Francis MacDonald, Executive VP of Exploration, Kenorland Minerals Ltd. (TSXV: KLD, OTCQX: NWRCF, FSE: 3WQ0) Discusses Three Projects in Quebec, Work is Being Completed Under Joint Venture and Earn-in Agreement, with Tier 1 Partners.

By Dr. Allen Alper, PhD Economic Geology and Petrology, Columbia University, NYC, USA
on 12/27/2021
We spoke with Francis MacDonald, the Executive VP of Exploration, of Kenorland Minerals Ltd. (TSXV: KLD, OTCQX: NWRCF, FSE: 3WQ0), a British Columbia based mineral explorer that currently holds three projects in Quebec, where work is being completed under joint-venture and earn-in agreements, from third parties. The Frotet Project is held, under joint venture, with Sumitomo. The Chicobi Project is optioned to Sumitomo, and the Chebistuan Project is optioned to Newmont Corporation. In Ontario, Kenorland Minerals holds the South Uchi Project, under an earn-in agreement, with a wholly owned subsidiary of Barrick Gold Corporation. Kenorland Minerals also owns 100% of the advanced stage, Tanacross porphyry Cu-Au project, as well as an option to earn up to 70% from Newmont Corporation, on the Healy Project, both located in Alaska, USA. Plans for 2022 include an aggressive drill program, at the Regnault discovery, as well as drilling targets at Chicobi, Healy, and Tanacross.

Kenorland Minerals Ltd.

Dr. Allen Alper: This is Dr. Allen Alper, Editor-in-Chief of Metals News, talking with Francis MacDonald, who is the Executive VP of Exploration of Kenorland Minerals. First, could you give us an overview of your Company and then a short discussion of the projects you're working on, which I know are great projects, in great locations.

Francis MacDonald:Kenorland Minerals is an exploration company, focused on greenfields Exploration opportunities, either generating them and advancing them ourselves, through drilling, or by bringing in a strategic partner, at an early stage. In terms of our projects, our flagship is the Frotet Project, highlighted by the recent Regnault gold prospect. This was a completely new greenfields gold discovery that we made in the Frotet-Evans Belt, of northern Quebec, located approximately 100 kilometers north of the town of Chibougamau, and just outside the Abitibi Proper.

At Frotet, Kenorland originally staked ground in 2017, and brought Sumitomo Metal Mining in, as a partner, in 2018. Together we took it from greenfields regional exploration down to a drill target, within about a year and a half, by completing a big till geochemistry program. This got us into the Regnault area, where no mineral occurrences or historic drilling existed, it was completely new! On the first drill program, we intersected 29 meters, at about 8.5 grams gold. This was while we were still a privately held company, in summer of 2020. We took Kenorland public in January of 2021, and are currently trading on the TSX.V, OTCQX and FSE.

The other exciting prospect that we drilled this summer is the Healy Project, located in the Goodpaster District of Alaska. The story behind Healy was that it was generated by a huge stream sediment sampling program Newmont had completed. They covered an area that went from Fairbanks, Alaska all the way to the Yukon border. The Healy project was the best target that came out of that stream sediment sampling program. For a number of reasons, it went on the shelf, within Newmont, for a while.

One of our founders had worked on that stream sediment sampling program, so we'd known about it for quite a while, and we eventually ended up doing a deal with Newmont to acquire it. We advanced the target up to drill stage and earlier this year put approximately 5,000 meters of diamond drilling into it, a completely new target with no historic drilling. At the time there was only a claim staked on it for one year, which had lapsed, with no work filed on it. So again, potentially a completely new gold discovery, in a district that has 10-million-ounce deposits at Pogo and many multi-million-ounce deposits in the Yukon.

We have a number of other projects. Tanacross, which is also in Alaska, resides fairly close to the Yukon border. The Tanacross area is a copper-gold-molly porphyry system, or cluster of porphyries. We were originally drawn into the area, by a big copper extreme sediment anomaly, where a historic porphyry occurrence existed, with 276 meters of .32 Cu, .21 Au and .036 Mo, which was one of the better drill intercepts in the area. We staked all of the ground around this and proceeded to complete a deal for the ground, with showings.

We had a previous earn-in agreement with Freeport, on this project, and we drilled some deep holes, which intersected decent mineralization. This was right before the COVID19 pandemic. It wasn't enough to keep Freeport involved. At the time of drilling, we were also flying an airborne ZTEM survey, which highlighted multiple targets, which had never been drill-tested. In an effort to advance these areas, we began targeted surface work, which included, soil geochemistry, mapping, IP, and a large magneto-telluric (MT), as well as a drone-based aeromagnetic survey, on our South Taurus target. The result of this is really shaping up to be quite interesting, with a distinctive geophysical anomaly which is very conductive and very chargeable.

The MT data shows a structure that extends down to the base of the survey. So, we know we're on a big structure and that there's mineralization in the area. Furthermore, with the porphyry mineralization encountered, we’ve found skarn alteration similar to that of the peak gold, recently acquired by Kinross in the Tetlin-area.

