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My Take on Snow Lake - Feb. 3, 2017

Drone surveys being done to identify gold-rich areas of Laguna property
A sample of visible gold from the Laguna housed in the Royal Ontario Museum.
A sample of visible gold from the Laguna housed in the Royal Ontario Museum.

It has been close to 80 years since the Laguna Gold Mine produced, but a company with multiple stakes in the area “gold game” is doing their utmost to see that anniversary countdown begin anew.

Rockcliff Copper Corporation announced in an early January 2017 news release that their exploration program continues to identify high-grade gold mineralization from historic surface quartz veins at the property. 

They also announced they are bringing a new technology to the table in their work to confirm historic resources and to search out and consolidate new ore. The company has contracted a “drone airborne magnetometer survey” to be completed over the expanse of the Laguna Property. “The detailed drone survey will aid in the potential identification of new structurally controlled high-grade gold-rich environments under the property’s thin overburden cover, as well as follow the known areas of gold mineralization,” said Ken Lapierre, president and CEO of Rockcliff. “With multiple high-grade, gold-rich, quartz veins throughout the Laguna property and no diamond drilling completed since the 1940s, the present exploration program is the first systematic, scientific exploration program on the property in over 70 years. We look forward to advancing this high-grade gold property to its first drill program in a very long time.”

The company reports that a total of 1,116 kilometres of tightly spaced lines will be completed at Laguna by AIR Inc. from Flin Flon, Manitoba. The drone used is a state-of-the-art Canadian designed and built helicopter style UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), which slings a potassium magnetic sensor beneath. Ultimately, magnetic surveys done from a drone deliver higher quality magnetic data, at a decreased cost, while reducing environmental impact, read the news release.

In addition to this new and innovative work at the property, a sampling at Laguna was completed prior to winter freeze-up that has identified further evidence of an extensive and high-grade gold rich environment over considerable distances, the company says. “The ‘gold mine trend’ now covers over 6.0 kilometres within the property boundary.” Rock samples were taken in the field, packaged and shipped directly from Rockcliff’s field office to TSL Laboratories in Saskatoon. Each bagged rock sample was analyzed for gold, copper, lead, zinc and silver.

In respect to samples from the Laguna, one surprisingly showed up on Lapierre’s radar while in Toronto several weeks back. “I was at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) yesterday (Jan. 8) and made my way over to the World Class Gem and Mineral section and what did I find?” said the CEO in an email. “A sample of visible gold from the ‘Herb Lake Mine’ (actually the Laguna).” Katherine M. Dunnell, a mineralogy and geology technician at the museum confirmed presence of the piece, stating that the ROM purchased the sample (accession number M48053) in 2000; however, she was unable to divulge the value of the piece or whom it was purchased from.

The Laguna Gold property is part of Rockcliff’s Snow Lake Project and located within Flin Flon-Snow Lake greenstone belt. It hosts the Laguna gold mine, a former high-grade gold producer in the Flin Flon-Snow Lake mining camp. Historical mining from the Laguna vein between 1916 and 1939 amounted to approximately 101,012 tonnes, averaged 20.5 g/t (0.60opt) and it produced over 60,000 ounces of gold. Mine infrastructure consists of a three compartment vertical shaft to 381 metres and eight levels totalling over 3.0 kilometres of underground drift and stope development. The Laguna property now includes 34 contiguous mining claims totalling 3,499 hectares and is located 20 kilometres from Snow Lake. 

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