http://www.geologyontario.mndm.gov.on.ca/mndmfiles/pub/data/imaging/OFR6181/OFR6181.pdf

Adel Property
A joint venture was initiated in 2005 between Freewest Resources Canada Inc. and Teck Cominco Limited on the
Adel gold property, approximately 50 km east of Longlac (Freewest Canada Resources Inc., news release,
September 13, 2005). Teck Cominco Limited had carried out some preliminary prospecting, trenching and sampling
in late 2004 southeast of Adel Lake (J. Paakki, Teck Cominco Limited, personal communication, January 2005). A
40 m wide altered and mineralized zone was uncovered near some old trenches. Grab samples returned up to 18 g/t
Au from silicified, sulphidized (pyrite, arsenopyrite) banded iron formation and quartz porphyry (J. Paakki, Teck
Cominco Limited, personal communication, January 2005). Freewest staked additional claims to the north and west,
bringing the total land holdings to 481 claim units (news release, September 13, 2005) and initiated a program of
prospecting, mapping, stripping and sampling.
The area was mapped by Amukun (1984). The Adel property straddles the boundary between the southern
Wabigoon and northern Quetico subprovinces, which, in this area, is manifested by the east-trending Gravel River–
Kamuck River fault (Carter 1975; Kresz and Zayachivsky 1993). Greenschist- to lower amphibolite-facies
metasedimentary rocks (phyllites, schists) on the north side of the fault are juxtaposed with mid-to upper
amphibolite-facies diatexites and migmatites, largely derived from metasedimentary protoliths, south of the fault.
Gold mineralization was noted by Amukun (1984) along the east-trending Klob Lake–Hoiles Creek fault southeast
of Adel Lake. In 1979, Onesime Albert prospected and trenched banded iron formation and sulphide-rich clastic
metasedimentary rocks; sampling of this occurrence by Amukun (1984) returned 9 ppm Au. According to
Amukun’s (1984) regional mapping, the fault in this area forms the contact between metasedimentary rocks on the
north and quartz-feldspar-phyric rocks to the south, which Amukun suggested were part of the Paglamin Lake
granodiorite stock.
A property report prepared by Palmer (2005) for Freewest listed a number of gold occurrences on the Adel property:
Gabbro Lake; Onesime Nos. 1, 2 and 3; North Contact zone; Otto shafts; Kenogamisis; and Gabbro Creek South.
Staff of the Thunder Bay North Resident Geologist’s Program (RGP) visited and sampled old trenches and areas
stripped and exposed by Teck Cominco in 2004, referred to as the Onesime No. 1 showing (approximate UTM
575800E, 5512900N). The main mineralized zone is situated between garnet-, biotite-, staurolite- and amphiboleporphyroblastic
metasedimentary rocks and quartz-feldspar-phyric metavolcanic rocks. The clastic
metasedimentary rocks consist of sandstone and wacke, in which relict graded bedding suggests southward
younging. These rocks become more argillaceous and sulphide-rich to the south (i.e., near the main mineralized
zone). The quartz-feldspar-phyric rocks that bound the mineralized zone to the south are foliated, recrystallized and
are typified by flattened quartz “eyes” in a sericitic schist. Despite deformation and annealing, fragments are locally
discernable, suggesting that perhaps this is a felsic pyroclastic unit. This unit locally contains dark grey, foliationparallel
quartz stringers and other quartz veins that are oblique to the foliation. A similarly strained rock, exposed on
the northwestern shore of Adel Lake (UTM 573583E, 5513002N), may be part of the same felsic unit.
The target of stripping and sampling has been a siliceous, non-magnetic, rusty, argillaceous shale containing pyrite
and finely disseminated, euhedral arsenopyrite. Palmer (2005) noted that thin bands of pyrite and pyrrhotite in
graphitic shale and argillite occur over a 1400 m strike length and correspond to an airborne electromagnetic
anomaly. Weathering has produced white iron hydroxides. Translucent, colourless, bladed gypsum crystals, noted
on fracture and joint surfaces, were identified by X-ray diffraction analysis (Resident Geologist’s Files, Thunder
Bay North District, Thunder Bay). A sample of sulphide-mineralized rock near the felsic metavolcanic contact
collected by Freewest in 2004 returned 4.5 g/t Au (D. Hoy, Freewest Resources Canada Inc., personal
communication, 2005). Locally, arsenopyrite is coarse grained, subhedral and semi-massive. Despite the ubiquity
of pyrite and arsenopyrite throughout the mineralized zone, gold values are erratically distributed. Four grab
samples, containing from less than 1% to 3% arsenopyrite, were collected by RGP staff; all returned less than
0.01 ounce Au per ton (Resident Geologist’s Files, Thunder Bay North District, Thunder Bay). However, more than
half of the 95 samples collected by Freewest within this 30 m wide altered and mineralized zone returned more than
100 ppb Au; 27 of these samples returned over 500 ppb Au (Palmer 2005). The highest gold values (1190 ppb Au
over 2.5 m) occur at the contact with the felsic metavolcanic rocks to the south. A sample of the silicified
metavolcanic unit returned 4771 ppb Au (Palmer 2005). Palmer (2005) also noted that elevated gold values
(>1000 ppb Au) are associated with hanging walls of a series of low-angle to moderately south-dipping faults within
the altered zone.

Freewest and Teck Cominco’s recent success has reinforced the gold potential of this largely overlooked portion of the
Beardmore–Geraldton belt. Amukun (1984) mapped and recommended the area for gold exploration, citing similarities
to the past-producing Geraldton camp (cf. Smyk et al. 2005). The continuity of the banded iron formation from the
Macleod–Cockshutt–Hardrock mines area to north of Pagwachuan Lake is revealed on the regional airborne magnetic
survey (Ontario Geological Survey 1989). Most of the observed shear zones and other key structures were noted in the
vicinity of known gold occurrences. These shear zones should be traced by prospecting and stripping and their
extensions extrapolated on the basis of strained and altered rocks within and flanking these zones have been converted
into biotite-, chlorite-, sericite- and/or carbonate-bearing schists. The Klob Lake–Hoiles Creek fault may be the
eastern extension of the Burrows River fault and deformation zone, which has been traced through Fulford and
McQuesten townships by Beakhouse (1989) and Croll, Houck and Oakes townships and Daley Township by Kresz
and Zayachivsky (1991, 1993), respectively. Deformed and altered rocks and any quartz-carbonate veins in the
vicinity of such structures should be systematically sampled. Arsenopyrite is locally a good pathfinder mineral for
gold. It has been noted in association with gold mineralization in sulphidized banded iron formation, clastic
sedimentary rocks, quartz porphyry and quartz-carbonate veins (Amukun 1984; Macdonald 1938).
The Paglamin Lake granodiorite stock and its environs is also recommended as a focus for exploration. Gold
occurrences (e.g., Caramat Gold Mines; Adel Lake; west of Secon Lake) are associated with sheared and altered
zones in felsic intrusive rocks and flanking clastic metasedimentary rocks with quartz-carbonate veining. Samples of
granodiorite and quartz veins collected by RGP staff in 2005 from old trenches (Macdonald 1938) near the northern
shore of Paglamin Lake returned up to 0.07 ounce Au per ton (Resident Geologist’s Files, Thunder Bay North
District, Thunder Bay). At this location, intensely sheared granodiorite has been converted into a pyrite- and
chalcopyrite-bearing, chlorite-sericite-iron carbonate phyllonite. This stock may be analogous to the Croll Lake
stock, which is regarded by some researchers as the source of mineralizing fluids in the Geraldton camp. This
relatively under-explored area warrants further investigation.