Targeting success at Queensway,Newfoundland: How machine learning found

1,764 gram-metres in the initial drillholeQueensway (formally Linear) Project, Newfoundland Canada1

1Created by GoldSpot Discoveries Corp. | info@goldspot.ca | +1-647-345-7720 | 69 Yonge Street, Suite 1010 | Toronto, Ontario

GoldSpot Discoveries and New Found Gold partnered togetherto create a prospectivity map for the Queensway project. Acrucial part of the GoldSpot workflow was refining outdatedgeological maps with the addition of magnetic and EM surveydata with machine learning techniques. The updated, high-resolution geological map was then in the prospective targetingexercise. New Found Gold has reported that the first of the tentargets provided by GoldSpot, drill hole NFGC-19-01 returnedhigh-grade intercepts of 19m of 92.86 gpt Au (1,764.34 gram-metres) including 6m of 285.2 gpt Au.

IntroductionGoldSpot Discoveries Corp. (GoldSpot) is a Canadian tech-nology and services company that leverages machine learn-ing to reduce capital risk, while working to increase effi-ciencies and success rates in resource exploration. GoldSpotcombines proprietary technology and computational tech-niques with traditional geoscientific domain expertise, of-fering a front-to-back service solution to its partners. Thesolutions target big-data problems, especially where histor-ically under-utilized datasets can be interpreted using ad-vanced methods to better comprehend resource potential atproperty- and regional-scales.One of many strengths of the GoldSpot approach to explo-ration is the ability to take large land packages and distill allavailable geological information to identify the most efficientand cost-effective way to explore prospective terrain. UsingGoldSpot’s standard workflow, all public data were compliedand synthesized for the Queensway property and surroundingareas, including geochemical data, geophysical data, histor-ical drilling, structural interpretations, and geological map-ping.

New Found Gold Project in CanadaThe Queensway project is located in central Newfoundland,west of the Town of Gander. The 100% New Found Gold-owned land package consists of 56 mineral licenses across3,290 claims covering approximately 823 km2. GoldSpot’sAI-based approach scales the data to match the size of theproperty and the data density effectively. This method is in-tended to allow the client to narrow down potential targets,which reduces financial risk by prioritizing the ideal locationsfor exploration spending.

The GoldSpot Approach

GoldSpot believes that project success is dependent on col-laboration between traditional geoscience and data sciencetechniques. In creating prospectivity maps for large landpackages, an important part of the process is working closelywith the client team to understand all available data, and thenconduct field work to understand, update, and validate exist-ing data sources.

A. Field Work. As part of the data gathering process,GoldSpot’s personnel spent two months in the field with NewFound Gold’s geological team conducting an intensive pro-gram of data collection to further refine the geological under-standing of the property and controls on mineralization. This

Fig. 1. GoldSpot team in the field with New Found Gold

process included visiting over 600 outcrops and recordingvarious rock types, collecting grab samples, and documentinga wide range of geological features. In addition, 1,278 newstructural measurements were collected by the field team andused to reinterpret the current understanding of the structuralregime of the property.

B. Structural Interpretation. A clear pattern of gold de-velopment at the intersection of the ENE trending EM inter-preted faults and NNE trending principal faults was observedat Queensway, because second order structures are very fa-vorable for fluid activity and mineral deposition.These structural insights were compiled into the extensive ge-ological and geophysical framework and then utilized in theAI targeting exercise.

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Fig. 2. Structural Regime

C. Machine Learning to Update Geological Maps. Acrucial part of the process for New Found Gold was updat-ing the original geological maps. Unsupervised and semi-supervised machine learning techniques were used to aggre-gate multiple data sources and create a more accurate ge-ological map. Specifically, clustering algorithms allowedthe team to consistently discriminate domains with differentphysical rock properties.

Fig. 3. Machine learning to improve lithological mapping

The field team was able to take the outputs of the AI gener-ated map and ground-truth the results in the field. This up-dated geological map was a crucial component in creating thefinal prospectivity targets for New Found Gold.

D. Final Prospectivity Map. Finally, the structural, geolog-ical, geochemical, and geophysical components were all an-alyzed through GoldSpot’s proprietary AI tools to produceranked AI targets for exploratory drilling. A total of ten tar-gets was provided to New Found Gold for drilling.

Fig. 4. Examples of multiple data sources

In tandem with the Machine Learning exercise, GoldSpot’s

multidisciplinary team analyzed the same input datasets withNew Found Gold and used traditional methods, compared theresults, and scuplted a preliminary validation program.

Fig. 5. GoldSpot AI Targeting Results (left) and traditional targets (right)

E. Results. In January 2020, New Found Gold reported thatdrill hole NFGC-19-01 returned high-grade intercepts. Visi-ble gold (VG) was recorded within 17 metres of the 19 metresinterval with gold grains observed throughout. The new in-tersection is within a quartz-iron carbonate breccia hosted byblack shales and mixed sediments of the Davidsville Groupand in the Appleton fault zone. The intercept, 96 metersdownhole, remains open for expansion down-dip and alongstrike. The true width of this intercept is estimated to be 70%based on drill core angles.

"We would like to thank GoldSpot Discoveries andtheir professional team for the utmost attention todetail in managing the data compilation andinterpretation. The combination of traditional andmachine learning targeting has led to us to a discoveryhole and New Found Gold looks forward to thecontinued advancement of this project andpartnership with GoldSpot."

Greg Matheson, COO of New Found Gold, formallyNew Found Gold Corp.

Contact InformationTo find out more about GoldSpot Discoveries, or theQueensway project, please contact us atinfo@goldspot.ca+1-647-345-7720www.goldspot.ca69 Yonge Street, Suite 1010Toronto, Ontario

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