Summer Exploration Program Begins At The Knife Lake Project
VANCOUVER, BC - Rockridge Resources Ltd. has commenced a summer exploration program at its flagship Knife Lake Project located in Saskatchewan, Canada. Rockridge entered into an Option Agreement with Eagle Plains Resources Ltd. to acquire a 100% interest in the Property that covers the majority of the Knife Lake Cu-Zn-Ag-Co VMS deposit. The contiguous claims total 85,196 hectares and are located approximately 50 km northwest of Sandy Bay, Saskatchewan. A 357kV powerline runs within 16 km of the Knife Lake Deposit area, greatly enhancing the project’s infrastructure.
Knife Lake VMS Project Map:
Research and the compilation of historic data has identified 11 highly prospective targets within the large landholding, and numerous second priority targets. The summer field exploration program has now commenced and will focus on a first pass evaluation of three priority targets: Gilbert Lake, Scimitar Lake and Machete. All of these targets are in the immediate vicinity of the Knife Lake deposit.
Gilbert Lake is a large priority target area 7 km west of the Knife Lake deposit. The target includes over 14 km of highly prospective VMS stratigraphy, contains a number of shallow EM conductors, and historic exploration has encountered highly favorable alteration and mineralization.
Scimitar Lake is a large target area centered 7 km east of the Knife Lake deposit and contains over 3.5 km of prospective VMS stratigraphy. Only three drill holes have been drilled historically on EM conductors identified with ground geophysics and two of the three holes contained shallow intercepts of copper mineralization including chalcopyrite and native copper. However, no assays were cited in the historical reports. The majority of known conductors remain untested both along strike and at depth.
The Machete target is located 8 km NNW of the Knife Lake deposit and contains 3.5 km of prospective VMS stratigraphy. This target hosts an airborne EM anomaly that has seen no documented exploration. The coincidence of the EM anomaly with the prospective Knife Lake VMS horizon have made it a priority target for follow-up.
2019 exploration of all targets will include geologic mapping, litho-geochemical sampling, prospecting, and soil sampling with the goal of making a new grassroots discovery in close proximity to the Knife Lake deposit.
Knife Lake contains typical VMS mineralogy which has been significantly modified and partially remobilized during the emplacement of granitic rocks. Therefore, the known deposit may represent a remobilized portion of a presumably larger “primary” VMS deposit based on general observations about the mineralogy, mineral textures and metal ratios in the deposit. Most of the historical work has consisted of shallow drilling at the deposit area with little regional work carried out and limited deeper drilling below the deposit. As a result, there is strong discovery potential both at depth and regionally.
The Knife Lake Project is interpreted to be a remobilized VMS deposit. The stratabound mineralized zone is approximately 15m thick and contains copper, silver, zinc, gold and cobalt mineralization which dips 30° to 50° eastward over a known strike-length within Rockridge’s claim area of 3,700 meters, and a known average down-dip extension of approximately 300 meters.
The deposit is hosted by felsic to intermediate volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks which have been metamorphosed to upper amphibolite facies. The deposit contains VMS mineralogy which has been significantly modified and partially remobilized during the emplacement of granitic rocks. The mineralization straddles the boundary between two rock units and occurs on both limbs of an interpreted overturned fold.
The Company completed twelve holes consisting of 1,053 meters of diamond drilling in the 2019 winter drilling program. This represented the first drilling on the property since 2001 and had two primary objectives: confirm the tenor of mineralization reported by previous operators and expand known zones of mineralization. Highlights from the drill program included previously reported hole KF19003 which intersected net-textured to semi-massive sulphide mineralization from 11.2m to 48.8m downhole. This 37.6 meter interval returned 2.03% Cu, 0.19 g/t Au, 9.88 g/t Ag, 0.36% Zn, and 0.01% Co for an estimated 2.42% CuEq. Additionally, previously reported drill hole KF19001 intersected net-textured to fracture-controlled sulphide mineralization from 7.5 meters to 40.6 meters downhole. This 33.1 meter interval returned 1.28% Cu, 0.12 g/t Au, 4.80 g/t Ag, 0.13% Zn, and 0.01% Co for an estimated 1.49% CuEq.
Compilation and initial modeling indicate potential for expansion of the deposit at depth. The recent drilling focused on resource upgrade as well as infill drilling between historical holes. The program gave the Company’s technical team valuable insights into the property geology, alteration, and mineralization that will be applied to future regional exploration on the highly prospective and underexplored land package.
The Knife Lake deposit is a near surface VMS deposit starting a few meters below surface and the deposit remains open at depth and along strike for potential resource expansion. Recently Rockridge announced a maiden NI 43-101 resource estimate for the Knife Lake deposit which consisted of an indicated resource of 3.8 million tonnes at 1.02% CuEq at a 0.4% CuEq cut-off (3.8 MT at 0.83% Cu, 3.7 gpt Ag, 0.097 gpt Au, 82 ppm Co, 1740.7 ppm Zn). In addition, there is an inferred resource of 7.9 million tonnes at 0.67% CuEq at a 0.4% CuEq cut-off (7.9 MT at 0.53% Cu, 2.4 gpt Ag, 0.084 gpt Au, 53.1 ppm Co, 1454.9 ppm Zn).
The company’s contact information is: (604) 687-3376, [email protected].