Rockfire Resources reveals further gold prospectivity at Plateau (ROCK)

Rockfire Resources (LSE:ROCK) sat at 1.9p on Thursday after revealing more positive signs from its Plateau gold deposit in Queensland, Australia, where a significant mineralised system was unveiled last month. The firm said further assay results from its recent drilling campaign on the project have extended the discovery’s confirmed length of mineralisation to more than 150m.

Particular highlights included a strong interval of 7m at 2.3g/t gold within a broader interval of 12m at 1.3g/t gold from hole BPL015. Meanwhile, BPL016 returned a substantial interval of 5m at 1.3g/t gold from 14m deep within a broader zone of 18m at 0.7g/t gold.

The latest assays come just weeks after Rockfire soared on the news that it had potentially discovered a ‘large-scale gold deposit’ at Plateau. The firm revealed that initial drilling results had returned broad, consistent gold assays with mineralisation occurring almost continuously throughout a 215m deep drill hole.  In particular, the firm believes that hole BPL025 – which intersected 177 at 0.5g/t gold – had intersected the upper levels of an extensive mineralised system.  Gold grades are now expected to increase continually alongside depth, as they do at a comparable 10-million-ounce gold project owned by Resolute Mining called Mt Wright.

On Thursday, Rockfire said it believes that the latest mineralised zone unearthed by its drilling at Plateau forms part of this proposed, large gold system. The firm added that gold mineralisation remains open at the central breccia in all directions. Meanwhile, it said the new mineralisation is not currently included in its 41,000oz gold resource estimate for the Plateau. It is now awaiting the results of nine additional shallow exploration/resource-infill/resource-extension drill holes over the next two weeks.

Rockfire’s chief executive David Price said: ‘It is extremely pleasing to have four holes drilled into a new target, with all four holes returning potentially economic gold grades and potentially mineable widths, so close to surface.

‘These results build on the recently discovered Central Breccia zone, which was identified by the Rockfire exploration team during mapping and sampling. The results from these holes demonstrate the strength of the near surface gold mineralisation, which is still open in all directions. The Central Breccia is a priority target for further exploration.

‘These holes are interpreted to represent the near-surface expression of what we believe to be a large gold system encountered at depth in hole BPL025. Importantly, the four exploration holes into the Central Breccia extends the mineralised target zone by another 150 m towards the east. The Central Breccia lies above a recently demonstrated geophysical resistivity and chargeable anomaly, providing Rockfire with a very large target for future gold exploration.’

Plateau is located around 50km southeast of the Australian gold mining centre of Charters Towers. It is also 17km east of the 3-million-ounce, operating Pajungo gold mine, and 47 southwest of the 10-million-ounce gold Ravenswood gold mining operations, including Mt Wright. The prospect is a breccia-hosted gold system where historic drilling undertaken by the likes of Esso Australia and Newcrest Mining has returned high-grade gold from a distinct circular magnetic feature.

Author: Daniel Flynn

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