First Class Metals

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Zigzag (Li, Ta, Rb) Lithium & Critical Metal Exploration Project

Kerrs Gold Project | Ontario (Au) Gold Exploration Asset

Esa Project | (Au) Gold Exploration in Ontario Canada

Sunbeam (Au) Gold Exploration & Mining Project

North Hemlo (Au, Ni, Mo, Cu) Gold & Metal Exploration & Mining

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UK Listed Junior Mining Company | Gold & Metal Exploration

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Poppins

Thirty or forty years ago, someone blasted out a good chunk of a 400-foot trend there. Then they took away a sample grading 4g/t gold, 3% copper, and some attractive quantities of molybdenum.

During the last summer, even before we listed, our teams were up beavering away on Dead Otter Lake, sampling two particular trends that converge to the south-east.

We already knew the ground was prospective. 

For one thing, there was that historic blasting. 

For another, just 20 kilometres south of Dead Otter Lake lies the 23Moz Barrick-Hemlo gold mine, a prolific producer that’s still going.

Now, though, we’ve got far more tangible evidence.

One of our grab samples showed a grade of 19.6 g/t gold, the highest grading rock chip sample believed to have been taken from the northern limb of the Hemlo gold area. 

More than that, though, we’ve got showings across 4.5 kilometres of trend on two structures; enough now to allow us to proceed rapidly towards a drilling programme.

If it’s so good, though, you might ask, how come no-one’s found it before?

After all, geologists have been crawling all over Hemlo for decades.

The answer to that question comes in two parts.

First, it needed a company like First Class Metals, with its dedicated focus on its portfolio of Hemlo-Schreiber properties, to pull the ground together. It may be that from a geological perspective Dead Otter Lake consists of two trends that converge at a single point, but from a staking point of view this patch of ground hasn’t always been unified. Now that it is, it’s been much easier to take a broader geological view, and assess the wider potential.

The second answer is that Dead Otter Lake is situated in a heavily forested and glacial region, and there’s very little outcrop. There is some, and if you’re able to join the dots across a broader stretch of ground, it can provide meaningful data. But in the past, other geologists have tended to focus on the more obvious opportunities, like Barrick-Hemlo to the south.

But here we are now, with a record-breaking sample, and momentum building us up towards a drilling campaign. 

This month we’ve been continuing our sediment and rock sampling campaign on North Hemlo, but the focus will shortly turn towards securing a drilling permit. Much of the preliminary work involved in this process is now complete, as we have had extensive dialogue with the local First Nations. So, when the permit does arrive, we ought to be ready to go. The plan is to put a couple of thousand metres at least into the project, and see where that takes us.

What’s more, we already have money in the bank to pay for this work, as well as for a planned programme at Sunbeam, and possibly a bit of work at Esa too. Exactly how the budgets fall out is something we’ve yet to decide on, but it’s been a useful bonus for us that since listing the exercise of warrants and the executing of premium subscriptions has added £570,000 to the treasury. And over and above that, we also have access to a premium to the current share price loan note facility.

So, one way or another, all the news in the short-to-medium term is going to be about exploration. 

There’ll be further sampling results, news on permitting, and then news on drilling. 

Meanwhile, in the background we’ll also continue to work on our wider portfolio, in a manner similar to the work we’ve recently completed at Enable, where we were able to identify a new gold showing earlier this month. 

It’s always nice when the prospectivity of projects that aren’t usually centre stage gets highlighted, and the rock grab samples showing up to 7 g/t gold at Enable certainly served as a timely reminder that we have upside all across our huge portfolio.

And remember, Hemlo as a district has been at least as prolific and productive as the Pilbara in Australia. The Canadians know this well enough, but awareness in the UK has to date seemed somewhat lacking. 

If we make a big discovery, First Class Metals might well be at the forefront of changing that. But it could be the investors who got in early who potentially reap the real benefit.

Double digit assays make for exciting times at North Hemlo…