Lundmark-Akow Lake

•    Diamond drilling stage on multiple targets – VMS Cu-Au-Ag+/-Zn-Pb, Gold-Quartz-Pyrrhotite veins, and “epithermal-looking” auriferous calcite veins, primarily northwest of Lundmark Lake.
•    VTEM-Aeromagnetic surveys completed over entire property.
•    Max-Min, VLF, Gravity and TDEM surveys completed in Akow Lake area.

500 km north of the city of Thunder Bay and 146 km north of the town of Pickle Lake in NW Ontario. The claims begin 17 km NNW of the road accessible Musselwhite Gold Mine site. 

Located in the Archean North Caribou Lake greenstone belt (NCLGB), the property was originally staked to cover 11 km of the same banded iron formation (BIF) that hosts the giant Musselwhite gold deposit 17 km to the SSE. However, Romios’ early exploration work resulted in the discovery of a >100 m wide Cu-Au bearing schist beside the BIF in 1998-9 and work became centred on that and the small high-grade “Spence” gold showing. Later follow-up drilling in 2016 re-focused on this schist and identified it as a “Lower Semi-conformable Alteration Zone”, the pathway for hydrothermal ore fluids typically found beneath many VMS deposits. Drilling of a flanking conductor in 2017 at Atim Lake North intersected the first ever VMS horizon discovered in the South Rim Assemblage of the NCLGB. Although the intercept was relatively thin, 1.9 m, the good grades - 2.35% Cu, 1.4 g/t Au and 68 g/t Ag, and abundance of tourmalinite with the sulphides provided enough encouragement for Romios to stake additional claims along strike to the NW in 2018 covering a cluster of EM conductors. A VTEM survey flown in early 2019 helped to refine the location of these conductors and drill testing of the primary targets on these NW claims in 2019 resulted in the discovery of:

1. Three VMS horizons assaying up to 1.26% Cu, 2.4 g/t Au over 3.25 m with locally significant Zn, Pb and Ag values. 
2.  A major gold-bearing quartz-pyrrhotite vein (8.6 g/t Au over 4.75 m).
3. Several large calcite veins up to 7.5 m wide with classic “epithermal-looking” textures and variable gold grades up to 3 g/t Au over 1 m. 
4. Broad zones of Cu-Au stockwork veinlets sub-cropping over a >125 m strike length

Follow-up drilling in 2021 tested these and other targets in the area with mixed results:

• Encouraging results came from the stockworks of chalcopyrite veinlets in basalt adjacent to large quartz-feldspar porphyry dykes even though these had not been a target of the original program(s). Broad, potentially open-pitable zones 16-30 m wide assayed up to 3.3 g/t Gold Equivalent (Au Eq) (2.6 g/t Au, 0.39% Cu) over 16.9 metres (Widths are Drilled Widths; True Widths are approx. 70-80% of the DW) and have been traced for approx. 125 m to date. Multiple QFP dykes up to 50 m wide are known in the area and provide numerous additional targets for this type of mineralization.
• The VMS horizons intersected in 2019 were targeted with 4 additional holes with weaker results. Two holes tested the complex conductor “N” area and intersected impressive looking felsic volcanics 7 to 14 m wide with variable sericite alteration, quartz-pyrrhotite veins and thin syngenetic sulphide layers, however, assay values were low, grading 0.1% Cu & 265 ppb Au over7m and 0.07% Cu & 328 ppb Au over14m. Two holes were drilled to test the continuity of the two NW-SE trending VMS horizons intersected in hole RGR-19-10. The northern VMS horizon proved to be much weaker to the NW (8.35 m @ 0.09% Cu, 0.45 g/t Au) and was obscured/overprinted by a veining event to the SE. The southern VMS was seemingly cut off by a porphyry intrusion to the SE and the host felsic volcanic rocks were absent to the NW. The often granular nature of the VMS horizons in this area can create challenges to follow them along strike with geophysics but numerous, lengthy conductors remain to be tested around this felsic volcanic centre. They warrant ground geophysical survey test lines to determine their width and an estimate of the sulphide content prior to further drilling.
• Drill testing of the significant gold-quartz-pyrrhotite vein intersected in 2019 has been hampered by its location under a beaver pond and difficulties in getting the drill close enough to intersect the vein and determine its true orientation. One hole drilled 100m to the east of the discovery hole in 2021 failed to intersect the vein. It may be necessary to drill this target in winter when a drill can be moved in closer to the known vein. 
•  A previously unknown BIF was intersected on the west side of the claims while drilling an EM conductor. This BIF has a modest magnetic signature due to the high iron-silicate mineral content. Subsequent re-examination of the historic aeromagnetic map of this area outlined a 1.5 km long tight fold in the BIF 300 m south of the drill hole. This folded BIF is very favourable setting for Musselwhite-type mineralization. 

