This document provides a history of mineral exploration in Ontario's James Bay Lowlands from the 1960s to 2010. It describes how Spider Resources Inc. and KWG Resources Inc. discovered volcanic massive sulfide deposits at McFauld's Lake in 2002 through regional aeromagnetic surveys and follow up drilling. It also details how Noront Resources discovered the Eagle One nickel-copper-PGE deposit at the Ring of Fire in 2007 through drilling a target identified by previous regional surveys. The discovery of chromite at the Big Daddy deposit in 2006 on claims optioned from Freewest Resources is also summarized. The document outlines the shifting focus of exploration from diamonds to base metals over time as new discoveries were made in the region
1. SPIDER RESOURCES INC. The spark that set off the “Ring of Fire” A history of the James Bay Lowlands of Ontario, (1960’s to 2010) Neil Novak, P.Geo., President /CEO Spider Resources Inc. MAY 21, 2010 STUDENT – INDUSTRY MINERAL EXPLORATION WORKSHOP
2. Forward Looking Statement This presentation contains certain “forward-looking statements” and “forward-looking information” under applicable securities laws. Except for statements of historical fact, certain information contained herein constitutes forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as “plan”, “except”, “project”, “intend”, “believe”, “anticipate”, “estimate”, and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions “may” or “will” occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made, and are based on a number of assumptions and subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Assumptions upon which such forward-looking statements are based included that transactions will be completed, that all required third party regulatory, governmental and shareholder approvals for transactions will be obtained and all other conditions to completion of the transactions will be satisfied or waived. Many of these assumptions are based on factors and events that are not within the control of Spider Resources Inc. and there is no assurance they will prove to be correct. Factors that could cause actual results to vary materially from results anticipated by such forward-looking statements include changes in market conditions and other risk factors discussed or referred to in the annual Management’s Discussion and Analysis filed with the applicable securities regulatory authorities and available at www.sedar.com. Although Spider has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Spider undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or management’s estimates or opinions should change except as required by applicable securities laws. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. All dollar amounts are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted.
3. WELCOME TO THE JAMES BAY LOWLANDS OF NORTHERN ONTARIO ONE OF THE PLANET’S LARGEST WETLANDS, A CHALLENGE TO EXPLORE Perseverance with a little bit of Luck
10. 2001 –08: Victor Project permitting/planning process/commissioning
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13. MacFadyen’sGREat Magnetic LINears, or “Gremlins” reminded him of the Alto Paranaiba area of S. America where he had worked for a “major” diamond explorer. These linear features were traceable for several hundreds of kilometres.
14. MacFadyen, Gauthier and Leliever, along with Norman Brewster and Neil Novak developed concept of diamond exploration in Ontario’s north;
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17. Discovery History (1992) Spider-KWG JV search for Diamonds 1992: The Ontario lineaments were indeed cratonic scale, interpreted that they likely tapped the mantle and could provide a conduit for kimberliteemplacment; Based upon this concept a JV partnership was formed between Spider and KWG and we initiated kimberlite exploration in the Temiskaming area, prior to heading into the Lowlands.. In late 1992 we discovered Guigues #1 and the NDN kimberlites near New Liskeard Ont. / Notre Dame du Nord Quebec., completed bulk testing of Bucke 1 and C – 14 kimberlites in Ontario, previously identified by Lac Minerals. Results were not favorable, diamond stability field in this area was not tapped, probability of diamonds being present in high quantities was determined to be low, so we headed north..
20. Winisk River Fault “Ring of Fire” U of T Grad Class of ‘92 Scale 6 feet = 500 kilometers Lake Temiskaming Structural Zone
21. Discovery History (1993) Spider – KWG search for Diamonds 1993 conducted helicopter airborne magnetic (100 metre flight line spacing – 50 meter altitude) survey over eastern portion of James Bay Lowlands focusing around De Beers kimberlites; Identified all of the 16 DeBeers kimberlites plus a few more... named them after Don MacFadyen; Tried various flight line spacing and altitude scenarios until we lost resolution and ability to identify the kimberlites. Novak was managing programs for Spider and KWG so was asked to join BOD of Spider and became VP Exploration for Spider, and Exploration Manager for KWG; Novak still consulted for other juniors as the work in the Lowlands was not a full-time job.
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23. Discovery History (1993 - 96) Spider – KWG search for Diamonds Used lessons learned from heli-survey to design regional surveys, completed three surveys, ‘93, ‘94 and ‘96; Chose 400 metre flight line, 100 metre altitude Fixed Wing survey as first pass to identify regional structures, infill with 200 metre flight lines where warranted; Flew Regional survey over area, followed by “postage stamp” heli-surveys over selected targets; Priority Investigation Points (PIPs) were selected for heli-surveying, followed by quick ground mag check, prior to drill-test.
