White Rock Minerals Ltd: Geophysics Success at Its High-Grade Zinc Project
Ballarat, June 20, 2018 - White Rock Minerals Limited (ASX:WRM) ("White Rock" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that orientation geophysics at its 100% owned high-grade zinc VMS project at Red Mountain in Alaska has confirmed that the Dry Creek massive sulphide mineralisation is coincident with strong conductivity anomalies that are identified using both the CSAMT geophysics exploration tool (see Figure 1 in link below) and time domain electromagnetics geophysics ("EM"). This successful orientation work allows White Rock to progress with confidence in applying the more rapid acquisition of CSAMT data across priority target areas, prior to drill testing.
- Drilling to test for down dip extensions at the Dry Creek zinc VMS deposit intersects massive sulphide mineralisation at the Discovery lens,
- Drill hole DC18-79 intersects 6.1m (downhole) with abundant visual zinc (sphalerite) and lead (galena) mineralisation,
- Orientation geophysics confirms strong conductivity anomalies are coincident with massive sulphide mineralisation,
- CSAMT geophysics surveys have now commenced across other high priority target areas ahead of drill testing and potentially future discoveries.
At Dry Creek, the first drill hole (DC18-79) at the Discovery zone targeted the down-dip extension of the Resource. Drilling intersected massive sulphide mineralisation with abundant sphalerite (zinc), pyrite and galena (lead) from 230.6 to 236.7 metres (6.1m) downhole (estimated true width of 3.9m) (see Figure 2 in link below). This hole is some 60 metres from the nearest hole (DC97-26).
Figure 1 (see link below) highlights the coincidence of the CSAMT conductivity anomaly with massive sulphide mineralisation intersected in historic drill holes at the Discovery lens. Drill hole DC18-79 intersected the massive sulphide zone of abundant sphalerite and galena in the core of the CSAMT anomaly. The coincidence of conductivity and massive sulphide mineralisation rich in sphalerite provides confidence in applying the CSAMT technique to define other targets for drill testing in new prospective areas prioritised by favourable geological observations and anomalous surface geochemistry.
MD & CEO Matt Gill said "We are delighted with the results of the orientation geophysics. The stark conductivity anomaly results seen and their coincidence with known massive sulphide mineralisation gives White Rock a powerful exploration tool with which to identify new targets for drill testing, hopefully leading to resource expansion and the discovery of new deposits. Further, this latest drill hole intercept of massive sulphides supports our belief that there is further potential for the discovery of more high-grade VMS mineralisation and that this resource is also open down-dip."
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.
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About White Rock Minerals Ltd
White Rock Minerals Ltd (ASX:WRM) is an Australian listed minerals exploration and development company with projects located in northern NSW (gold and silver) and central Alaska (zinc, silver, lead and gold). The White Rock vision is to explore and develop both precious and base metal projects.
White Rock's cornerstone asset is the Mt Carrington epithermal gold-silver project in northern NSW. The Mt Carrington project has great leverage to the Australian gold and silver prices with a positive scoping study providing a path towards feasibility studies and development in the near term.
White Rock is also exploring the Red Mountain project in Alaska. Red Mountain is a globally significant advanced VMS project with high grade zinc and silver in two deposits. White Rock is exploring for additional high grade deposits that will enhance the projects leverage to an upturn in the fortunes of zinc and silver.
Contact
White Rock Minerals Limited
Matthew Gill (Managing Director & CEO)
Phone: +61-3-5331-4644
E-mail: info@whiterockminerals.com.au
Shane Turner (Company Secretary)
Phone: +61-3-5331-4644
Website: www.whiterockminerals.com.au