Ridgeline Minerals drills 720.3 g/t silver over 0.9 metres at Selena, Nevada
Ridgeline Minerals Corp. [TSXV-RDG; OTCQB-RDGMF; FSE-OGCO] reported results from the first two core holes of its proposed five-hole, 3,000-metre drill program at the Selena project, Nevada.
Results from the Upper Chinchilla zone returned continuous intercepts of shallow-oxide, silver-lead-zinc-gold containing high grade, including intervals that are consistent with nearby reverse circulation (RC) holes. Notably, deeper drilling beneath the Upper Chinchilla zone in hole SE23-048 also intersected localized antimony-rich breccia intervals averaging 1 to 2% Sb, which are the first of its kind at Selena.
Chad Peters, president and CEO, commented: “This year’s drill program has two primary objectives. The first is to upgrade previously drilled, shallow-oxide RC intercepts in the Upper Chinchilla zone, and the second is to make a high-grade CRD discovery at depth. Hole 47, drilled between 2021 RC holes 13 and 14, materially upgrading both the thickness and overall grade of both holes, which includes a significant oxide gold component. This zone is shallow and projects up dip through hole 48 to surface and is open for expansion. These intercepts confirm our belief that there is significant potential to delineate a shallow-oxide resource at Chinchilla that may be amenable to low-cost heap-leach processing methods.”
Peters continues: “The highest-priority holes of the program are holes 49 and 50, which are in progress and will drill to depths of 700 metres or more to test for stacked zones of CRD mineralization beneath the Upper Chinchilla zone. These holes are targeting both sides of the known chimney structure that is believed to be a primary feeder to the Upper Chinchilla zone, which returned bonanza-grade CRD intercepts in our 2022 program.”
Chinchilla Zone results summary: SE23-048 returned 0.9 metres grading 720.3 g/t silver, 12.0% Pb, 0.1% Zn, 0.4 g/t Au (or 1,133.6 g/t Silver Equivalent – AgEq) within 10.9 metres grading 94.1 g/t Ag, 1.3% Pb, 0.7% Zn, 0.2 g/t Au starting at 85.3 metres true vertical depth (TVD); 0.6 metres grading 3.6 g/t Ag, 2.4% Sb, 0.1 g/t Au starting at 240 metres TVD; 3.6 metres grading 0.5 g/t Ag, 1.2% Sb, NA g/t Au starting at 247 metres TVD.
SE23-047 returned 4.6 metres grading 55.2 g/t Ag, 1.2% Pb, 7.2% Zn, 0.2 g/t Au (or 421.1 g/t AgEq) and 2.8 metres grading 205.8 g/t Ag, 1.4% Pb, 0.3% Zn, 1.4 g/t Au (or 386.1.1 g/t AgEq) within 60.7 meters grading 69.8 g/t Ag, 0.6% Pb, 1.3% Zn, 0.4 g/t Au (or 175.2 g/t AgEq) starting at 93.8 metres TVD.
The 60.7 metre composite calculation includes a combined 7.3 metres of unrecovered core (typically in 1-2m intervals) due to collapsing hole conditions through the mineralized zone. These intervals were assigned an assay value of 0.0 across all metals, resulting in an estimated dilution of roughly 12% to the overall composite value.
Both intercepts are hosted within 10-60 metre wide zones of strongly oxidized carbonate replacement (CRD) style alteration and are open for expansion up and down-dip.
Holes SE23-049 and SE23-050 are in progress and located ~500 m west of SE23-047 and SE23-048. Both holes will test for stacked mineralization beneath the high-grade Upper Chinchilla zone intersected with holes SE22-039 and SE22-045 in 2022.
SE23-049 has ~250 m of prospective host rocks remaining to test before moving to SE23-050 and has intersected multiple zones of fugitive calcite breccias or “BBQ Rock” beneath the Upper Chinchilla zone, a proximal indicator of CRD alteration and mineralization.
Selena is located in White Pine County, Nevada, approximately 64 km north of the town of Ely, Nevada. The Project shares a property boundary with the Butte Valley project, a US $33M earn-in agreement between Freeport-McMoRan and Falcon Butte Minerals. The 100%-owned project is comprised of 39 km2 of highly prospective exploration ground including Ridgeline’s shallow-oxide 2020 Ag-Au plus or minus Pb-Zn Chinchilla discovery.
Subsequent drilling has continued to highlight the potential for high-grade CRD type mineralization (Ag-Au-Pb-Zn +/- Cu) between Chinchilla and the Butte Valley Cu-Au-Ag porphyry located directly west of the property.