NorthWest’s Lorraine-Top Cat Project is located in north-central British Columbia 45 kilometres north of the Kwanika-Stardust Project (Figure 1) and is hosted by alkalic and calc-alkalic intrusions of the Jurassic Hogem batholith and, to a lesser extent, by Triassic volcanic rocks of the Takla Group. The project has a strong value proposition as it combines the Lorraine deposit and its large, mostly open, 43-101 compliant mineral resource estimate as a base asset with at least 32 defined, but in most cases little-explored, exploration targets. Highlights include:

• A large, low-strip ratio Cu-Au mineral resource estimate at the Lorraine deposit.
  • Indicated: 13.0 Mt @ 0.55% Cu, 0.16 g/t Au
  • Inferred: 45.5 Mt @ 0.43% Cu, 0.10 g/t Au
  • Although present, Ag is not currently estimated due to inconsistent historical analysis
  • Similarly, Au is likely under-represented due to lack of historical analyses in some parts of the deposit
  • Resource upside in little-drilled gaps between mineralized zones and in adjacent drill-ready exploration targets.
  • Scoping metallurgical tests indicate high rougher flotation recoveries for Cu (94%), Au (71%) and Ag (92%) and cleaner flotation produced clean, high-grade copper concentrates that also contain potentially payable palladium and anomalous platinum (see news release dated June 24th 2024)
• Large, prospective tenure of ~65,800 ha that contains 32 defined exploration targets (Figure 1); 10 of these are proximal to the Lorraine deposit), including several that are drill ready.
• Year-round accessibility and proximal to infrastructure.
  • Access via all-season Omineca Resource Road, seven hours from Prince George
  • Hydroelectric power only 32 km away
• Potential to combine with the high-grade Kwanika-Stardust Project 45 km to the south for shared infrastructure and reduced environmental footprint.

Key features of the Lorraine – Top Cat Project are described in the Lorraine Technical Report dated June 30, 2022 (Link at bottom of page).

Figure 1. Location of the Lorraine-Top Cat Project

The Lorraine - Top Cat property, located in the Omineca Mining Division of north-central British Columbia, is comprised of 192 contiguous claim blocks covering ~65,800 ha (Figure 2). The property may be accessed either via Fort St. James, or from Mackenzie.

Local population centres are, from nearest to furthest: Germansen Landing, Fort St. James, and Prince George. These centres have provided support and resources for past exploration programs in the region. Prince George is a major commercial centre with major road, rail, and air links, as well as significant infrastructure, and is a seven-hour drive from the Lorraine – Top Cat Property.

Figure 2. Mineral properties and local physiography

The Lorraine-Top Cat property is hosted by Jurassic calc-alkalic intrusions of the Hogem batholith, by syenites and pyroxenites of the Jurassic Duckling Creek Syenite Complex (DCSC), and by subordinate volcanic rocks of the Triassic Takla Group. The many Cu-Au prospects within these rocks occur in the northern Quesnel Terrane, a highly prospective Mesozoic island-arc that hosts the Copper Mountain, New Afton, Mount Polley, Mt. Milligan and Highland Valley porphyry mines, along with many Cu-Au porphyry prospects (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Location of the Lorraine-Top Cat Project on the geological terrane map of British Columbia

The centerpiece of the project is the mineral resource in the Lorraine Cu-Au-Ag±PGE deposit and the 32 additional exploration targets on the surrounding property. Lorraine is classified as a silica-undersaturated alkalic Cu-Au-Ag±PGE porphyry deposit similar to Galore Creek and Mount Polley and, along with many of the other Cu-Au prospects on the property, is hosted by pyroxenite and syenite intrusions of the DCSC. Other prospects on the property are calc-alkalic Cu-Au-Ag±Mo porphyry targets associated with Early Jurassic Hogem intrusions. Many of the targets are not extensively explored and several have no previous drilling.

Mineral resources at Lorraine occur in the Lower Main, Upper Main and Bishop Zones (Table, map and sections below). These zones are all open to expansion, both in contiguous and nearby targets (e.g., the North Cirque target), in the sparsely drilled gaps between the zones, and to depth.  Mineralization at Lorraine is characterized by high Cu grades accompanied by Au and Ag, high-tenor Cu-sulphide minerals like bornite and chalcocite, a low pyrite concentration, and elevated Pd > Pt. Additional improvement to the resource estimate is anticipated by:

• Inclusion of Ag, which was not estimated due to erratic historical analysis.
• A possible increase in Au, also due to inconsistent historical assay coverage.
• Recalculation using newly acquired and better flotation recoveries for copper (see news release dated June 24th 2024) than those used in the original estimation (Table 1). 

Table 1. Lorraine Mineral Resource Estimate 

^[1] Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. There is no certainty that all or any part of the Mineral Resources estimated will be converted into Mineral Reserves in future. There has been insufficient exploration to define the inferred resources tabulated above as an indicated or measured mineral resource, however, it is reasonably expected that the majority of the Inferred Mineral Resources could be upgraded to Indicated Mineral Resources with continued exploration. The estimate of Mineral Resources may be materially affected by geology, environment, permitting, legal, title, taxation, sociopolitical, marketing or other relevant issues. Inferred Mineral Resources have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence and as to whether they can be mined economically.

Figure 4. Plan View of Lorraine Block model and section lines. Reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction as dark grey surface

Figure 5 Long Section A-A’ looking northeast. “Reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction” open pit displayed as black line. The main mineralized domains are highlighted with a red line.

Figure 6 Block model Cross Section C-C’ looking southeast

Figure 7 Block model Cross Section D-D’ looking southeast

Figure 8 Block model Cross Section E-E’ looking southeast

Based on the data compilation, interpretation of geology, and the mineral resource estimate additional exploration work is recommended, including 8000 m of drilling as follows:

• Test lateral extension of mineralization along the northwest trend to the northwest of Lower Main zone, and to the southeast of the Bishop zone and follow up on chargeability anomalies for geophysics.
• Infill drilling to test mineralization extension between the Upper Main and Bishop zones. 
• Additional drilling for infill in the Lower Main and Upper Main zones and to increase confidence within inferred resource zones and to convert some of the resource into an indicated category.
• Drilling in the North Cirque zones and Weber zones where recent geochemical surveys also confirmed mineralization of interest.
• Collection of geotechnical information during drilling or considering geotechnical drillholes for development evaluation.
• Systematic collection of density data during these drilling programs is strongly recommended.

Of the 32 defined exploration prospects at Lorraine – Top Cat, five are considered drill-ready (Figure 8 and Table 2).

Figure 9. Map of the Lorraine-Top Cat Project showing claim boundary, geology, and prioritized exploration targets.

Table 2: High-Priority Exploration Targets