Douay Gold Project
Overview & Highlights
- Joint Venture Restructuring: In December 2024, the Company acquired full ownership and legal title to the Douay property following a joint venture restructuring with Agnico Eagle Mines.
- Premier Mining Jurisdiction: Located in Québec, Canada, one of the world’s most favorable mining jurisdictions.
- Established Gold Resource: Defined by SLR in March 2022.
- Encouraging Metallurgy: Past studies (2005 & 2017) show >89% gold recoveries from combined gravity-flotation-leach process.
- Minimal Royalties: Project is virtually royalty-free, with only a 1% NSR to IAMGOLD covering 11.9 km² and 2% NSR each to Agnico Eagle and Maple Gold.
- Excellent Infrastructure: Located in a well-developed mining region with access to essential infrastructure. Existing surface infrastructure on the property constructed by Aurizon in the late 90’s including a mine headframe and mine hoist.
- District-Scale Potential: A ~357 km² land package offering significant resource expansion and discovery opportunities.
Location & Jurisdiction
The Douay Gold Project is in Québec, Canada, approximately 2.5 hours north of Val-d’Or and 1.25 hours north of Amos via Highway 109 (Figure 1). Project facilities are easily accessible via a gravel road less than 10 minutes from the highway and include a fully operational 46-person camp (Figure 2).
Figure 1: Province of Québec with Location of Maple Gold’s Douay/Joutel Gold Project
Figure 2: Plan map showing location of Douay Gold Project
Québec’s Mining Advantages:
- Québec is one of the world's most attractive mining jurisdictions, consistently ranked in the Fraser Institute’s Annual Survey of Mining Companies.
- The province hosts some of Canada's largest gold mining operations, including the Canadian Malartic mine (~150 km south), which shares geological similarities with Douay.
- Québec offers competitive tax incentives for exploration and development, with rebates of up to $0.37 per $1 spent on exploration.
Infrastructure
The Douay Gold Project benefits from extensive infrastructure, including:
- Highway Access: Provincial Highway 109 runs through the project.
- Power Supply: Powerline 6 crosses the property.
- Camp Facilities: A fully equipped 46-person camp west of Highway 109.
- Operational Support: Core logging and storage facilities.
- Transport Links: Rail and air services available within 55 km (Matagami).
Project Geology & Mineralization
The Douay Gold Project covers an area of more than ~357km² along the Casa Berardi Deformation Zone (“CBDZ”) within the prolific Abitibi Greenstone Belt (“AGB”) (Figure 3).
Figure 3: General Geology of the Abitibi Subprovince in Quebec with the location of Douay Gold Project, Casa Berardi Deformation Zone (CBDZ), and producing gold mines and camps.
Douay belongs to the alkaline-intrusive-associated gold class of mineral deposits (“IRGS”), which includes Beatty (>5.6Moz Au), Holt-McDermott (>1.3Moz Au), and Canadian Malartic (>17Moz Au) in the AGB. The Douay area is also prospective for the more typical AGB orogenic style (structurally controlled gold-quartz veins and veinlets) of gold deposit as well as for volcanogenic massive sulphide (“VMS”) deposits.
The geology of the Douay project area consists of:
- Taibi Group
- a northern assemblage of mafic and felsic pyroclastic and sedimentary rocks (Taïbi Group);
- Cartwright Hills Group
- a central assemblage consisting of basalts, co-genetic gabbros with lesser felsic volcanic rocks intruded by the 6.5 x 2 km Douay alkaline intrusive complex (termed the “DIC”) (syenite to monzonite, alkali gabbro and carbonatite) with its associated gold mineralization; and
- a southern assemblage consisting mostly of basalts with siliceous-chemical sediments and chlorite-sulphide alteration zones that may be associated with VMS style of mineralization.
The volcanic stratigraphy at Douay strikes WNW to ESE whereas the major regional fault zones trend E-W or NW-SE. The Casa Berardi Fault Zone appears diverge in the Douay area with the CNDZ North and CBDZ South splays bounding the property (Figure 4).
The Douay Deformation Zone (the “DDZ”) is interpreted as a splay from the CBDZ and is host to all the known zones within the Douay mineral resources estimate (“MRE”).
Figure 4: General Geology of the Douay and Joutel Gold Projects. The Casa Berardi Fault Zone widens in the Douay area, with North and South strands merging to the east and the west. Note syenitic bodies several km to NE and NW of the Resource Area along the north strand of the Casa Berardi Fault Zone. The South strand of the Casa Berardi Fault Zone is also known as the Harricana Break. The Joutel Gold Project covers ~15 km of strike along this break.
Gold mineralization at Douay is hosted within 12 defined zones (Douay West, North West, Nika, Porphyry West/Central/East, Central, Main, 531, Zone 10, Zone 20 and Douay South) over a 6 km x 2 km resource area (Figure 5).
Figure 5: General Geology of Douay Gold Project showing outline of DDZ with potential strike-slip rotation generating pressure shadows around the DIC. Main mineralized zones are highlighted by geological setting.
Gold mineralization is hosted within the DIC and in the surrounding rocks with iron-carbonate-albite-pyrite alteration assemblages associated with higher gold values, generally above 5 g/t gold. Fractured syenite containing irregular fine pyrite veinlets in addition to disseminated pyrite, encompassing altered basalt fragments and magnetite-rich zones typically yields 0.1 to 1.5 g/t gold or more over intervals from tens of metres to over 150 metres.
