Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 30, 2025) - Kenorland Minerals Ltd. (TSXV: KLD) (OTCQX: KLDCF) (FSE: 3WQ0) ("Kenorland" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the commencement of the 2025 winter exploration program at the Frotet Project (the "Project"), located in northern Quebec. The Project is 100% owned by Sumitomo Metal Mining Canada Ltd. ("Sumitomo"), with Kenorland continuing as operator and holding a 4% net smelter return ("NSR") royalty.
Q1 2025 Winter Exploration Program
The Winter 2025 program includes up to 23,000m of diamond drilling at the Regnault gold system. This program follows the recently completed Summer 2024 exploration program comprised of six drill holes for 3,266m of drilling, which included 3.30m at 26.67 g/t Au including 0.60m at 137.30 g/t Au at R6 (see press release dated November 6, 2024). The proposed drill plan includes infill targets to reduce drill hole spacing to a maximum of 100m, and step-out targets along known mineralised structures.
Figure 1. Plan map of Regnault drilling highlights and planned hole locations
The Winter 2025 drill program has been planned to increase confidence of the vein system geometry and grade continuity within the central portion of the Regnault gold system. Approximately 80% of the planned drilling (26 drill holes) will be targeting infill and step-outs along the R1, R5, R6, and R7 mineralised structures, optimised to step-out along known mineralisation at depth along the R2, R8 and R9 vein sets. The planned drill holes will continue to infill along the R1 vein system to 50m spacing or less, while targeting the R5, R6, R7, R8 and R9 mineralised structures with 50-100m infill and step-out spaced drill holes. Within the southern portion of the system, two deep drill holes for approximately 10% of the planned program will step-out along the R2, R9, R10 and R11 mineralised structures down to a depth of 1,000m below surface, following up on significant mineralisation returned from drill hole 23RDD172 with 41.85m at 2.56 g/t Au including 4.45m at 11.96 g/t Au along R11. The remaining 10% of drilling (six drill holes) will target additional infill and step-out targets along the R2 (west), R3 and R4 vein sets.
*Technical Report and Mineral Resource Estimate on the Troilus Gold-Copper Project, Mineral Resources Effective Date: 02 October 2023 ** Mineral Resource Estimate on Moblan Lithium Project, Mineral Resources Effective Date: 21 March 2023 ***The Frotet Royalty is subject to the following buy down rights in favour of Sumitomo: A 0.25% royalty interest may be purchased for a C$3,000,000 cash payment to Kenorland within five (5) years of the grant of the Frotet Royalty A 0.50% royalty interest may be purchased for a C$10,000,000 cash payment to Kenorland within ten (10) years of the grant of the Frotet Royalty In the event Sumitomo exercises the foregoing buy down rights, the Frotet Royalty would be reduced to an uncapped 3.25% net smelter return royalty on all minerals extracted from the Project
About the Frotet Project
The Project covers 39,365 hectares of the Frotet-Evans greenstone belt within the Opatica geological sub-province of Quebec. The property is adjacent to the past-producing Troilus Gold Corporation's Au-Cu mine (9.32Moz Au indicated resource) and covers several major deformation zones associated with known orogenic gold prospects, as well as stratigraphy hosting VMS deposits elsewhere in the belt. Kenorland initially staked the Project in 2017 and then entered into a joint venture and earn-in agreement with Sumitomo in 2018.
The Project hosts the Regnault gold system, a greenfields discovery made by Kenorland and Sumitomo in 2020 following two years of systematic exploration. Since the initial discovery, Regnault has seen extensive exploration, totaling 103,987 meters of drilling (226 drill holes).
On February 19, 2024, Kenorland closed a transaction to exchange its 20% participating interest in the Frotet Joint Venture with Sumitomo to a 4% NSR Royalty. Kenorland remains the operator for a minimum of one year from the transaction closure date (see press release dated February 20, 2024).
The Project is located 100 kilometers to the north of Chibougamau, Quebec. Favorable infrastructure exists in the Project area with an extensive forestry road network as well as the Route-du-Nord crossing the southwestern portion of the property. A power transmission line also crosses through the property which supplied power to the past producing Troilus mine.
QA/QC and Core Sampling Protocols
All drill core samples were collected under the supervision of Kenorland employees. Drill core was transported from the drill platform to the logging facility where it was logged, photographed, and split by diamond saw prior to being sampled. Samples were then bagged, and blanks and certified reference materials were inserted at regular intervals. Groups of samples were placed in large bags, sealed with numbered tags in order to maintain a chain-of-custody, and transported from Chibougamau to Bureau Veritas Commodities ("BV") laboratory in Timmins, Ontario.
Sample preparation and analytical work for this drill program were carried out by BV. Samples were prepared for analysis according to BV method PRP70-250: individual samples were crushed to 2mm (10 mesh) and a 250g split was pulverized to 75μm (200 mesh) for analysis and then assayed for gold. Gold in samples were analyzed using BV method FA430 where a 30g split is analyzed with fire assay by Pb collection and AAS finish. Over-limits gold samples were re-analyzed using BV method FA530 where a 30g split is analyzed with fire assay by Pb collection and gravimetric finish. Multi-element geochemical analysis (45 elements) was performed on all samples using BV method MA200 where a 0.25g split is by multi-acid digest with ICP-MS/ES finish. All results passed the QA/QC screening at the lab, all company inserted standards and blanks returned results that were within acceptable limits.
Qualified Person
Cédric Mayer, M.Sc., P.Geo. (OGQ #02385), "Qualified Person" under National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information in this press release.
About Kenorland Minerals
Kenorland Minerals Ltd. (TSXV: KLD) is a well-financed mineral exploration company focused on project generation and early-stage exploration in North America. Kenorland's exploration strategy is to advance greenfields projects through systematic, property-wide, phased exploration surveys financed primarily through exploration partnerships including option to joint venture agreements. Kenorland holds a 4% net smelter return royalty on the Frotet Project in Quebec which is owned by Sumitomo Metal Mining Canada Ltd. The Frotet Project hosts the Regnault gold system, a greenfields discovery made by Kenorland and Sumitomo Metal Mining Canada Ltd. in 2020. Kenorland is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (together, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, are forward-looking statements. Generally, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of terminology such as "plans", "expects", "estimates", "intends", "anticipates", "believes" or variations of such words, or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in the Company's filings with Canadian securities regulators, that could cause actual results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing these forward-looking statements are reasonable based upon the information currently available to management as of the date hereof, actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. Readers are therefore cautioned not to place undue reliance on these statements, which only apply as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed times frames or at all. Except where required by applicable law, the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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