18:53:47 EDT Wed 01 May 2024
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Firefox Gold Corp
Symbol FFOX
Shares Issued 137,974,644
Close 2023-06-14 C$ 0.07
Market Cap C$ 9,658,225
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Firefox completes drilling at Mustajarvi

2023-06-14 16:50 ET - News Release

Mr. Carl Lofberg reports

FIREFOX GOLD COMPLETES STEP-OUT DRILL PROGRAM AND REPORTS STRONG COBALT INTERCEPT AT MUSTAJARVI GOLD PROJECT, FINLAND

Firefox Gold Corp. has completed a drilling program at the newly discovered high-grade zone in the East target of the Mustajarvi project. The company drilled nine diamond core holes totalling 1,540.6 metres during the short spring 2023 program. These drill holes were designed to infill gaps in the modelled near-surface gold shapes and test for significant extensions to the west and southwest. The new holes included close offsets and downdip tests of the replacement-style gold mineralization drilled in the East target, but the drilling also included major stepouts of 80 m and 220 m along strike to the southwest. Assays of the drill core are in progress.

The company has also received multielement geochemical analyses on the drill core from the fall 2022 drilling campaign. The most recent data are consistent with previous results from Mustajarvi drilling. The gold mineralization is consistently enriched in bismuth (Bi), tellurium (Te), molybdenum (Mo), selenium (Se), nickel (Ni) and cobalt (Co). Silver (Ag), arsenic (As) and copper (Cu) occur at relatively low levels at Mustajarvi. Cobalt is quite enriched at the East target, reaching maximum values of 0.497 per cent and 0.461 per cent over separate one-metre samples in the 2022 drilling. Drill hole 22MJ021 recorded the strongest cobalt interval yet drilled, along with one of the best gold results as well (see the company news release dated Jan. 18, 2023):

  • 22MJ021: 15.5 metres at 13.09 grams per tonne Au, 0.15 per cent Co and 143 parts per million Te from 11.0-metre depth, including:
    • 6.5 m at 19.18 g/t Au, 0.27 per cent Co and 247 ppm Te from 20.0-metre depth.

Firefox's chief executive officer, Carl Lofberg, commented about the drilling at Mustajarvi: "This drill program is meant to reveal the potential scale of the gold system we have been drilling at Mustajarvi. The combination of careful structural measurements and detailed interpretation of geophysics directed the team to focus the stepout drilling along a northeast-southwest corridor. Our preliminary impressions are that the new drilling has been successful in extending the mineralized corridor to the southwest. The elevated cobalt that is associated with the gold is a recurring theme at Mustajarvi. While we know the cobalt occurs in pyrite, which is also correlated with the gold, there remains a lot of work to understand whether the cobalt could be economically recovered. We look forward to the receipt of the gold and multielement assays from this latest round of drilling."

Mustajarvi project and drill program details

The Mustajarvi project lies along the highway between the cities of Kittila and Sodankyla, approximately 17 kilometres east of Kittila. The property straddles the Mustajarvi shear zone (MSZ), a major right-lateral shear zone that has associated second- and third-order structures, which further dissect the project into separate structural zones. The Sodankyla group rocks, which are primarily to the north of the shear zone in the footwall, include metamorphosed sedimentary and volcaniclastic rocks. Geophysics and drilling have identified an extensive corridor of albite-sericite alteration in the footwall along more than two kilometres of the structure. The project remains at an early stage as Firefox and predecessor companies have drilled approximately 14,158 metres to date.

Firefox's structural model identified repetitive dilatant zones along the MSZ, where vein swarms and replacement-style and higher-grade gold are concentrated. Three main areas of gold mineralization have been identified along a 2.1-kilometre segment of the MSZ, namely the Central zone, the Northeast target and the East target. The Central zone and East target have clear expressions of significant grade and thickness of gold mineralization at surface, whereas the gold at the Northeast target is concentrated between 100 and 150 metres below surface. Folding and extensive faulting are in evidence, suggesting the potential for locating much more gold around and between these three widely spaced targets.

The spring 2023 drilling at Mustajarvi was focused on the East target with a primary goal to extend known, shallow high-grade mineralization. Firefox geologists have collected structural geology evidence, indicating that a primary control on the East target mineralization trends to the southwest. The detailed ground magnetics also revealed a subtle corridor of less magnetic rocks trending to the southwest beneath the highway. There is also a chargeability anomaly in the area, immediately southwest of the latest drilling, that may mark the presence of sulphide minerals. The high chargeability zone strikes northeast and dips to the southeast, subparallel with the inferred lithological contact and slightly oblique to the MSZ. The nature of the elevated chargeability was untested until this drill program. The drilling was targeted based on a combination of Firefox's 3-D geological model, structural geology and geophysics. Due to the near-surface nature of the high-grade target in this area, most of the drill holes in this program were shallow.

