Resource World Magazine

F E B R U A R Y / M A R C H 2 0 2 0 www.resourceworld.com 65 O n the gold side, SSR Mining operates the Seabee and Santoy mines north- east of La Ronge. What investors will find of interest is an uptick in exploration projects. In an interview, Tim Termuende, P.Geo, President and CEO of Eagle Plains Resources, provides an update on explora- tion activities. "There has been a slow and steady increase in Saskatchewan exploration bolstered by provincial government initia- tives to help foster mineral exploration," he said. "These initiatives are starting to bear fruit. However, Saskatchewan is still extremely under-explored." Gold is currently a major metal of interest for explorers, Termuende noted. "Historically, polymetallic VMS depos- its have been aggressively explored with mines operating along the Saskatchewan- Manitoba border for almost a hundred years. Those rocks continue into Saskatchewan." While it has been difficult for many juniors to raise exploration funds for the last eight years, Termuende believes that this is easing with the rise in the gold price. The Saskatchewan government recently put in place a drilling incentive program that refunds 25% of actual drilling costs up to $50,000. "This is pretty attractive for explorers who are now stepping up to take advantage of the program," he said. Below are summaries of various Saskatchewan exploration and mining projects. Aben Resources Ltd. [ABN-TSXV; ABNAF-OTCQB; E2L-FSE] can earn an 80% interest in the Chico gold project from Taiga Gold Corp. 125 km east of La Ronge and 40 km south of SSR Mining's Seabee/ Santoy Mine complex. Past operator Eagle Plains Resources completed fieldwork on the 4,657-hectare property, including air- borne geophysics, mapping, trenching and soil sampling designed to define gold tar- gets for drilling. Rock samples collected in 2016 by Eagle Plains along this structural corridor ranged from trace to 20.2 g/t gold. ALX Resources Corp. [AL-TSXV; ALXEF-OTC; 6LLN-FSE], has interests in over 200,000 hectares in Saskatchewan, including the recently acquired Falcon and Flying Vee Nickel projects. ALX has received additional rock sam- ple assays from reconnaissance prospecting at its 100%-owned Falcon nickel project in the Axis Lake area of the Athabasca region. Samples taken from historical trenches and from outcrops in the northern part of the project returned values of up to 3.17% nickel and 0.402% copper, along with anomalous values of cobalt, gold, platinum and palladium. An exploration permit has been received for geophysical surveying and diamond drilling. An exploration pro- gram is planned for winter 2020. Drilling has been carried out on the Close Lake uranium project in the eastern Athabasca region where ALX can earn up to a 51% participating interest from Orano Canada Inc. Appia Energy Corp. [API-CSE; APAAF- OTC; A0I-FSE] reported results from prospecting on its Alces Lake rare earth (REE) property, northern Saskatchewan. In addition to the recently reported diamond drilling results, Appia discovered eight new surface outcrop zones and showings with characteristics of a REE mineral sys- tem, including visible monazite. The new discoveries have expanded known surface REE mineralization within an area measur- ing over 500 by 500 metres, and the Biotite Lake discovery has extended the 500- metre footprint to over 1.8 km. The 2,042.1-metre drilling program in 44 short holes resulted in 40 of them intersecting the REEs with 19 intersect- ing high-grade Total Rare Earth Oxides (TREO). Highlights include hole RI-19- 001 (Richard Zone) with 7.575 wt% TREO over 8.9 metres core length starting at 9.8 metres down hole depth in a new dis- covery between the Wilson and Charles surface zones. Hole IV-19-012 (Ivan Zone) returned 16.059 wt% TREO over 15.55 metres. Appia has also been exploring its SASKATCHEWAN TOP: Unloading supplies from a Norseman float plane at Taiga Gold's Orchid gold- uranium project 140 km east of La Ronge, Saskatchewan. Photo courtesy Taiga Gold Corp.

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