White Rock Minerals Ltd (ASX:WRM, OTCQX:WRMCF) is progressing well with diamond core drilling at its Red Mountain volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit (VMS) project in Alaska, with one "spectacular" result, in particular, returned from the Dry Creek deposit.
Drill hole DC21-97 intersected 1.4 metres of high-grade massive sulphide with assays of 35% zinc, 12.2% lead, 237 g/t silver, 2.9 g/t gold and 0.3% copper.
That represents a zinc-equivalent grade of 55.3% and a silver-equivalent grade of 2,555 g/t.
“Spectacular” result
White Rock has described the result as “spectacular” with managing director Matthew Gill stating the assay result spoke for itself.
“The other equally important fact is that this hole is some 200 metres down dip from the nearest previous hole, thus suggesting a possible doubling of the known depth of this VMS Dry Creek deposit in this area of the deposit,” he told Proactive.
“Assaying has and continues to be a long time coming - ironically for this hole, the lab had to use a second assaying method as it exceeded their initial 30% detection limits for zinc!”
DC21-97 details
The DC21-97 drill hole tested the down-dip projection of the Fosters lens towards the western end of the deposit.
The hole is more than 200 metres down-dip from the nearest drill hole intersection, which contained 4.3 metres at 4.8% zinc, 2.3% lead, 1,435 g/t silver, 2.2 g/t gold and 0.5% copper for a zinc equivalent grade of 43.2% when drilled in 2018.
This recent drill hole now doubles the known depth of the resource in this area of the deposit, and three further drill holes have been completed at Dry Creek on nominal 200-metre spaced step-outs along strike from DC21-97 with assay results pending.
The massive sulphide zone is followed by a zone of laminated and banded sulphides in its footwall, hosted within a dark grey to brown meta-mudstone typical of the Fosters lens.
The overall zone of mineralisation returned 5.8 metres at 11.5% zinc, 3.4% lead, 69 g/t silver, 0.8 g/t gold & 0.1% copper, for 17.2% zinc equivalent or 793 g/t silver equivalent.
Red Mountain plans
Red Mountain, in central Alaska, is a high-grade silver-zinc-gold-lead VMS and intrusion-related gold system (IRGS) project, with a resource estimate of 9 million tonnes grading 157 g/t silver, 5.8% zinc and 2.6% lead.
White Rock recently doubled down at Dry Creek, with all eyes on a multi-element target that boasts 1.2 kilometres of strike.
The first drill hole in its 2021 exploration campaign at the project intersected zinc-rich massive sulphides in July.
To test the target, White Rock drilled a 200-metre step-out hole, confirming the VMS lens continues for at least another 200 metres down dip — double what was previously known.
White Rock completed four drill holes testing for depth extensions to Dry Creek on 200-metre step-outs down-dip and along its 1-kilometre strike extent, with assay results for the remaining three drill holes pending.
But Dry Creek’s silver-rich zinc-lead-gold-volcanic massive sulphide (VMS) target isn’t the only area of interest in the company’s exploration campaign at Red Mountain.
In fact, White Rock will also focus drilling activity on the wider Red Mountain and Last Chance VMS camps and the Last Chance intrusion-related gold system (IRGS) targets.
- Daniel Paproth