Pivotal Metals Confirms Widespread Copper–Gold Anomalism at Kelly Lake East
- Noel Ong
- 3 days ago
- 8 min read
Announcement
New Copper-Gold Target at Lorraine 24 November, 2025 (click here to view the announcement)
Pivotal Metals Limited (ASX: PVT) has outlined a new copper–gold exploration target at “Kelly Lake East”, part of the Lorraine project within the Company’s 100%-owned Belleterre project portfolio in the Abitibi region of north-western Quebec, Canada (Figure 1). The target lies ~6.6km south-east of the past-producing Lorraine Mine and sits inside a broader belt-scale land position surrounded by established mining infrastructure, hydropower, and multiple operating mills.
Figure 1: Lorraine Project overview map – location of Kelly Lake East (L3) within the broader Lorraine claim package. (source: PVT)
The Business of the Company: Focus – Projects - Search for Copper - Gold Assets
Pivotal Metals Limited is advancing a portfolio of copper–nickel–PGE and copper–gold projects in Quebec, Canada, anchored by its flagship Horden Lake deposit and a belt-scale exploration position at Belleterre (Figure 2).
Horden Lake (flagship): 37Mt at 1.1% CuEq (Indicated and Inferred), hosting copper, nickel, PGE, gold, silver, and cobalt, with copper as the key value driver.
Belleterre-Angliers Greenstone Belt (BAGB): 100%-owned projects including Midrim, Alotta, Lac Croche, Lorraine, and LaForce, covering multiple Cu–Ni–PGE and gold systems defined by VTEM anomalies and limited historic drilling.
Infrastructure advantage: Projects are located near Rouyn-Noranda, with access to existing mills, smelters, roads, rail, and low-cost hydropower.
Figure 2: Pivotal Metals projects in Quebec (source: PVT)
Together, Horden Lake provides a defined resource base, while Belleterre offers high-impact exploration upside in a well-endowed Canadian mining district.
Highlights – Kelly Lake East Emerges as a 1km x 1.5km Cu–Au System
New priority copper–gold trend (Figure 3): Kelly Lake East sits on the eastern boundary of the Lorraine project, ~6.6km south-east of the high-grade Lorraine Mine. Field work confirms three distinct zones of copper–gold anomalism over strike lengths of 150–200m, hosted in parallel mineralised shears within corridors 8–25m wide.
Figure 3: Kelly Lake East southernmost undrilled outcrop, where prior sampling returned grades up to 1.9% Au and 0.8% Cu. (source: PVT)
Strong Cu–Au grades at surface (Figure 4): Trenching and outcrop sampling have returned trench and grab results up to 2.0% Cu and 1.9 g/t Au, with local sulphide contents up to ~90% (dominantly pyrite, pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite) associated with quartz shearing, silicification and carbonate alteration.
Figure 4: Kelly Lake East trench and grab sample clusters with EM conductors – map showing surface geochemistry and conductor trends. (source: PVT)
Widespread geophysical and geochemical support (Figure 5): An east-east-west-trending surface EM anomaly ties together southern zones, while multiple VTEM conductors and copper-in-soil anomalies define a 1km x 1.5km priority footprint. Several soil anomalies are spatially distinct from mapped outcrop, highlighting additional untested targets within the same system.
Figure 5: Kelly Lake East soil sampling map – copper-in-soil anomalies over limited survey coverage.(source: PVT)
Very limited historic drilling: Only 11 historical drill holes were completed in the broader area between 1952 and 1987. Of these, three diamond holes were drilled near mineralised outcrop. Still, stripping suggests they were oriented sub-parallel to the main mineralised trend, meaning the key target zones remain effectively untested at depth.
Continuity across property boundary: Mineralised trends and anomalous sampling continue across Pivotal’s eastern tenement boundary into ground held by neighbour Vior Inc. (TSXV: VIOR), where historic grab samples have reported up to 4.1% Cu and 2.1 g/t Au. This external data is referenced to demonstrate the broader prospectivity of the area rather than to imply any ownership.
Programmatically integrated into a larger exploration push: Kelly Lake East is one of eight priority target areas at Lorraine, within a broader program that includes extensive FLTEM and IP geophysics, plus drilling scheduled to start across four initial priority targets from January 2026.
Leadership Commentary
Ivan Fairhall, Pivotal Managing Director, commented:
“Our field team has confirmed the presence of an expansive and highly prospective copper-gold target at Kelly Lake East, which underscores the scope of the opportunity with our Belleterre exploration program. The presence of wide gold-copper anomalous zones and untested VTEM anomalies support the high prospectivity of this emerging target area. Importantly, the mineralised system continues directly across our eastern boundary with neighbour Vior Inc. (TSXV:VIOR), who are completing a 100,000m drill program building out their high-grade Belleterre Gold project.
This is another exciting target that confirms our belief in the significant untapped potential of this large consolidated Belleterre land package.
