Rockland Resources Ltd. has reported obtaining visible gold in the first two drill holes completed as part of an ongoing 3,000-metre diamond drilling program at its 100%-owned Cole Gold Mines Project, located in Ontario's prolific Red Lake Mining District. The initial holes, RR-26-01 and RR-26-02, were drilled at the historic Cole Gold Mine site to confirm the style and nature of gold mineralization and to establish alteration styles, lithologies, and structural controls to aid future exploration.
In drill hole RR-26-01, visible gold was intersected at three locales, including from 82.20 to 82.60 metres over a core length of 0.40 metres and at a depth of 85.70 metres down-hole. Diamond drill hole RR-26-02, a deeper cut below the first hole, intersected visible gold over a 0.20-metre interval between 74.90 to 75.10 metres, as well as a deeper intercept at 187.00 metres down-hole. The company noted that hole RR-26-02 contains the best occurrence of visible gold obtained to date and occurs beneath the existing Cole Gold Mine workings, suggesting mineralization continues at depth. Photographs of this gold mineralization are available on the Rockland Resources website.
The gold mineralization in both holes is hosted in deformed quartz veins, veinlets, and stockwork that cross-cut broad zones of intense silicification, ranging from 7 to 30 metres in width. These zones contain lesser biotite and subordinate garnet, with quartz veins also including fine-grained arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite, pyrite, and locally, tourmaline. The silicified zones themselves contain disseminated chalcopyrite, pyrite, and arsenopyrite in seams and fracture fillings, indicating potential for appreciable widths of gold mineralization if assays prove favorable. These zones are flanked by intervals of strong biotitic alteration with less intense silicification and also contain garnet.
Prominently, altered ultramafic and mafic dikes were intersected over variable widths and are closely spatially associated with the veins containing visible gold and the zones of intense silicification. This association suggests the dikes and veins occupy and heal the same structures, a geological relationship well-known in the Red Lake district where proximity of ultramafic rocks to gold mineralization is common, which bodes well for the Cole property's exploration potential.
Mike England, CEO of Rockland, stated that multiple occurrences of visible gold in the initial drill holes represent an exciting start to the program, with the deeper hole indicating gold mineralization continues beneath the historic mine workings. The company also looks forward to drilling several other high-priority targets containing high-grade gold mineralization that have never been drill-tested. It is important to note that visible gold in drill core alone does not indicate grade, continuity, or economic viability of mineralization, as qualified by the company's disclosure.
The technical disclosure in this report was reviewed and approved by Danae Voormeij, P. Geo., a registered professional geoscientist with Engineers and Geoscientists British Columbia since 2007, who serves as the Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 and as Rockland Resources' newly appointed Chief Geologist. The Cole Gold Mines Project includes a historic mine with a shaft sunk to 160 metres and levels established at 90, 120, and 150-metre levels, considered a non-producing operation aside from gold recovered from past underground development.
