The Hopedale property comprises 998 claims in five licenses covering 249 square kilometres of the Florence Lake greenstone belt. Claims are just 30 km from the coastal community of Hopedale which has daily air service from Happy Valley-Goose Bay. The eastern portion of the Florence Lake greenstone belt lies along tidewater southwest of Hopedale.
Labrador Gold holds an option to earn 100% interest in the property, subject to cash payments, share issuance and a 2% net smelter return royalty.
The Hopedale property covers much of the Florence Lake greenstone (FLGB) belt that stretches over 60 km. The belt is typical of greenstone belts around the world but has been underexplored for gold by comparison.
The FLGB occurs in the Hopedale Block of the Nain Province in eastern Labrador. It trends northeast-southwest over a distance of approximately 65 km and lies adjacent to Ugjoktok Bay in the north. Rocks making up the belt consist mainly of mafic metavolcanics and ultramafic metavolcanics rocks with lesser felsic metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks. The ultramafic rocks are typically altered to serpentine and/or talc-carbonate schist. Undeformed Proterozoic diabase and gabbro dykes cut all other lithologies in the area.
The rocks comprising the greenstone belt have been metamorphosed to greenschist to lower amphibolite facies, with a general increase in metamorphic grade towards the northeast. Foliation generally trends NE to ENE and dips steeply towards the NW and SE. Deformation is lithologically dependent with more competent units such as intrusive rocks, felsic volcanics and pyroxenite units less deformed than the less ultramafic volcanic rocks which are often intensely schistose.
Prior to Labrador Gold’s systematic sampling of the FLGB, exploration between 1993 and 2004 had identified gold in the vicinity of the Thurber Dog gold occurrence where initial sampling reported values up to 7.5 g/t Au by Cornerstone Resources in 2003. The gold at Thurber Dog is hosted by a carbonate-sericite altered felsic porphyry. Subsequent sampling of the occurrence by Labrador Gold has confirmed the earlier results with assays up to 11.4g/t Au in a grab sample and 1.27g/t Au over 1m in a channel sample across a quartz vein.
In addition to the Thurber Dog occurrence, gold occurs along the mafic/ultramafic and felsic metavolcanic contact over a strike length of at least three kilometres. Discrete concentrations of gold mineralization also occur at Thurber North (up to 3.8g/t Au), Thurber South (up to 8.5g/t Au) and a new showing discovered during 2019 three samples from which assayed between 1.7 and 8.3g/t Au.
Gold mineralization along the Thurber Dog trend is associated primarily with altered porphyritic felsic volcanic rocks and quartz veins around the Thurber Dog occurrence, the new showing and in the Thurber North area. At Thurber South the mineralization is associated with intensely carbonate altered ultramafic and mafic volcanic rocks and associated quartz veins. The mineralized rocks typically contain disseminated pyrite and, more rarely, arsenopyrite.
Elsewhere along the greenstone belt, significant occurrences of gold occur at Shirley with gold values up to 1.09g/t and 2.52 g/t Au. The gold mineralization is associated with altered mafic volcanic rocks and phyllite that contain varying amounts of arsenopyrite from disseminated grains to veins of massive arsenopyrite. The highest-grade rocks in the area are from quartz veins with iron carbonate alteration.
Labrador Gold undertook the first systematic exploration for gold in the region with preliminary work completed in the fall of 2017. A total of 270 high-density lake sediment samples and 1,332 C-horizon soil samples were collected. Results indicated district scale gold (up to 0.93g/t)in soil samples over a 40 km strike length of the Florence Lake Greenstone Belt. Anomalies are most commonly associated with contacts between ultramafic metavolcanic rocks and surrounding rocks.
Follow up sampling in 2018 collected 10,594 soil samples taken over 12 grids. Results showed 34 samples over 0.1g/t Au with 5 over 1g/t Au.
Results highlighted three key areas of potential mineralization:
Gold in the soil samples highlighted geological contacts and structural features as zones of potential enrichment. Structural features such as fold noses, cross cutting structures and jogs in stratigraphy seen at Florence Lake are common sites of gold mineralization in greenstone belts worldwide.