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

White Rock Minerals Ltd. April 21 announced the closing of a roughly A$8.8 million (US$6.8 million) financing, which will fund the Australian company's largest exploration program so far at the Red Mountain project in Alaska.

The expanded 2021 program at Red Mountain will include three diamond drill rigs testing for both intrusive related gold at the Last Chance prospect and expanding up upon the high-grade silver-zinc-gold-lead volcanogenic massive sulfide mineralization at Red Mountain.

"White Rock has a plethora of exploration opportunities across its contiguous Last Chance-Red Mountain project in central Alaska," said Quinton Hennigh, a technical advisor to White Rock Minerals. "The dual opportunity to explore an exciting new large orogenic-intrusion-related gold system and a potentially world class volcanogenic massive sulfide district at a time when all metals are heading into a resounding bull market puts White Rock in a league all by itself."

White Rock plans to have one drill testing resource expansion targets in and around Dry Creek and WTF, which already host 9.1 million metric tons of Australian Joint Ore Reserves Committee- (JORC) compliant inferred resource averaging 5.8% (1.17 billion pounds) zinc; 2.6% (516 million lb) lead; 0.1% (26.5 million lb) copper; 157 g/t (46.1 million oz) silver; and 0.9 g/t (260,000 oz) gold.

A second rig will follow up on the Last Chance gold discovery, where the 2020 reconnaissance drill program encountered grades as high as 24.8 g/t gold over 1.2 meters.

The third drill will test previously undrilled VMS targets, some of which are found near Last Chance at the west end of the 308-square-mile (798 square kilometers) Red Mountain project, while others are associated with Dry Creek and WTF toward the east side of the property.

White Rock Minerals Ltd.

In addition to roughly 10,000 meters of drilling, the 2021 program at Red Mountain will include on-ground reconnaissance exploration to help refine drill targets at the newly identified VMS prospect area just north of Last Chance.

"Our three-pronged drilling plan is very exciting – we will be drilling to expand our existing high-grade silver-zinc VMS resource at Dry Creek, we will be doing deeper follow-up drilling at our large Last Chance gold anomaly, only discovered last year, and we plan to also drill test some new VMS prospects only announced in January this year," said White Rock Minerals CEO Matt Gill. "The speed with which we can identify, assess and drill at our project in Alaska is testament to the team that White Rock has assembled in-country, and the smooth and efficient approvals process that exists in Alaska."

The company is kicking off its 2021 program at Red Mountain with an airborne electromagnetic survey that is slated to begin before the end of April. This will help guide on-ground reconnaissance exploration, including drill targeting, at the new VMS prospect area just north of Last Chance.

The company plans to have the first drill turning at Red Mountain by the end of May and all three testing targets across the expansive and diverse mineral property by mid-June.

This year's program will be carried out from two camps, the original camp near Dry Creek and another larger camp to support the exploration at the western end of the property.

"We have secured the three drills, a 20-person camp, a 30-person camp, two choppers, and assembled a great team in-country – all systems are go," 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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