24. Geologist marking PIP, Helicopter zeroing in on PIP UNB Grad (Ph.D.) Class of ‘76 Still having fun!!!
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26. Discovery History (1993 - 95) Spider – KWG search for Diamonds Feb. 17, 1994 discovered first Jurassic age kimberlite, MacFadyen #1 amongst the DeBeers Jurassic swarm; March 11, 1994 discovered first Lower Proterozoic aged kimberlite at Kyle Lake below 130 metres of Paleozoic Limestone/Sandstone. Continued exploring for kimberlites through to early 1995, finding four more “Kyle” kimberlites beneath the Paleozoic cover rocks of the Hudson Bay sediments using Aeromagnetic prospecting methodology combined with geological macro-thinking…looking for crustal scale structures
28. Discovery History (1996 – 97 - 2001) Spider – KWG search for Diamonds As our search for kimberlites progressed westwards, the Paleozoic cover rock thickness waned, Precambrian rocks started to become more common place; Spider and KWG launched kimberlite indicator mineral (KIM) search in area to the west of Kyle kimberlites to apply normal kimberlite geochemical techniques to area where kimberlites might not be covered by Paleozoic rocks; This new “KIM” geochem data, in combination with geophysical data attracted the attention of DeBeers in early 2001; Little did we know that the geochem/heavy mineral data would become very useful in a later exploration program… when we switched to looking for base metals and chrome.. Meanwhile, Spider and KWG were struggling financially and we brokered a deal with the OGS to sell off our geophysical data for much needed cash to support the project.
29. Discovery History (2001-2003) Spider – KWG/DeBeers search for Diamonds February 28, 2001, Spider and KWG signed JV agreement with DeBeers Canada Exploration whereby DeBeers agreed to utilize the Spider-KWG geophysical and geochemical information in a joint search for diamonds in a specific geographic area; In April 2002, RC hole SP-009, classic kimberlite target, encountered 6 metres of massive sulphides including chalcopyrite and sphalerite, just north of McFaulds Lake, now referred to as McFaulds #1 Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide “VMS” Deposit; After consultation with DeBeers, Spider secretly staked 25 square miles around the discovery hole in late October 2002 and announced the discovery in early November 2002 launching the first wave of staking in the McFaulds Lake area, DeBeers maintains a royalty on these claims.
33. Discovery History (2003-2004) Spider – KWG search for VMS January 2003, Spider and KWG commenced exploration of McFaulds #1 VMS, started drilling and established base camp at McFaulds Lake, April 2003; Continued drilling through summer of 2003, completed ground geophysics and airborne geophysical surveys; Identified and drilled 8 copper – zinc VMS occurrences to end of 2004 fall season. Hole 2004 – 57 intersected 18.8 metres averaging 8.02% copper at McFaulds #3 Other companies were exploring, but had little success at this time, interest in area started to wane...
37. In 2004, Don MacFadyen was still consulting to Spider with his “wall maps” “Ring of Fire” McFaulds #1 VMS
38. Discovery History (2005) Spider – KWG search for VMS January – April 2005, Spider and KWG continued search for VMS, expanding search southwestwards along the Sachigo greenstone belt, checking out airborne electromagnetic anomalies in favourable magnetic regimes; Targeted all coincident electromagnetic - magnetic highs (magnetite/pyrrhotite – chalcopyrite association) in proximity to regional magnetic low trends (felsic – intermediate volcanic assemblage); Discovered two more small occurrences about 30 kilometres to the west, but only returned low values in copper and zinc; Our interest in area started to wane..., most other explorers had left the area, base metal prices were slumping... We started to have trouble raising exploration money. Was it time to refocus our exploration efforts back to diamonds???
39. Discovery History (2005) Spider – KWG agreements amended By the fall of 2005 discussions ensued with Freewest Resources Canada Inc. on a group of claims to the west of the McFaulds #1 and #3 VMS occurrences, whereby Spider/KWG JV could earn an interest in the Freewest claims under an earn-in option agreement, an agreement was finalized in early December. In late December 2005, due to problems raising exploration capital, Spider and KWG agreed to review projects and refocus on what each respective BOD wanted to focus on; KWG elected to go forward with diamonds and focus on the MacFadyen diamond project, contiguous to the Victor development project of DeBeers, KWG to spend funds to dilute Spider to 1/3 interest; Spider elected to go forward on the VMS project, on the Kyle diamond project and on another diamond project (near Wawa Ont.), by spending funds to dilute KWG to 1/3 interest; Both KWG and Spider elected to go forward equally on two projects, the newly acquired Freewest option, and the Diagnos Project.
