Beauce Gold Fields Inc. announced it has bulked sampled northeastern tributaries of the historical paleoplacer channel on the Beauce Gold property situated in St-Simon les Mine, Quebec. Bulk sampled locations were chosen to test what are believed to be pre-glacial tributaries that fed gold into the Gilbert River valley, forming the paleoplacer channel consisting of auriferous till and Saprolite layering at the bottom of the valley. Three sites were selected to test the northeast extensions of the paleoplacer channel.

They are easily accessible at depths of less than 8 meters and have historical overburden drill holes reporting gold. St-Gustave Bulk 3SW: 21 cubic meters bulked. Brown saprolite with a mixture of rock debris.

It is located near Rang St-Gustave and the Gilbert River section 3SW site of the 1960s Yuba dredging operation. Rang VI Bulk G-80-A: 18 cubic meters bulked. Very compact gray till in contact with bedrock.

Macamic 1987 RC drill hole G-95 exhibited a 3.6 g/m³ grade. Rang 14 Bulk G95: 17 cubic meters bulked. Compact gray till in contact with bedrock.

Located 4km SW of Saint-Benjamin near section G-95. Macamic 1987 RC drill hole G-95 exhibited a 2.12 g/m³ grade. 500 m SE of the junction between roads Rang 6 and 14.

This site extends the canal to the northeast and beyond G-95 towards Saint-Benjamin. Explolab of Val D'Or Quebec utilized a mobile placer plant equipped with a trommel and sluice to process the samples on the Company's Beauce Gold property. It allowed the bulked samples to be reduced to concentrates for transport to Explolab's laboratory for finer processing.

The samples were subjected to gravimetric concentration to make concentrates of heavy minerals. The concentrates were divided into batches of 500 grams and sent to MSALABS in Val d'Or for Photonassay analysis. PhotonAssay is a non-destructive technique that can assay for non-visible gold to nuggets without destroying the sample.

The non-destructive analysis allows for further testing and confirmation of visible gold content if necessary. The complete concentrates will be divided into multiple jars of up to 500 grams and sent to MSALABS in Val d'Or for a whole Photonassay analysis. The assays from all jars are combined on a weight-averaged basis to obtain indicative grades in grams per cubic meter (g/m3).

Regarding the Historical Placer Channel: The historical channel, spanning 6.5 kilometres from Carron Creek to Rang XI Road, has undergone extensive mining and exploration. Recent overburden drilling and LiDAR data indicate that the placer channel may extend an additional 4 kilometres northeastward towards St-Benjamin. Studies revealed that the auriferous saprolite unit of the paleoplacer channel is thicker and broader than previously estimated (see BGF press release January 17, 2023).

The weathering of sulphides and significant erosion of quartz veins and antiform folds within the conceptual Saddle Reef formation, northeast of the paleoplacer channel, could have released gold and materials. These may have contributed to forming of a thick colluvial mantle covering the sides and bottom of the Gilbert River valley. Tributaries entering the valley from the northwest, such as Giroux Creek, may have eroded sections of the Saddle Reef formation, which is a leading hypothesis for the source of the historical placer gold deposit.

Coarse gold grains and nuggets are believed to have both detrital and chemical origins. The former results from weathered rock, while the latter implies that the gold initially dissolved before precipitating as growing nuggets in fractured saprolite and oxidized shale layers. This conceptual geological model receives support from IP surveys, observations of eroded anticline vertical limbs in layered sedimentary and volcanic bedrock from 2019-2020 trenches, and the discovery of an exposed domed Axis of Antiform ridges along Giroux Creek.

This axis trends 4 kilometres from northeast to southwest north of the Gilbert River, aligning with the historical placer gold channel (BGF press releases 2021-12-21, 2021-03-19). The hypothesis suggests that placer gold within the Beauce Gold paleochannel, including the renowned large nuggets from the 19th century, formed in stressed quartz pockets within layered domed Axis of Antiforms, exemplified by Saddle Reef formations. Notable global Saddle Reef formations include the Bendigo and Ballarat gold fields in Australia (over 60 million ounces) and the high-grade Dufferin deposit in Nova Scotia.