lake Project Technical Report” authored by Mining Plus. This most recent drilling intersected gold mineralization both along strike and down dip beyond the existing resource limits. These drilling results at Tartan increase the zone of mineralization and provide the basis for a more focused drill program on the South Zone.
Some results in the South Zone evidenced grades averaging 3.03 g/t Au over 4.45 meters in hole TL17-11, and 3.88 g/t Au over 1 metre in hole TL17-08. Hole TL17-12 had no significant results (as labelled improperly as hole “TL11-12” in the Company’s news release of October 13, 2017).
