FireFox Gold Provides Exploration Update Including Additional Drilling, Surface Rock Sampling and Receipt of New Permits in Lapland, Finland - Seite 2

During the summer and fall of 2023 the Company performed detailed bedrock and boulder mapping and sampling at the Saittavaara prospect in an attempt to extend the Kataja Belt farther west (see Figure 1). The mapping identified new areas of outcrop where strongly deformed and locally weathered sericitic quartzite often contains oxidized pyrite and is sometimes cut by quartz veining. The new occurrence is situated approximately 400 metres west of previously reported drill holes that encountered near-surface gold mineralization (see Company news release dated August 3, 2021). In total, the team collected 28 samples from the Saittavaara area of which 13 samples exceeded 0.1 g/t and five exceeded 1.5 g/t gold. The highest-grade samples contained 6.28 g/t, 5.04 g/t, and 4.07 g/t gold, respectively.

Foto: Accesswire

Figure 1. Kataja Belt Gold Targets (Jeesiö Project) near Sodankylä, Finland

In addition to bedrock and boulder mapping, FireFox extended the Katajavaara area ground magnetic survey towards the north, focusing on the KJ Hill prospect, where highly anomalous gold values were previously detected during trenching and bedrock sampling (see Company news release dated January 25, 2023).

The FireFox technical team has now delineated four clusters of gold anomalies with very limited drilling along a corridor of approximately four kilometres, stretching from KJ Hill in the north to the new anomalies in the southwest (termed the Kataja Belt). These gold anomalies are hosted in a range of rock types from metasediments to gabbros and metavolcanics. The rocks are strongly deformed due to intense folding and faulting in the area, and the new magnetic data is expected to improve understanding of the structural and lithological settings that are likely to host the gold along the Kataja Belt.

New Exploration Permits

The Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency (TUKES) has granted three new exploration permits called Pikkulehto, Nunara and Palvasenvuoma, which together cover nearly 22km² of Finland's Central Lapland Greenstone Belt (CLGB). In Finland, the exploration permit allows for mechanized exploration including base of till sampling and drilling (Figure 2).

The Pikkulehto exploration permit area (ML2022:0001-01) is located less than 4 km east of the main Mustajärvi permit and covers roughly 3.2 km². It will be managed together with the Mustajärvi project. The new permit is situated adjacent to a major geological structure, the Venejoki shear zone, and close to the interpreted contact between the Sodankylä and Savukoski Group rocks. Based on the current understanding, the bedrock geology includes quartz-rich metasedimentary rocks, gabbros and mafic volcanic rocks, while graphitic schists and cherts of the Savukoski Group lie less than one kilometer to the NW from the permit. Two historic gold occurrences, Pikku-Mustavaara and Tuongankuusikko, are located within approximately a 1 km radius from the permit boundaries. The Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) and Outokumpu conducted limited exploration within the permit area, including only four drill holes with depths less than 20 metres, and minimal surface sampling (only 18 till samples). Under the previous exploration permit application, the Company conducted limited bedrock and boulder mapping within the Pikkulehto area, yielding one anomalous gold value with of 0.427 g/t from a boulder that was intensively albitized and enriched in pyrite.