On December 11, 2019, Emergent announced it had signed a Claim Purchase and Option Agreement giving the Company the option to acquire up to a 50% interest in the East-West Property (“East-West” or the “Property”) from a private individual.  The remaining 50% interest in the Property was owned by Knick Exploration Inc. (“Knick”) (TSXV: KNX). On November 1, 2021, the Company announced it had completed the acquisition of a 50% interest in the Property.

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On September 27, 2022, Emergent announced it had acquired the remaining 50% interest in East-West from Knick.  The Transaction was completed as part of a Commercial Proposal made under the Canadian Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act by Knick with its creditors.  The Proposal was agreed to by a vote of creditors and subsequently approved by the Superior Court of Quebec, Abitibi District.

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On  May 3, 2022, Emergent announced it had completed the sale of East-West to O3 Mining Inc. (“O3 Mining”) (TSXV: OIII).  As consideration for the acquisition of Emergent’s interest in East-West, O3 Mining paid to Emergent:

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1. cash consideration of C$750,414.25 at closing;

2. issued to Emergent an aggregate of 325,000 common shares in the capital of O3 (the “Share Consideration“) at closing; and

3. granted to Emergent a 1% net smelter returns (“NSR“) royalty over the East-West Property in favor of Emergent (the “Royalty“), which shall be subject to a buy-back right in favor of O3 (the “Buy-Back Right“), whereby O3 may elect to buy back the Royalty for: (i) C$500,000 if the Buy-Back Right is exercised within the first three years from the date of the Definitive Agreement (as defined herein); (ii) C$1,000,000 if the Buy-Back Right is exercised within the fourth and fifth years from the date of the Definitive Agreement.

 

For greater certainty, subsequent to the fifth-anniversary date of the Definitive Agreement for the Transaction, the Royalty will no longer subject to the Buy-Back Right.

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East-West, also known as the Little Long Lac Property, is located in Dubuisson Township, Quebec, near the town of Val-d’Or.  The claim block totals 184 ha.  It is located in the Val d’Or Mining Camp and is on strike, west of, and adjacent to Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. (TSX: WDO) Kiena Complex which hosts the producing Kiena Mine.  It is also on strike, east of, and adjacent to O3 Mining’s Marban Alliance Property which contains three past-producing Mines (Marban, Norlartic, and Kierrans). The Property appears to be situated on the Marbenite fault and deformation corridor and has similar mineralized structures that trend through the adjacent Kiena and Marban Mines. The location of East-West in the vicinity of other exploration properties, past producing mines, or operating mines does not guarantee exploration success or that mineral resources will be defined on the Property.  There are currently no mineral resources or reserves yet defined on the Property that meet NI 43-101 or CIM Standards for Disclosure.  

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East-West is located in Archean-age rock formations that are part of the Abitibi greenstone belt, which lies within the Superior Province of the Canadian Shield. The Property is underlain from north to south by the Jacola and Val-d’Or formations and the Kewagama Group.  Contacts between the lithological units are generally faulted and oriented NW-SE, with sub-vertical dips toward the south.

 

The Jacola Formation covers approximately the NE part of lots 21 to 23, range 10. It consists of ultramafic flows (komatiites) and basalts. Ultramafic flows are Al2O3-poor, with an average of 5 to 7%, and magnesium-rich (+20% MgO). Basalts have a tholeiitic affinity. These structurally controlled rock formations strike NW-SE.

 

The Val-d’Or Formation is made up of mafic to intermediate volcanics. These usually form massive flows but can be locally pillowed or brecciated.  They are similar to those of the Jacola Formation.  These basalts and andesites are often sheared.  They are stratified with units of mafic to intermediate tuffs and cut by many intrusives.  The upper contact tested by drilling corresponds to an epiclastic sequence composed of lapillis and bedded tuffs of dacitic composition, interlayered with mafic units. The sequence has been tested by drilling over approximately 150 m.

 

The Kewagama Sedimentary Group underlies the southern part of the Property. These sediments consist of an interlayering of siltstone and argillaceous schist and are often aphanitic.

 

The Marbenite fault and deformation corridor occurs on the Property and generally strikes northwest to southeast.  It roughly parallels the stratigraphy as it is located close to the contact between the Jacola and Val-d’Or formations.  Mineralization to date has, for the most part, been found in the vicinity of this fault.  Two main zones of mineralization have been identified by drilling to date – the West Zone and the East Zone.  Three other zones have also been identified but are at an earlier stage of exploration.  The Marbenite Fault is inferred to cross the West Zone and is closely associated with the East Zone.  The Marbenite Fault is also associated with the adjacent Marban and Kiena Mines, located to the NW and SE of the Property, respectively.

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The typical drill section of the northern part of the Property crosses a succession of high-strain zones situated on contacts between massive mafic to intermediate units with komatiite flows of the Jacola Formation over a thickness of about 400 m. A higher deformation level exists that is associated with strong chlorite, chlorite-talc, chlorite-talc tremolite, and talc carbonate alteration zones. Lamprophyre dyke swarms are commonly embedded in these structures and can also be used to identify faults and shear zones as parts of the Marbenite deformation system.  The Jacola Formation has a prominent magnetic signature on the airborne total field map, mainly related to predominant komatiitic flows.

