Rockcliff Copper identifies Au mine trend at Laguna...NEWS An airborne drone magnetometer survey has been completed at Rockcliff Copper Corp.'s high-grade Laguna gold property, Snow Lake, Man. The survey has identified the Laguna gold mine trend, a minimum-six-kilometre-long structurally complex geological environment associated with known surface-exposed structurally controlled gold-bearing quartz stockwork systems. The Laguna gold property hosts the former high-grade Laguna gold mine, Manitoba's first and highest-grade gold mine and is part of the company's Snow Lake project. The Snow Lake project is one of the highest-grade precious and base metal property portfolios in North America. The Snow Lake project is located in the prolific Flin Flon-Snow Lake mining camp, which has had over a 100-year history in mining of high-grade precious and base metals.
Ken Lapierre, president and chief executive officer, stated: "The airborne drone magnetometer survey successfully identified the Laguna gold mine trend, a six-kilometre-long-by-200-metre-wide structurally complex geological trend. The Laguna gold mine trend hosts multiple, surface-exposed, high-grade gold-bearing quartz vein stockwork systems, which are associated with subparallel subsidiary fault splays east of a major regional NE-SW-[northeast-southwest]-trending thrust fault known as the Crowduck bay fault. The high-grade gold-bearing quartz vein stockworks are located along high-strain zones on or near the contact with partially exposed folded quartz-feldspar-porphyry intrusions. The potential for the discovery of additional gold-bearing quartz vein stockworks within the Laguna gold mine trend is considered excellent and represents the priority target at the Laguna gold property. Additional surveys, including VLF [very low frequency] and IP [induced polarization] geophysical surveys across the Laguna gold mine trend, are nearing completion, and results will be released in the coming weeks."
About the Laguna gold mine, Manitoba's first and highest-grade gold mine
The Laguna gold property hosts the Laguna gold mine, Manitoba's first and highest-grade former gold mine located in the Flin Flon-Snow Lake mining camp. Historical, intermittent gold mining between 1916 and 1939 produced over 60,000 ounces of high-grade gold grading approximately 19.0 grams per tonne. The Laguna gold mine's infrastructure consists of a reclaimed and covered three-compartment vertical shaft to 381 metres and eight levels totalling over three kilometres of underground drift and stope development. The Laguna gold property now includes 28 contiguous mining claims totalling 3,501 hectares covering a minimum six kilometres of prospective strike length of the Laguna gold mine trend. The Laguna gold property is strategically located near an existing 2,150-tonne-per-day, currently non-operational gold mill in Snow Lake, Man.
The gold mineralization on the Laguna gold property is metallogenically controlled by subsidiary thrust faults attributed to the major regional Crowduck bay fault, which crosses the entire length of the Laguna gold property. The gold-rich quartz veining and stockwork systems along the northwest limb of the Herb Lake syncline typically occur where the subsidiary faults intersect quartz-feldspar and biotite porphryry stocks that intrude Missi group sedimentary and volcanic rocks. Quartz, iron carbonate-albite-sericite alteration commonly overprint peak regional metamorphic assemblages within gold-bearing vein margins. Mineralization in quartz and surrounding quartz stockwork wall rock consists of pyrite, arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, galena, pyrrhotite, native gold and telluride.
Pursuant to its option agreement, Rockcliff can earn a 100-per-cent interest in the Laguna gold property. Please refer to the company's news release dated Sept. 12, 2016, for specific terms of the option agreement.
State-of-the-art airborne drone magnetometer survey
A total of 1,120 kilometres of tightly spaced lines between 25-metre and 50-metre spacing were completed at the Laguna gold property by AIR Inc. based in Flin Flon, Man. The low-flying unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is a state-of-the-art Canadian-designed-and-built helicopter-style UAV, which slings a potassium magnetic sensor underneath. Helicopters offer many advantages over other kinds of UAVs: vertical takeoff and launch and highest aerodynamic efficiency in forward flight, as well as the best size versus payload versus flight time available. A GPS-guided autopilot, coupled with ground elevation data, allows it to fly accurate survey lines that hug the terrain. With the implementation of a UAV over conventional ground and airborne surveys, users can now economically fly extremely tightly spaced lines with high-density ground sampling distances without the need for line cutting. It is now possible to resolve individual magnetic anomalies that were previously indistinguishable when surveyed using conventional ground and airborne surveys, a perfect solution for structurally controlled gold exploration targets like that at the Laguna gold property. Ultimately, magnetic surveys done from a UAV deliver higher-quality magnetic data at a decreased cost with a reduced environmental footprint.