Location, Access and Ownership

The Pickle Lake gold project consists of three contiguous mineral properties known as Connell, Metcalfe and Tarp Lake, which cover a combined total area of 12,000 acres. All three properties are 100% owned by MetalCORP Limited subject to a 2% NSR royalty interest retained by the original vendors of the property of which 1% can be purchased for $1 million. The three properties cover a large area centred approximately 10 km northeast of the town of Pickle Lake in northwestern Ontario. The property is accessible from highway 808, an all-weather road that leads from Pickle Lake north toward the Musselwhite gold mine of Placer Dome CLA Limited.

Geological Setting

Pickle Lake is a historical gold camp that has seen 2.5 million ounces of gold production from three separate mines over a 60 year period beginning in 1934. It is situated in the Uchi sub-province of the Superior Structural Province, a gold-rich tectonic domain that also hosts the high grade Red Lake gold camp and numerous other significant gold occurrences. Over the 75 year history of gold exploration in the Pickle Lake gold camp, this is the first time that the entire land package covered by MetalCORP’s claim have been held by a single company.

The Pickle Lake gold project covers a 12 km long strikelength along a major northeast-striking structural corridor known as the Tarp Lake shear zone. This structure transects a typical Archean greenstone assemblage of dominantly mafic metavolcanic flows, iron formation, and various mafic and felsic intrusive rocks. The shear zones have been the focus of intense hydrothermal alteration including carbonatization, sericitization, silicification and pyritization. Gold mineralization is associated with the altered shear zones in quartz-carbonate veins or in broad zones of disseminated pyrite mineralization.

Historical Exploration Work

The three properties comprising the Pickle Lake gold project have been explored by numerous prospectors over the years and at least 20 mining companies including Placer Dome, Metall Mining, Esso Resources, Billiton and Dora Exploration. Numerous gold occurrences have been identified through this work although much of the area is covered by an extensive blanket of glacial drift resulting in very limited outcrop exposure. Broad areas of wet swampy ground, making access difficult, has inhibited historical prospecting work.

Perhaps the most significant gold occurrence documented on the three properties from historical work is the Metcalfe Vein located on the Metcalfe property. It is reported that 25 drill intersections on the Metcalfe vein indicated an average width of 1.17m over a length of 320m with an average grade of 12.61g/t gold (0.37opt), (Source: Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines assessment files). An article printed in the Northern Miner in November, 1979, “Dora Exploration may Drive Decline” reported that “the deepest hole, S-18, gave 6.0 ft. of 2.15oz. gold per ton at a vertical depth of 82m (270ft). Another hole gave 6.0ft. of 0.83oz. at a vertical depth of 101m (330ft).” Four other quartz veins were reportedly identified to run parallel to the Metcalfe vein also yielding visible gold. A gold bearing iron formation with assays as high as 9.5 g/ton (0.28 oz/ton) gold over 1.2m is also reported on the property.

To the south, on the Connell property, one historical gold showing, called the Mitchell, yielded values from grab samples, ranging up to 17.2 g/t gold (0.50 opt Au). A drill program in 1947 reportedly returned gold values of 11.0 g/t gold (0.32 opt Au) over a core length of 1.2m and 8.3 g/t gold (0.24 opt Au) over 3.7m. It is reported that a second showing, called the Esso zone has yielded assay values of 9.5 g/t gold (0.28 opt Au) over 1.2 metres.

To the north, on the Tarp Lake property, historical drilling has yielded gold values of up to 7.20 g/t Au over 4.60m (0.21 opt Au/15ft) and 1.5 g/t Au over 36 metres (0.045 opt Au/118 ft). These intersections were hosted by a zone of quartz-sericite carbonate-pyrite schist in the Tarp Lake Shear, which has a maximum thickness of 122m (400ft). A second gold zone, named the TL-7, located in the southern portion of the property, yielded an average assay of 1.0 gpt gold in one old drill hole over a core length of 10 metres.

2003 Work Program

In 2003, a Phase 1 work program with a budget of $200,000 was carried out by MetalCORP on the Pickle Lake gold project. The program involved mapping, prospecting, sampling and trenching and was primarily focused on the Metcalfe property. The program was expanded later in the year to include a detailed airborne magnetic survey flown over the entire land package at a cost of $60,000. This survey provided useful information to interpret bedrock geology in the overburden-covered parts of the property and resulted in the recognition of several new gold target areas based on interpreted structures and alteration zones related to magnetic lows.

The trenching program on the Metcalfe Vein confirmed the presence of high grade gold in narrow quartz veins hosted by strongly carbonatized mafic volcanics and spatially associated with quartz feldspar porphyry intrusions. Sampling of the Metcalfe Vein yielded high grade gold assays, from grab samples of up to 2232.92 g/t (65.13 oz/t gold). Channel samples across the vein yielded assays ranging from 5.01 to 108.2 g/t gold over widths ranging from 10-20 cm. A new gold zone, called the Seven Zone, which contained two narrow quartz veins was discovered approximately 200 metres north of the Metcalfe Vein. Vein 1 yielded 34.15 gpt gold (1.00 oz/t) in a 12 cm channel sample and Vein 2 yielded 21.56 gpt hold (0.63 oz/t) in a 10 cm channel sample. The veins in both zones are typically 10-15cm wide, spaced 5 metres apart and hosted by strongly carbonatized mafic volcanic rocks.

2004 Work Program

The $375,000.00 2004 work program on the Pickle Lake project consisted of mapping and prospecting to investigate targets recognized from the aeromagnetic survey, followed by trenching of several new showings discovered during the program and a first phase diamond drilling program on the Metcalfe property.

The prospecting work resulted in the discovery of a significant new gold showing on the Connell property called the Jigger which yielded a high grade gold assay from a grab sample of 95.63 g/t Au. Subsequent follow-up grab sampling yielded values of 19.58, 21.04, 29.32, 40.68, 62.65, 83.73 g/t Au respectively. The samples were described as quartz-carbonate veining within a strongly sheared (quartz-carbonate-sericite schist) zone containing trace to 2% pyrite. Visible gold was noted in several samples. The shear zone is estimated to be a minimum of 50 metres wide and 600 metres long, coinciding with an airborne magnetic low anomaly. The showing is an isolated occurrence bounded on all sides by an extensive swamp.

Prospecting work carried out by Billiton in the 1980’s reportedly discovered a gold showing near the site of the new Jigger showing, which produced assays of 18.4 & 6.22 g/t Au. This zone has never drilled. Another showing was discovered 600 metres southwest of the Jigger, which produced an assay of 3.2 g/t Au, in a grab sample of material considered identical to the mineralization observed in the Jigger showing.

In August, 2004, a 6 hole, 2033 metre diamond drilling program was carried out to test three known mineralized zones located on the Metcalfe Property. Drill holes 01 and 02, tested the Seven Zone; holes 03, 04, and 05 tested the Metcalfe Vein; and hole 06, tested the Carbonate Zone. In the Metcalfe Vein and Seven Zone only narrow quartz veins containing low grade gold values were intersected, with the best intersection being a value 7.5 gpt Au over just 0.30 m in hole #05. Hole #06 in the Carbonate Zone, located 450m west of the Metcalfe Vein, intersected a broad zone of highly altered mafic volcanic rocks containing 2-10% disseminated pyrite mineralization that assayed 1.1 g/t gold over 12.0 metres.

The trenching program exposed the Jigger showing over an area of 2500m2 and revealed that a wide, strongly sheared and altered zone is host to the auriferious quartz veins. Significant assay results from sampling of the new exposure include the following.

Future Plans

A $200,000 phase 2 drilling program is planned for 2005