Forum Energy Metals Inc, (TSXV:FMC)

Forum Energy Metals Corp. is a Canadian-based mineral resource company focused on the acquisition, exploration and development of energy metals: copper, nickel, cobalt, uranium, and palladium. The Company operates mostly in Saskatchewan, Canada’s #1 rated mining jurisdiction. The Company’s technical team are experienced and committed exploration professionals with an established track record of mine discoveries.

-Key Projects Summary:

1. Janice Lake Copper Project - 52km Wide District Partnered with Rio Tinto
$30 Million Option Agreement to explore Janice Lake.
2019: Rio Tinto spent $3.7 Million in exploration; copper mineralization confirmed and extended at primary Janice and Jansem targets.
2020: Rio Tinto completed a 110 kilometre winter haul road to Janice Lake and constructed a 50 man work camp. Rotary Air Blast drill program, geophysical surveys over known mineralization, mapping and prospecting completed this summer. Assay results have been returned and are being interpreted.
2021: Drill equipment and supplies are currently being brought to site on winter haul road in preparation for 7,500 metre drill program this winter.

2. Fir Island Uranium Project – Athabasca Basin – Partnered with Orano Canada Inc.
$6 Million Option Agreement to explore the Fir Island project. First phase of drilling completed in March, 2020, permitting underway for 2021.
2021: Permitting in progress for a 24 hole, 6,500 metre drill program starting in late January.

3. Love Lake Copper-Nickel Palladium Project - 100% owned
2020: High resolution airborne magnetic survey completed in July, field program of outcrop and soil sampling completed, assay results have been processed and interpreted by Forum’s technical team. Three priority targets (possible feeder zones) have been identified: the Road Target, the Korvin Lake Target and the What Lake Target. Several small feeder pipes have also been identified.
2021: Permitting in progress for an airborne EM survey over the 3 priority targets. A small, specific ground EM is planned for the Road target to give specific targets for a 3,000 metre drill program planned for late spring/early summer.

-Projects:

-JANICE LAKE SEDIMENTARY COPPER PROJECT:

Ownership:

orum entered into an agreement granting Rio Tinto Canada a four year option to acquire a 51% interest in the Janice Lake Project by spending $10 million in exploration, making $490,000 in cash payments, and servicing the remaining $200,000 in underlying cash payments to Transition Metals Corp. Rio can earn a further 29% interest (total 80%) by spending a further $20 million in exploration over three years (total $30 million) and making further cash payments of $150,000 to Forum (total $640,000).

Stage:

Highly prospective with over 20 copper occurrences. Drill results by Noranda in 1993 include 0.77% Cu over 33.0 m including 1.6% Cu over 6 m, within 35 m of surface. In 2003, Phelps Dodge completed 6 diamond drill holes applying geophysical methods to target mineralization under glacial cover which resulted in the discovery of a new zone that returned values including 0.72% Cu over 26.0 m including 1.33% Cu over 5.83 m (JL-03-38). Grab samples collected by Transition Metals have returned values ranging from 0.34 to 9.35% copper and 0.7 to 61.7 g/t silver, confirming previous reports of high-grade mineralization at surface and highlighting the potential for the discovery of multiple near-surface, sediment-hosted copper deposits. A first pass drill 4 hole drill program completed by Forum in August 2018 encountered copper mineralization in all four holes within 80m of surface. Hole FEM-01 intersected 18.5 m (59.0 to 77.5m downhole depth) grading 0.94% Cu and 6.7 g/t Ag including 5.2 metres grading 2.22% Cu and 16.5 g/t Ag. The true thickness of the mineralization is 18.0m.

Rio Tinto Canada entered into an agreement with Forum to acquire 80% of the project by spending up to $30 million over the next 6 years. Rio TInto completed a 4,318 line kilometre high resolution airborne magnetic survey over the entire length of the project, followed by a 21 hole (5,209 metres) drill program in the summer of 2019. They completed a winter access road to site in April of 2020 and cleared the site for a 50-man camp. In the summer of 2020 they completed the camp and a program of mapping, prospecting, geophysics and rotary air blast drilling. Samples have been submitted for assay and are waiting for results.

A 7,500 metre drill program is planned for the winter of 2021, testing several targets including the large and prospective Rafuse target located northeast along strike of the Janice and Jansem showings. The wiinter road is being opened up to allow mobilization of drills, fuel and supplies.

Size:

38,250 Ha, encompassing the entire 52 km Wollaston Copperbelt District.

Location &
Infrastructure:

Located in north-central Saskatchewan within the Wollaston Domain, a northeasterly-trending belt of metamorphosed lower Proterozoic supracrustal rocks deposited upon Archean granitoid basement. A major power transmission corridor runs to the northeast of Janice Lake.

