White Rock Minerals Ltd (
The first two drill holes of the 2018 program to test the down plunge extension of mineralisation at both the Discovery lens and the Fosters lens at the Dry Creek deposit have returned exceptional zinc, lead, silver and gold grades:
o 4.7m @ 19.5% zinc, 7.8% lead, 466g/t silver, 6.9g/t gold and 1.5% copper for 49.7% ZnEq(see Note below) (DC18-79), including 1.6m @ 18.5g/t Au.
o 4.3m @ 4.8% zinc, 2.3% lead, 1,435g/t silver, 2.2g/t gold and 0.5% copper for 43.2% ZnEq(see Note below) (DC18-77).
- The Discovery lens hole (DC18-79) intersection is the best result of all the historic holes drilled into the Discovery lens.
- This drilling extends the high-grade Fosters and Discovery Lenses and highlights the exceptional growth potential as the mineralisation remains open.
The diamond drilling results are part of White Rock's maiden drill campaign at the Red Mountain project. Drilling is now targeting extensions of the two existing deposits, Dry Creek and West Tundra, which already have a Resource base of 16.7Mt at 8.9% ZnEq(see Note below) including a high-grade component of 9.1Mt @ 12.9% ZnEq(see Note below) (refer ASX announcement 26 April 2017 regarding the maiden Mineral Resource).
MD & CEO Matt Gill said "This drilling represents a significant extension to the Dry Creek deposit and notably down dip at both the Fosters and Discovery lenses. These first two extension drill holes highlight the upside potential for a significant expansion to the Resource at Dry Creek, both in terms of grade and size. Dry Creek is an exciting VMS deposit as it shows great variation in thickness that has the potential to rapidly add to the Resource. These current drill holes also highlight the potential for significant high-grade gold and silver with individual assays up to 25g/t Au and 1,795g/t Ag (or more than 50 ounces of silver per tonne in the old measure). In addition, we are continuing to see more copper as we explore to the east, supporting an early interpretation that the VMS system may be improving towards the east and at depth, where improving zinc grades could also be expected. And all this before we have really got our teeth into testing some of the best of the more than 30 already identified regional exploration targets within our 143km2 land package."
The drill program continues to test extensions of the Discovery lens with a further two drill holes completed (assays awaited) and another drill hole underway. The long-section and cross-section presented in Figures 2 & 3 (see link below) illustrate the upside potential for down-plunge mineralisation extensions. The Dry Creek deposit shows typical pinching and swelling of mineralisation as is often encountered in other VMS deposits, underlining the upside potential for down-plunge and along strike Resource expansion through drill testing.
In addition to drilling at the Discovery lens, results for the first drill hole testing the down plunge extension of mineralisation at the Fosters lens of the Dry Creek deposit have also been received. DC18-77 intersected two zones of semi-massive sulphide mineralisation. The lower zone returned exceptional silver mineralisation.
This drill program is being supported by applying on-ground geophysics (CSAMT), along with surface mapping and rock and soil sampling analysis. Some of the drill holes have also been prepared for follow-up geophysical testing using down-hole EM.
Results for DC18-77 and DC18-79 are summarised in Table 1 (see link below).
About Red Mountain (as more fully set out in the ASX Announcement dated 15 February 2016)
- The Red Mountain Project is located in central Alaska, 100km south of Fairbanks, in the Bonnifield Mining District. The tenement package comprises 230 mining claims over a total area of 143km2.
- The Red Mountain Project contains polymetallic VMS mineralisation rich in zinc, silver and lead, with potential for significant gold and copper.
- Mineralisation occurs from surface and is open along strike and down-dip.
- White Rock used historical drilling to determine a maiden JORC 2012 Mineral Resource estimate for the Dry Creek and West Tundra Flats deposit (ASX Announcement 26th April 2017). The Inferred Mineral Resource contains an impressive base metal and precious metal content with 678,000t zinc, 286,000t lead, 53.5 million ounces silver and 352,000 ounces gold.
