Panoramic view from Elliot Lake’s fire tower, overlooking lush forests and the distant horizon under an overcast sky. Stock image.
Power One Resources (TSXV: PWRO) announced the first-ever discovery of gold mineralization at its Pecors property, located about 10 km east of Elliot Lake, Ontario. This significant finding broadens the project’s exploration scope, which has historically focused on uranium and base metals.
“This is a game-changer for Pecors,” Dr. Wazir Khan, company CEO stated, highlighting the rarity of identifying gold on a property with a uranium legacy.
Power One controls one of the largest contiguous land packages in the Elliot Lake district, a region renowned for its rich history in uranium mining and increasingly recognized for critical and precious metals. In addition to uranium, the presence of nickel, copper, platinum group metals (PGMs), and rare earth elements (REEs) enhances the property’s polymetallic potential.
The company’s 2023 drill program at Pecors initially targeted shallow, near-surface REE deposits. However, during this program, drilling unexpectedly encountered a gold-bearing system, marking a historic milestone as the first gold discovery on the property.
The drill program itself indicated remarkable results, with highlights including 1.025 g/t gold over 1.5 metres in hole P02401, starting at 242 metres downhole, alongside multiple anomalous intercepts ranging from 0.035 to 1.25 g/t gold in hole P02403.
This gold discovery comes at a strategic time amid record-high gold prices, fueled by inflation, global instability and central bank purchases. “Gold is continuing to outperform, and this discovery adds a new layer of potential at Pecors,” Khan remarked, indicating that the project is in the early stages of what appears to be a very large, polyphase system.
Pecors extends over an 18 km by 4 km magnetic anomaly within the historically significant Elliot Lake uranium camp, known as one of Canada’s most prolific uranium districts. The region produced over 300 million lb. of U₃O₈ from the 1950s through the 1990s, and was once a global leader in uranium production. However, in 1959, the United States announced plans to cut all Canadian uranium imports by 1962, impacting local mining operations.
Power One noted the presence of a historical, non-NI 43-101 uranium resource estimated by Rio Tinto in 1977, comprising approximately 20 million tonnes grading 0.037% U₃O₈, equating to about 14.8 million lb. of U₃O₈.
In addition to gold, confirmed mineralization includes nickel, copper and PGMs. The property also shows potential for rare earth elements aligned with nearby known REE zones and hints of hydrocarbon presence, enhancing its overall polymetallic potential.
The Pecors property is strategically located just east of the Eco Ridge deposit, which is hosted in the same formation and contains known mineralization of uranium, yttrium and light REEs. Owned by Radio Fuels Resources, the Eco Ridge deposit offers significant strategic upside for Power One, as its geological and structural similarities could indicate the potential for analogous polymetallic systems.
Going forward, Power One plans to re-log and re-sample the drill core to refine its geological understanding of the polymetallic system, and to conduct further sampling of the gold-bearing zone.