Regional
Significance:

The Janice Lake area contains significant concentrations of sediment-hosted copper showings. Logging of the drill core and petrographic studies suggest that mineralization is hosted by mafic-rich stratigraphy within more felsic units, opening the possibility for multiple layers of copper mineralization. Located 55 km southeast of the Key Lake uranium processing facility in close proximity to several of Forum’s core uranium exploration properties enables this project to be effectively integrated into Forum’s operations.

Significant Comparable Deposits:

The age and depositional environment at Janice are similar to the giant Udokan Deposits of the Lake Baikal region in Siberia, and the Revette deposits of Montana USA. Baikal Mining Company LTD reports JORC compliant Measured and Indicated resources of 1.822 billion tonnes grading 1.01% copper, 14.3 grams per tonne silver for the Udokan deposits. (Baikal Mining Company Ltd. press release presenting published estimate prepared by SRK Consulting, dated April 9, 2014). Hecla Mining reports 43-101 compliant Inferred resources of 112 million tonnes grading 0.7% copper, 1.6 oz/t silver for its Montanore deposit and 97.6 million tonnes grading 0.7% copper and 1.5 oz/t silver for its Rock Creek deposit in Montana. (Hecla Mining Company: published reserves and resources statement, December 31, 2016).

Outlook:

The first phase of drilling has been completed by Rio Tinto Exploration Canada and all 21 drill holes have been reported as of December 3, 2019.The program has successfully confirmed and extended copper mineralization at the Jansem and Janice targets. Further geophysics, prospecting, sampling and mapping and a Rotary Air Blast drill program were completed in the summer of 2020. Work is in progress to start the 2021 drill program.

A table summarizing all drill results completed by Forum and Rio Tinto in the 2018-19 can be found on the home page.

Rick Mazur, Forum’s President & CEO commented, “Drilling by Rio Tinto intersected thick zones of flat lying, stratabound chalcocite and native copper mineralization with good continuity and near-surface grades. Deeper drilling has demonstrated that multiple horizons of copper mineralization are present. We are gaining confidence that Janice Lake is a strongly mineralized system, as new data generated by this program helps us to understand the full potential of this 52km long sedimentary copper basin.”

-LOVE LAKE PALLADIUM EXPLORATION PROJECT:

Ownership:

Forum owns a 100% interest in 10 claims acquired by staking.

Stage:

The Ni-Cu-PGM occurrences are associated with the 2.5 billion year old Swan River mafic complex and the Love Lake felsic pluton in the Peter Lake Domain. Forum has now staked a 30 km by 15 km area of historic copper- nickel- platinum group metal showings which returned up to 0.31% Cu over 5.2m in a trench, with visible sulphides occurring in outcrop along a 1.5km east-west trend of “reef type” layered intrusive that was not properly tested by historical drilling. Grab samples in Trench #4 in the Korvin Lake area returned 0.33% Cu, 1.33% Ni, 2735 ppb platinum, 2685 ppb palladium, 70 ppb gold and 0.43% Cu, 0.23% Ni, 3580 ppb platinum, 4275 ppb palladium, 200 ppb gold. (Saskatchewan Geological Survey – Maxeiner and Rayner, 2005).

Two drill holes on the project returned 31.7m of 0.23% Cu and 36.6m of 0.29% Cu.

Size:

12 claims totaling 30,836 ha.

Location & Infrastructure:

The project is located along Highway 905 to the Rabbit Lake/McClean Lake mine sites, approximately 60 km northeast of Forum’s Janice Lake/Rio Tinto copper joint venture in north-eastern Saskatchewan.

Regional Significance:

Substantial regional scientific research suggests a re-evaluation of the property utilizing a new exploration approach to determine the palladium potential is required.

Significant Comparable Deposits:

Comparable geological environment to North American Palladium’s Lac Des Isle deposit in Ontario northwest of Thunder Bay.

Outlook:

2019: summer exploration mapped outcrops along the road, finding numerous breccias and layered units. A day was spent at the historic trenches, mapping and collecting numerous samples. The samples were collected for geochemistry and processed at TSL laboratories in Saskatoon.
2020: a high-resolution airborne magnetometer survey was completed in early August, covering approximately 3,500 line km using a 100 metre line spacing. This survey identified three main areas of interest; West Road, Korvin Lake and What Lake. A mapping, outcrop sampling and soil sampling program was completed over these areas by early September and assay results have been returned. The results have been processed and interpreted by Dr. L Hulbert and permitting is underway for an airborne EM survey over the three targets, followed by a site specific ground EM survey and then a diamond drill program in the late spring/early summer.

-QUARTZ GULCH COBALT EXPORATION PROJECT:

Ownership:

100%

Stage:

Noranda, a previous explorer of the Idaho Cobalt Belt completed a regional geological and stream sediment sampling study in the late 1970’s/early 1980’s establishing the Quartz Gulch property as prospective for stratabound cobalt mineralization and cobalt hosted in quartz-tourmaline breccias. Noranda recognized Quartz Gulch as a priority exploration target for finding future reserves for its Blackbird Mine but the property was never drilled.

