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

Rockhaven Resources Ltd. Feb. 18 announced that its 2020 drilling tapped new bonanza grade gold-silver encountered during a 2020 drill program targeting areas that lie outside the already defined deposit on its road-accessible Klaza project about 50 kilometers (31 miles) west of Carmacks, 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 a 12-year mine life.

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.

The 22 holes drilled by Rockhaven last year focused on five potential expansion targets outside of the Klaza deposit area that hosts the resource.

Rusk – A previously undrilled target about 3,000 meters south of the Klaza deposit that covers a large and highly elevated arsenic-in-soil anomaly adjacent to the largest placer gold deposit in the area.

Pearl – Previous widely-spaced drilling of this zone about 400 meters north of the Klaza deposit cut grades as high as 5.28 g/t gold and 1,054 g/t silver over 1.6 meters.

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.

Etzel – A large gold-arsenic anomaly about 2,000 meters east of the Klaza deposit and downslope from Victoria.

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.

Strong gold and silver mineralization was encountered in all four targets.

"I am excited that our 2020 program, designed to test new vein field targets within three kilometers (1.9 miles) of the gold-silver Klaza deposit, yielded new high-grade vein discoveries," said Rockhaven Resources President and CEO Matt Turner.

Highlights from the 10 holes drilled at Rusk last year, released by Rockhaven in January, include:

• One meter averaging 2.1 g/t gold, 657 g/t silver, 12.98% lead, and 6.17% zinc from a depth of 82.6 meters in hole KL-20-469.

• 9.8 meters averaging 1.42 g/t gold, 30.7 g/t silver, 0.48% lead, and 0.60% zinc from a depth of 35.4 meters in hole KL-20-470.

• 5.65 meters averaging 2.05 g/t gold, 129 g/t silver, 2.29% lead, and 4.67% zinc from a depth of 201 meters in hole KL-20-471.

Further details of the discovery drilling at Rusk can be read at New gold zone discovered at Klaza in the January 15 edition of North of 60 Mining News.

The bonanza grade gold was encountered at Pearl, where the 2020 drilling targeted the convergence of two prominent structures and strong gold-in-soil mineralization.

KL-20-480, one of three holes drilled at Pearl during 2020, cut 0.4 meters averaging 59.8 g/t gold and 425 g/t silver. This bonanza grade intercept was toward the bottom of the hole after encountering numerous gold-silver bearing zones across its 243-meter length.

Rockhaven says high-grade intervals have been encountered in seven of the eight widely space holes drilled at Pearl so far, making the more than 1,000-meter-long structure there a priority for systematic follow-up drilling.

At Victoria, Rockhaven drilled two holes to test the western project of high-grade gold and silver encountered by prospecting and excavator trenching in 2017. The southernmost hole, KL-20-485, cut 0.5 meters averaging 9.8 g/t gold and 50.2 g/t silver.

The company encountered more intriguing mineralization in the five holes drilled at Etzel, which lies downslope of Victoria.

One of these holes, KL-20-484, cut 1.5 meters averaging 9.69 g/t gold and 82.74 g/t silver and 2.62% copper; and 1.5 meters averaging 838 g/t silver.

KL-20-489, drilled roughly 200 meters from KL-20-484, cut 162.51 meters averaging 0.15 g/t gold and 0.7 g/t silver from a depth of 5.8 meters.

Rockhaven said follow-up exploration is definitely warranted at Etzel, especially towards the southeast end of the zone, where no exploration work has yet been conducted.

One hole of the 2020 program, KL-20-487, tested the potential of extending the already defined Klaza deposit deeper. At 450 meters below the surface, which is 125 meters deeper than any other hole drilled at Central Klaza, this hole cut two meters averaging 3.18 g/t gold and 43.52 g/t silver.

Further testing of this expansion potential is expected to be one of the primary targets for drilling this year.

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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