North of 60 Mining News - The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

White Rock Minerals Ltd. April 5 said that despite the market uncertainty and travel restrictions related to COVID-19, it intends to carry out at least a limited drill program to expand zinc mineralization and test a new gold discovery on its Red Mountain property in Alaska.

"As an exploration company, we understand what it is like to operate in uncertain times with uncertain outcomes," said White Rock Minerals Managing Director Matt Gill. "Work is still progressing, and we are prepared to come out the other side in a strong position within a good industry sector and able to take advantage of any opportunities that may arise."

As an Australia-based mineral exploration company that operates internationally, White Rock said it is extremely cognizant of the spread of this coronavirus strain, and the safety and wellbeing of its staff and contractors is the highest priority.

As such, the company has taken actions and preventative measures to minimize COVID-19 risks for the business, its employees and all others interacting with the company.

This includes the cancellation of all non-essential travel and face-to-face meetings; and working from home where possible.

With the very considerable uncertainty around activities due to the COVID-19 crisis, including increased tightness in funding for junior exploration companies, White Rock has also implemented a number of cost-saving initiatives have to preserve cash reserves while still allowing work to continue on developing strategies to advance the company's Red Mountain zinc-precious metals project in Alaska and Mt. Carrington gold-silver project in Australia.

These measures include an immediate 30% cut in fees being paid to directors, management and administration contractors.

Given that the duration of the current market conditions is unknown, the exploration company will be continuously reviewing its cost base and considering ways to maximize the value of Red Mountain and Carrington.

Two VMS deposits on the 216-square-mile (559 square kilometers). Red Mountain property – Dry Creek and West Tundra Flats (WTF) – host 9.1 million metric tons of Australian Joint Ore Reserves Committee- (JORC) compliant inferred resource averaging 5.8 percent (1.17 billion pounds) zinc; 2.6 percent (516 million lb) lead; 0.1 percent (26.5 million lb) copper; 157 grams per metric ton (46.1 million ounces) silver; and 0.9 g/t (260,000 oz) gold.

The final hole from the 2019 field program, cut massive sulfide mineralization with abundant sphalerite (zinc mineral) more than 200 meters down-dip from the deepest intercepts at Dry Creek, which indicates considerable potential to expand the size and tonnage of the resource along the entire 1,200-meter strike of this deposit.

Red Mountain also happens to lie within the Tintina Gold Belt – a 125- by 750-mile gold-rich province that hosts Novagold Resources and Barrick Gold's 39-million-ounce Donlin Gold deposits, Kinross Gold's 13.5-million-oz Fort Knox gold mine and Northern Star Resources' 10-million-oz Pogo gold mine.

Sampling carried out by White Rock last year discovered the Last Chance prospect, a six-square-mile (15 square kilometers) gold anomaly where 27 stream sediment samples returned up to 418 parts per billion gold. White Rock says this gold anomaly has a highly anomalous core, with samples returning greater than 100 ppb gold in first order stream catchments over 3,500 meters of strike. This anomaly lies at the headwaters of Last Chance Creek and upstream from significant placer mining.

White Rock has not yet planned it 2020 field activities at Red Mountain but feels well placed to implement a field program, given the location of the project and the company's reliance on local Alaskan consultants and contractors.

A drill rig is available at the Red Mountain camp to test both The Last Chance gold target and extensions Dry Creek resource extensions, providing an opportunity to carry out a controlled program that meets stringent safety and wellbeing requirements should the COVID-19 pandemic remain through 2020.

"We do not believe it is smart or responsible to our shareholders to simply shut down or stop and wait until it blows over. We need to be in a position to hit the ground running and present ourselves as an investment of choice once market conditions improve," said Gill.

White Rock also owns Mt. Carrington, an advanced gold and silver project in New South Wales that hosts 341,000 oz of gold and 23.2 million oz of silver in JORC-compliant resources. A prefeasibility study for developing a mine at the gold pits, which are pre-stripped, has also been completed.

The company said it is in discussions with various parties about Mt. Carrington and is also conducting a strategic review of the project in light of the very strong gold price environment.

"Our view on the gold sector remains bullish and there will be a flight to quality by investors seeking a secure investment at a time of low interest rates. White Rock Minerals believes it will meet those criteria," said Gill.

Author Bio

Shane Lasley, Publisher

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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