The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Mining Explorers 2020 - Published January 19, 2021
Drills have outlined a deposit at Klaza capable of supporting a mine that could produce roughly 750,000 ounces gold and 13.8 million oz silver over a 12-year mine life.
Rockhaven Resources Ltd. is advancing its high-grade Klaza gold-silver project in southwestern Yukon towards permitting and development.
A preliminary economic assessment completed mid-2020 envisions a mine at Klaza that would produce roughly 750,000 ounces gold and 13.8 million oz silver over a 12-year mine life.
The Klaza mine outlined in the PEA is calculated to generate a post-tax net present value (at a 5% discount) of C$378 million and a 37% internal rate of return.
The 2020 PEA 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. These resources also contain a small amount of zinc and lead.
The PEA considers extracting 1.18 million metric tons of this resource with open-pit mining and another 6.28 million metric tons from underground.
Only the upper portions of three out of eleven known mineralized zones at Klaza are included in mineral resources evaluated in the assessment, providing ample potential for value enhancement through additional exploration.
Rockhaven began exploring this upside potential with a roughly 6,000-meter drill program that got underway in August.
This drilling tested four targeted:
Rusk – A large and highly elevated arsenic-in-soil anomaly adjacent to the largest placer gold deposit in the area.
Victoria – A target about 1,500 meters east of the Klaza deposit where sampling has encountered high-grade mineralization, including 35.3 g/t gold with 1,145 g/t silver and 12.1 g/t gold with 2,360 g/t silver.
Pearl – Widely-spaced drilling of this zone cut grades as high as 5.28 g/t gold and 1,054 g/t silver over 1.6 meters. The 2020 drilling targeted the convergence of two prominent structures and strong gold-in-soil mineralization at the eastern end of Pearl.
Klaza Down-Dip: The deepest holes that tested each of four sub-zones containing the Klaza mineral resources all tapped above average grades, including 6.7 meters of 11.9 g/t gold in the Central Klaza Zone; and 1.37 meters of 16.29 g/t gold and 1,435 g/t silver in the Western BRX Zone.
"We feel it is prudent to test these targets now as promising discoveries can be fast-tracked to expand inferred mineral resources, before Rockhaven transitions into detailed pre-feasibility level work next year," said Rockhaven Resources CEO Matt Turner.
Rockhaven Resources is a member of the Strategic Exploration Group, a collection of junior resource companies focused on exploring northwestern Canada. Members of the group enjoy a close working relationship with Archer, Cathro & Associates (1981) Ltd., a geological consulting firm with extensive knowledge and exploration expertise in Yukon and northern British Columbia.
EDITOR'S NOTE: On Jan. 13, Rockhaven announced results from 2020 drilling at Rusk, a previously undrilled target about 3,000 meters south of the Klaza deposit. Further details can be read at New gold zone discovered at Klaza in the January 15 edition of North of 60 Mining News.
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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