Drill holes 23MJ001 and MJ002 were aimed at the western side of the shallow high-grade replacement-style mineralization and downdip extensions of the Riedel veins that often host high-grade gold. 23MJ001 undercut a bonanza-grade intercept in 22MJ024 (3.4 m at 50.91 g/t Au from 91.8-metre depth), which was reported on Feb. 15, 2023. Both of these holes evaluated the downdip continuation of the thicker replacement-style zones of mineralization in the centre of the East target.

The team stepped out over 100 m to the south with drill hole 23MJ003, which was aimed back to the northwest to probe for a key lithologic contact and shear zone. Drill hole 22MJ025 had intercepted narrow intercepts of 14.53 and 8.75 g/t gold at depth, but it failed to reach the shear zone (see the company news release dated Feb. 15, 2023). The Firefox geological model predicts that jogs in the sheared contact between the Sodankyla group and Savukoski group rocks are associated with the strongest gold occurrences along the shear zone. The new drill hole passed through the contact at the approximate depth predicted. The shear zone has been drilled over a strike length of more than 2.2 kilometres despite numerous complex jogs and displacements in the feature.

Drill holes 23MJ004 and 23MJ007 are drilled along a northeast-southwest direction, roughly parallel to the MSZ. This alternative direction of drilling yielded excellent results during a first test, as reported in the January, 2023, Firefox news release. In this area, there is a well-developed zone of thicker replacement-style mineralization that comes very close to surface and is interpreted to plunge to the southwest. Drill hole 23MJ007 cuts across an interpreted structure and passes through a strong magnetic low on the northwest of the known gold zone. These holes could offer meaningful extensions to the heart of the East zone mineralization. Drill hole 23MJ006 was lost due to drilling difficulties and replaced with 23MJ007.

Drill holes 23MJ005 and MJ009 were drilled along northwest-southeast section lines, separated by approximately 20 metres. One hole was aimed to the northwest and the other to the southeast to test both shallow and deeper portions of the combined induced polarization chargeability and magnetic anomaly that extends west from the East target.

The team executed a bold stepout drill hole with 23MJ008. It was collared approximately 120 metres southwest from 23MJ005 and more than 220 metres southwest from 22MJ022. The structural geology and apparent controls on the shallow high-grade parts of the East target appear to indicate a southwest plunge. That pattern is echoed by the complex patterns seen in the detailed ground magnetics. This drill hole was directed at crosscutting the prevailing shear direction and testing a new corridor of low magnetics that may define another zone of alteration.

Firefox geologists are actively working with the new drill core, logging geology and making measurements. Samples are still being delivered to the laboratory, and assays are pending for all of this drilling. More information can be expected during the coming weeks.

Methodology and quality assurance

The multielement analytical results reported herein are from drill core samples processed by ALS Laboratories. After receipt of gold assays, the Firefox team selects subsets of samples to be subjected to multielement geochemical analyses. These data are reported from ALS-Ireland using a four-acid digestion followed by ICP-AES and ICP-MS analyses (method ME-MS61).

ALS Laboratories is a leading international provider of assay and analytical data to the mining industry. All ALS geochemical hub laboratories, including the Irish facility, are accredited to ISO/IEC 17025:2017 for specific analytical procedures. The Firefox quality assurance/quality control program consists of insertion of blind certificated standard material and blanks into the analytical batches, and results did not show deviations from recommended values.

Patrick Highsmith, certified professional geologist (AIPG CPG No. 11702) and director of the company, is a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Highsmith has helped prepare, and reviewed and approved the technical information in this news release.

Dr. Sven Honig, certified European geologist (EFG EurGeol title No. 1789) and general manager -- exploration -- of the company, is a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Dr. Honig has supervised the fieldwork reported herein, and has helped to prepare and approves the technical information in this news release.

About Firefox Gold Corp.

Firefox is listed on the TSX Venture Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol FFOX. Firefox also trades on the OTCQB Venture Market Exchange in the United States under the ticker symbol FFOXF. The company has been exploring for gold in Finland since 2017, where it holds a huge portfolio of prospective ground.

Finland is one of the top mining investment jurisdictions in the world as indicated by its multiple top-10 rankings in recent Fraser Institute surveys of mining companies. Having a strong mining law and long mining tradition, Finland remains underexplored for gold. Recent exploration results in the country have highlighted its prospectivity, and Firefox is proud to have a Finland-based chief executive officer and technical team.

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