Renforth Resources Inc (CSE:RFR, OTCQB:RFHRF) has updated shareholders on its current interpretation of the battery mineralization at its wholly-owned Surimeau district project near the town of Malartic in Quebec and adjacent to the Canadian Malartic Mine.
"Our successful December drill program effectively confirmed two mineralized systems on this property," Renforth president and CEO Nicole Brewster said in a statement.
"Surimeau is still relatively underexplored, both within the 29 km of surface battery metals mineralization, and outside of those two systems where we have a copper discovery in the northeastern part of the property, pegmatites in the southern part of the property, and the presence of lithium, to date in the sediments, with a big question mark as to what that could mean.”
READ: Renforth Resources planning drill program in Q1 next year targeting western anomaly at Victoria nickel target at Surimeau
Highlights of the program include:
- Gold has been intersected in drilling at Victoria, with first occurrence intersections demonstrating gold is present within the ~20 km long mineralized system at Victoria;
- Lalonde has been confirmed as a mineralized system. With drill results similar to surface results, Surimeau hosts two battery metals systems with open pit potential; and
- A third band of mineralization was intersected at Victoria in the December drilling. This is interpreted as the northern mineralization splitting.
“Our priority is the two battery metals mineralized zones, which start at surface and have only been shallowly explored to date," Brewster added. "Located as we are with renewable electricity, road access in an established mining camp, contiguous to Canada's largest open pit gold mine in one of the best mining jurisdictions in the world, it is exciting to contemplate a potential open pit in the future with every cost advantage one could desire, we are working towards that vision.”
Victoria and Lalonde mineralization model
Renforth said it has begun developing a mineralization model, noting that there is little historical information available as it executes the first modern, systematic exploration on this large-scale property to define the extent of the two surface nickel sulphide polymetallic mineralizations over approximately 29 km in length.
Two trends of between 250-500m thickness run sinusoidally east-west across the central portion of the property, Victoria and Lalonde.
Various exploration activities have confirmed strike lengths of 20 km and 9 km respectively. These trends primarily consist of mafic and ultramafics flows intercalated with graphitic mudstones, albite shears and calc-silicate rocks.
The mafics are a dark green picrite with numerous quartz-albite and quartz-carbonate veinlets and stringers, these display extrusion textures like pillows and are unmineralized. The ultramafics and calc-silicates host most of the higher-grade nickel (Ni) and cobalt (Co) mineralization within the structures, the graphitic mudstones and albite shear host most of the higher-grade zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu) mineralization as sphalerite and chalcopyrite respectively.
The company noted that some of the ultramafic bodies may be komatiite flows, with komatiite flows at Surimeau consisting of light green strongly serpentinized and biotitized flow top breccias.
It said this flow top phase is usually unmineralized and is followed by a basal komatiite consisting of massive blue-grey-greenish base flow containing magnetite cumulates (previously misidentified as xenoliths) and occasional spinifex textures. This basal komatiite hosts the strongest nickel mineralization as pyrrhotite and pentlandite and forms a gradual contact with the calc-silicates. The calc-silicates are characterized by the presence of strong albitization, chrome-diopsides and stronger mineralization.
Renforth said bands of albite shears, characterized by coarse radiating actinolite needles, are seen within the ultramafics. The albite shear hosts the strongest zinc and copper mineralization on the property as sphalerite and chalcopyrite respectively. Wide (5-10m) exposures of the albite shear are seen in the “Main Trench” at Victoria. Intercalating bands of graphitic mudstones host coarse blebs of pyrrhotite, sphalerite and occasional stringers and smaller blebs of chalcopyrite. The graphitic mudstones mostly host higher-grade zinc and copper and relatively lower grades of nickel.
As it generates more data on these two mineralized systems, the company said the mineralization model may change. Presently the two systems are interpreted as two arms of a fold, with the fold nose located off the property and to the east.
December results
Renforth said its first drilling at Lalonde delivered grades and widths which justify additional future exploration. These include SUR-22-34 which gave 26.7m of 0.21% Ni and 159 parts per million (ppm) Co, including 1m of 0.41% Ni.
In addition, it said this hole gave interesting grades of other metals, including 52.75m of 0.45 grams per tonne (g/t) silver (Ag), a large-scale intercept, albeit at a relatively low grade. It said this is indicative of a silver-endowed zone within the mineralization, occurring with, in this hole, Zinc including 1.1m of 1.10%.
Renforth said it interprets this as stringers for a volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) system and is working with an expert to vector in on a concentration of that mineralization.
At Victoria, the company said its drilling - in addition to proving a third band of mineralization and growing the scale of that system - revealed results which included 13.1m of 0.17% Ni, followed by 8.8m of 1.87% Zn in SUR-22-37, which also assayed for a significant amount of copper (relative to other Victoria drill holes). This also included 4.7m of 0.13% Cu further down the hole.
Alongside these numbers, Renforth said it has noticed the presence of manganese (Mn) in this round of drilling at both Lalonde and Victoria.
With SUR-22-37 revealing 10.15m of 0.21% Mn, the company said it now has to look at its prior drilling for manganese results.
In addition to uses in stainless steel production, like zinc, the company said manganese now has applications in nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) and lithium-manganese-oxide (LMO) batteries for electric vehicle (EV) production and will now be tracked at Surimeau.
Lastly, the appearance of gold, alongside silver, at Victoria, with 2.5m of 0.55 g/t gold (Au) in SUR-22-37, is indicative, and typical, within a VMS system. Drilling into a previously untested anomaly at Victoria showed the first gold intersections at Surimeau.
Mineralized systems with significant footprints
"At Surimeau we are seeing mineralized systems with significant footprints, 20 and 9 kilometres are long distances, currently we are seeing low grades, however, these are grades that are in the context of current and historic polymetallic mining operations, like Terrafame's Talvivaara open pit heap leach operation in Finland, or Outokumpu in eastern Finland (as cited by Dr Franklin),” Brewster continued.
“The fact that mines like those, large scale and low grade, north of the Arctic Circle, can operate gives us the motivation and validation we need to continue to define the extent of mineralization at Surimeau. We are also located next door to an open pit, which sets a precedent for what is possible on our uninhabited property with road access and hydro-electric power on the property.
“We have our work cut out for us, however, we see it as valid based on examples and our logistical cost advantages, as well as the macro situation for the various metals at Surimeau, especially nickel.”
The company said it has commenced 2023 fieldwork. With the receipt of its drill permit, it has a crew commencing ground preparation ahead of drilling anticipated to occur in March, after the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), where it will have a booth.
In addition, it said it will be presenting at the following two webinars:
- The Red Cloud Webinar presentation at 2pm Eastern time on February 15, 2023, with registration here;
- And an update presentation at Emerging Growth at 2:55pm on February 22, 2023, with registration here.
Renforth's wholly-owned 330 sq km Surimeau district project hosts several known areas of polymetallic "battery metals" mineralization.
The explorer also wholly owns the Parbec gold deposit, a surface gold deposit contiguous to the Canadian Malartic Mine property in Malartic, Quebec.
Contact the author at stephen.gunnion@proactiveinvestors.com