Renforth Resources: 22 km of battery metals in Quebec

2022.06.11

Recently concluded prospecting at Renforth Resources’ (CSE:RFR, OTCQB:RFHR, FSE:9RR) Surimeau property in Quebec has extended the battery minerals nickel, copper, cobalt and zinc to surface.

A field crew visited all of the targets across the district-scale, 330-kilometer land package, took samples and submitted them to the assay lab. Results are expected in a few months. In some instances the sulfide mineralization present at the Victoria magnetic structure and at the Lalonde showing, was confirmed by X-ray fluorescence (XRF).

“Our first round of prospecting our district-scale Surimeau property this year went very well, our EM [electromagnetic] survey is proving to be an excellent road map to mineralization,” said Nicole Brewster, Renforth’s president and CEO, in the June 9 news release. “Everything we are learning will be utilized in the next round of prospecting at Surimeau and, eventually, our next drill program. We have new targets for the next round, based on what we learned this round, which we will target as we continue to learn about and develop Surimeau, Quebec’s newest battery metals district.”

According to Renforth,

Successful prospecting of the central portion of the Victoria structure proves the presence of battery metal mineralization in outcrop, which, along with the electromagnetic anomalies demonstrating the presence of surface/near-surface sulphides, allows Renforth to conclude that the Victoria structure is mineralized. Work will continue to define the grade and amount of mineralization…

Surface mineralization has been identified as a calc-silicate unit, that runs to a vertical depth of 220.5m in drill core, over a strike length of at least 2.2 km. Renforth believes this is the main shear exposed during the fall 2021 trenching program.  

The company notes there are still a few EM anomalies to visit, something that will be done during the second prospecting campaign at Surimeau, anticipated to begin in the next few weeks.

Surimeau

The project hosts several areas prospective for gold/silver and battery/ industrial metals (nickel, copper, zinc, cobalt and lithium). It is located south of the Cadillac Break, a major regional gold structure.

The Surimeau property occurs within a unique geological setting where two types of mineralization, formed from different geological processes, are “mashed together” in one distinct orebody. It is best described as a magmatic nickel sulfide deposit, juxtaposed with a copper-zinc volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit.

The first type of deposit, which may contain nickel, cobalt and platinum group elements (PGEs), is associated with ultramafic rocks. The second type, volcanogenic massive sulfides (VMS), was formed on or near the ocean floor during ancient underwater volcanic activity.

VMS deposits are sought after for mining because they usually contain a mix of base metals such as zinc, lead, copper, and sometimes precious metals including silver and gold. The minerals usually form massive sulfide mounds or layers, making them relatively easy to extract.

Surimeau’s mixed style of mineralization, however, is very rare; the best comparison so far is the Outokumpu district of eastern Finland.

Outokumpu contains sulfide deposits with economic grades of copper, zinc, cobalt, nickel, silver and gold. Mining took place from 1913 to 1988, and involved the exploration of three deposits — Outokumpu, Vuonos and Luikonlahti. Approximately 50 million tonnes of ore, averaging 2.8% Cu, 1% Zn and 0.2% Co, along with traces of Ni and Au, were mined.

As for how closely Renforth’s Surimeau deposit resembles the size and qualities of the Outokumpu district, it’s too early to say. Nevertheless, the scale of this district is encouraging.

Moreover, the Finnish deposit contains a confluence of elements that yields a large suite of base metals. If Renforth can delineate a similar mix, there is a good chance they can be mined as a single unit like at Outokumpu, and processed into separate concentrates.

Up until now, Renforth has mainly focused on the polymetallic “battery metals” package of nickel, cobalt, copper, zinc, platinum and palladium that is present in six known areas of the property. This year the company is looking to broaden its exploration efforts at Surimeau by including lithium.

On top of lithium, Renforth will also look for rare earth elements by following up on various geochemical anomalies in the SIGEOM system to determine if they are pegmatites and/or REE occurrences. This includes a highly anomalous scandium value in the NW portion of the property that is 3x higher than any other scandium value in the dataset. At this location, the REEs dysprosium and neodymium also gave unusually high values.

Victoria West

To date, the exploration focus at Surimeau has been the sulfide nickel-rich volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) targets, in particular the Victoria West prospect, which has been the site of drilling for over a year.

Information gleaned from drilling and trenching, along with surface sampling, creates an area of interest that includes over 5 kilometers of strike on the western end of a 20-kilometer magnetic anomaly.

The company interprets this anomaly to be a nickel-bearing ultramafic sequence unit, which occurs alongside, and is intermingled with, VMS-style copper-zinc mineralization.

