Rockfire's Plateau Gold Deposit tops 200,000 ounces

Gold and base metal exploration and development company Rockfire Resources announced on Friday that its wholly-owned Plateau Gold Deposit in Queensland Australia, had surpassed a JORC 2012 mineral resource of 200,000 ounces of gold.

The AIM-traded firm said that it represented a 515% increase in gold ounces since its maiden mineral resource reported in July 2019.

It said the overall gold envelope at Plateau, at grades above 0.2 grams of gold per tonne,had resulted in an indicated and inferred mineral resource of 11.4 million tonnes at 0.6 grams of gold per tonne and four grams of silver per tonne, making for 208,278 ounces of gold and 1.5 million ounces of silver.

Within that envelope, and using a higher cut-off of grades above 0.5 grams of gold per tonne, the indicated and inferred mineral resource was 3.9 million tonnes at 1.1 grams of gold per tonne and 6.4 grams of silver per tonne, making for 131,302 ounces of gold and 800,000 ounces of silver.

Using the same 0.5 grams of gold per tonne cut-off, a subset of the mineral resource at shallow depths of nil to 100 metres comprised 81% in the indicated category and 19% in the inferred category, and could potentially form an early, open-cut mining opportunity.

Those resources stood at 1.4 Million tonnes at 1.2 grams of gold per tonne and 8.8 grams of silver per tonne, making for 53,336 ounces of gold and 390,000 ounces of silver.

The board said that 53,336 ounces of gold could conceivably form a low cost, early, open-cut mining operation, with Rockfire working “vigorously” to pursue such an opportunity.

Any future production could benefit from Plateau being in proximity - within 50 kilometres - of several operating gold processing plants by minimising capital costs for mine development.

The mineral resource category and classification also resulted in an upgrade of 37% of the gold ounces into the higher-confidence indicated level, using a 0.2 grams of gold per tonne cut-off.

Rockfire said the mineral resource remained open along strike and at depth, leaving scope for further resource increases.

Within 200 metres to the north and south of Plateau, rock chip sampling returned 12.10 grams and 6.69 grams of gold per tonne, respectively.

Both areas were undrilled, and were not included in the current mineral resource estimate.

The firm said it was planning additional shallow drilling in the top 100 metres from surface to infill and extend near-surface gold.

Deep drilling at Plateau was not expected until a gravity survey, planned for April 2021, was complete.

That survey was being designed to confirm a target at depths beyond 500 metres.

Rockfire said its discovery cost, based on the recent drilling and mineral resource, was approximately £6 per ounce of gold.

“This outstanding resource upgrade demonstrates the quality of the Plateau asset,” said chief executive officer David Price.

“This is just the beginning of Plateau and we see opportunity for more resources along strike to the east and west, as well as repetitions of the favourable geological and structural setting in the immediate vicinity of Plateau.

"Rockfire is striving to monetise Plateau and we are working hard to achieve this for the benefit of our shareholders.”

At 1223 GMT, shares in Rockfire Resources were up 28.35% at 1.32p.