The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Rockhaven hunts large discoveries while de-risking project North of 60 Mining News – May 14, 2021
Rockhaven plans to carry out roughly 7,000 meters of resource upgrade drilling and about 5,000 meters of exploration drilling during its 2021 program at the Klaza gold-silver project.
Rockhaven Resources Ltd. May 12 outlined plans for 12,000 meters of resource upgrade and exploration drilling for its road-accessible Klaza gold-silver project in southern Yukon.
A preliminary economic assessment completed last year outlines plans for a mine at Klaza that would produce roughly 750,000 ounces of gold and 13.8 million oz of silver over 12-years.
This scoping level study is based on 4.46 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 4.8 grams per metric ton (686,000 oz) gold and 98 g/t (14.1 million oz) silver; plus 5.71 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 2.8 g/t (507,000 oz) gold and 76 g/t (13.9 million oz) silver outlined at the Klaza project so far.
A 22-hole drill program completed by Rockhaven last year focused on five potential expansion targets outside of the Klaza deposit area that hosts the resource.
The planned 2021 program, slated to get started in early June, will include roughly 7,000 meters of drilling to continue to test high-priority targets outside the current mineral resources and about 5,000 meters focused on upgrading the inferred resources to the higher confidence indicated category.
"The 2021 work program combines the hunt for new, large-scale discoveries with continued de-risking of the Klaza project through focused infill drilling, metallurgical test work and engineering studies," said Rockhaven Resources CEO Matt Turner. "This program is intended to advance the known deposits in support of a planned preliminary feasibility study while simultaneously evaluating the potential for new areas of mineralization extending from the porphyry core to the adjacent high-grade gold-silver epithermal vein field, which currently has an impressive 15-square kilometer (six square miles) extent."
Priority exploration targets include bulk tonnage copper-gold-molybdenum-silver porphyry targets that are likely the main driver for mineralization in the Klaza district but are relatively underexplored.
Porphyry-style targets to be tested this year are:
• Kelly – Porphyry copper-gold-molybdenum-silver mineralization identified by widely spaced drilling over a four-square-kilometer (1.5 square miles) area will be the focus of two fences of holes testing geophysical anomalies that coincide with strong copper, molybdenum, and gold soil geochemical anomalies. This target lies immediately to the southeast of the vein system hosting the Klaza deposit and has lithogeochemical and alteration signatures consistent with bulk tonnage porphyry-style mineralization.
• Etzel-Cyprus – This lightly explored, bulk-tonnage target southeast of Kelly hosts gold and copper-gold mineralization spread over a 4.5-square-meter (1.7 square miles) area that will be tested by four holes. Hole KL-20-483, drilled at Etzel last year, cut 1.5 meters averaging 9.69 g/t gold, 82.74 g/t silver and 2.62% copper. KL-20-484, another 2020 hole, cut 81.63 meters averaging 0.25 g/t gold. Rockhaven says there is a trend toward higher grade gold within the Etzel zone as it approaches the Cyprus porphyry target. Historical drilling at Cyprus cut 56.39 meters averaging 0.17% copper and 0.02% molybdenum.
Rockhaven also plans to continue to explore for extensions of known higher-grade gold-silver vein systems, including the high-grade Western BRX and newly discovered Rusk vein complex:
• Western BRX Extension – Western BRX is the highest-grade gold zone identified at Klaza so far and is only lightly explored to the west of the current mineral resource. The 2021 drilling will include a fence of seven holes to test for strike extensions of the vein to the west, where geophysical anomalies similar to those that mark the main mineralized structures at Klaza, including the Western BRX vein, have been defined.
• Western Chevron – This vein south of Western BRX Zone and in the same fault block is a promising target that has only been tested by two holes and one trench over a 500-meter inferred strike length. KL-12-108, drilled at Western Chevron in 2012, cut 3.38 meters averaging 3.09 g/t gold, 78.6 g/t silver, 1.93% lead, and 1.04% zinc. The other hole, KL-12-130, cut 1.26 meters averaging 3.97 g/t gold, 94 g/t silver, 1.35% lead, and 1.44% zinc. A trench that cut this same structure averaged 3.79 g/t gold, 190.4 g/t silver, and 1.35% lead over 9.2 meters. Five holes are proposed to test the structure over a roughly 500-meter strike length.
• Rusk - This vein complex about 3,000 meters south of the Klaza deposit was discovered in 2020 when drilling intersected several zones of gold-silver-lead-zinc mineralization over thicknesses of one to 10 meters. One of these holes, KL-20-470, cut 9.8 meters averaging 1.42 g/t gold, 30.7 g/t silver, 0.48% lead, and 0.60% zinc. A second, KL-20-471, cut 5.65 meters averaging 2.05 g/t gold, 129 g/t silver, 2.29% lead, and 4.67% zinc. The 2021 drilling will evaluate the strike length and grade continuity of the strongest veins, with initial step-out holes planned to test near-surface mineralization over a 400-meter strike length.
Rockhaven's 2021 infill drilling will focus on upgrading the inferred resource, which makes up about 40% of the overall Klaza deposit resources, to the indicated category.
The 33 planned infill holes will also support metallurgical test work and engineering studies as the Klaza project continues toward pre-feasibility.
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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