Rockcliff Metals Corp. [RCLF-CSE; ROO-FSE; A2H60G-WKN] said Tuesday September 10 that it has commenced a 100,000-metre drilling program on its Snow Lake Project in Manitoba.
Rockcliff is a well-funded Canadian resource exploration and development company with approximately $28 million in cash, a fully functional 1,000 tonnes-per-day leased processing and tailings facility as well as several advanced stage high-grade copper and zinc dominant VMS (volcanogenic massive sulphide) deposits in the Snow Lake area.
“This marks the first step in implementing our strategy of finalizing sufficient knowledge of several resources that will allow the next steps of choosing the optimal project to take into production at the earliest opportunity,” said Rockcliff President and CEO Alistair Ross.
“Our aim is to begin treating material through our leased mill as soon as possible.”
Rockcliff shares were unchanged at $0.075 on Tuesday and trade in a 52-week range of $0.185 and $0.075.
In Phase 1 of the drill program, a total of five drills have been mobilized on three separate properties, with an additional three drills planned to be mobilized by the end of the month. The 16-month drill program will initially focus on enhancing several advanced-stage deposits.
The Phase 2 program will attempt to expand the company’s historical resources and drill test for significant new grass roots discoveries on the company’s land position.
Drilling has begun on the Talbot, Rail and Bur deposits. The Tower deposit will also be drill-tested in the Phase 1 drill program when its work permit is finalized. Approximately 50,000 metres in approximately 85 drill holes is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2019 on the four deposits.
The purpose of the initial drill phase is to enhance and expand the present advance staged resources on each property which will assist in fast-tracking several of these properties to the pre-feasibility phase.
The Phase 2 drill program is scheduled to commence in the coming months and continue to the end of 2020. The purpose of this phase of drilling will be to attempt to advance and grow historical resources within the property portfolio (Copperman, Penex, Lon and Morgan deposits), to expand known zones of mineralization and to discover additional new grass roots copper discoveries.
According to information on Rockcliff’s website, the Tower property covers 9,530 hectares and hosts an NI 43-101-compliant indicated resource of 1.08 million tonnes grading 3.73% copper, 1.05% zinc, 0.55 g/t gold and 17.28 g/t silver. On top of that is an inferred resource of 1.25 million tonnes grading 2.0% copper, 1.02% zinc, 0.27 g/t gold and 9.78 g/t silver.
The company said permitting for the Tower property has been underway since early 2018 and is expected to be completed by the end of 2019. This will allow Rockcliff to start underground development to extract bulk samples, which are expected to total over 10,000 tonnes in 2020.
“With its exceptional grade, excellent infrastructure, low-cost electricity and low capital costs, Tower is planned to be one of the flagship properties for Rockcliff’s future success,” the company has said.