Gold has proven itself once again to be a safe-haven asset over the course of 2021. Although the yellow metal has corrected itself from its high of US$1,943.20 per ounce from earlier this year, the gold price is still sitting comfortably above the $1,800 mark.
In tandem with the gold price, global gold production is projected to increase 5.5 per cent this year after the industry was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic last year.
Junior gold explorers are also making strides, including
Red Pine Exploration Inc. (TSXV:RPX, OTC Pink:RDEXF, Forum), a Toronto-based gold exploration company focused on its key asset, the Wawa Gold Project.
Located in Ontario’s prolific Tier 1 Michipicoten Greenstone Belt, the company’s strategy is to aggressively advance projects and increase shareholder value through their exploration program, which features 15,000 metres of diamond drilling.
The company
has filed an updated NI 43-101 technical report that included positive metallurgical results for the project including over 90% recovery rates.
Stockhouse Editorial recently had the opportunity to catch up with Quentin Yarie, President and CEO of Red Pine Exploration, to discuss what the company has been up to, its diamond drilling program.
SH: Thanks for joining us today. Let’s first start off with the Wawa Gold Project. What makes this project the company’s primary focus and what are some of the new targets the company has discovered at the property?
QY: The Wawa Gold project is 100% owned by Red Pine with over 6,800 hectares of exploration potential. It is our flagship property that hosts numerous historic mines with combined 120 000 oz of production, and two main resources, the Surluga and Minto Mine South, as well as other potential high-grade targets. Red Pine is strategically located in a prolific gold district, Ontario’s Tier 1 Michipicoten Greenstone Belt has experienced a vast influx of recent gold mining activity and investment, surrounded by intermediate and major producers including Argonaut Gold, Barrick, Newmont and Alamos.
With two drill rigs active on site, we are drilling beyond the resource of the Surluga deposit to the north and south. We are also testing the Minto Mine Deposit and expanding our Sadowski discovery that are located above the southern exploration target in the Surluga Deposit. With the anticipated arrival of a third drill, we plan to test the property’s greenfield targets that include the southern segment of the Jubilee Shear Zone and of the mineralized structures forming the Darwin-Grace-Nyman vein and shear system. With a drilling program set to hit a 12,500 to 15,000 meters by December 2021, we have drilled, as of September 29
th, 2021, over 6,100 meters in the northern and southern extensions of the Surluga Deposit resource, the Minto Mine deposit, and the Sadowski Gold Zone.
The current resource of the Surluga Deposit, totalling 3.6 Mt grading 5.26 g/t gold (Haywood Report, September 20
th, 2021), is hosted in a geological structure named the Jubilee Shear Zone. The resource of the Surluga Deposit was estimated over a strike length of 1.9 km in the Jubilee Shear Zone and 95% of that resource is within 325 meters vertically from surface. The Jubilee Shear Zone is however known to extend over a strike length of a least 5.5 kilometers and gold mineralization is known to occur in the Jubilee Shear Zone over most of its strike length. At depth, gold mineralization is known to extend to at least 800 meters below surface and remains open. The Jubilee Shear Zone is truncated in the middle of the Wawa Gold Property by a younger structure named the Parkhill Fault. The current resource of the Surluga Deposit is entirely located in the segment of the Jubilee Shear Zone north of the Parkhill Fault. The segment of the Jubilee Shear Zone south of the Parkhill Fault is known to be gold mineralized, but is significantly under-explored and defines the Jubilee Shear Zone South exploration target. Highlights from limited drilling in the segment of the Jubilee Shear Zone south of the Parkhill Fault include 8.33 g/t gold over 1.34 meter and 3.84 g/t gold over 2.15 meters. This is suggesting that the Jubilee Shear Zone has a good exploration potential for the discovery of additional mineralization beyond the current footprints of the resource at depth and laterally along strike.
The Jubilee Shear Zone is part of a much larger deformation system named the Wawa Gold Corridor. The Wawa Gold Corridor is an anastomosing network of shear zones amongst which the Jubilee Shear Zone is the largest zone of deformation known so far and the most extensively explored. Another shear zone of significance for exploration in the Wawa Gold Corridor is the Hornblende Shear Zone, located approximately 300 meters west of the Jubilee Shear Zone. The Hornblende Shear Zone was reached at the seventh level of the Surluga Mine shaft where underground development and diamond drilling indicated the presence of gold mineralization in the 2-6 g/t range over widths of 5 to 12 meters. Red Pine confirmed the presence of the zone of gold mineralization with the intersection of 5.61 g/t gold over 8.5 meters and also that gold mineralization extends to the surface 600 meters north with the intersection of 3.81 g/t gold over 6.1 meters. At a larger scale, Red Pine’s exploration work suggests that gold mineralization occurs in the Hornblende Shear Zone over a strike length of at least 2 kilometers. Additional drilling in the structure is however necessary to constrain the grade and geometry of those zones of mineralization.