Gold mineralization also appears to be associated with the following features:
- Proximity of a major fault to provide a plumbing system and structural permeability;
- Interlayering of different lithological units, especially mafic with felsic units with syenitic intrusions. These are thought to provide rheological contrasts to focus deformation, alteration and mineralization;
- The presence of chemically favourable mafic units providing iron for sulphidation of mafic minerals;
- The presence (for proximal style of mineralisation) or nearby (for more distal style) syenitic intrusions, as bodies, dyke swarms or narrow injections, interpreted to represent the source of metals and sulphur; and
- Sulphides averaging 2% but varying from trace to 5%.
Significant gold intersections in past drilling include: 74.11 g/t gold over 19.50m at the Porphyry East Zone (DDH DO-05-04), 37.46 g/t gold over 9.0m at Douay West (DDH DO-21-295), 8.80 g/t gold over 28.50m at the 531 Zone (DDH DO-21-310) and 15.81 g/t gold over 15.36m at the Main Zone (DDH 40688).
All gold zones are open along strike and at depth and the opportunity to expand the resource area through more drilling is considered excellent
Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE)
The Douay Gold Project hosts an established NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate, comprising:
- Indicated: 10.0 million tonnes grading 1.59 g/t Au for 511,000 contained ounces of gold
- Inferred: 76.7 million tonnes grading 1.02 g/t Au for 2.53 million contained ounces of gold
These estimates are based on a 0.45 g/t Au cut-off for open-pit resources and a 1.15 g/t Au cut-off for underground resources.
Further details on the key assumptions, parameters, and methodologies used in the resource estimate, along with potential legal, political, environmental, or other risks, can be found in the NI 43-101 Technical Report (SLR, 2022).
See Table 1and Chart 1for a detailed breakdown and Figure 6 and Figure 7 for MRE outlines.
Table 1: Douay Gold Project MRE
Chart 1: Douay Gold Project Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE); Mineral Resources by Class
Notes:
- The 2022 MRE is compliant with Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum ("CIM") Definition Standards (2014) incorporated by reference in National Instrument 43-101. The effective date for the Resource Estimate is March 17, 2022.
- Pit-constrained Mineral Resources are reported above a cut-off grade of 0.45 grams ("g") per tonne ("t") of gold ("Au") and underground Mineral Resources are reported with constraining shapes which were generated using a 1.15 g/t Au cut-off value and include low grade blocks falling within the mineable shapes.
- Pit-constrained Mineral Resources are reported within a preliminary pit shell using assumed mining costs of C$3.00/t mined (rock) and C$2.30/t mined (overburden), processing cost of C$9.10/t milled, G&A cost of C$2.70/t milled, and gold recovery of 90%.
- The Whittle pit shell used to estimate Mineral Resources used a long-term gold price of US$1,800 per ounce and a US$/C$ exchange rate of 0.80. However, the implied gold price for the Mineral Resources reported at the applied cut-off grade of 0.45 g/t would be significantly lower.
- Mineral Resources located outside the pit shell were reported on the basis of a potential underground mining operation at a gold cut-off grade of 1.15 g/t Au. This cut-off grade was based on mining costs of C$63/t and the same processing and G&A cost assumptions listed above.
- A minimum mining width of 3 metres ("m") was applied to the Mineral Resource wireframes.
Bulk density was interpolated for Nika, Porphyry, and 531 zones on a block per block basis using assayed values. For all other zones, bulk density ranging between 2.72 t/m3and 2.88 t/m3 was assigned to Mineral Resources based on the zone. - Numbers may not add due to rounding.
Figure 6: Douay and Joutel Gold Projects, Location of Douay Mineralized Zones (SLR, 2022)
Figure 7: Douay and Joutel Gold Projects, Douay Project Whittle Pit Shell with Classified Blocks by g/t Au
Recent Exploration Highlights
- Deep Drilling Confirms Gold System at Depth - The first phase of deep drilling at Douay (5,793 m across five holes) confirmed that gold mineralization extends well below currently defined MRE, with significant intercepts at depths of up to ~1,600 m.
- Significant Gold Intercepts
- 10 intervals grading >2.5 g/t Au.
- Broad low-grade mineralized zones (59–221 m thick) averaging 0.1–0.3 g/t Au.
- Visible gold observed at depth, with key intercepts including 3.6 g/t Au over 1 m and 1.2 g/t Au over 10 m.
- Dual Mineralization Styles Identified - Drilling suggests both porphyry-style gold mineralization and orogenic shear-hosted gold, increasing the potential for new discoveries across the property.
- Next Steps - Ongoing work includes refining structural and geochemical models, vectoring towards high-priority targets, and planning follow-up drilling campaigns to further define the depth and lateral extent of mineralization.
MRE Expansion Potential and Regional Targets
The Douay Gold Project resource remains open in multiple directions laterally, presenting significant expansion potential. Large drill gaps of several hundred metres exist throughout the 6 km by 2 km resource area, with many zones in and around the MRE remaining underexplored.
By applying modern exploration techniques and systematically testing priority targets, Maple Gold sees strong potential for expanded mineral resources and new gold discoveries across this district-scale property package.