Douay sits within the northern Abitibi Greenstone Belt, a world-class Archean gold district. Gold occurs in and around the Douay Intrusive Complex, a large alkalic syenite body emplaced into a sequence of basalts and volcaniclastic and sedimentary rocks, and traceable over a 6 km corridor. The whole system is cut by structures associated with the Casa Berardi Deformation Zone.

Mineralization occurs as broad zones of disseminated and fracture-controlled gold within variably fenite-altered syenite, hydrothermal breccias, and the surrounding volcanic rocks. Alteration assemblages include K-feldspar, amphibole, magnetite, quartz-carbonate and chlorite, with 5 to 15% disseminated pyrite locally associated with elevated gold grades.

While the resource (as a whole) averages just over 1 g/t Au, multiple areas carry significantly higher grades, both near surface and at depth. These higher-grade zones sit within shoots that plunge moderately to steeply to the southeast and shallowly to the southwest, and Maple Gold's current interpretation is that these shoots repeat at intervals along strike — a model the Company is now applying systematically across the property (Figure 6).

Figure 3: General Geology of the Abitibi Sub province in Quebec with the location of Douay/Joutel Gold Project, Casa Berardi Deformation Zone (CBDZ), and producing gold mines and camps.

Key zones

• Porphyry Zones (West, Central, East) — Structurally controlled, lower-grade, high-tonnage mineralization hosted by the Douay Intrusive Complex. Together these zones account for the majority of current contained ounces.
• Nika Zone — Syenite- and volcanic-hosted, with broad higher-grade intercepts at depth, including 2.05 g/t Au over 108.6 m in hole DO-25-338.
• 531 Zone — One kilometre east-southeast of the Porphyry Zones, hosted in mafic volcanic and folded sedimentary rocks. Hosts one of the highest-grade intersections reported at Douay to date.
• Z10 and Z20 Zones — Immediately south of the Porphyry Zones, hosted by basalt cut by syenite dikes.
• Douay West, North West and Central Zones — Emerging areas with higher-grade intersections and limited historical drilling.
• Taibi Target Area — Claims covering Taibi Group sedimentary rocks and banded iron formations north of the resource, along the projected northwest extension of the Douay Deformation Zone. An early-stage exploration front.

Figure 4: General Geology of Douay Gold Project showing outline of Douay Deformation Zone with potential strike-slip rotation generating pressure shadows around the Douay alkaline intrusive complex. Main mineralized zones are highlighted by geological setting.

Figure 5: Schematic Stratigraphic Column of Douay/Joutel Gold Project showing the distribution of Mineralized Zones (in red)