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Edleston Gold Project

ABITIBI BELT, ONTARIO, CANADA
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EDLESTON GOLD PROJECT AT A GLANCE

Operation Size

~310km2

SGS BOTTLE GRAVITY AND BOTTLE ROLL TEST RECOVERY AVERAGE

89-93%

Mineral Resources Estimate

1,500,100oz @ 1.1g/t Au

DRILLING COMPLETED

115,145m

ALL TIME HIGH-GRADE INTERCEPTS UNDERPIN THE HIGHLY PROSPECTIVE PARIS GOLD PROJECT

Aston Minerals (now merged with Torque Metals) acquired the Edleston Gold Project in 2020. Some of the project’s all-time best results are listed below.

BEST RESULTS INCLUDE:

 

  • 5.3m at 42.44 g/t Au from 111m (SL-12-86)
  • 3.3m at 57.4 g/t Au from 207.4m (SL-12-129)
  • 1.5m at 15.74 g/t Au from 298.15m (SL-13-158)
  • 2.03m at 11.11 g/t Au from 79m (DDED21-015)

EDLESTON GOLD PROJECT: GOLD OPPORTUNITY IN ESTABLISHED GEOGRAPHY

The Edleston Gold Project is situated in the well-renowned Abitibi Belt, 60km via road to the south of Timmins, Ontario, Canada. Its ~310km² land package is surrounded by numerous processing facilities from mining majors including Alamos Gold, IAMGOLD and Newmont.

This region is additionally home to significant gold mining operations, such as the likes of IAMGOLD’s Cote Lake, Newmont’s Hollinger and Porcupine, Pan American Silver’s Timmins West and Alamos Gold’s Young-Davidson Gold Mines.

Edelston Gold Project

The Edleston Project in Ontario, Canada, is approximately 60km to the south of the town of Timmins and 80 km to the West of the town of Kirkland Lake.

Both towns are the headquarters of significant mining and exploration companies, and therefore well placed to provide skilled labour and specialised services to support Edleston.

 

LEVERAGING HISTORIC AND CURRENT DRILL DATA TO FORMULATE A COMPREHENSIVE MINERAL RESOURCE ESTIMATE

Aston Minerals has completed 115,145m of drilling since acquiring the project in 2020, splitting its focus between the project’s gold and nickel prospects. Between 2021-2023, a core focus of the Company, however, was the definition of a maiden gold resource at Edleston.

Resultingly, the Company appointed Cube Consulting Ltd (Cube) to prepare a gold Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for Edleston Main, Central Zone and Sirola Gold Prospects. Cube utilised a total of 226 diamond drill holes for 76,743m of drilling to underpin the Edleston MRE, including:

  • 156 diamond drill holes for >46,000m of drilling completed by predecessors.
  • 60 diamond drill holes for 28,360m of drilling completed by Aston Minerals.

The Global Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) completed for the Edleston Gold Project is 48.1 Mt at 1.00 g/t Au for 1,500,100 oz Au and comprises:

  • 19.20Mt @ 0.9g/t gold for 573,200 ounces – Edleston Main Zone
  • 28.30Mt @ 1.0g/t gold for 906,400 ounces – Sirola Zone
  • 0.6Mt @ 1.0g/t gold for 20,500 ounces – Central Zone

Resource Classification breakdown for Edleston Main Zone includes:

  • 14Mt @ 0.9 g/t gold for 400,200 ounces (69.81%) classified as Indicated and 5.2Mt @1.0 g/t gold for 173,000 ounces (30.19%) classified as Inferred.

Resource Classification breakdown for Sirola Zone includes:

  • 28.30Mt @ 1.0g/t gold for 906,400 ounces (100%) classified as Inferred.

Resource Classification breakdown for Central Zone includes:

  • 0.6Mt @ 1.0g/t gold for 20,500 ounces (100%) classified as Inferred.

The Edleston MRE mineralisation is largely near-surface in nature, lending itself to selective open pit mining methodology. However, with significant mineralisation also intersected up to 760m VD (Edleston Main) and at 850m VD (Sirola), underground mining methods will also be considered for additional mining studies.

The Edleston MRE represents 2 km of a total of 10 km of prospective stratigraphy along strike

ADVANTAGEOUS GEOGRAPHICAL DIVERSIFICATION, UNTAPPED EXPLORATION OPPORTUNITY

The Edleston Gold Project is strategically situated in the renowned Abitibi Greenstone Belt and contributes a significant resource of 1.5 million ounces at 1.0 g/t gold. This project’s ~310km² landholding offers additional high-grade exploration opportunities, further solidifying Torque’s growth potential.

Exploration by Aston Minerals across the Hangingwall and Edleston East Targets showed promise, with further structural targeting analysis programs a proposed follow up activity. The basis of these suggested works was through previously reported high-grade drilling results.

A standout result at Edleston East included:

  • 1.5m at 1,356g/t Au from 362m including 0.5m at 4,060g/t Au (DDED21-003)

High grade drilling results from the Hangingwall Target include:

  • 5.3m at 42.44g/t Au from 111m (SL-12-86)
  • 3.3m at 57.4g/t Au from 207.4m (SL-12-129)
  • 1.5m at 15.74g/t Au from 298.15m (SL-13-158)
  • 2.03m at 11.11g/t Au from 79m (DDED21-015)

In early 2024, Aston Minerals appointed SGS Lakefield – an industry leader in metallurgical and mineralogical testing based in Ontario— to perform 9 individual gravity and cyanide leachability tests on 4 composite core samples from the Edleston Main Zone Gold Resource.

A total of 11 gold bearing cores (taken from previous drilling at Edleston Main and included in the current 1.5Moz gold Resource) were used in the metallurgical test program. Recoveries for gravity and leach processing ranged between 89.1% and 93.3% and head grades ranged between 0.92g/t and 1.21g/t Au.

Whilst these tests utilised conventional gold recovery methods and industry standard reagent additions and residence times to produce already-substantial rates of recovery, the Company identified that there is further optimisation potential.

Edleston is located within the Abitibi Greenstone Belt of Archean metavolcanic and metasedimentary assemblages, which have been steeply folded with the axes trending in a general east-west direction. These have been intruded mainly by large granitic bodies and by masses of mafic and ultramafic rocks as well as several ages of younger dolerite dykes. The Abitibi Greenstone Belt extends from north-eastern Ontario and northern Quebec for over 800km.

Regionally, the Project is located within the western extension of the Cadillac-Larder Fault Zone along which a number of major gold deposits and mines are located. The occurrence of a Timiskaming conglomerate, similar to that occurring at Kirkland Lake, at several places within the eastern extent of the Project supports this view.

Edleston’s host lithology is an altered and sheared ultramafic that exhibits extensive silicification and contains abundant quartz-carbonate veins, veinlets and fracture fill. This host unit extends over 8km to the east of the drilled area.

Mineralisation is broadly distributed throughout this lithology as pyrite in ranges of 3 to 5% with trace chalcopyrite and occasional visible gold. Intercalated volcanic and metasedimentary units lie to the north and south of the Edleston mineralised zone.

Along strike 1.5km to the east of the drill defined Edleston Zone is the Sirola Zone, which exhibits identical geology and mineralisation and contains some of the only exposed outcrops in the region. Outcrops consist of an altered reddish feldspar porphyry which lies in contact with mineralised ultramafic volcanic. These formations have a general strike of 100 degrees azimuth with a steep dip and are generally sheared and highly altered by carbonatisation and silicification.