Resource World Magazine

34 www.resourceworld.com o c t o b e r / n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 4 Left to right, Trent Mell, President and CEO of Falco Resources, Stéphane Poitras, Exploration Manager, and Claude Parent, President and owner of Multi Drilling, at the rig drilling near the past-producing Horne Mine near Rouyn-Noranada, Québec. Photo courtesy Falco Resources Ltd. Falco resources bringing noranda's gold potential to light by Jennifer S. Getsinger, PhD, PGeo Falco Resources Ltd. [FPC-TSXV], for- merly Falco Pacific Resource Group Inc., is a Canadian junior mining exploration company holding a giant claim package with huge gold potential in one of the richest copper and gold-producing trends of Canada, the Abitibi Greenstone Belt. Although corporate offices are in Toronto and Vancouver, Falco's main property, Noranda's past-producing Horne Mine, is in Rouyn-Noranda, Québec. Falco's holdings include 100% control of more than 2,200 claims covering 72,800 hectares and includes 14 past-producing mines in an area 65 km long and 35 km wide, the largest land package (approxi- mately 70%) in the historic Noranda mining camp. Much of it is still underex- plored for gold as many previous mining efforts focused on copper. The Horne Mine was in production from 1927 to 1976, extracting 54 million tonnes of ore, more than 11 million ounces gold (grading 6.1 g/t Au) and 2.5 billion pounds of copper (grading 2.22% Cu). Including surround- ing properties, those numbers increase to 19 million ounces Au and 2.9 billion pounds of Cu. Noranda also left an amazingly rich storehouse of excellent exploration data dating back 80 years, which Falco has been digitizing and re-analyzing with a particu- lar emphasis on gold, not a major concern during Noranda's 80 years of mining and exploration as gold was under US $40/oz. Thus, Falco has an opportunity to shine a new light into the darkness underlying the old Horne 5 Mine, where data show a sig- nificant extension of gold-bearing massive sulphides. To summarize the re-analysis of the Horne 5 deposit, Falco digitized 4,300 his- toric drill holes, compiled results into a 3D model and produced an initial technical report (dated 2014-04-16), which includes an inferred resource estimate based on his- torical data. Using a CAD $80/tonne NSR cutoff, there are an estimated 25.3 million tonnes grading 2.64 g/t gold, 0.70% zinc, and 0.23% copper (or 3.41 g/t gold equiva- lent, assuming that gold is 77% of the gold equivalent resource). At lower cost cutoffs, and with the addition of silver (not included in historical data), resources would increase. This size and grade of deposit is believed to be in the same league with LaRonde and Goldex (Agnico-Eagle Mines) and Young- Davidson (AuRico Gold). The Horne Block, located in the vicin- ity of a geological feature known as the Noranda Caldera, is one of many pro- spective geological settings in the Abitibi greenstone belt, which is host to several gold-bearing polymetallic volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits. Extensive fault zones have sliced up complex Archean sequences of submarine mafic to felsic volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks and intercalated massive sulphide deposits (pyrite, chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite, and other sulphides), subsequently metal-enriched by heat and fluids from igneous intrusions. In a recent interview, Trent Mell, new President and CEO of Falco, said that inves- tors would like to see the combination of "polishing up" the Horne 5 deposit by adding tonnes and ultimately completing a preliminary economic assessment, inves- tigating the 13 other historical producers and the "blue sky piece", meaning the tre- mendous upside potential of new gold and VMS discoveries within the large Falco land package. Current drilling and explo- ration at Falco's Rimo (Rivière Mouilleuse) and Lac Hervé targets could reveal future ore bodies, as well as maintain claim explo- ration requirements. As an exploration company, rather than mine-builder, Falco is interested in discoveries and would be open to developing partnerships that would eventually lead to mining. Work slated for the Horne 5 deposit area includes further data analysis, geophys- ics and geological exploration including diamond drilling to confirm and upgrade resources, building enough confidence with new data to transform inferred to indi- cated resources. With more data on silver (not well-measured in the past), estimates of precious metal content should increase. Metallurgical studies are needed to improve recovery ratios used in calculations. By way of example, assumed recoveries for zinc are a conservative 37%, whereas the LaRonde Mine 40 km east is achieving 86%. The next technical report is expected in June 2015. Infrastructure accessibility is convenient as the city of Rouyn-Noranda has trained mine workers, the Horne smelter (operated by Glencore, formerly Xstrata), and excel- lent transportation and utilities. Although Glencore still holds a portion of surface rights in the areas of Falco's mineral claims, the Horne gold-bearing VMS deposit runs deep, as does a tradition of cooperation between the two companies. According to a recent news release, Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd. is acquiring up to 15% of Falco shares and appointing a director to Falco's board, attesting to its desirability. n MINING

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