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My Take on Snow Lake - Oct. 26, 2018

Rockcliff locates gold/copper horizon near Snow Lake
A Rockcliff map shows the location of the McLeod Gold Horizon. Snow Lake is located at bottom and be
A Rockcliff map shows the location of the McLeod Gold Horizon. Snow Lake is located at bottom and below the blue box denoting the New Britannia Mine.

On Oct. 18, Rockcliff Metals Corporation announced that geological prospecting has identified a 10-kilometre long mineralized gold/copper corridor, called the McLeod Gold Horizon, on the company’s SLG Gold Property.

“This strategic property hosts multiple historical gold-rich zones along several regional structural fault splays,” said Rockcliff president and CEO Ken Lapierre. “The McLeod Gold Horizon has never been drill tested, yet hosts numerous historical gold showings. Rockcliff’s grab samples confirmed the presence of high-grade gold and copper mineralization. In 2019, we plan to advance this gold asset with additional surface work in preparation for a drill program focusing on top priority gold targets.”

The SLG Gold Property is adjacent to three former gold producers and a 2,000-tonne-per-day gold mill facility. The newly identified horizon is part of the regional McLeod Road Thrust Fault, a structure known to be associated with the mine Snow Lake was founded upon, as well as several related satellite properties.

The SLG is part of Rockcliff’s property portfolio within the Snow Lake mining camp, which includes Manitoba’s first and highest-grade former gold mine, the Laguna, as well as the Bur, Lon, Morgan, Penex, Berry Creek, and Rail deposits within the greenstone belt.

The gold horizon within this thrust fault hosts quartz veining and volcanic rocks and classes of mineralization, including stringer to massive sulphide, as well as lode gold-bearing quartz veins. These have been intermittently traced for over 10 kilometres, with widths up to 30 metres. Historical grab samples were reported to grade from trace to 2.0 g/t gold and trace to 5.2 per cent copper. Rockcliff’s rock grab samples yielded from trace to 235.6 g/t gold and from trace to 2.41 per cent copper.

Within the property, the Wolverton and West Wolverton Gold Zones host Vein #1, which is 305m long and between 3.5m to 10.5m wide and Vein #2, which is 1,372m long and averages 0.6m in width. Shallow drilling in the 1940s and 1970s intersected values ranging from 1.37 g/t gold over 0.61m to 24.69 g/t gold over 1.04m. Rockcliff’s rock grab samples yielded quartz vein material grading from trace to 19.58 g/t gold.

Additionally, historical documents indicate that the property’s Birch Gold Extension possessed shallow drilling gold intercepts inside the property boundary, located 300m east of the former Birch Gold Mine.

A total of 206 rock grab samples were taken in the field, packaged and shipped directly for assay at an accredited laboratory. Each bagged rock sample was analyzed for copper, lead, zinc and silver. Gold concentrations were determined by fire assay.

Rockcliff is a Canadian resource exploration company focused on base metals, gold and royalties in the Snow Lake area of Manitoba. Rockcliff’s portfolio of properties totals 169,000 hectares and includes eight undeveloped base metal deposits, as well as the historic Laguna Gold Mine.

In other area mining news, in a public letter dated Oct. 5, Waterton Global Resource Management (WGRM) has urged the board of directors for Hudbay to immediately commit publicly to an acquisition moratorium. The management group is concerned by an Oct. 4 Bloomberg report that Hudbay is discussing the acquisition of Chilean miner Mantos Copper S.A. They say, “The market reaction to the Bloomberg article was starkly negative.”

WGRM is also troubled by the current underperformance of Hudbay shares and recent increases in the company’s guidance on operations in Manitoba and Peru. As well they questioned the stewardship of the Rosemont copper project in Arizona, calling it “a case study in poor execution.”

A further Bloomberg article dated Oct, 17 suggested that WGRM have gone a step further and are seeking changes to Hudbay’s Board of Directors. Bloomberg quoted an unnamed source who stated that WGRM now holds about seven percent of Hudbay shares, up from a previous 4.8 percent.

For their part, in an Oct. 4 news release, Hudbay stated that while the company’s policy is to avoid comment on speculation and rumours, they have had a consistent strategy of optimizing the value of current operations and evaluating growth opportunities that are complementary to it. They will continue to adhere to this strategy.

Nevertheless, in an Oct. 23 news release, Hudbay Minerals announced that WGRM has requisitioned a special meeting of the company’s shareholders for the purposes of considering an advisory resolution with respect to certain potential transactions. Hudbay says they haven’t yet reviewed or responded to the requisition.  The release also noted, “Hudbay remains open to maintaining a dialogue with Waterton and is disappointed with its abrupt decision to initiate what could be an expensive and distracting proxy contest, which appears to be aimed principally at providing Waterton with a platform to reiterate the views that it has already clearly communicated publicly and to the board.”

Finally, in the second sentence of the eighth paragraph of my last column, the words in quote should have read “us against them,” rather than “us and them.” My apologies.

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