Northquest Ltd. (NQ:CA)

Northquest Ltd. was incorporated in 2008 to provide resource investors with an opportunity to invest in a company exploring for gold and other metals in Canada, Mali, and other prospective geological terranes in other jurisdictions. In order to decrease geologic risk as much as possible, the emphasis is on selecting projects in permissive rocks and in jurisdictions and geologic terranes which have not achieved exploration maturity. In order to acquire large,
prospective, exploration projects that meet those criteria, the Company's projects may be in remote areas, such as the Canadian Arctic, or in jurisdictions which have a certain amount of country risk.

Pistol Bay Project

The Pistol Bay Project, Nunavut, consists of 673 square kilometres of mineral rights. The property is located approximately 60 kilometres south of Rankin Inlet and 80 kilometres south of the Meliadine Project of Agnico Eagle Mines (2.9 million ounces at a grade of 7.2 grams gold per tonne).
The property geology and the mineral occurrences resemble the mirror image of the Meliadine trend 80 kilometres to the north. Both the Pistol Bay and Meliadine trends consist of mineralized iron formations, intrusions, and silicified fault zones along the boundary fault of a gneiss block. In spite of the similarity to Meliadine, comprehensive, modern, exploration has never been carried out on the Pistol Bay trend.




The Pistol Bay project is in the early stages of exploration. The first phase of exploration by Northquest in 2011 indicates that there is a deformation corridor “The Pistol Bay Corridor” trending northwest and with a nominal width of at least 2 kilometres, that contains gold occurrences within epizonal porphyries, gabbro-diorite intrusions and banded iron formations, over at least 20 kilometres of strike length on the property. From east to west, the main gold occurrences are the Sako, Vickers, and Bazooka Occurrences.

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Mali Projects

The Company has 5 projects in Mali, viz.: Bananko (133 square km), Silimana (110 square km), Banmba (118 square km), Dar Salam (150 square km) and Debela (113 square km) for a total of approximately 700 square km of mineral rights.



The properties are in the prolific gold producing Birimian stratigraphy of West Africa which contains, among many other deposits, the Ashanti–Obuasi deposits in Ghana, and the Sadiola, Syama, Morila, and Lolou deposits in Mali.



Distribution of the Birimian of west Africa and location of major gold deposits. (click the map to enlarge)





Location of the projects, major gold deposits and the Keneiba Corridor of Western Mali and Guinea. (click the map to enlarge)



Bananko Project



The exploration permit for the Bananko Property was acquired on September 8, 2009. The Bananko Property is a conceptual gold project in the Birimian stratigraphy of West Africa. The property is 225 km southeast of Bamako and 60 km SE of the Morila Mine (7.5 MM oz.). The property is within the Massigui greenstone belt of volcanic rocks, sedimentary rocks, and plutons, metamorphosed to greenschist facies. The Morila gold deposit is in the northern part of the belt. The Morila deposit is hosted by silicified turbidite with quartz–arsenopyrite veins.



The Company has completed a low density geochemical survey of the permit and has excavated 33 pits. Three corridors of geochem anomalies are interpreted, two trending NE and one trending NW. Further termite mound sampling and pit excavations are planned in areas with gold concentrations in termite mound samples. Six pits were excavated at Bananko in January 2012. Sixty-one samples plus six standards, blanks, and duplicates were submitted for assay. The bottom saprolite sample in pit 11 BP 47 bis consisted of silicified greywacke and contained 1,145 ppb gold. In addition, 10 rock samples from sites of artisanal workings, plus three standards, duplicates, and blanks were assayed for quality control.
If the results from this work are positive, it is anticipated that the Company will complete a preliminary drilling program consisting of approximately 2,500 metres of air core or reverse circulation drilling.



Banmba Project



On 21 September, 2010, the Company acquired an option to acquire 100% interest in the Banmba Permit in southern Mali from a local Malian private company. The permit is 118 km2. The terms of the option to acquire a 100% interest are as follows (figures in $US):

Signing: $ 20,000

First Anniversary: $ 20,000

Second Anniversary: $ 30,000

Third Anniversary: $ 50,000



The Optionor retains 3% NSR of which 1/3 can be purchased at any time for $2 M and 1/3 can be purchased any time for $ 5 M such that the Optionor will retain 1% NSR. There has only been a minor amount of work completed on this permit. It is a grass roots project. Preliminary termite mound sampling will be completed 2011. It is expected that the Company will collect approximately 3,000 termite mound samples and, if warranted, complete follow up exploration on any anomalies with additional termite mound sampling and pit excavations.



Dar Salam Project



On 23 September, 2010, the Company acquired an option to acquire 100% interest in the Dar Salam Permit in southern Mali from a local Malian individual. This project is in western Mali and consists of 150 km2.

The terms of the option to acquire a 100% interest are as follows (figures in $US):

Signing: $ 20,000

First Anniversary: $ 20,000

Second Anniversary: $ 30,000

Third Anniversary: $ 50,000



The Optionor retains 3% NSR of which 1/3 can be purchased at any time for $2 M and 1/3 can be purchased any time for $ 5 M such that the Optionor will retain 1% NSR.



In the early 1990's, a nominal amount of soil and termite mound sampling and minor reverse circulation (RC) drilling were carried out on the permit. It has been reported that two of the RC holes intersected highly anomalous gold (i.e. greater than 1 g/t gold) over several metres. The Company drilled 16 reverse circulation drill holes totalling 2,157m in February 2012. A total of 1,123 rock chip samples were collected at 2 metre intervals of all of the drill holes and 198 duplicate, standards, and blanks were assayed for quality control. There were no significant gold concentrations in any of the samples that were analyzed. The Company will follow up at Mikaya, which is located in the northern part of the project. 



Silimana project



On 19 August, 2010, the Company received a 90 day Authorization to complete due diligence on the Silimana Permit in southern Mali which has an area of 110 km2. The Silimana project is an early stage, conceptual exploration project. It is expected that the Company will collect approximately 2,000 termite mound samples in 2011 and, if warranted, complete follow up exploration on any anomalies with additional termite mound sampling and pit excavations.
Debela project
The Company has completed the initial termite mound sampling and regolith mapping at Debela. A total of 1,115 termite mound samples plus 69 duplicates, standards, and blanks were collected on a nominal 400 metre by 200 metre grid. In addition, eleven rock samples were collected from various sites of old artisinal workings. Anomaly gold in termite mound sampling coincident with UNDP soil anomaly will require follow up and pit excavation.
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