There has been little exploration for gold within the area surrounding the Shellbird Gold Project, despite the successful discovery of gold mineralization along strike at the Thor and Rattling Brook deposits on the Great Northern Gold Project. Much of the previous exploration on the Project has focused on uranium exploration in the adjacent Carboniferous Deer Lake Basin and, more recently, exploration for magmatic Ni-Cu sulphides by Churchill Resources Inc. within the Long Range Inlier.

Prospecting and Rock Sampling

A limited amount of prospecting and rock sampling has been completed on the Project with a total of 93 rock float and outcrop grab samples* collected during 1996, 1997, 2007, and 2009. Rock sampling* by prospectors in 1997 discovered gold mineralization assaying up to 2.33 g/t and 0.61 g/t gold in the central part of the property (Figure 2). All other samples assayed less than 100 ppb gold (Tipton, 1997; Geofile 012H/1384)**. There are several pathfinder elements within the sample dataset of significance for gold exploration, with copper assays ranging from <1 ppm to 2,320 ppm copper, with 5 of the samples assaying over 500 ppm copper; and silver assays ranging from <0.1 g/t up to 8.6 g/t silver, with 5 of the samples assaying over 2.5 g/t silver. Rock samples on the property were typically of granite float with variable amounts of quartz veining and disseminated pyrite mineralization.

The results of limited prospecting to date support the potential of the area to host orogenic gold mineralization, and follow-up prospecting and exploration are warranted.

Lake Sediment Sampling

The Shellbird Gold Project was initially acquired based on the results of regional lake sediment sampling by the government, where lakes within the property have regionally anomalous gold values up to 9 ppb gold (Figure 2). Of the 39 lake sediment samples within the property area, gold values range from <1 ppb to 9 ppb gold with 6 of the 39 samples assaying over 4 ppb gold (Davenport et al., 1996).

Stream Sediment Sampling

Stream sediment sampling (106 samples) by Churchill Resources Inc. in 2022 resulted in the identification of 5 locations with 1 gold grain in each sample (2 pristine, 2 reshaped and 1 modified; Figure 2; report 012H/11/2446). Although the sampling method was designed to focus on the identification of Ni-Cu related sulphide mineralization, the identification of these gold grains, particularly pristine grains, in the southwest corner of the property is encouraging for the area to host orogenic gold mineralization.

Figure 2: A map showing the regional geology underlying the Shellbird Project, gold-bearing historical rock grab samples, lake sediment samples, and stream sediment samples.