Indicated resources of 476,323 tonnes grading 12.78 grams per tonne ('g/t') gold ('Au'), for a total of 195,746 ounces ('oz') Au.
Inferred resources of 410,794 tonnes grading 8.76 g/t Au, for a total of 115,719 oz Au.
KEY TAKEAWAYS: The 2024 MRE has added a significant portion of higher confidence Indicated ounces at grades 40% higher than the 2022 MRE.
Relative to the 2022 Rowan MRE, there was a decrease in the Inferred mineral resources from approximately 827,000 ounces to 116,000 ounces and an increase in Indicated mineral resources from zero to approximately 196,000 ounces. The drop in Inferred metal content is mainly attributed to 1) conversion of Inferred to Indicated resources, 2) a more rigorous modeling approach, and 3) more stringent resource estimation parameters implemented to account for the high gold grades typically seen at Rowan.
The integration of oriented drilling data and top-to-bottom geochemical analysis allowed the team to reconstruct the geologic interpretation at Rowan resulting in a much more tightly constrained, higher-grade resource that should lend itself more effectively to any future reserve calculation and underground mining design.
A
ROWAN 2024 MINERAL RESOURCE ESTIMATE:
The 2024 MRE update for Rowan incorporated an additional 62 holes for 20,211.4m of oriented NQ diamond drill core since the
A total of twenty-six (26) mineral domains were created to constrain the mineralization.
For more detailed information on the Rowan 2024 MRE model please refer to the Technical Report entitled 'Updated Mineral Resource Estimate for the Rowan Property,
DISCUSSION
The Rowan Vein System has been the focus of most of the exploration on the Property since the initial discovery of four sub-parallel narrow veins on surface at 'Discovery Hill'. Since then, these veins have been drifted upon from underground on three levels and extensively drilled, including 62 drill holes for 20,211.4m in 2023. The drilling completed at the
The overall deposit consists of numerous, narrow, high-grade quartz veins that define an east-northeast trending corridor, approximately 150 m wide. This corridor mainly transects the lower mafic to intermediate metavolcanic units of the Ball assemblage in the hinge of the property scale antiform and appears to dissipate once it intersects the unconformity with the metasedimentary
The best gold grades often occur when coarse and visible native gold is present. This occurs within distinct 10 cm to 30 cm up to a metre of bluish to grey, glassy quartz veins/stringer zones. Rarely do these individual veins exceed 60 cm wide with alteration halos tending to be localized. Broad zones of diffuse silicification have generally not been found. Trace to 1% pyrite and pyrrhotite is common within these veins/stringers. Less common but a better positive indicator of gold grade is the occurrence of sphalerite, galena, arsenopyrite, and chalcopyrite. Generally total sulphides make up less than 2%. Metallurgical tests indicate favourable recovery characteristics.
The previous interpretation of the Rowan Vein System (Kita, 2022) was that the veins were emplaced after D2 and were essentially undeformed and highly continuous over hundreds of meters. Such an interpretation was supported by the consistency of multiple narrow vein occurrences in drillholes spanning long strike lengths. With the benefit of a tighter drill spacing and oriented core following the 2023 WRLG drill campaigns, this interpretation is no longer tenable. Strictly planar vein continuity could no longer be demonstrated since east-west trending veins appeared to line up along east-northeast trends. Such an arrangement requires long trains of minor folds, and transposition into the dominant fabric. This is further supported by: (i) strongly recrystallized textures in the quartz veins, (ii) dominant parallelism with the strong penetrative S2 foliation, (iii) the great-circle distribution of poles to foliation as measured in oriented core, and (iv) locally observed minor folds, showing that the veins are overprinted by the strong ductile D2 deformation.
Modelling such complex geological shapes as transposed veins systems can be achieved using implicit methods in Leapfrog provided enough closely spaced data are present to capture the variability of the deformed vein geometries. This method is being used successfully at the Madsen mine where drill spacing is predominantly six meters or less. At Rowan, the drill spacing is not nearly as tight, but still tight enough to produce geologically plausible representations of the transposed vein geometries. Unfortunately, due to the wider drill spacing in some areas, the implicit shapes could not be adequately controlled for unsupported 'blowouts', which could lead to unreasonably inflated tonnage estimates. For this reason, and to minimize dilution in the model, the implicit shapes were used only as a guide for manually constructed vein models, using the vein modelling tool in Leapfrog. This approach allowed the construction of more tightly controlled shapes that capture the structural style of the vein system yet remain optimized for use in resource estimation.
The result is a much more realistic model of the vein system that agrees with the structural observations at the deposit and core scales, and that aligns with the structural setting and controls seen at other deposits within the belt, such as at the Madsen and
QUALITY ASSURANCE/QUALITY CONTROL
Drilling completed at the Rowan Property consists of oriented NQ-sized diamond drill core. All drill holes are systematically logged, photographed, and sampled by a trained geologist at WRLG's Mt. Jamie core processing facility. Minimum allowable sample length is 0.5m. Maximum allowable sample length is 1.5m. Standard reference materials and blanks are inserted at a targeted 5% insertion rate. The drill core is then cut lengthwise utilizing a diamond blade core saw along a line pre-selected by the geologist. To reduce sampling bias, the same side of drill core is sampled consistently utilizing the orientation line as reference. For those samples containing visible gold ('VG'), a trained geologist supervises the cutting/bagging of those samples, and ensures the core saw blade is 'cleaned' with a dressing stone following the VG sample interval. Bagged samples are then sealed with zip ties and transported by WRLG personnel directly to SGS Natural Resource's Facility in
Samples are then prepped by SGS, which consists of drying at 105-degreeC and crushing to 75% passing 2mm. A riffle splitter is then utilized to produce a 500g course reject for archive. The remainder of the sample is then pulverized to 85% passing 75 microns from which 50g is analyzed by fire assay and an atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) finish. Samples returning gold values > 10 g/t Au are reanalyzed by fire assay with a gravimetric finish on a 50g sample. Samples with visible gold are also analyzed via metallic screen analysis (SGS code: GO_FAS50M). For multi-element analysis, samples are sent to SGS's facility in
West
For a better understanding of the Rowan deposit, readers are encouraged to read the Technical Report and other public disclosure of the Company, including all qualifications, assumptions, exclusions and risks that relate to the Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve estimates. The Technical Report is intended to be read as a whole, and sections should not be read or relied upon out of context.
The technical information presented in this news release has been reviewed and approved by
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