40. Discovery History (2006) Spider – KWG / Freewest Option Spider and KWG agreed with Freewest to incur an initial $200,000 in expenditures prior to end of February 2006 on claims and to issue shares or cash to Freewest to meet initial option earn-in requirement. Spider and KWG further agreed to incur $3 million in expenditures prior to the end of October 2010 on the claims to earn 50% interest in the claims. The initial share/cash payments were made and the initial $200,000 exploration expenditures were made in a timely manner by drilling a planned 4 holes on the property in early 2006; Hole FWR-06-03 as announced on March 6, 2006 encountered two zones of massive chromitite in a peridotite, the upper zone assayed 22.7% Chrome, 0.166 g/t Platinum, 0.24 g/t Palladium over 1.05 meters, while the lower zone assayed 23.7% Chrome, 0.21 g/t Platinum and 0.462 g/t Palladium, over 0.6 meters. THIS BEING THE DISCOVERY HOLE FOR BIG DADDY.
41. Discovery History (2006-07) Spider – KWG / Other Projects After the discovery of Chromite in peridotite on the Freewest Option property, as well as the contained PGE’s, Spider and KWG began researching this new discovery to try to understand the significance, as not much is known in Canada about chromite, only a few geological examples existed in our literature, research led us to South Africa’s Bushveldt Complex, where much is written. Grades in the mid 20’s were not that impressive, the project was put on the shelf. Spider was looking for other ways to keep interest in James Bay Lowlands alive, sought out other partners; McFaulds VMS project was an attractive exploration project, marketed it to Vancouver based UC Resources Ltd., Novak was a Director of this company and he knew they were looking for a Canadian based exploration project in early 2007.
42. Discovery History (2006-07) Spider – KWG / UC Option UC agreed to a 4 year Option to incur $4.5 million in expenditure on the McFaulds Lake VMS project to earn 55% interest, must spend $1 million in year one. UC commenced drilling in June 2007, completed 7 holes by early August ’07 on the McFaulds #3 occurrence as needed for resource definition, under auspices of Billiken Managment Services Inc., a service provider that Neil Novak had formed a few years earlier, but had recently sold to employees. Drill was then seconded to Noront Resources Ltd. to test the “Condor property” hosting an anomaly located about 20 kilometres to the west, that had been identified by Novak/Nemis (both of Noront) and acquired by Noront that needed drill testing prior to end of 2007 as part of acquisition agreement. Needless to say the drill test of the “Condor Property” was successful. Eagle One was discovered…
43. Discovery History (2007) Noront Discovery of Eagle One In early September 07, Noront Resources Ltd. announced the results of NOT-07-01 that included the intersection of 1.1% nickel, 0.9% copper and 2.1 grams/tonne palladium over 71.5 metres, this was followed by better results in the second hole, however holes 3 and 4 missed. Hole 5 drilled vertically, returned 117 metres averaging 4.1% nickel and 2.2% copper, plus PGE’s. The Nickel sulphides were in a Magmatic Massive Sulphide (“MMS”) setting in a peridotite intrusion, injected between a granodiorite to the northwest and metavolcanic assemblage to the southeast Holes 1 and 2 as well as hole 5 announcements fuelled the staking rush in the area; Novak as a result of the recommendation to acquire and drill the Condor property and the resultant discovery, and also as a result of his role as director of Noront, became VP Exploration of Noront, but still maintained position as President/CEO of Spider..., was now wearing two hats... The “Ring of Fire” was ablaze...
45. Discovery History (2008) Noront Discovery of Eagle Two/BlackBird One Many holes later, Noront went looking for additional “EAGLES” and by early 2008 opted to test a coincident magnetic – electromagnetic anomaly located about 2.5 kilometres to the SW of Eagle One. Net-textured nickel cumulates, indicative of magmatic massive sulphide was observed, followed by a thick succession of massive chromite??? Eagle Two was discovered, but what was chromite doing here? Host rock for this MMS as well as Eagle One was a peridotite intrusion, and about 6 kilometres to the northeast Novak recalled the 2006 Freewestchromite hole... could it be that they were related???
