The two Nordeau blocks, now separated by four claims owned by another titleholder, used to form a single entity of contiguous claims.
In 1946-47, Oneonta Pershing Mines Ltd. completed geological and geophysical (Mag) surveys. As a follow up, 8 holes were drilled on Nordeau West under option, at that point, to Inspiration mining and Development Co. (first gold indications in the immediate area).
In 1948-49, Oneonta Pershing drilled an additional 27 holes for 3400 m on Nordeau West.
In 1957-58, Nordeau Mining Co. Ltd. completed a 24 hole program totaling 4530 m which led to the discovery of gold bearing lenses no.1, 2 and 3 on Nordeau East block.
In 1962, Mines de Fer Vauquelin Ltée was incorporated, acquired the Nordeau claims, and drilled 14 holes for 1150 m to block some iron ore in the sedimentary iron formations.
From 1963 to 1965, Mines de Fer Vauquelin Ltée did some sporadic work including a geophysical survey (EM) and the drilling of 5 holes for 700 m.
In 1979, SOQUEM (Société Québécoise d’exploration minière) optioned the properties and until 1982 completed geophysical (Mag & EM) and geochemical surveys that led to the drilling on Nordeau West and East of 41 holes for a total of 6640 m of core. By this time, the information gathered on the gold zones delineated on the properties was such that a first “reserve” estimation was produced on both the West and East Nordeau lenses (Gagnon & al., 1982).
In 1983, the option was transferred to Société minière Louvem Inc. who completed an induced polarization survey before drilling 12 holes totaling 2608 m and refreshing the “reserve” estimate on the Nordeau West gold zones (Blanchet, 1984).
In 1984, Louvem completed 21 holes for 4867 m on the Nordeau East group.
In 1987, after reorganizing the company, Mines Vauquelin Ltée took the property back and, following recommendations by Roche Ltée – Groupe conseil, completed 24 holes for 4721 m on Nordeau West and 30 holes for 5889 m on Nordeau East. This latest drill campaign led to the estimation of historical “mineral reserves” by Roche on both the West and East Nordeau blocks.
In their 1988 report on Nordeau East, Roche recommended an underground program with the objective of upgrading the “reserves” and defining the characteristics of the body. The proposal was to drive a decline to access the zones and extract a bulk sample for testing. 
In 1988, Mines Vauquelin Ltée drilled 4 holes for 1279 m on Nordeau West in an attempt to test the structure below the “reserve” blocks (no significant results, Champagne, M.J., 1985).
In 1990, Mines Vauquelin Ltée resumed drilling to test the Nordeau West structure at depth, far below any existing intersection. Of the 7 holes drilled for a total of 3471 m, 5 intersected the targeted gold bearing structure with most significant results as follows : hole W-90-06 returned 5.4 g/t Au over 17.8 m and hole W-90-07 carried 3.6 g/t Au over 6.6 m, respectively at ±490 and ±675 m of vertical depth.
After reviewing the Nordeau West database, Gestion Minière Explomine Ltée (“Explomine” – see Jean, 1990) in his report on the 1990 drill campaign came to the conclusion that the previous “reserve” estimate was based on erroneous assumptions, particularly in connecting laterally and vertically selected assays (or groups of assays). The “ore grade intersections” were found to be randomly distributed within a sheared and altered mineralized structure that could be more than 20 m in thickness. The longitudinal section produced in 1988 should therefore be considered a composite longitudinal section.
Consequently, Explomine came up with a new geological “reserve” estimate for the Nordeau West zones that was to be built on the concept of an easily traceable mineralized shear zone carrying discontinuous “en échelon” smaller gold bearing lenses.
In late 1990, Mines Vauquelin Ltée and Louvem completed the last reported exploration program on Nordeau West by surveying some of the previous holes and drilling 4 new ones for 1942 m around the intersections of W-90-06/-07 (2 were wedged from existing holes). The targeted sheared and mineralized structure was cut by all four holes with assay results said to be disappointing (Bouliane, 1991).