So far, only 5,626 meters have been drilled over 2.2 km of the known strike length, yielding results that allude to the presence of a large polymetallic camp richly endowed with nickel, copper, cobalt and zinc, along with some PGEs (platinum group elements).

Assays came from seven holes (1,200m) drilled within the 275m strike length of the stripped area at Victoria West (see below), where channel sampling earlier revealed consistent nickel-cobalt mineralization.

One drill hole returned 3.46% Ni and 491 ppm Co over 1.5m between depths of 196.5m and 198m, demonstrating the high-grade nickel potential present at Victoria West.

The high-grade intercept was within a broader mineralized zone of 170.55m, which averaged 0.16% Ni and 100.2 ppm Co. A 12m-long zone, between 187.5m and 199.5m down hole, averaged 0.54% Ni and 138.7 ppm Co.

These results followed up on the promising assays reported last fall, where each of the 21 holes returned mineralization as expected, with the four deeper holes demonstrating an increase in grade.

The plan for Renforth now is to move as quickly and as efficiently as possible to deliver an inferred resource at Victoria West.

Lalonde

As further proof of Surimeau’s potential to host a large polymetallic system, Renforth on May 31 announced that fieldwork resulted in the discovery of surface battery metals sulfides at the Lalonde target.

Surface sampling of EM anomalies on the magnetic structure hosting Lalonde has extended the battery metals mineralization to the east by 1.7 km and to the west by 400m, bringing its total strike length to 2.4 km.

Lalonde is located 3.7 km north of the Victoria West mineralization, which as mentioned, was previously drilled by Renforth over 2.2 km of strike length.

Unlike the Victoria West area and the Victoria magnetic structure, the Lalonde area has only seen limited work to date.

However, it should be noted that both Victoria and Lalonde were discovered in 1943 during the construction of the powerline for the Rapide Sept generating station south of Surimeau, which in both instances revealed surface mineralization.

A total of 2,318m was drilled at Lalonde in 1958 and 1968 in 23 drill holes. These were assayed for copper, nickel and zinc, revealing the presence of mineralization. Later drilling took place to the east and northeast of Lalonde, but the drill holes were only assayed for gold.

At Lalonde, Renforth previously took 34 grab samples during prospecting in 2020 and 2021, with each demonstrating the presence of elevated copper, nickel and zinc. The best grab sample results include the highest nickel result: 0.2% Ni, 578 ppm Cu and 785 ppm Zn.

Importantly, the prior sampling results from Lalonde were similar to those received from Victoria West. This gives credence to Renforth’s theory that mineralization at Victoria West and Lalonde, as well as the Colonie showing at the eastern end, all belong to the “Outokumpu” model of polymetallic system described earlier.

Recent prospecting at Lalonde has delivered one of the best visually mineralized samples at Surimeau to date, validating the accuracy of EM anomalies indicating the presence of sulfides within magnetic structures.

Conclusion

Renforth Resources has the right metals at the right time, embodied in its Surimeau polymetallic project in Quebec.

Borrowing a quote from Renforth’s chief executive Nicole Brewster, Surimeau represents a “complete basket of metals you need for electrification, for the storage of energy.”

At Victoria West, drilling and trenching, along with surface sampling, creates an area of interest that includes over 5 kilometers of strike on the western end of a 20-kilometer magnetic anomaly.

The company interprets this anomaly to be a nickel-bearing ultramafic sequence unit, which occurs alongside, and is intermingled with, VMS-style copper-zinc mineralization.

So far, only 5,626 meters have been drilled over 2.2 km of the known strike length, yielding results that allude to the presence of a large polymetallic camp richly endowed with nickel, copper, cobalt and zinc, along with some PGEs (platinum group elements).

In a note to investors, Renforth’s Nicole Brewster described surface samples taken from outcrops at the Victoria mineralized structure as follows: “The Calc-silicate mineralization, which when seen in drilling delivered grades we like, was seen on surface. That is important, or exciting. Why? Well, in one spot we we have on surface what we saw in drill core at a vertical depth of ~200m. Amazing consistency.”

Meanwhile, 2022 fieldwork has established polymetallic mineralization at the underexplored Lalonde showing over a 2.4 km strike length.

Lalonde is located 3.7 km north of the Victoria West mineralization.

With exploration at Surimeau this year also focusing on the key battery metal lithium, we could be looking at further development opportunities on this district-scale property.

Renforth Resources
CSE:RFR, OTCQB:RFHRF, FSE:9RR
Cdn$0.05; 2022.06.10
Shares Outstanding 262.3m
Market cap Cdn$13.1­m
RFR website

Richard (Rick) Mills
aheadoftheherd.com
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