Ridgeline Minerals (TSX-V:RDG, OTCQB:RDGMF) Corp has provided an update on ongoing drill programs and exploration activities at the company's Selena and Swift projects in Nevada and its Robber Gulch project in Idaho.
Ridgeline vice president of exploration Mike Harp said the company is excited to see substantial drill programs being completed at both Selena and Swift this fall, with drilling at Swift 100% funded by partners at Nevada Gold Mines.
“At our wholly-owned Selena project, we continue to discover new mineralized zones as a result of our team's systematic approach to exploring this complex CRD system. Selena exhibits incredible exploration upside and our 3Q 2022 drill campaign is an important first step towards expanding the shallow mineralized footprint across multiple zones as we advance the project to a maiden resource," Harp said in a statement.
READ: Ridgeline Minerals says first holes at flagship Selena project in Nevada intersected silver-gold-lead-zinc mineralization
The company said it has secured a core drill rig for a 10-to-15-hole drill program at the Selena project, scheduled to begin in late September.
Drilling will target shallow (zero to 200 metres), high-grade gold-silver-lead-zinc mineralization at multiple targets including Chinchilla, Juniper and Broken Egg with the objective of defining multiple shallow-oxide mineralized zones with open-pit potential.
The Carbonate Replacement Type (CRD) mineralization intersected in the 2Q 2022 step-out drill program returned a highlight intercept of three meters (m) grading 40.2 grams per tonne (g/t) silver, 3.0 g/t gold, 0.2% lead, 6.8% zinc and suggests that additional drilling may define higher-grade zones of CRD mineralization at depth, according to Ridgeline.
Selena now hosts three drill-confirmed deposit types across five mineralized zones within a 15 square kilometre (km) exploration footprint that remains open for expansion.
The company said it has acquired a 'backpack' drill rig in 3Q 2022, which is operated by Ridgeline's geologists and capable of drilling up to 20m deep core holes. Initial scout holes at the Broken Egg and Juniper targets returned:
- Broken Egg: 0.9 m grading 2.4 g/t gold, (no significant base metal values) starting from surface in SEBP-001 with anomalous gold (up to 0.07 g/t gold) and elevated Carlin-Type pathfinder elements (arsenic-antimony-mercury) continuing from 0.9 m to end of hole at 8.5 m.
- Juniper: 3 m grading 95.2 g/t gold, 1.1 g/t silver, 0.1% lead and 0.3% zinc starting from surface in SEBP-002 with assays pending from 3 to 9.6 m downhole.
Ridgeline's geologist will continue to de-risk the upcoming September core program by drilling multiple backpack 'scout' holes at Broken Egg and Revival.
Swift project operators Nevada Gold Mines started the next phase of its framework drill campaign in August 2022.
The drill program will complete a series of deep, wide-spaced core holes targeting favourable Devonian age carbonate host rocks to the southwest of 2021 drill hole SW21-001, which returned 9.1 m grading 0.51 g/t gold starting at 8.5 m downhole.
Ridgeline said it has identified multiple outcropping shallow-oxide targets at the Robber Gulch project to be tested with the backpack drill rig in early 4Q 2022.
The highest priority target is located approximately 500 m south of and on-strike of historic drill hole AC-4 (0.34 g/t gold oxide over 57.9m) where the team will drill a 10 to 15 m backpack drill hole beneath outcropping jasperoid that has returned rock chip samples up to 6.7 g/t gold.
Ridgeline Mineral is a discovery-focused gold-silver explorer with a proven management team and a 163-square-kilometre exploration portfolio across five projects in Nevada and Idaho, USA.
Contact the author at susie@proactiveinvestors.com