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Mineralization is often associated with networks of quartz-tourmaline-ankerite veins in competent basalts/andesites associated with less competent sheared and altered ultramafic flows.  Mineralization is in the form of free gold, with specks of gold observed in the drill core. Sulphides content is generally low, with pyrite content usually varying from 0 to 5%.  Chalcopyrite is rarely observed.  No studies have been done to verify whether gold is associated with the sulphides.

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Historic work on the Property, before 2007, includes more than 40,000 m in drilling in 181 drill holes.  Knick acquired the Property in 2007 and subsequently conducted three drilling programs totaling 17,728 m of drilling in 100 drill holes in 2009, 2011, and 2016-17.  Knick also conducted geological mapping, grab and channel sampling, and trenching. On the southern part of the Property, on lot 12 range A Dubuisson, Knick conducted 22.6 km of line cutting, 19 km of magnetic and VLF surveys, and 10.8 km of induced polarization (IP) surveys.  In June 2009, the magnetic and VLF-EM surveys were done.  The magnetic survey provides information on the magnetic image of the underlying rock formations and contacts between the different geologic units.  The VLF-EM survey provides information on several W, NW-E, and SE conduction and resistive zones potentially associated with structural features.  The IP survey was conducted between May and June 2009 and defines a wide resistive corridor oriented along an east-west direction and hosting several attractive IP anomalies.  In May 2010, a hole-to-hole 3D IP survey was conducted identifying eight separate anomalies for follow-up.  Knick completed a 2017 Technical Report entitled NI-43-101 Report Pertaining to the East-West Property, Val d'Or Area, Northwester Quebec, Abitibi Region, NTS 32C04, by Donald Thebergy, P.Eng., M.B.A., dated November 21, 2017 (see link below).  Emergent geologists have not verified the technical data in this report.

 

The West Zone mineralization is associated with a network of quartz-ankerite-tourmaline veins, locally with sulphides (pyrite and pyrrhotite), in an intermediate to mafic lava, itself included in ultramafic flows. The mineralized envelope of the West Zone strikes 110 degrees. It is parallel to, and probably associated with a component of the Marbenite Fault system. This zone is included in a 200 m x 200 m area bounded by UTM coordinates 279 100E, 279 300E, 5 335 000N and 5 335 200N. This Zone has been explored to a depth of 200 m.  Knick drilled 32 holes on the West Zone area, 20 of which have returned gold grades of over 1 g/t Au. The usual gold values intersected on the West Zone are in the order of 2 to 3 g/t Au over true widths of less than 1 m.  Historical drilling and the drilling done by Knick seem to have defined this zone well, at least to a vertical depth of 200 m.

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The East zone is less well defined, being less drilled.  It is made up of quart-carbonate veins, sometimes brecciated, containing an average of 1-5% sulphides, mainly pyrite and pyrrhotite, and more rarely chalcopyrite.  It has been traced over a distance of 400 m in an east-west direction, from UTM coordinates 279 900E to 280 300E at 5 334 950N.  Knick drilled 19 holes in the East zone in 2009, another four in 2011, and seven more in 2016-17.  Sixteen of these returned values of over 1 g/t Au.

 

Stripping by Knick has revealed at least three new gold zones:   Raven, Gilbert, and Grand Canyon.  All the stripped areas are located in the eastern part of the Property, close to the East Zone. 

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Emergent did not complete any exploration work on the Property.  The Company focused on consolidating the Property and subsequently selling it to O3 Mining.  The Company believed this was the best way to advance and monetize the asset, given its small size (184 ha).  

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O3 Mining is developing the adjacent Marban Alliance Property, and there is potential to extend the mineralized resources from the Marban Alliance Property to the southwest onto East-West, subject to exploration success.  The Marban Alliance Property is an advanced-stage property and O3  Mining completed the Marban Engineering Project NI 43-101 Technical Report and Prefeasibility Study, Val d'Or Quebec, Effective Date August 24, 2022 (see link below).  The Marban Engineering Project has a probable mineral reserve of 56.4 million tons at an average grade of 0.81 g/t Au containing 1,657 million ounces of gold (see link below for details).

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On December 12, 2024, Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (NYSE:AEM) ("Agnico Eagle") and O3 Mining announced a friendly transaction whereby Agnico Eagle agreed to acquire all the outstanding common shares of O3 Mining by way of a take-over bid.  This transaction will consolidate Agnico Eagle's Canadian Malartic Complex with O3 Mining's Marban Alliance Property (which includes the East-West Property). The integration of the Marban Alliance Property with the Canadian Malarctic land package will create significant and unique synergies by leveraging Agnico Eagle's regional operational expertise and existing infrastructure, including the Canadian Malartic mill and existing open pit workforce and equipment( see Agnico Eagle's press release date December 12, 2024, for details).

 

Agnico Eagle also owns a small property to the north of East-West and Agnico Eagle's acquisition and property consolidation in the area will allow exploration and potential expansion of the Marban open pit and underground resource to the southwest to occur more easily.  Emergent's management believes there is potential for the resource to be expanded to the southwest onto East-West, subject to exploration success.  Currently, no mineral resources or reserves have yet been defined on the Property.