Frotet, Healy, and Tanacross are the three main projects held by Kenorland, and we have multiple other earlier stage pipeline projects that we continue to advance towards drill stage. One of which is the Chicobi Project, where we have scheduled an initial drill program in Q1 of 2021, with partner Sumitomo.

Dr. Allen Alper: Well, I think you and your group can be very proud of making such excellent discoveries. The Team has been able to attract very excellent partners to work with, so that's all wonderful. Could you tell our readers/investors the key accomplishments in 2021 and your key goals for 2022?

Francis MacDonald: I'll start out with the Regnault area. In April of 2021, we wrapped up an 8,500-meter drill program. The headline intersect on that was about 5.7 meters, at 90 grams gold. So very significant! It really showed that Regnault is a very high-grade system, with potential for bonanza grades, that term gets thrown around a bit, but I would say 90 grams per ton over five meters probably deserves the term “bonanza”. Also, at Regnault, we followed up with a summer drill program, which was just completed in October and that was 18,000 meters. We will hopefully be announcing the first results from that program in the next couple of weeks. So that's coming up pretty quick. The only delay is that the lab processing our drill samples, Bureau Veritas, had a cyber-attack last week, and unfortunately, it's really delayed a lot of the results coming out.

At Healy, we completed an approximate 5,000-meter maiden drill program into a brand-new target, which wrapped up in early October. Currently, we have roughly half of the results back, and expect to be putting out results in January. In addition to this, we also completed a lot of early-stage work on our multiple pipeline projects. At Chicobi, our Team has begun drill targeting preparation, from recently completed geophysics and we’re on schedule for our initial drill program in Q1 2022. We also had a large-scale surface program with partner Newmont on our Chebistuan Project including soil and till sampling, as well as, airborne mag and IP, which we’re currently waiting for results on. There is also all of the work Kenorland completed at Tanacross over the summer, leading up to drill targets for 2022.

Dr. Allen Alper: Well, that sounds excellent. Could you tell our readers/investors a little bit about your background, Team, Management and Board?

Francis MacDonald: I'm an Exploration Geologist. I've been focused on regional or greenfields exploration, pretty much all of my career. I started out working for a Company called Miramar that was acquired by Newmont in 2007. After that I worked for Newmont, up until 2012, in the Canadian Arctic. Then I went to West Africa and onwards to Ethiopia. After that, I worked for Auryn Resources, also in Nunavut. Right around that time, in 2016, we started in Kenorland Minerals.

In terms of the other key Management, Zach Flood is the President and CEO. Zach was with the Ivanhoe Group, doing a lot of different things, from business development to early-stage exploration, really all over the world, so he has really broad experience. The other two Founders are Scott Smits, who was at Newmont, as well with me, up until about 2015, and then Dave Stevenson, who's a geologist turned geophysicist. So those would be the four Founders of the Company. Janek Wozniewski was added, about three years after starting the Company, and he has been a real asset by managing our large partner-funded exploration programs.

Dr. Allen Alper: That’s a great Team with great experience and a great sense of accomplishment.

Francis MacDonald: In 2022, we plan to have an aggressive drill program at Regnault, with JV partner Sumitomo and are currently working through budgets. Nothing's been approved yet, but any drill program at Regnault will be significant. At the Healy Project, we will wait for all the results to come in, prior to deciding next steps. There is certainly potential for another drill program, in the summer of 2022. The Chicobi Project will have the initial first diamond drill test in Q1 of 2022. Decisions at the Tanacross Project will be made after recent surface results roll in, with potential to lead towards yet another drill program for Kenorland in 2022. As always, the pipeline projects will continue to be advanced and could come online to yield more drill targets, going forward.

Dr. Allen Alper: Well, that's excellent! It'll be an exciting time in 2022, as you do all your drilling and get more and more data on your projects.

Francis MacDonald: I think it will be very exciting!

Dr. Allen Alper: Francis, could you tell our readers/investors why they should consider investing in Kenorland Minerals?

Francis MacDonald: It's really a case for greenfields exploration. I believe that there's a lot of things that are out there, yet to be found. We've shown we can do it once and the Regnault discovery was really on our first project that we staked. Kenorland, as a group, has a very keen eye for Greenfield's opportunities out there. I think it's really betting on the people and also on greenfields exploration, where there are significant deposits out there that are yet to be found.

Dr. Allen Alper: Those are excellent reasons for our readers/investors to consider investing in Kenorland Minerals! You have a great Team, great projects, and a lot to explore. You also have great partners to work with, so that's really great. Francis, is there anything else you'd like to add?

Francis MacDonald: No, I think that's a pretty good overview of what's been happening and what's coming along in 2022.

Dr. Allen Alper: Well, that's great! I appreciate talking with you and having the opportunity to update our readers/investors on Kenorland Minerals. You’re a great exploration company, really outstanding!

https://kenorlandminerals.com

Kenorland Minerals Ltd.

Zach Flood
President and CEO
Tel: +1 604 363 1779
zach@kenorlandminerals.com