Jul 30 2019
Riverside Resources Inc. announced that it has staked and acquired the Oakes Gold Project situated in northwestern Ontario. Riverside’s preliminary sampling at the Oakes Project yielded three high-grade surface samples from an area stripped in 2010.
(Image credit: Riverside Resources Inc.)
Two of the five samples obtained from this trench returned 19.7 g/t and 31.9 g/t gold. Another sample 30 m along strike to the east yielded 6.9 g/t gold. These preliminary results show the high-grade discovery prospect for the Project.
Initial prospecting and mapping work has traced the identified quartz-carbonate vein outside the high-grade sample location over a strike length of 400 m, and historical surveys and field observations show that this target may spread over a strike length of up to 2 km.
The Oakes Project is situated in the Oakes Township north of Canadian National Highway 11 and roughly 2 km north of the town of Long Lac, Ontario. The Oakes Township covers part of the well-endowed Beardmore-Geraldton Greenstone Belt region, situated northeast of Thunder Bay, Ontario.
Riverside’s exploration team is investigating orogenic gold mineralization hosted in large shear zones in the area, and hopes to finish extra mapping, sampling, and survey work in the next few months. Access is said to be very good, with year-round paved and gravel roads to assist survey and drilling activities during all seasons.
The Oakes Project is the first project Riverside’s generative team has staked in western Ontario and the Company plans to continue diversifying its portfolio with further Canadian gold prospects when high-quality acquisition opportunities present themselves. Adding Canadian assets to our portfolio expands our prospective partner network further, with access to flow-through financing and other exploration tax credit programs.
John-Mark Staude, President and CEO, Riverside
He continued, “We are pleased with the greater than 20 g/t gold assay results from our initial work at the Oakes Project and plan to follow up these positive results with more mapping, sampling and survey work in 2019. Our aim is to define compelling drill targets to attract quality partnerships and provide our shareholders with additional discovery opportunities.”
Regional History
The Geraldton region has a long and prosperous mining history and has yielded 4.1 million oz. of gold in the last century including the combined MacLeod-Cockshutt Mine, which returned 1.5 million ounces of gold up to 1970. Of late, the Hardrock Project held by Greenstone Gold Mines (mutually owned by Centerra Gold and Premier Gold Mines) has raised attention to the area by announcing their plan to mine their gold resource near Geraldton, Ontario.
The Hardrock Project mineral resources comprise 1.4 million measured and indicated ounces and 1.36 million inferred ounces of gold.
The Oakes Project is situated 20 km from the past producing Long Lac Gold Mine and Greenstone Gold’s Hardrock Deposits at Geraldton, Ontario.
Riverside’s Exploration Work
Riverside’s first period of work comprised of 29 rock samples acquired from both outcrops and old trenches. The latest work established three formerly identified areas and three extra target zones.
There are two major target orientations: one which drifts east-west and is related to contact zones that have been delineated by VLF (Very Low-Frequency) and IP (Induced Polarization) chargeability geophysical surveys; and a second target zones trend at 340° north-west that is established by field geology, linear magnetic lows, and soil geochemistry.
The previous magnetic surveys done by earlier operators are also useful in charting diabase dikes and geological contacts where overburden masks the underlying bedrock. A majority of the old drill collars could not be found in the field, but sampling of silicified and mineralized outcrop in the overall area of the old drill collars yielded anomalous (0.5–1.0 g/t) results for gold, signifying the right geological environment and basis for the historical drilling.
Riverside’s sampling program concentrated on the soil anomalies and trenches carried out by Golden Chalice Resources in 2010–2012.
Targets
Riverside’s first-phase exploration program demarcated several target areas for follow-up survey work and drill target refinement. The target areas were delineated by past geophysical and geochemical survey activity and established by Riverside’s sampling program completed in July.
HG Target
Trench #1 specifically displayed several shears, the largest being 3 m wide and exposed over an 80 m long strike within the trench. Two quartz-carbonate shears were sampled by Riverside in Trench #1. These shears are within mafic volcanic bedrock with sulfide mineralization, mainly pyrite and pyrrhotite. Two of the five samples acquired from this trench returned 19.7 and 31.9 g/t gold.