- Good preliminary metallurgical recoveries of >90% zinc, >75% lead, >80% gold, >70% silver and >70% copper.
- Previous drilling highlights (ASX Announcement 15th February 2016) include:
Dry Creek
o 4.6m @ 23.5% Zn, 531g/t Ag, 8.5% Pb, 1.5g/t Au & 1.0% Cu from 6.1m
o 5.5m @ 25.9% Zn, 346g/t Ag, 11.7% Pb, 2.5g/t Au & 0.9% Cu from 69.5m
o 7.1m @ 15.1% Zn, 334g/t Ag, 6.8% Pb, 0.9g/t Au & 0.3% Cu from39.1m
West Tundra Flats
o 1.3m @ 21.0% Zn, 796g/t Ag,9.2% Pb, 10.2g/t Au & 0.6% Cu from 58.6m
o 3.0m @ 7.3% Zn, 796g/t Ag, 4.3% Pb, 1.1g/t Au & 0.2% Cu from160.9m
o 1.7m @ 11.4% Zn, 372g/t Ag, 6.0% Pb, 1.7g/t Au & 0.2% Cu from 104.3m
- VMS deposits typically occur in clusters ("VMS camps"). Deposit sizes within camps typically follow a log normal distribution, and deposits within camps typically occur at regular spacing. The known deposits at Dry Creek and West Tundra Flats provide valuable information with which to vector and target additional new deposits within the Red Mountain camp.
- Interpretation of the geologic setting indicates conditions that enhance the prospectivity for gold-rich mineralisation within the VMS system at Red Mountain. Gold mineralisation is usually found at the top of VMS base metal deposits or adjacent in the overlying sediments. Gold bearing host rocks are commonly not enriched in base metals and consequently often missed during early exploration sampling. This provides an exciting opportunity for potential further discoveries at Red Mountain.
- White Rock sees significant discovery potential, given the lack of modern day exploration at Red Mountain. This is further enhanced by the very nature of VMS clustering in camps, and the potentially large areas over which these can occur.
Note: ZnEq = Zinc equivalent grades are estimated using long-term broker consensus estimates compiled by RFC Ambrian as at 20 March 2017 adjusted for recoveries from historical metallurgical test work and calculated with the formula: ZnEq =100 x [(Zn% x 2,206.7 x 0.9) + (Pb% x 1,922 x 0.75) + (Cu% x 6,274 x 0.70) + (Ag g/t x (19.68/31.1035) x 0.70) + (Au g/t x (1,227/31.1035) x 0.80)] / (2,206.7 x 0.9). White Rock is of the opinion that all elements included in the metal equivalent calculation have reasonable potential to be recovered and sold.
To view tables and figures, please visit:
http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/HG0R86PL
About White Rock Minerals Ltd
White Rock Minerals Ltd (ASX:WRM) (OTCMKTS:WRMCF) is a diversified explorer and near-stage producer, headquartered in Ballarat, Victoria. The Company's flagship exploration project is Red Mountain in central Alaska. At Red Mountain, there are already two high grade zinc - silver - gold - lead VMS deposits, with an Inferred Mineral Resource of 9.1 million tonnes @ 609g/t AgEq / 13% ZnEq. The Company is also exploring its recently discovered large intrusion related gold anomaly at Last Chance, also located in the Tintina gold belt of Alaska, home to multi-million gold ounce deposits like Pogo, Fort Knox and the Donlin Project. The Company also has the Mt Carrington project, located near Drake, in Northern NSW, which is a near-production precious metals asset with a resource of 341,000 ounces of gold and 23.2 million ounces of silver on an approved mining lease, and with a Gold First PFS and JORC Reserve.
Contact
Matthew Gill (Managing Director & CEO)Phone: +61-3-5331-4644
Shane Turner (Company Secretary)
Phone: +61-3-5331-4644
Email: info@whiterockminerals.com.au
Website: www.whiterockminerals.com.au
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