Finally, in 1994, Mines Vauquelin Ltée completed a 6 short hole drilling campaign totalling 619 m on an eastern claim of the Nordeau East group with the best intersection reported from hole N94-5 yielding 4.85 g/t Au over 1.3 m (Blanchet, 1994).
Mineralization on Nordeau West
Gold mineralization on the Nordeau West block is found in 4 distinct lenses (labeled #1, 2, 3 and North) in corridors of shearing and deformation within mafic volcanics of the Trivio formation. Wall rocks are made up of massive to pillowed or brecciated basalts or andesites with sporadic tuffaceous horizons and minor graphitic schists. Common alteration processes of the sheared rocks include silicification, amphibolitisation, carbonatization and biotitisation.
Gold is found in brecciated zones cemented with grey smoky quartz lodes, veins or veinlets with brown tourmaline, carbonates and sulfides in an “en échelon” pattern within the wider deformation corridors (Jean, 1990). Arsenopyrite is the major sulfide constituent (3-15%) with some amounts of pyrite, pyrrhotite and traces of chalcopyrite. Gold is essentially found as free grains included into or coated to the arsenopyrite grains.
All reported structures are more or less imbedded into the regional schistosity striking N280-290° and dipping 55-70° to the north. Structures #1 and #2 from which historical “reserves” were estimated can be traced on most of the Nordeau West claim group (some 600 m laterally) and to a depth locally approaching 600 m vertically. As pointed out by André Jean, in 1990, the “enéchelon” pattern of the lenses puts a doubt on geological or assay continuity as “ore grade” intersections are found often randomly located within the wider deformation corridors. Nevertheless, it is reported that structures #1 and #2 (further south) are located some 25 m apart in the eastern portion of the property (separated by a pyroclastic unit 10-15 m thick) and seem to merge into structure #2 in the western part of the property.
The other reported structures are poorly defined with doubtful continuity and erratic gold mineralization. Structure #3 which is south of #1 and #2, some 30 m south of a graphitic marker horizon, has been traced in two stretches each about 100 m long. The North structure is found only locally at a position some 30 m north of structures #1 and #2.
Mineralization on Nordeau East
The most significant mineralization on Nordeau East group of claims is found in 3 structures related to what is being described as the upper iron formation of the Trivio sediments made up of interbedded mudstones, siltstones graywackes and folded iron formations. The 3 sub-parallel structures are made up of gold bearing sulfides rich quartz veinlets or veins which are generally running along stratigraphic units and regional schistosity in a general E-W direction with dips from 50 to 75° to the north.
The mineralization consists in 1-5% disseminated sulfides or semi-massive sulfide veinlets (pyrite, pyrrhotite, arsenopyrite and traces of chalcopyrite) in association with quartz and chlorite, garnet and gold as the other vein constituents. Gold is found as free grains in quartz or as inclusions in the sulfide minerals (Tremblay, 1988). Common alteration of wall rocks include amphibolitisation, chloritisation, silicification and biotitisation.
Structure #1 was traced for 450 m laterally (sections 10+80 W to 6+30 W) while structure #2, south of the former, stretches for 220 m (7+60 W to 5+40 W), both to a depth of some 200 m vertically. They parallel each other for some 130 m (7+60 W to 6+30 W) and are stratigraphically less than 30 m apart. Structure #3 which is further east (5+40 W to 3+00 W) and possibly on a stratigraphic position similar to #1 has been traced for some 240 m to a depth of 150 m. As reported in a previous section, historical mineral “reserve” were estimated from qualifying portions of each of these 3 structures of Nordeau East which are less the 2 m in thickness on average.
A fourth mineralized structure on Nordeau East carrying low grade erratic gold values is reported from a sheared zone in the mafic volcanics south of the iron formation. The structures carries 1-5% disseminated sulfides in carbonatized and chloritised rocks with well developed garnets.
