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

Shifting its immediate focus to potentially more lucrative opportunities in the lithium mining sector, Rover Metals Corp. reported plans Dec. 11 to put its Cabin Lake gold project in Northwest Territories up for sale after nearly five years of exploration.

The 400-hectare (988 acres) Cabin Lake project is located about 110 kilometers (69 miles) northwest of Yellowknife, the territory's capital, and 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of the community of Behchokǫ̀.

Rover Metals said it is preparing a technical report that will include three years of exploration data and drill program results (from 2020 to 2022), which is slated for completion by mid-February.

The junior is offering the 100% owned gold project for sale under a staged-ownership purchase option, including an up-front cash payment. The company also intends to retain a royalty on the project.

"The sale of an option for the Cabin Lake Gold project will help bring in needed working capital for 2024," said Rover's CEO Judson Culter.

Management at Rover is focused on continued permitting work at the company's Let's Go lithium project in Nevada. The company also has identified pegmatites, the primary hardrock source for lithium, at its IML project in NWT.

"In 2024, we will be renewing our efforts to further explore and identify pegmatites at the IML project, including regional exploration in the Yellowknife Pegmatite Province, where the IML project is located," Culter said in a statement.

He also noted that Rover received a territorial government grant of C$153,000 for exploration work at IML, and the company is also pursuing federal government funding opportunities for the project.

Decades of exploration

The Cabin Lake gold project lies about 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Highway NT-3. A permitted winter road that directly connects Highway NT-3 and Yellowknife to the project, over Russell Lake. The property was first prospected in 1939, and in 1946, Andrew Yellowknife Mines Ltd. tested seven zones by drilling 39 holes totaling 2,267 meters. In 1962, Rio Algom Ltd. acquired ownership of the claims.

From 1982 to 1984, Highwood Resources Ltd. performed geophysical and geological mapping and optioned part of the project to Cominco for exploration drilling. In 1986, Aber Resources (Diavik diamond mine founder) acquired the project and completed significant work on the project. Aber also defined the Bugow Iron Formation as the primary host for gold at the project.

In 1987, Aber Resources optioned off part of the project for exploration to Freeport McMoRan while it continued to drill the Arrow Zone (formerly the Cabin Lake Zone), reporting a historical resource of 91,000 tons at an average grade of 8.5 grams per metric ton gold. Aber Resources also documented several other zones on the project (Beaver, Andrew South, Andrew North, and Camp, to name a few) based on the work performed by Cominco and Freeport McMoRan.

New interest, high grades

Rover said Cabin Lake is situated in a proven mining district hosting an endowment of precious metals, diamonds, critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements. Late-stage brownfields exploration projects in the area promise to bring new infrastructure and investment to the area, aided by Canada's $1.5 billion Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund. Fortune Minerals Ltd.'s Nico cobalt-gold-copper-bismuth project, for example, is a recent recipient of federal funding. The Cabin Lake Gold project is located about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Nico project.

Rover said other regional junior mining companies are likely to receive federal government funding in 2024. Lithium discoveries made this summer in the Yellowknife Pegmatite Province by companies such as Li-FT Power Ltd. and Loyal Lithium Ltd. are also contributing to increased private sector interest in the region.

Rover Metals acquired the Cabin Lake project in 2018, won a C$85,000 mining incentive grant from the Northwest Territories government, and in the same year completed an airborne geophysics magnetic study on the Bugow Iron Formation extending its defined near-surface length to over 15 kilometers (nine miles).

In the second half of 2020, Rover Metals began a phase-one diamond drill program at the historical Arrow (formerly Cabin Lake) zone, which included the discovery and definition of a near-surface high-grade ore shoot open at depth, highlights of which included drill hole CL-20-08, which reported 32 meters of 13.6 g/t gold.

By late November, the company had confirmed and expanded the historical results reported by Aber Resources in the 1980s at the Arrow zone. Drilling at Arrow led to the discovery of a continuous high-grade gold ore shoot that extends 120 meters at surface, and dips northwest below Cabin Lake.

Highlights of the 2020 results include DDH CL-20-08, which intersected 32 meters of 13.6 g/t gold. Hole CL-20-08 was drilled from the shoreline of Cabin Lake, out underneath the lake (with mineralization starting 12 meters from surface). The company's drill targets are out from shore over the frozen Cabin Lake and were designed to follow the Arrow zone ore shoot down dip and prove continuity at depths below 60 meters.

In July 2021, Rover began a phase-two exploration program at the Cabin Lake gold project. The program included diamond drilling, airborne magnetics/geophysics, airborne lidar, and a ground-induced polarization (IP) geophysical survey with major goals of further defining the continuity of economic gold grades across the more than 15-kilometer (nine miles) Bugow Iron Formation, as well as search for and define new gold-bearing iron formations in the region.

By year's end, the company reported drill results that more than doubled the historical gold grades reported at the Beaver zone. Highlights of the 2021 results include 6.4 meters of 4.63 g/t gold, including 2.6 meters of 7.8 g/t gold in the most southeastern part of the zone.

In early 2022, Rover also reported the discovery of a large IP anomaly extending 200 meters southeast of the most southeastern drill hole (DDH CL-21-39) at the Beaver zone. This geophysical anomaly has never been drilled and extends southeast parallel to the Arrow zone.

Rover Metals Corp.

Rover Metals' 2021 program included drilling, geophysics, and lidar to define the continuity of economic gold grades across the more than 15-kilometer (nine miles) Bugow Iron Formation.

Rover planned several near-surface drill holes to test this anomaly in the hopes that it would be able to extend the surface strike length at Beaver.

The company launched a third phase of exploration in March 2022 with the goal of drilling the highest-grade proven zones on the project, both at depth and along surface strike.

Targeting the Arrow and Beaver zones during this program, which were the focus of the company's previous two exploration programs, Rover drilled the Arrow zone down dip to prove continuity at depths below 60 meters.

Rover said the historic Lupin Gold mine and the Back River gold project in Nunavut, which recently was acquired by B2Gold Corp., have comparable mineralization.

The pending technical report on Cabin Lake is being prepared to qualify the gold project as a listing asset for multiple stock exchanges. The junior also said the report can be reformatted for an ASX listing upon request.