47. Discovery History (2008) Spider-KWG resume drilling at Freewest Option In light of the Noront Blackbird discovery, Spider and KWG commenced drilling on their Freewest Option property throughout much of 2008, ending in October; Freewest as well had realized that their property had the potential to host chromite as the regional magnetics inferred a continuation of the interpreted Ring of Fire Intrusive from the Noront BB occurrence(s) through the Spider-KWG option property into the Freewest 100% owned property immediately to the north. Freewest commenced drilling in early 2008 and have identified two major deposits of chromite: Black Label and Black Thor
48. Many companies arrived taking up land positions in 2008 through to 2009, but most of the success was still focused around the southeast portion of the Ring
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50. Magnetics Helped Define Geology Ultramafic rocks have high magnetic susceptibility pattern (dark red)
51. Geological Interpretation (Franklin and Mungall 2008) Black Thor (Freewest) BB1(Noront) From geophysical and drill data, a preliminary geological map outlines the distribution of key target rocks- the ultramafics- that host Cr and Ni occurrences
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53. These provide the resource boundaries; about nine km of total strike length
56. Big Daddy Massive Chromite Domain23.2 million tonnes averaging 40.66% Cr2O3 (indicated resource)
57. World Chromite Production South Africa, India and Kazakhstan represents 78% Brazil, Finland, Russia, Zimbabwe and Turkey =12% Canada poised to be the next shining star with respect to chrome
58. World Resources of Chromite Total (non 43-101 compliant) resource estimates (USGS) South Africa: 2,910 mt Kazakhstan: 1,110mt India: 1,090 mt Russia: 291mt Zimbabwe: 215 mt Turkey: 208 mt Brazil: 190 mt Finland; 174 mt Oman: 102 mt These are the major suppliers of chrome ore today: where does Canada fit?
59. Where Does Canada Fit In? “Ring of Fire” area already has measured and indicated (58.2 million tonnes) plus inferred (total 89.8 mt) resources, and many of theses zones are still open to depth and along strike, totaling nearly 150 million tonnes. Noront announced BB1+2 resource (measured, indicated and inferred) of ~11 million tonnes averaging 36% Cr2O3 Freewest announced Black Thor resource (inferred) of 70 million tonnes averaging 32% Cr2O3 Big Daddy (Spider-KWG-Cliffs) recently announced (May 3, 2010) resource (indicate and inferred) of 40 million tonnes averaging 40% Cr2O3. Big Daddy and its relatives, Blackbird 1 and 2 (Noront), Black Thor and Black Label (Cliffs) are not yet fully defined, and are considered geologically semi-contiguous. A total resource of about 200 mt, although not yet outlined, is very possible Canada could soon place between 4th and 8th in the world, and much more could be discovered, we believe Big Daddy alone continues to at least 1.7 kilometres in depth, based upon geophysical modeling.. The McFaulds area could become the largest supplier of chrome in the Americas, surpassing Brazil at 7th.
60. Spider’s Big Daddy in the Ring of Fire - Infrastructure Ring of Fire JV Chromite Canada Chrome’s Railway engineering study 280km north of Nakina and the CNR Railroad Chrome Canada (wholly owned sub of KWG) has undertaken engineering study on railroad link costing ~$10 million “Ring” has best potential as first North American supplier
61. The Future: Ring of Fire- The World’s Next Major Chrome Producer??? Initial metallurgical work shows that a good quality product can be produced from the massive chromitezone, Big Daddy falls into “lumpy ore” category This chromite is amenable to upgrading to ferrochrome, a highly desired product for the steel industry Initial drilling and geophysics infer that the identified deposits of Spider, KWG, Cliffs, Noront and Probe extend deeper, and further along strike, than already determined Nearby Ni-Cu-PGE (Noront’s Eagles Nest), Cu-Zn (Spider’s McFaulds #1 and #3) and Au (Noront’s Triple J) discoveries all contribute to the economic potential of this fertile region we call the “Ring of Fire”
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64. Acknowledgements Spider Resources Inc. (James Burns and Jim Franklin) KWG Resources Inc (Moe Lavigne) Freewest Resources Canada Inc. (Cliffs) Rick Kruse, Don Hoy Noront Resources Ltd. (Jim Atkinson) Probe Mines Ltd. (Dr. David Palmer) Scott Hogg and Associates (Steve Munro and Scott Hogg) Micon International Ltd. (Charlie Murahwi) Sibley Basin Group (Alan Aubut) Billiken Management Services Inc. (staff) Dr. James Scoates(UBC) Dr. Jim Mungall (U of T) consultant to Noront helped to develop the geological map along with Dr. Jim Franklin The author of this presentation cannot verify the accuracy of the resource estimations, but these are done to standards accepted by the relevant regulatory agencies.
65. Bill Dennis Prospector of Year Award 2010 Ed Thompson Mac Watson Dick Nemis John Harvey Don Hoy Neil Novak
66. This presentation done in memory of: Donald MacFadyen passed away December, 2009 Gordon Leliever passed away August, 2008
Editor's Notes
This area surrounds the DeBeerskimberlite field, and within this area we also identified two additional kimberlites right away, that DeBeers had overlooked or had not bothered drill testing.