The Minto Mine Shear Zone is hosting the Minto Mine Deposit that is hosting a resource totalling 0.459 Mt grading 6.83 g/t gold (Haywood Report, September 20
th, 2021). The Minto Mine Deposit is overlying the Jubilee Shear Zone and is emerging as a high-quality satellite resource to the Surluga deposit. Our 2021 drilling discovered the extension of significant gold mineralization in the Minto Shear Zone beyond the current footprints of the Minto Mine Deposit and reveal a good exploration potential to expand the current resource. This exploration potential in the Minto Mine Shear Zone is tested concurrently with the southern extension of the Surluga Deposit in the Jubilee Shear Zone.
The Sadowski Gold Zone is formed by a network of quartz veins emplaced in sheared fractures. The vein network cover a strike length of at least 70 meters, and the individual quartz veins forming the network are pinching and swelling and contain zones of high-grade gold mineralization. More drilling is however necessary to confirm the size and geometry of the zones of high-grade gold mineralization in the Sadowski Gold Zone.
The Darwin-Grace-Nyman exploration target is associated with the historic Darwin-Grace Mine (17,634 gold ounces at 13.27 g/t Au) that was exploited from the early 1900s to the late 1930s. The Darwin-Grace Mine is located at the intersection of two geological structures, the NW-striking Grace shear zone and the ENE-striking Nyman Shear Zone. The surface trace of the Grace Shear Zone is confirmed over a strike length of 700 meters and hypothesized over an additional 800 meters of strike length. The northern extension of the Grace Shear Zone merges with the Jubilee Shear Zone, whereas to the south the structure extends on the War Eagle claims that we acquired in the spring of 2021. Historic and recent data indicates that the Darwin-Grace-Nyman mineralized system can host significant zones of high-grade mineralization. In the Grace Shear Zone, during the re-development of the Darwin-Grace mine in the 1930s, underground channel samples contained up to 2,146 g/t gold over 0.91 meter. Red Pine’s drilling in the Grace Shear Zone up-dip of the northern end of the mine workings intersected 57.31 g/t gold over 3.14 meters, indicating that high-grade mineralization extends beyond the footprints of the Darwin-Grace Mine. In the Nyman Shear Zone, mined from level 6 of the Darwin-Grace Mine, grab samples collected by Red Pine 400 meters east of the Darwin-Grace Mine contained up to 143 g/t gold. Red Pine then obtained 10.1 g/t gold over 0.82 meters with diamond drilling in the Nyman Shear Zone.
The Minto B Shear Zone forms an exploration target located between the northern end of the Minto Deposit and the southern part of the Surluga deposit current resources. Historic and drilling by Red Pine in the Minto B Shear Zone indicated the presence of a core of gold mineralization that is grading between 2 and 6 g/t over 3 to 10 meters. Example of intersections in the higher-grade core of the Minto B Shear Zone include 2.2 g/t gold over 6.9 meters (estimated true width) and 3.4 g/t gold over 6.2 meters (TW). Successful exploration leading to the definition of a mineral resource in the Minto B Shear Zone could provide zones of mineralization that could contribute to bridge the development of underground infrastructures between the Minto and Surluga deposits resources. Additional drilling remains necessary to constrain the size and geometry of the higher-grade core of the Minto B Shear Zone.
The large number of high-quality exploration targets on the Wawa Gold Project, compounding the discoveries made beyond the known resources of the Surluga and Minto Mine deposits, further validates the untapped and expansion potential of the Wawa Gold Project
.
(Image provided by Red Pine Exploration)
SH: In line with this, the company announced earlier this year a 15,000 metre diamond drilling program for the project — what have been some of the key highlights at the project so far this year?
QY: The main target for diamond drilling in 2021 is the Jubilee Shear Zone, host of the Surluga Deposit NI 43-101 mineral resource. We are also targeting the Minto Mine Shear Zone, host of the Minto Mine Deposit NI 43-101 resource and the Sadowski Gold Zone. In the Jubilee Shear Zone, we are targeting potential zones of mineralization that were discovered down-dip and down-plunge of the the Surluga Deposit resource in earlier drilling programs. Our 2021 drilling program has been quite successful so far. In the southern part of the Jubilee Shear Zone, we have been able to extend our 2020 discovery located down-plunge of Surluga Deposit resource where we drilled up to 3.38 g/t over 13.38 meters (TW) in 2020. Further down-dip and down-plunge of our 2020 discovery, we have intersected in 2021 4.66 g/t gold over 12.24 meters (TW) and 25.73 g/t gold over 4.78 meters (TW). These intersections from our 2021 drilling program are now supporting a down-plunge continuity of at least 200 metres for gold mineralization in that discovery and proved that gold mineralization extends at least 400 meters down-plunge of the current resource of the Surluga Deposit. The intersection of 25.73 g/t gold over 4.78 meters (TW) also indicate that zones of high-grade gold mineralization exist in that discovered extension of the Surluga Deposit.
