Geology & setting
Hidden Hill is situated in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, along the Cobequid-Chedabucto Fault Zone (CCFZ) — Atlantic Canada's most significant mineralising structure. The project encompasses seven prospects — Lansdowne, New Lairg, Gordon Summit, New Gairloch, Marshdale, Glengarry Station, and Jessie Grants Pit — across a 25+ km structural corridor.
The core geological thesis is that a massive, district-scale IOCG system analogous to Olympic Dam and Prominent Hill (both BHP, Australia) has been preserved intact beneath a Carboniferous sedimentary cap. The Mabou Group siltstones act as an impermeable structural and lithological cap — the "Mabou Trap" — preserving the high-grade copper-cobalt-gold sulfide core intact. Windsor Group limestones immediately below act as reactive chemical traps where ascending metal-rich fluids precipitated skarn-hosted Cu-Co mineralisation, analogous to the Stuart Shelf trap architecture at Olympic Dam.
A discrete, circular ~30 km² residual gravity low — nested within a 60 km² potassic (K-feldspar-biotite) alteration halo — defines the high-temperature throat or breccia pipe of the IOCG system. The primary ore target is the Redox Front on the margin of this gravity low, exactly where the Prominent Hill discovery hole (URN 1) intersected high-grade Cu-Au.
Key mineralisation highlights
AI prospectivity modelling
Solterra employs predictive structural modelling and machine learning (Hidden Hill IOCG Mineral Prospectivity Model — MPM) developed by Birch Cove Resources using Random Forest and Support Vector Machine algorithms. The model integrates gravity, magnetics, radiometrics, structural lineaments, and alteration mapping to rank targets across the 25+ km structural corridor.
The IOCG MPM framework is being established in Phase 1 alongside the core re-logging program, with full model output delivered ahead of Phase 2 ground geophysics — providing an independent, data-driven ranking of drill collar locations.
Phased work program
| Phase | Activity | Budget | MRDF Grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | Core re-logging, pXRF, assaying, GIS compilation | ~C$25,000 | Up to $40,000 |
| Year 2 | Ground IP geophysics, 3D inversion, MPM development | ~C$90,000 | Up to $100,000 |
| Year 2–3 | 4–5 HQ diamond drill holes, 1,000–1,500 m total | ~C$350,000 | Up to $150,000 |
| Total program (net of MRDF grants ~C$290,000) | ~C$465,000 | ~C$290,000 | |
Contact us to arrange a virtual or in-person project briefing, request data room access (subject to NDA), or coordinate a site visit.
Request data package → Download slide deck (PDF)