Another sample 30 m to the east yielded 6.9 g/t gold and an extra sample 275 m along trend yielded 1 g/t gold. These Riverside samples are on trend with drill hole GL-93-2, drilled by Greater Lenora Resources Corp. in 1993, which yielded more than 3 g/t gold within sheared metavolcanics rocks.
Riverside believes this drill intercept and the trench samples show a 400 m strike length for the HG Target that could spread, based on analysis of geology and geophysics for 2 km in total strike length, which will be established with follow-up field exploration work.
Brinklow Target
Related parallel targets were delineated to the south of the HG Target. These zones are oriented approximately east-west and coincident with VLF, IP chargeability, and soil geochemistry anomalies. The Brinklow zone may align with the historical hole DDH50-013, which intersected anomalous gold (>3 g/t) within mafic volcanics at just 7.6 m downhole.
Crib Target
The southernmost target spreads from the pipeline right-of-way to the southeast corner of the Project and is positioned along the boundary of mafic volcanic and pillow basalts that also overlaps with a VLF and partial soil anomaly.
Two other N-NW trending targets were also detected. One of these targets is identified by historical drill holes #1, #3, and #4, which all yielded anomalous gold intercepts greater than 3 g/t gold. One grab sample by Riverside south and on trend from these holes yielded anomalous gold (0.7 g/t) and may define another target area. The trend of this zone is identical to another zone identified near the eastern boundary. This “eastern structure” target is delineated by a strong linear magnetic low, taken as a fault, and a large, coincident north-south trending gold in soil anomaly.
Project History
Earlier work on the Oakes Project comprised two drill campaigns, more recent VLF, Mag, and IP geophysics as well as a soil chemistry survey and trenching campaigns. Historical drilling by Hard Rock Gold Mines comprised seven short, BQ-sized holes drilled from 1949 to 1951. Five of the drill holes from the 1950s intersected gold grades above 3 g/t.
Only a few chosen pieces of core from these past programs are available such that the old work will need to be verified and added into new work being carried out by Riverside to yield bonafide exploration targets. Drill logs report the mineralized zones that were sampled historically included quartz-carbonate veins within sheared mafic volcanics with sulfide mineralization (chalcopyrite, pyrite, and galena). This drilling campaign was done to trace known veins exposed at surface.
The two holes drilled in 1993 by Greater Lenora Resources Corp. were located to test two coincident VLF and soil geochemical anomalies. Drill logs from the historical reports reveal the mineralized zones that were sampled included meta-basalts (greenschist to amphibolite facies) and tuffs exhibiting silicification and sulfide mineralization (chalcopyrite, pyrite, and pyrrhotite).
Hole GL-93-1 was drilled to a depth of 153 m and yielded anomalous results in copper and gold. Hole GL-93-2 (155 m) intersected an 8.3 m length of semi-massive pyrrhotite mineralization starting at 112 m down hole with one 1.5 m long sample returning 3.3 g/t gold. The emphasis during this exploration seems to have been mainly for locating copper.
Very recent work by Golden Chalice (2010–2012) comprises an IP survey and a trenching campaign. The trenching campaign detected a number of mineralized shears coincident with IP chargeability and VLF geophysical anomalies. The best trench of six, Trench #1, yielded three-channel samples of 4.77, 4.17, and 3.41 g/t gold within shear-hosted quartz-carbonate veins.
Furthermore, 26% of the 20 samples taken at Trench #1 yielded greater than 1 g/t gold. The best composite sample results from this older work in Trench #1 were 1.3 g/t over 4 m and 1.32 g/t over 4 m. None of the trench work has been followed up and the majority of the complimentary geochemical anomalies have not been drilled. Riverside sees abundant opportunity at the Oakes Project to further merge the past work and build on the survey work that has revealed positive results for gold thus far.