| Ownership: | Forum entered into an agreement granting Rio Tinto Canada a four year option to acquire a 51% interest in the Janice Lake Project by spending $10 million in exploration, making $490,000 in cash payments, and servicing the remaining $200,000 in underlying cash payments to Transition Metals Corp. Rio can earn a further 29% interest (total 80%) by spending a further $20 million in exploration over three years (total $30 million) and making further cash payments of $150,000 to Forum (total $640,000). |
| Stage: |
Highly prospective with over 20 copper occurrences. Drill results by Noranda in 1993 include 0.77% Cu over 33.0 m including 1.6% Cu over 6 m, within 35 m of surface. In 2003, Phelps Dodge completed 6 diamond drill holes applying geophysical methods to target mineralization under glacial cover which resulted in the discovery of a new zone that returned values including 0.72% Cu over 26.0 m including 1.33% Cu over 5.83 m (JL-03-38). Grab samples collected by Transition Metals have returned values ranging from 0.34 to 9.35% copper and 0.7 to 61.7 g/t silver, confirming previous reports of high-grade mineralization at surface and highlighting the potential for the discovery of multiple near-surface, sediment-hosted copper deposits. A first pass drill 4 hole drill program completed by Forum in August 2018 encountered copper mineralization in all four holes within 80m of surface. Hole FEM-01 intersected 18.5 m (59.0 to 77.5m downhole depth) grading 0.94% Cu and 6.7 g/t Ag including 5.2 metres grading 2.22% Cu and 16.5 g/t Ag. The true thickness of the mineralization is 18.0m. Rio Tinto Canada entered into an agreement with Forum to acquire 80% of the project by spending up to $30 million over the next 6 years. Rio TInto completed a 4,318 line kilometre high resolution airborne magnetic survey over the entire length of the project, followed by a 21 hole (5,209 metres) drill program in the summer of 2019. They completed a winter access road to site in April of 2020 and cleared the site for a 50-man camp. In the summer of 2020 they completed the camp and a program of mapping, prospecting, geophysics and rotary air blast drilling. Samples have been submitted for assay and are waiting for results. A 9 hole, 2,330 metre drill program was completed in March of 2021, cut short of the original plans due to a warm start to winter that delayed access to the camp. The nine holes were completed on Rafuse target located northeast along strike of the Janice and Jansem showings, with visible copper mineralization being noted in most of the holes. The core has been split and sent to the geochemical lab for assay. Results should start coming back by early May. Two drills were left on site in anticipation of a summer drill program. |
| Size: | 38,250 Ha, encompassing the entire 52 km Wollaston Copperbelt District. |
| Location & Infrastructure |
Located in north-central Saskatchewan within the Wollaston Domain, a northeasterly-trending belt of metamorphosed lower Proterozoic supracrustal rocks deposited upon Archean granitoid basement. A major power transmission corridor runs to the northeast of Janice Lake. |
| Regional Significance |
The Janice Lake area contains significant concentrations of sediment-hosted copper showings. Logging of the drill core and petrographic studies suggest that mineralization is hosted by mafic-rich stratigraphy within more felsic units, opening the possibility for multiple layers of copper mineralization. Located 55 km southeast of the Key Lake uranium processing facility in close proximity to several of Forum’s core uranium exploration properties enables this project to be effectively integrated into Forum’s operations. |
| Significant Comparable Deposits | The age and depositional environment at Janice are similar to the giant Udokan Deposits of the Lake Baikal region in Siberia, and the Revette deposits of Montana USA. Baikal Mining Company LTD reports JORC compliant Measured and Indicated resources of 1.822 billion tonnes grading 1.01% copper, 14.3 grams per tonne silver for the Udokan deposits. (Baikal Mining Company Ltd. press release presenting published estimate prepared by SRK Consulting, dated April 9, 2014). Hecla Mining reports 43-101 compliant Inferred resources of 112 million tonnes grading 0.7% copper, 1.6 oz/t silver for its Montanore deposit and 97.6 million tonnes grading 0.7% copper and 1.5 oz/t silver for its Rock Creek deposit in Montana. (Hecla Mining Company: published reserves and resources statement, December 31, 2016). |
Outlook:
Two phases of drilling has been completed by Rio Tinto Exploration Canada; 21 drill holes in the first phase have been reported as of December 3, 2019. The program has successfully confirmed and extended copper mineralization at the Jansem and Janice targets. Further geophysics, prospecting, sampling and mapping and a Rotary Air Blast drill program were completed in the summer of 2020. A 50 - 80 man camp has been completed and 2 drills were mobilized to site. These completed 9 holes for 2,330 metres in March of 2021, the program starting late and cut short by a warm winter. Core samples are at the lab undergoing geochemical analysis.
A table summarizing all drill results completed by Forum and Rio Tinto in the 2018-19 can be found on the home page.
Rick Mazur, Forum’s President & CEO commented, “Drilling by Rio Tinto intersected thick zones of flat lying, stratabound chalcocite and native copper mineralization with good continuity and near-surface grades. Deeper drilling has demonstrated that multiple horizons of copper mineralization are present. We are gaining confidence that Janice Lake is a strongly mineralized system, as new data generated by this program helps us to understand the full potential of this 52km long sedimentary copper basin.”
Janice Lake claims map, showing drill targets for 2021. Most of project remains untouched by drilling.
Longitudinal Section of drilling in the Janice Zone
Copper Showing outcrop
Airborne Mag drapped over topography
Burbridge Lake Camp