About the Project – Lorraine and Kelly Lake East
Lorraine is a historical Cu–Ni–Au project now being re-evaluated with modern geophysics, while Kelly Lake East has emerged as a new, largely untested copper–gold trend on the eastern side of the tenure.
Lorraine Mine area: Historic production with new, undrilled conductors and a separate, high-grade quartz-vein gold trend mapped for ~1.5km.
Kelly Lake East: Three parallel Cu–Au mineralised zones within 8–25m-wide corridors, supported by VTEM/EM and soil anomalies over a 1km x 1.5km footprint with minimal historic drilling.
District setting: Additional occurrences between and around these areas (Roy Au, historic Kelly Lake deposit on neighbouring ground) indicate a broader magmatic sulphide and Cu–Au corridor at district scale.
Near-term Milestones to Watch
From the announcement, key workstreams and timing are:
Kelly Lake East (Lorraine) – 2026:
Outcrop mapping and additional soil sampling to better define structures and controls on Cu–Au mineralisation.
Follow-up ground geophysics over the 1km x 1.5km footprint to refine conductor targets ahead of drilling planned after Q2 2026 work.
Lorraine Mine and Shanty Lake – Q1 2026:
FLTEM surveys underway at Lorraine Mine to better constrain massive sulphide conductors.
IP surveys over the bonanza-grade gold vein system at Lorraine Mine (commencing around the time of the release).
Drilling of priority conductors at Lorraine Mine and Shanty Lake during the 2025–26 winter campaign.
Midrim–Alotta–Lac Croche corridor:
FLTEM surveys to follow the Lorraine campaign, targeting undrilled VTEM conductors and gabbro-hosted sulphide positions across a ~6km belt of known Cu–Ni–PGE mineralisation (Figure 6).
Project-level targeting:
Prioritisation of ~18 target areas across Belleterre, typically defined by VTEM anomalies, prospective intrusives, and limited or no historic drilling.
Figure 6: Midrim Project – known Cu–Ni–PGE deposits and new untested conductive anomalies within a 6km priority envelope. (source: PVT)
How Samso Understands the Investment Memo for the Company
Core thesis – district-scale optionality in the Abitibi: Pivotal already controls a sizeable critical-metal resource at Horden Lake. Belleterre and Lorraine add a second leg to the story by providing a pipeline of magmatic Cu–Ni–PGE and Cu–Au shear/vein targets across a large greenstone belt position that is still underexplored by modern methods.
What this announcement changes: Kelly Lake East upgrades one corner of Lorraine from a historical curiosity to a structured exploration target. The combination of wide Cu–Au anomalism, strong geophysical signatures, and limited historic drilling effectively creates a new, priority search space in the eastern Lorraine block.
Risk/Stage of project: All work at Kelly Lake East is pre-drilling; the announcement does not report new drill intercepts but rather surface sampling, geophysics, and legacy drilling context. This positions the target firmly in the high-risk / high-reward exploration category, where upcoming geophysics and first-pass drilling will be critical.
Why infrastructure matters: The Abitibi location, existing mill, and hydropower cost base are central to the investment memo. If future drilling delineates economic mineralisation, proximity to spare milling capacity and established smelters could reduce capital intensity relative to greenfield locations.
Samso Concluding Comments
From an investor’s perspective, the key takeaway is that Pivotal is building an exploration story in a proven district. Horden Lake provides a defined copper-equivalent resource base, while Belleterre – and now specifically Kelly Lake East – offers the possibility of additional high-grade discoveries in a region that already hosts several Cu–Ni–PGE and gold deposits. The geological setting and style of mineralisation described in the announcement are consistent with known Abitibi systems, but the level of historical drilling at Kelly Lake East remains low.
The technical narrative in the release is careful to separate compliant and non-compliant information. Historic data from neighbouring tenements (Vior Inc., Globex Mining) is cited to demonstrate prospectivity, not to imply ownership or resources for Pivotal. Similarly, the Company reiterates that the Kelly Lake historical resource is not JORC-compliant and that the new work at Kelly Lake East is still at an early exploration stage. This clarity is important when interpreting how much weight to place on external datasets and legacy work.
Timeline-wise, investors should note that drilling at Lorraine Mine and Shanty Lake is expected to start in the northern winter of 2025–26, while Kelly Lake East will likely see systematic mapping, soils, and geophysics through 2026 to build a robust drill-targeting framework. In other words, this announcement sets up a sequence of technical milestones rather than delivering immediate drill results. Progress will be measured through geophysical refinements, target ranking, and, eventually, the first significant drill intercepts from this part of the project.
Ultimately, the combination of belt-scale tenure, supportive infrastructure, and a growing portfolio of high-priority targets is what frames the Pivotal story. The story is still too early to establish any credibility. Like all early mineral exploration projects, time is of the essence, and patience is required by those who are going for the ride.
I think this is an interesting project, but as I get wiser, I now see the timeline as an issue, and the potential funding scenario, as it will be very hard to compete with the gold rush. Today, it's all about easy gold mining stories. The hard ones will suffer with competition for funding.
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