VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 27, 2019 / DeepRock Minerals Inc. (the "Company"), trading symbol "DEEP" on the CSE, is please to advise that the Company has commissioned Chibougamau Drilling to mobile the necessary equipment and has commenced diamond drilling on the Ralleau VMS/Lode Gold Project in Quebec, Canada.
The Ralleau VMS/Lode Gold Project is strategically located in the west-central part of the Province of Quebec, Canada. It is readily accessible via Lebel-sur-Quévillon located approximately 620 km N-NW of Montreal and 160 km NE from the mining center of Val d'Or along the provincial highway system.
From the regional centre of Lebel-sur-Quévillon, the Ralleau VMS Project is situated just 67 km ENE along a network of well-kept forestry roads.
The Ralleau VMS Project currently consists of 59 key claim cells totalling 3,323.85 Ha (33.24 km2), covering an assemblage of contiguous Quebec mineral claims ideally situated in Ralleau and Wilson townships on the National Topographic Sheets (NTS) 32F01 (Lac de la Ligne).
The Ralleau VMS Project is located within the very active Urban-Barry Belt, in the central-east portion of the North Volcanic Zone ("NVZ") of the Archean Abitibi Greenstone Belt ("AAGB"). The highly mineralized Urban-Barry Belt ("UBB") extends over 135 km in length and ranges from 4-20 km across. The UBB is bordered in the north by the Mountain and Father plutons, and in the south by the Wilson and Souart plutons that range from granodioritic to tonalitic in composition. DeepRock's Ralleau VMS Project is located within the Urban Formation ("UF") in the western part of the Urban-Barry Belt.
The Urban Formation comprises mafic to intermediate volcanic rocks; and felsic volcanics of dacitic to rhyolitic composition attributed to the noted Novellet Member. These lithological units mainly strike WNW-ESE, changing to E-W in the western portion of the project and to NE-SW in the eastern portion of the project. These changes in orientation may be related to the Urban and Cameron Deformational Zones ("UDZ and CDZ").
The Ralleau Syncline is oriented E-W. Geologically, it has been interpreted to coincide with the Urban Deformational Zone forming a two km wide corridor through the central part of the greenstone belt. The area experienced amphibolite-facies metamorphism; however, the central part of the Urban Formation appears to have been exposed to greenschist-facies conditions. The rocks surrounding the synvolcanic felsic intrusives record favourable contact metamorphic to amphibolite-facies conditions.
The lithological units range from mafic to felsic compositions, which is consistent with bimodal volcanism. This is a prospective trait of VMS deposits known to exist in this Abitibi Region. They furthermore suggest that the geological setting of the Ralleau property is favorable for Abitibi-style VMS mineralization such as what exists at the operating Langlois VMS Mine.
Shear zone-hosted mineralization consists of disseminated (10%) pyrite with trace amount of chalcopyrite. This would be what may host lode gold mineralization to the east, west and north of DeepRock's Ralleau Project.
Mineral exploration activity has been carried out sporadically on parts of the current Ralleau VMS Project and its immediate vicinity since the mid-1950s, including geological reconnaissance, mapping, geophysical surveys, and limited diamond drilling. Recent work has been carried out by Megastar, who acquired a 12-claim block north of Lac Wilson in 2005 that evolved into the present Ralleau project of which DeepRock is earning its fifty-percent interest.
Since 2005, Megastar has completed a reconnaissance geology survey, a surface geophysical survey, a diamond drilling programme, trenching and sampling, an airborne geophysical survey, a digital database compilation of all earlier work and geological mapping, prospecting and sampling surveys over almost the entire property. DeepRock is confident it is now time to proceed with an extensive and aggressive diamond drill program on the Ralleau VMS Project.
The exploration carried out by DeepRock since 2017 has consisted of a prospecting and mapping programme on the eastern part of the Property and a ground geophysical Induced Polarization (IP) survey on the western part of the Property in preparation for diamond drilling. This surveying delineated a number of compelling conductive anomalies which, to date, all remain untested by diamond drilling.
Felsic volcanic rocks, displaying characteristic hydrothermal alteration known to be associated with VMS‐style deposits, had been identified from the geological review, historical diamond drilling, and trenching.
The Ralleau VMS Project represents a favorable setting for bimodal mafic VMS mineralization similar to the Langlois mine located at some 57 km WNW of the property.
In 1996, the Langlois mine owned by Cambior, started the underground mining of a 22 million tonnes zinc and copper deposit at the rate of 2500 tonnes a day for 10 years.
Today, the Langlois Mine, operated by Nyrstar is located roughly 50km northeast of the city of Lebel-sur-Quévillon. The Langlois produces zinc concentrate and copper concentrate, as well as silver and gold as by-products. In 2017, Langlois Mine produced 65,000 tonnes of zinc concentrate, 2,100 tonnes of copper concentrate, 1,900 oz of gold in concentrate and 553,000 troy ounces of silver in concentrate.
DeepRock's first 2019 diamond drilling program will consist of a set of drill holes testing 600m of depth, averaging approximately 200m each, along the horizon of interest. The first of the set is specifically designed to twin historic hole MAR-06-04 to corroborate the mineralized intervals and provide some idea of special orientation. DeepRock's geoscientific team will target a strong chargeability/metal factor anomaly. The second will test a strong chargeability anomaly and provide important infill information located between historic holes MAR-06-04 and MAR-06-05.
DeepRock Minerals looks forward to analyzing the data obtained to further pursue its drilling program on the other IP anomalies delineated on the Ralleau Project.
Christian Derosier, P.Geo., D.Sc., is the qualified person (QP) as defined in National Instrument 43-101 and, acting on behalf of DeepRock, has reviewed and approved the technical content of this news release.
On behalf of the Board of Directors,
DeepRock Minerals Inc.
Mr. Richard Shatto
(604) 807-6334
[email protected]
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SOURCE: DeepRock Minerals Inc.