The Chemin Troïlus project comprises 59 claims with a surface area of 32.1 km2 and is located in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay territory, Québec. Under the terms of an agreement with Les Ressources Tectoninc Inc. (“Tectonic”). Sphinx acquired 35 contiguous claims by making a payment of $35,000, issuing 1,000,000 common shares granting a 2% net smelter return royalty (“NSR”). Sphinx has the right to purchase 1.5% of the NSR for $2,000,000.
The project is located 110 km north-northeast of the town of Chibougamau with good road access (see figure below). The project is situated at the southwest extremity of a northeast trending gold-copper bearing corridor at the northern limit of the Frotet-Troïlus greenstone belt. This corridor contains the Troïlus Mine (25 km northeast of the project) which was operated by Inmet Mining Corporation (“Inmet”) from 1997 to 2010 and produced in excess of 2 million ounces of gold and 70,000 tonnes of copper. In addition, estimated indicated mineral resources of 44 million tonnes containing 1.8 million ounces of gold grading 1.27 g/t and 53,000 tonnes of copper grading 0.12 %, have been reported by Sulliden Mining Capital Inc. Between the Troïlus mine and the project area, Muscocho Explorations Ltd. (“Muscocho”) reported in 1987 mineralization in trenches and drillholes. Highlights include one drillhole that returned 2.26 g/t Au over 5.40 metres.
A helicopter-borne magnetic and radiometric survey performed by Soquem Inc. and Inmet in 2000 (Sigeom GM 59797) aimed to discover deposits similar to the Troïlus Mine. A first mineralized boulder was discovered along the southwest extension of gold-bearing corridor between the Troïlus Mine and the Muscocho showing. Prospecting work by Tectonic identified 13 additional mineralized boulders within an area 220 m by 45 m trending to the northeast within the corridor. The analysis of the boulders, anomalous in gold, revealed values up to 1.57 g/t Au. The boulders are angular, mineralized uniformly and majority of the boulders are greater than one metre in diameter. They contain 1 to 5% disseminated pyrite, 2 to 5% sericite and traces of magnetite. There is also 1 to 2% garnet indicating the high grade metamorphic nature of the rock.
The work carried out in 2016 revealed the presence of an abnormal number of gold particles, morphologically intact, in till samples taken at the head of a gold-bearing boulders dispersal train. The results obtained suggest a proximal common source in an area of 1.2 by 1.0 km up-ice of the head of the boulders dispersal train. In 2017, a drilling program was designed to attempt to discover a bedrock source of a mineralized boulders dispersal train in an area of the project characterized by weak to moderate induced polarization responses and coincident and strong magnetic anomalies. Highlight from the drill results is 2.5 g/t Au over 0.9 m in drill hole CT-17-06.
The project area where the boulder dispersal train is located, has no outcrop and is covered with a uniform till blanket ranging from 6 to 10 m in thickness. No previous work had been performed in this specific area. The rocks intersected were Archean metasedimentary rocks, metavolcanic rocks, granitoid rocks and breccias. The gold value returned from drill hole CT-17-06 was in a breccia. The mineralized boulders, however, were not explained by this initial drill program and their bedrock source remains an exploration priority. In combination with the drilling, the till results described below further support the prospectivity of the area. Additional work will be required to identify the source of the boulders.
Till survey
The two main objectives of the till sampling program were to identify other proximal source areas of the gold anomalies detected in the cover in 2016 and to discover other gold-bearing zones on the project. A total of 53 till samples were taken to provide coverage of the entire project area. Till samples weighing about 20 kg were collected at an average depth of about 1.2 meters. A total of 33 till samples contain one or more gold particles with sample 79012 containing more than 1,000 particles. The latter sample is part of a 3-km long southwest-northeast trend, parallel to the glacial flow direction defined by till samples with more than 40 gold particles. Within this trend, a grab sample returned a grade of 5.6 g/t Au. Three adjacent till samples along the same sampling line perpendicular to the glacial flow direction and containing between 40 and 100 gold particles, constitute a new exploration target on the project.
Sphinx is currently seeking of a partner to continue to advance the project.