The Savant Lake area is relatively thinly explored. Early prospectors discovered a number of gold occurrences on and around Savant Lake around the turn of the 20th Century. The earliest regional-scale mapping efforts were undertaken by the Ontario Department of Mines in 1927. Industry activity was mostly limited to small-scale gold exploration until the 1960s.
A rash of activity began in the area north and west of Savant Lake in the 1960s. The iron ore prospect at North Kashaweogama Lake (about 15 km SW of the Property) was discovered in the early 1960s; the strike extension of this iron formation (to within 3 km of the Solitude Lake Property boundary) was drilled by Hanna Mining in 1967. Hanna Mining held claims that came within 600 m of the present Property boundary, to the west, and completed a detailed geologic mapping program on this part of their property in the same year. The Hanna mapping program revealed an east-west-striking complex of mafic volcanics interspersed with sulphide and oxide iron formations, “basic tuffs” (likely tectonized/schisted mafic volcanics), greywackes, and chert- and graphite-bearing quartzites. A grab assay of 0.05% Cu is noted on the Hanna maps about 1,500 m west of the Solitude Lake Property boundary.
The first well-recorded exploration within Solitude Lake Property limits dates to 1968 when Canadian Nickel Co (Canico) completed ten drill holes. These were presumably aimed at the east-west conductive and magnetic targets also visible in later surveys. Many assessment files refer to airborne surveys completed by Canico and/or Inco in “the late 1960s” but the Authors were unable to locate any actual survey documents. The most promising of the Canico drill holes was #37663 which encountered several sulphidic and graphitic schists containing up to 5% cpy over a core length of 9.6 m. Most drill holes encountered zones of semimassive sulphides hosted by iron formations, graphitic shales and volcanics, many of which contained at least trace chalcopyrite, and occasional sphalerite, according to the logs. No assay information is reported in any of the drill logs, nor are any plans or drill sections presented in any of the available assessment files.