In addition to the discoveries made in the Jubilee Shear Zone, our 2021 drilling program identified high-grade gold mineralization down-dip of the current boundaries of the Minto Mine deposit with the intersection of 109.37 g/t gold (un-cut) over 2.68 metres true width (TW), including 314 g/t gold over 0.84 metres (TW), in the Minto Vein. This intersection suggests that the resource of the Minto Mine Deposit can be extended with additional drilling in the Minto Mine Shear Zone. We have also identified a new network of quartz veins hosting zones of high-grade gold mineralization. This vein network has been named the Sadowski Gold Zone and has been traced over 70 meters along strike. Significant intersections in the Sadowski Gold Zone include 13.95 g/t gold over 4.48 metres core length (CL) and 24.8 g/t gold over 1.15 meter (CL).
In parallel to our diamond drilling program, Red Pine conducted a prospecting, channel sampling and surface mapping program on and within the surroundings of the War Eagle claims, which are a prominent part of the Company’s strategy to strengthen the Wawa Gold land package. As part of this exploration program, Red Pine identification of new zones of gold mineralization in shear zones located on and adjacent to the company’s newly acquired War Eagle claims. The War Eagle mining claims exhibit gold showings with similar characteristics to the Wawa Gold project’s highly prospective Darwin-Grace structures, both of which are located in the McMurray Township, Michipicoten region of Ontario.
SH: You mentioned that the focus will be to expand the Surluga Deposit at depth in addition to testing other targets. What kind of results is the company hoping to achieve?
QY: We want to prove that, in all the exploration targets we will be testing in the 2021 drilling program, significant zones of gold mineralization exist. In the Surluga Deposit, we want to prove that our discovery down-plunge of the southern limit of the current resource could increase that resource. In the north, we hope to find a new zone of high-grade mineralization that can then be followed down-plunge over many hundreds of meters like the existing high-grade zone of the resource that extend down-plunge over at least 1.9km. In the Minto Mine deposit, we want to show that high-grade gold mineralization continues down-dip of the existing resource and that additional drilling can grow the existing resource of the Minto Mine Deposit. The Darwin-Grace-Nyman system, we are hoping to extend the size of our 2017 high-grade discovery in the Grace Shear Zone, and discover new zones of high-grade mineralization further away from the Darwin-Grace mine that could be converted to mineral resources. In the southern segment of the Jubilee Shear Zone, we are hoping to prove that near-surface zones of gold mineralization exist and that drilling this segment of the structure could result in the discovery of a new mineral resource.
SH: Recently the company will be filing an updated NI 43-101 technical report, recent press included positive metallurgical results and gold recoveries over 90 per cent. How significant is this for the property and what does it mean going forward?
QY: It shows conventional processing methods can successfully extract gold from the two mineral deposits of the Wawa Gold Project. These results are contributing to de-risk the project. In the Surluga Deposit, our metallurgical testing showed that the blend of pyrite-dominant with accessory to absent arsenopyrite-bearing mineralization that is the most characteristic of the Surluga deposit responds well to cyanidation with recoveries over 90%. It is also indicated gold recoveries exceeding 94% with cyanidation for mineralization present in the Minto Mine Deposit, and also in certain zones of the Surluga Deposit. Our metallurgical testing also indicated that the domains with more abundant arsenopyrite (“APY”) without the overprint of the pyrite-dominant mineralization, locally present in the Surluga Deposit, are receptive to flotation resulting in 90% or higher recoveries in all cases.
SH: In addition to the Wawa Gold Project, the company entered into an agreement to purchase the War Eagle Claims. How will the acquisition boost its exploration strategy in the region and impact the Wawa Gold Project?
QY: The acquisition of the War Eagle claims fills a strategic gap in the land position of the Wawa Gold Project. Our exploration work near the Darwin-Grace mine has indicated that the Grace Shear Zone, in which drilled 57.31 g/t gold over 3.14 meters in 2017, is likely extending on the War Eagle claims. In addition, historic exploration work on the War Eagle claims suggested that many mineralized structures, in addition to the southern extension of the Grace Shear Zone, were coalescing on this land position. This acquisition is thus strengthening the pipeline of exploration targets on the Wawa Gold Project and secure the ground covering the potential strike extension of the Grace Shear Zone.
SH: Are there any other updates from the company’s other projects that investors should be aware of?
QY: Recent change to Board of Directors this year, the Company boasts a diverse and experienced Board of Directors, including and notably Chairman of the Board, Paul Martin, the former CEO of Detour Gold, and fellow Directors with experience at such entities as Alamos, Barrick, Generation Mining, Detour Gold, in addition to recently appointed Rachel Goldman who holds capital markets expertise and a position at Paramount Gold Nevada Corp.
SH: Moving into the rest of the year, what other milestones can we expect from Red Pine Exploration?
QY: We are hoping to accelerate the pace of our exploration program and begin testing some of the key exploration targets of the property like the Darwin-Grace-Nyman mineralized system and the southern segment of the Jubilee Shear Zone. This is in addition to the continuous testing the extensions of the Surluga and Minto Mine deposits, and the Sadowski Gold Zone.
SH: What are your thoughts on the overall gold market this year?
QY: Gold remains a hedge against inflation and it’s an opportunistic time with recent gold dip to buy in market.
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FULL DISCLOSURE: This is a paid article produced by Stockhouse Publishing.