The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Mining Explorers 2021 - January 27, 2022
Rockhaven completed 14,256 meters of resource expansion, upgrade, and exploration drilling during its 2021 program at the Klaza gold-silver project in southern Yukon.
Focused on both collecting the data to support a prefeasibility study for establishing a mine at Klaza and testing high-priority targets outside the current mineral resources, Rockhaven Resources Ltd. completed 14,256 meters of infill and expansion drilling at its road-accessible gold-silver project in southern Yukon.
A 2020 preliminary economic assessment for Klaza outlines plans for a mine 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.
Originally slated to be 12,000 meters, the 2021 program at Klaza was expanded to 14,256 meters of drilling that included 11 holes to test resource expansion targets, 30 to evaluate targets outside of the immediate resource area, and 31 focused on upgrading inferred resource, which makes up about 40% of the overall Klaza deposit resources.
The 30 holes drilled to evaluate targets beyond the immediate Klaza resource area included 10 holes at Rusk, a vein complex about 3,000 meters south of the Klaza deposit that was discovered in 2020.
Highlights from the 2020 drilling at Rusk includes 9.8 meters averaging 1.42 g/t gold, 30.7 g/t silver, 0.48% lead, and 0.60% zinc in hole KL-20-470; and 5.65 meters averaging 2.05 g/t gold, 129 g/t silver, 2.29% lead, and 4.67% zinc in hole KL-20-471.
The remaining 20 exploration holes tested Kelly Porphyry, a large zone of copper-gold-molybdenum-silver mineralization immediately southeast of the Klaza deposit vein system; extensions of Western BRX, the highest-grade gold zone identified at Klaza so far; and Western Chevron, a vein south of Western BRX and in the same fault block.
Another 11 holes of the 2020 program tested known structures that lie immediately adjacent to the Klaza deposit but outside of the resources that support the mine plan envisioned in the PEA. These targets include portions of the Central BRX and Eastern Klaza zones, where widely spaced holes had previously returned encouraging results.
The remaining 31 holes focused on upgrading inferred resources at Klaza to the higher confidence indicated category, the first phase of a comprehensive infill drill program slated for completion in 2022.
This infill drilling, coupled with ongoing metallurgical work, and environmental baseline studies, is being carried out to support a prefeasibility study that will provide further details on establishing a mine at Klaza.
"The 2021 program was designed to expand and upgrade the mineral resource base, collect material for advanced metallurgical test work, and continue the collection of data needed for permitting," said Rockhaven Resources President and CEO Matt Turner.
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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