Helicopter surveys commence at Copper Dome

RNS Number : 3215T

Rockfire Resources PLC

24 March 2021

 

REACH

24 March 2021

Rockfire Resources plc

("Rockfire" or the "Company")

Helicopter surveys commence at Copper Dome

Rockfire Resources plc (LON: ROCK), the gold and base metal exploration company, is pleased to announce that a helicopter-supported aeromagnetic survey and a radiometric survey have commenced at the Company's 100%-owned Copper Dome porphyry copper project in North Queensland, Australia .

Today, the helicopter arrived at the survey site, where the flight crew conducted a reconnaissance flight to check terrain, optimal flight altitudes, survey equipment registration and general orientation in the survey area. The survey is expected to commence on Thursday, 25 March 2021.

David Price, Chief Executive Officer of Rockfire, commented:

"The Company has kicked off its 2021 field season with a high-impact and exciting helicopter aeromagnetic and radiometric survey at Copper Dome. We expect the geophysical surveys to provide important information about faults and other structures which are not readily observable at surface.

"Magnetic surveys provide information about the magnetic properties of each rock type. Radiometrics is a measure of the radiation emitted by various rock types and soil types and comprises measurements for uranium, thorium and potassium. The variations between the three elements provides indications to individual geological units and hydrothermal alteration.

"The flying is expected to be completed in a matter of days. Prior to receiving the results, the raw data is normalised, processed and interpreted by the geophysicists, so the Company anticipates the final results within the next two weeks. The market will be informed once these results are available."

For further information on the Company, please visit www.rockfireresources.com or contact the following: 

Rockfire Resources plc:	[e-mail]
David Price, Chief Executive Officer
Allenby Capital Limited (Nominated Adviser & Broker)	Tel: [phone]
John Depasquale / Asha Chotai (Corporate Finance) Matt Butlin / Guy McDougall (Equity Sales)
Yellow Jersey	[e-mail]
Sarah Hollins / Henry Wilkinson	Tel: [phone]

About Copper Dome

Under its historical name of "Mt Leslie", Copper Dome is listed in the "Global Mineral Resource Assessment", published in 2010 by the US Geological Survey and forms an integral part of Rockfire's porphyry copper portfolio. Copper Dome lies approximately 50 km to the southwest of Rockfire's other porphyry copper prospect, Copperhead and was discovered during regional exploration for porphyry copper deposits along the east coast of Australia during the early 1970's.

In 1972, Australian Selection Pty. Ltd. drilled three percussion drill holes and six diamond drill holes, totalling 1,297 m. All the drill holes were drilled vertical and all holes intersected geological/alteration features which are indicative of a large-scale porphyry deposit. Best results from this drilling include 12m @ 0.61 % Cu (including 3m @ 1.24 % Cu), 15m @ 0.88 % Cu (including 5m @ 2.28 % Cu), 24m @ 0.27 % Cu, 12m @ 0.17 % Cu and 38m @ 0.13 % Cu.

Only sporadic gold analysis was done, with gold values peaking at 1.86 g/t Au. This indicates the potential for the porphyry system to contain a significant gold component.

Between 1984 and 1985, Renison Limited resampled some of the historical Australian Selection drill core for gold which returned strongly anomalous results including 51m @ 0.2g/t Au, which is very much in line with expectations for large-scale porphyry systems.

Rock sampling by Renison focussed on faults close to historical copper workings. The best rock sampling results included 5.4 % Cu (0.41 g/t Au), 1.8 % Cu (13 g/t Au), 0.19 % Cu (2.45 g/t Au), 1.5 % Cu (0.2g/t Au) and 1.8 % Cu.

The exploration potential at Copper Dome is considered high. Brecciation and faulting is common and copper/gold mineralisation has been recorded within most of the rock units. The intrusions and alteration zones span an area which is ~2 km long by ~1 km wide, with the dominant alteration assemblage being quartz-sericite-pyrite. The geological model adopted for this project shows a pyrite-rich phyllic shell around the edges of a typical porphyry system. The phyllic shell hosts an average of 5 % (and up to 10 %) disseminated pyrite recorded in the historical geological drill logs.

Rockfire has undertaken rock sampling (See RNS dated 22nd March 2019), with rock samples returning maximum grades of 23.4 % Cu, 3.2 g/t Au and 952 g/t Ag. Nearly a quarter of all rock samples assayed above 0.5 g/t Au, above 5 g/t Ag and above 0.1% Cu. Very high-grade copper, gold and silver rock samples define ridges radiating from the mapped centre of the porphyry system, with potential for high-grade, vein-hosted mineralisation in addition to porphyry-hosted mineralisation.

Rockfire also completed soil sampling (See RNS dated 22nd May), with elevated copper-in-soil occurring over a coherent area approximately 500m x 300m, confirming potential for large tonnage. Soil results up to 1,115 ppm (0.11%) Cu and 145 ppb (0.15 ppm) Au were obtained during the soil sampling programme.

Notes to Editors

Rockfire Resources plc (LON: ROCK) is an exploration company with a portfolio of 100%-owned near-surface gold and large-scale copper projects in Queensland, Australia. Each of the gold projects are located within 50 km of operating gold mines and the Company's copper projects lie within 250 km of Australia's largest copper refinery.

The Company's flagship project, the Plateau Gold Deposit, is part of the Lighthouse Tenement, and bears significant geological similarities to the nearby Mt Wright gold mine (45km to the northeast), where 1.5 million ounces of gold have been mined. More than 14,000 m have been drilled within the Lighthouse tenement.

Drilling to date at the Company's copper projects, Copperhead and Copper Dome (35 km and 85 km southwest of the town of Proserpine respectively), are indicative of large-scale porphyry targets. Both projects have been drilled by previous explorers but remain under-explored, leading the Board to believe that they demonstrate significant exploration upside potential.

Rockfire Resources has adopted a strategy of growth based on advancing exploration across its existing portfolio of projects, as well as the continual assessment of opportunities to acquire outstanding strategic mineral projects worldwide.

The Company is led by a highly skilled management team, with a proven track record in exploring and discovering projects.

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