GEOLOGICAL SETTING OF THE NORTHWEST TARGETS

The entire northwest portion of the favourable stratigraphy extending 15 km from the southern claim boundary to the NW boundary contains almost no outcrops, consequently the geological picture has been assembled from drill results and geophysical signatures. 

Romios’ drilling has substantially outlined a previously unknown basin of fine-grained clastic sediments, felsic tuff horizons and a thick dacite unit. The basin is approximately 10 km long and 800 m wide, sits within the predominantly basaltic pile that makes of the South Rim Assemblage, and has been followed from the southern part of Akow Lake NW to a point ~2 km NW of Lundmark Lake. The 100-150 m wide alteration pathway (LSCAZ) has been traced for the entire length of the basin, with at least one VMS exhalative horizon formed along it (at North Arim (Arim or Atim?) Lake).  The basin fill sequence and the LSCAZ has not been intersected by drilling yet at the NW cluster of EM conductors or any of those VMS horizons. Combined with the abundance of sphalerite and galena and pyrite in some of these VMS horizons, this lack of associated alteration suggests that these intercepts represent the distal portion of the VMS zones and that the higher-grade core has not been located as yet. A large number of quartz-feldspar porphyry (QFP) and feldspar porphyry (FP) dykes up to 50 m wide have been intersected by drilling in this NW area and would indicate that it represents a felsic volcanic centre which was the likely source of the felsic tuffs throughout the basin as well as the potential driver for the mineralizing system. QFP intrusions are commonly associated with VMS deposits and to our knowledge, no significant QFPs have been found anywhere else in this belt. Research to age-date and determine this potential QFP-Tuff-VMS association through lithogeochemical and isotopic methods is ongoing.

The felsic volcanic centre on the NW claims may well be the driver for the VMS and some of the gold-quartz vein mineralization but the reason for the occurrence of large, “epithermal-looking” and locally gold-bearing calcite veins up to 7.5 m wide is still uncertain. In the Red Lake gold mines, these veins are believed to have formed from high-pressure, deep-seated fluids, reflecting deep structure/fault controls, and their high-pressure opened up the faults wide enough to allow the unusual formation of the open-space fill textures. While this is still a likely scenario at Lundmark-Akow Lake, the presence of clay minerals and pyrite in these veins do not support that model. Research on the origin and potential of these veins is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2022.

COPPER-GOLD STOCKWORK
First discovered in 2019 while drill testing a number of EM conductors nearby, these broad zones of gold-bearing chalcopyrite veinlets themselves do not produce a strong VTEM response. Stockworks are developed in relatively unaltered basalt adjacent to several QFP and FP intrusions. Individual or local clusters of veinlets can be very high-grade, up to 3.5% Cu, and gold assays from 3 g/t Au to 8 g/t Au are not uncommon. Tungsten values up to 0.6% W suggest that the ore fluids came at least in part from the QFP-FP dykes. The 3 widest and most consistent stockwork intercepts occur along the southern edge of the same QFP dyke and were intersected in holes RGR-19-06, 19-10 and 21-04 over a strike length of about 125 m (see map below). 

The QFP-FP dykes and the Cu-Au stockwork have not been specifically targeted to date, all intercepts were as a result of drill testing VMS related EM conductors in the area, although some 2021 holes were spotted in the expectations of hitting a stockwork as well. The detailed aeromagnetic map of the area, produced from a 2020 Terraquest survey, shows a general magnetic low pattern associated with the known QFP-FP dykes, and large areas of untested magnetic lows that may be underlain by these dykes. Given the potentially open-pitable width and grade of these stockworks, a reappraisal of the best geophysical method for identifying them and a subsequent drill program of the most promising targets is warranted.

