Several weeks back – Sep. 12 – Rockcliff Copper Corporation announced they had acquired an option to earn a 100 per cent interest in the Laguna Gold Property which hosts the former producing Rex/Laguna gold mine. The property is located on the east side of Wekusko Lake, some 20 kilometres southeast of Snow Lake, near Rockcliff’s existing VMS (Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide) deposits.
The Rex/Laguna Mine was a mainstay of the Herb Lake economy. It was the only mine of several on the east side of the lake that offered somewhat stable employment to the community. Albeit, not over its first incarnation as the Rex Mine. It operated intermittently between 1916 and 1939. The Manitoba Historical Society notes that it was the first Manitoba mine to have a mill installed and became one of the first gold producers of the area using the amalgamation process to recover gold from ore. It operated as the Rex Mine for eight years, although not on a continuous basis, and finally closed because of a shortage of employees and an influenza epidemic. During that period it produced 7,000 ounces of gold. It opened again close to 10 years later as the Laguna and operated for five years, producing another 48,000 ounces of gold.
“The Laguna Gold property was the highest grade lode-gold producer in the Flin Flon-Snow Lake greenstone belt,” president and CEO of Rockcliff, Ken Lapierre, commented in the announcement. “Laguna is part of a unique list of gold deposits with grades above 10g/t (grams per tonne) that make up less than five per cent of all deposits globally, and is part of Snow Lake’s rich history of gold and VMS mining. It complements our goal of acquiring the highest grade metal deposits in the Snow Lake camp. With multiple high grade gold-rich quartz veins throughout the property and no diamond drilling since the 1940s, our exploration program will begin immediately and include geology, geophysics and a planned first phase drill program during the first quarter of 2017 or earlier.”
Rockcliff’s grab sampling at Laguna confirmed the presence of high-grade lode-gold mineralization throughout the property from at least six gold-rich quartz veins. Grab samples ranged from trace to 264.65 g/t gold. They say visible gold was also observed in outcrop.
The Laguna was the subject of a bit of controversy in its original staking. It all began in 1914, when four prospectors; Mike Hackett, Bob Hasitt, Julius Campbell and Frank Moore arrived to do some prospecting in the Herb Lake area. It seems that these four men originally staked the property that later became the Rex Mine. However, according to the Snow Lake Mining Museum, it is a little known fact that Percy McDavitt, a fellow the men brought along to Bull Cook around their island camp was actually the person who discovered the deposit.
It notes in Alma Mardis’s 1967 publication “Trailblazers,” that McDavitt found the discovery vein after he picked up some samples while exploring the shore in a canoe. It is said that Bob Hasitt later panned them and got a tail of gold in the pan four inches long. The next morning the prospectors set off in the canoe. Percy could hear them from the island - staking. Apparently, that night he sneaked over with a tape and measured some of the claims, found a fraction they’d missed and staked it for himself.
Conversely, and in accordance with the staking dates and information that the Manitoba Mineral Branch (MMB) has gathered on the property, some doubt is cast on that story. Not to say that it didn’t happen that way, just not within the timeframes stated within the story. The MMB does note that it was in 1914, when J.R. Campbell staked the Rex M.C. over the major part of the gold-bearing vein on the property. However, McDavitt and J. Moore later staked its northern extension as the Percy M.C. and Annex Fraction, but this was in 1915 and 1916.
Rockcliff states that the Laguna Property includes 15 contiguous mining claims totalling 920 hectares. As well, the Laguna gold mine infrastructure consists of a three compartment vertical shaft to 381 metres and eight levels totalling over 3.0 km of underground drift and stope development. The property is strategically near Hudbay’s fully functional non-operating 2,150 tonne per day gold mill facility in Snow Lake.
The company’s news release advises that Rockcliff can acquire a 100 per cent interest in the property by paying an aggregate of $200,000 cash and issuing 750,000 shares over a four-year period, while making expenditures over five years totaling $1,000,000 with a minimum $100,000 in expenditures in any year.
The property’s vendor will retain a 2.5 per cent NSR on the property of which one 1.5 per cent NSR can be purchased at any time for $500,000 per 0.5 per cent NSR. The vendor’s remaining NSR will be subject to a first right of refusal in favour of Rockcliff from 0.5 per cent NSR up to 1.0 per cent NSR on certain claims of the property. An advance royalty payment of $35,000/year to the vendor begins after year five of the option and is capped at $175,000. The advanced royalty payment will be repaid from production on the property.
Rockcliff is a Canadian resource exploration company focused on the discovery, exploration and advancement of high grade VMS and gold-rich deposits near Snow Lake located in central Manitoba, Canada.