Size:

127 claims totaling 10.65 square kilometres.

Location &
Infrastructure:

The Idaho Cobalt Belt has highly developed infrastructure and the Quartz Gulch property is easily accessed via the main road to the past producing Blackbird mine.

Regional
Significance:

The only permitted cobalt mine under development in North America is found in the Idaho Cobalt Belt. With more than 60% of the world’s cobalt supply coming from the Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa, the Idaho Cobalt Belt is expected to emerge as a significant source of domestically produced cobalt to supply the emerging electric vehicle market.

Significant
Comparable
Deposits:

Quartz Gulch is located approximately 5 kms to the southeast of the past producing Blackbird cobalt mine (Noranda) and the eCobalt Solutions Idaho Cobalt Project, the only permitted cobalt mine under development in North America.

Outlook:

Prospecting, mapping and soil sampling is expected to begin during the fourth quarter of 2018.

-FIR ISLAND:

Ownership:

Orano Canada Inc. option: Orano can earn a 51% interest by spending $3,000,000 on or before December 31, 2021 and can earn 70% interest by spending an additional $3,000,000 for a total of $6,000,000 on or before December 31, 2023.

Stage:

Highly Prospective; Drill Ready.

Size:

20,463 Ha,

Location &
Infrastructure:

Fir Island is located approximately 5km northeast of the community of Black Lake, on the northeast edge of the Athabasca Basin. It is connected by an all-weather road to the provincial highway system, which also provides year-round road access to the Rabbit Lake and McClean Lake mills. The property can be accessed by truck in the winter and by boat in the summer.

Regional
Significance:

The regionally important Black Lake fault, part of the major Snowbird Tectonic Zone, transects the entire Athabasca Basin, and is highly prospective for unconformity-type uranium deposits. Cameco’s Centennial deposit is located along this Zone near the south side of the Athabasca Basin. The sandstone cover on the Fir Island project varies from 0 to 200m above the unconformity. The possibility of uranium mineralization below the unconformity at the base of the thrust fault (similar to McArthur River) or in the hanging wall of the Cathy Fault in the basement (similar to Millennium or Eagle Point) demonstrates the highly prospective nature of the Fir Island project.

Proximity to
significant
deposits:

The historic Nisto uranium mine (96 tonnes mined at 1.38% in the late 1950s) occurs in basement rocks on the northwest side of the Black Lake fault, directly adjacent to the property. The project is within driving distance of the McClean Lake mill, operated by Orano Canada Ltd.

Outlook:

Forum will be the exploration operator until such time as Orano has earned a 51% interest in the project.

Work Programs for 2021:

The Company completed a resistivity survey in late 2019 and used the results to guide a 6-hole, 2,000 metre drill program in early 2020. A much larger drill program of 24 holes for 6,000 metres is planned for early 2021. This program will be 100% funded by Orano Canada Ltd.

Historical Work:

Forum completed a 10 hole reconnaissance drill program totaling 2,435m in early 2015, the first drill holes completed on this project. Drill hole FI-03 intersected 35m of 0.3% nickel from 180m to 215m in the basement lithologies. Drill hole FI-04 intersected up to 386ppm U in clay-rich basement lithologies immediately beneath the unconformity at 140m, and then 17m of enriched boron (up to 2810ppm) from 148m to 165m depth.
Five holes were competed on two fences 50m apart ( See Target H on Figure 2) and intersected a very interesting area of tectonization, quartz dissolution, and a 50m offset in the unconformity along a NE trending thrust fault (Cathy Fault -See Figure 3). Dravite and sudoite clays were found in both the sandstone and basement lithologies, along with locally elevated geochemistry (U, Pb, B). Hole FI-8, drilled near the East Channel Structure, returned values of 137 and 161ppm U respectively, below a section of 16m of 2750ppm B, all within pegmatites starting at depth of 202m to the unconformity.
Ground gravity surveys over the west channel (2015) and on the island (2016) have been completed. This was followed by a soil sampling program looking for anomalous indicator elements down-ice from the gravity lows. Very anomalous boron values were returned from several of the lows (Figure 2).
In 2019 a resistivity survey was completed over the East Channel (located on the island) and showed a strong low interpreted to be due to alteration / tectonics on the north-west side (Figure 5).
A 6-hole diamond drill program in 2020 completed one fence approximately 1km south of the 2015 drilling. The Cathy Fault was once again intersected, along with elevated geochemistry, strong alteration and tectonics and a 40m offset in the unconformity. The program was unfortunately cut short due to the Covid-19 situation, but a much larger drill program is planned for the winter of 2021.