VMS – VOLCANOGENIC MASSIVE SULPHIDES

The >100 m wide, Cu-Au bearing, garnet-staurolite-mica schists first discovered by Romios’ drilling in 1998-99 were drilled again in 2016 and reinterpreted at that time as a “Lower Semi-Conformable Alteration Zone” such as those found beneath many VMS deposits. This alteration zone is believed to be a preserved hydrothermal fluid pathway that would have vented to the paleo-seafloor at various points and potentially formed a VMS deposit(s). Drilling of the nearest adjacent VTEM conductor in 2017 at Atim Lake North intersected the first VMS type mineralization ever discovered in this greenstone belt. Although relatively thin, drilled width of 1.9 m, the good grades of 2.35% Cu. 1.4 g/t Au and 68 g/t Ag, and the broad zone of associated tourmalinite alteration were very encouraging. 

Cu-Au-Ag sulphide intercept, DDH RGR-17-01. Black material between sulphide grains is tourmalinite.

As a result of the 2016-17 work, Romios acquired additional claims in 2018 that covered the NW extension of the conductive horizon(s). These were surveyed in 2019 with a VTEM-Mag system and a major cluster of conductors was identified on these NW claims. Drilling in June 2019 traced the alteration pathway several kilometres farther, towards the NW conductors and two drill holes subsequently drilled in September 2019 tested those conductors with interesting results. Three VMS type sulphide horizons were intersected by these 2 holes, each containing a mix of locally bedded chalcopyrite, pyrite, +/- sphalerite and galena. The best intercept assayed 3.5 m @ 1.26% Cu, 2.4 g/t Au, 23 g/t Ag. The bedded texture, presence of lead-zinc mineralization, and the lack of an associated alteration zone/pipe, suggest that these intercepts represent the distal portion of a VMS system and the more copper-gold rich core of the system is still to be found. Three holes drilled along strike in 2021 encountered felsic dykes and/or unusual veined intervals at the projected on-strike extensions of the 2 southern VMS horizons, and broad zones of highly altered but weakly mineralized felsic volcanics along strike from the northern VMS intercept. 

DDH RG-19-10: sphalerite-pyrite rich portion of one sulphide zone which assayed 2.6 m @ 0.43% Cu, 1.5 g/t Au, 34 g/t Ag, 1.84% Zn, 0.73% Pb.

The great abundance of QFP and FP dykes up to 50 m wide in the vicinity of the VMS horizons is unknown anywhere else in this greenstone belt and suggests that these NW claims cover a major felsic volcanic centre that has produced at least 4 VMS exhalative horizons and a >7 km long alteration pathway. Numerous conductors remain to be tested in this area and further drilling down-dip and along strike from the known zones is required to define their potential. 

DDH RGR-19-10: Close-up photograph of the Southern VMS Zone - 3.5 m @ 1.26% Cu, 2.4 g/t Au, 23 g/t Ag, Incl. 1.7 m @ 2.24% Cu, 4.3 g/t Au, 0.6% Zn, 44 g/t Ag.
 

“EPITHERMAL-LOOKING” AURIFEROUS CALCITE VEINS

The most unexpected result of exploration on the Lundmark-Akow Lake claims to date was the June 2019 drill intersection of several coarse-grained calcite veins (+/-pyrite, pyrrhotite, clay, chlorite) up to 7.5 m wide, with scattered gold mineralization grading up to 2.9 g/t Au over 1 m. These veins are very unusual in that they exhibit open-space filling textures such as crustiform and cockscomb textures that are typically found in shallow level, epithermal veins. Similar veins are found in the Red Lake Gold Mines, 300 km to the southwest, where they are typically barren and have been interpreted to be the result of deep-seated fluids formed at high enough pressure to create and maintain enough open space in a fault structure to allow these unusual textures to form even at great depths. The veins at NW Lundmark-Akow Lake display contradicting evidence for both a deep-seated origin (a lamprophyre dyke within one of the veins including a lamprophyre “stylolite”) and a shallow-level origin (locally abundant clay, chlorite and disseminated pyrite). Research into the nature, origin and potential of these veins is scheduled to begin at Lakehead University in the fall of 2022. 

"Epithermal-looking”, locally gold-bearing coarse calcite vein, DDH RG-19-05