White Rock Minerals Ltd (ASX:WRM) (OTCMKTS:WRMCF) has secured additional tenements over historical volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) prospects and an emerging trend of new VMS targets as part of the expansion of its district-scale tenement package at the Red Mountain Project in Alaska.
The company has moved to secure contiguous tenements to the north that cover the Galleon prospect that was previously held by competitors and additional contiguous tenements to the south that cover the newly identified Keevy VMS Trend.
An additional 58 mining claims covering 38 square kilometres have been staked with White Rock’s Red Mountain project now comprising 1,327 mining claims over 836 square kilometres.
Dry Creek and WTF prospects
White Rock’s initial fieldwork at Red Mountain focused on the follow-up of areas with anomalous stream geochemistry and reconnaissance mapping of conductivity targets identified from the airborne SkyTEM survey acquired in 2019.
Surface reconnaissance has identified multiple prospect areas, some with high-grade massive sulphide rock float that is dominantly sphalerite (zinc sulphide), galena (lead sulphide), chalcopyrite (copper sulphide) and pyrite (iron sulphide).
Prior to the commencement of the 2021 field season, White Rock completed a detailed systematic assessment of this SkyTEM survey to identify subtle conductivity anomalies with similar characteristics to the known VMS mineralisation at the Dry Creek and WTF prospects.
Dry Creek and WTF already have an inferred resource of 9.1 million tonnes at 157 g/t silver, 5.8% zinc, 2.6% lead and 0.9 g/t gold for a grade of 609 g/t silver equivalent, alternatively for a grade of 13.2% zinc equivalent.
Prioritising targets for drill testing
A total of 90 VMS targets east of the Wood River were identified with prospect reconnaissance teams now focused on the newly defined Keevy VMS Trend where several VMS ‘time horizon’ indicators have been identified at multiple prospects.
White Rock’s field activities have now moved to more detailed geologic mapping, systematic surface geochemical sampling and ground electrical geophysics surveys to assist in identifying and prioritising targets for drill testing.
The first drill sites at Easy Ivan and Jack Frost are currently being prepared.
Furthermore, White Rock is exploring the Red Mountain Project area for additional VMS deposits that will complement the two-existing silver-rich high-grade zinc deposits at Dry Creek and WTF.
- Ephrems Joseph