Larder Project
Abitibi Greenstone Belt
Northern Ontario, Canada

• Located in the heart of Canada’s prolific (>200M oz) Abitibi Gold Province
• Covers 7 km of the Cadillac/Larder Break between the Kirkland Lake (70M oz) and Kerr-Addison (12M oz) Gold Camps.
• Includes at least 4 high-grade (>10 g/t) gold mineralization zones, right on the Break, defined by extensive shallowly-focused (<500m) drilling.
• Historic shallow exploration focus means mineralization is largely untested at the depths (>500m) where most regional deposits blossom.
• Additional 20 km of underexplored related structures with high gold potential
• Experienced exploration team eager to test targets left untouched by shallow focus.
• Excellent community relations and year-round infrastructure
• Permits in hand and drill program initiated

BACKGROUND AND HISTORY

On March 11, 2022, the Company entered into a Definitive Arrangement Agreement with Gatling Exploration Inc. (“Gatling”) to acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Gatling with the issuance of common shares of the Company and the advancement of a C$3,000 convertible note receivable. On May 20, 2022, the Company completed the acquisition of Gatling by way of a court-approved plan of arrangement under the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia) (the “Gatling Transaction”), pursuant to which Gatling became a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company and the Company thereby acquired a 100% interest in the Larder project located in the historically prolific Abitibi greenstone belt in Northern Ontario, Canada (the “Larder Project”). Under the terms of the Gatling Transaction, each former Gatling shareholder received 0.0170627 of a common share of the Company in exchange for each share of Gatling held immediately prior to the Gatling Transaction. Holders of options and warrants to acquire common shares of Gatling received replacement options and warrants, respectively, entitling the holders thereof to acquire common shares of the Company, based on, and subject to, the terms of such options and warrants of Gatling, as adjusted by the plan of arrangement.

MAG issued a total of 774,643 common shares in connection with the Gatling Transaction. The Company also issued 43,675 replacement stock options and 53,508 replacement warrants. A portion of the liabilities of Gatling related to change of control payments to Gatling executive management was settled by the issuance of 63,492 shares of the Company.    

The Company has determined that the Gatling Transaction did not meet the definition of business combination under International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”) 3 – Business Combinations and accordingly, has been accounted for as an asset acquisition.

The Larder Project hosts three gold zones along the Cadillac-Larder Break (the “Cadillac-Larder Break”), 35 km east of Kirkland Lake and is comprised of patented and unpatented claims, leases and mining licenses of occupation within the McVittie and McGarry townships. The concessions associated with the Larder Project are all in good standing with various underlying obligations or royalties associated with various mineral claims and various payments upon a production announcement. MAG retained the Larder Project exploration team and has since added to it.

The Larder property includes several known shear-hosted (“orogenic”) gold mineralization centres located along approximately 8.7 km of strike length of the greater than 250 km long Cadillac-Larder Break, a historically highly-productive regional first-order shear structure. MAG is applying an integrated district-scale exploration model and modern technology to the search for large-volume, high-grade gold mineralization of the style known to occur throughout the Abitibi region and along neighboring segments of the Cadillac-Larder Break. MAG’s technical team believe that a combination of systematic surface-based exploration combined with geophysics should uncover numerous targets in this highly gold mineralized region.

Unlike in many other shear-hosted gold deposits, where mineralization occurs principally along second or third-order structures solaying off a first-order structure, the Larder segment of the Break also has concentrated ore shoots along the first-order structure. This relationship appears similar to that in well-known neighbouring and nearby gold camps along the Break such as the Kerr-Addison mine (approximately 5 km to the east) and the Kirkland Lake district (approximately 35 km to the west). The Larder segment lacks systematic exploration, especially to depths below 500 metres on the main Break, so MAG will be focusing initial efforts along the Break proper. Subsequent focus will include exploration of the many known-and geophysically indicated- 2nd and 3rd order structures that occur throughout the balance of the sparsely tested claim package. The Kir Vit prospect within the Larder claim package is the most advanced of these and appears hosted by the same structure as the Upper Beaver mine owned by Agnico Eagle Mines Limited currently in construction a few kilometres to the west.

The Larder property has numerous non-technical advantages. It lies in a mining-friendly jurisdiction with a very long history of mining. There are First Nation agreements in place, with positive ongoing dialogue. No significant environmental legacies are known. Infrastructure (electrical, gas, highway, water) and access are excellent; exploration costs are relatively low; experienced labour is readily available in the area; and permitting is streamlined, predictable and timely. Importantly, many initial targets can be drilled from existing permitted pads.

MAG anticipates that the mineralization style and characteristics on this property may be similar as in neighbouring major camps. No assurance of this can be made however, readers are cautioned that, as the Company exploration and drilling programs at the Larder Project advance, results may prove to be materially different from those characterizing adjacent properties.

Larder Project Outlook

On February 16, 2023, MAG closed a bought deal flow-through financing for total proceeds of $17,133 (C$23,024) for exploring the Larder Project during 2023 and 2024. The field team are currently undertaking a comprehensive re-evaluation of all existing drilling, targeted relogging of selected holes, rerunning all available pulps with 4-acid digestion, and additional geophysics, field mapping and sampling. The goal of this property-wide technical reassessment program is to improve understanding of the different styles of mineralization, alteration and structure as a basis to develop a long-term systematic property-wide exploration program. Initial plans are finalized, and drilling resumed on July 12, 2023 with a planned minimum of 17,000 metres for the second half of 2023. The program will expand as new data is collected and ultimately increasing to a multi-rig exploration program in 2024.

Interactive Map