Royal Road Minerals posts scout drilling results, Alouana Project, Morocco
Royal Road Minerals Ltd. [TSXV: RYR] reported geochemical results from its 2,000-metre reverse circulation scout drilling program at the Alouana project in Morocco. The Alouana project is subject to an option agreement between Royal Road Arabia Limited (RRA; a Saudi Arabian joint-venture company owned on a 50/50 basis by Royal Road and MIDU Company Limited) and Izughar Resources S.A.R.L, the Moroccan company holding title to the Alouana licenses.
Terms of the agreement require that upon completion of a minimum 2,000 metres of drilling and receipt of all geochemical results, RRA has the one-time option to pay to Izughar the amount of US$750,000 in exchange for 90% of Izughar.
The company has completed 22 reverse circulation drill holes for a total of 2036 meters at Alouana. Drilling intersected predominantly steeply dipping vein-breccia-hosted copper-bismuth-tungsten (± gold, silver and zinc) mineralization with best intersections in copper equivalent returning:
RC24AL003 From 3 to 17 metres – 14 metres at 0.9% copper equiv.
RC24AL004 – From 12 to 17 meters – 5 metres at 0.7% copper equiv.
RC24AL006 – From 0 to 8 metres – 8 metres at 1.2% copper equiv.
RC24AL007 – From 0 to 17 metres – 17 metres at 1.0% copper equiv.
RC24AL019 – From 43 to 53 metres – 10 metres at 1.0% copper equiv.
The principal aim of this drilling program was to test for the continuity of shallow-dipping (shear and cleavage parallel) mineralization at depth. A significant thickness of this style of mineralization, combined with the (conjugate northeast and northwest trending) steep-dipping vein-breccia controlled mineralization, would possibly provide a bulk volume significant enough for an open-pit type mining scenario along the Alouana ridge top.
Shallow-dipping mineralization did not continue at depth, or significantly away from the immediate vicinity of steeper-dipping vein-breccia style mineralization and the grade and continuity of mineralization intersected within the vein-breccia bodies is not deemed significant enough to support a standalone underground operation. Additionally, gold results returned from sulphide mineralization were low (maximum 0.6 grams per tonne over a meter; RC24AL019 and RC24AL021) and the highest gold intersection in oxide material was 2.2 g/t over a metre (RC24AL022). Highest individual one-metre downhole sample results for other metals were, silver 98.3 ppm, copper 3.6%, zinc 3.1%, bismuth 0.5% and tungsten 0.6%.
It is management’s view that this drilling program has sufficiently tested the immediate potential for economic resources at Alouana and that results are not encouraging enough to support further work. RRA has notified Izughar that it does not intend to pay the Option Payment and that it has withdrawn from the Agreement.
“We had well-guided clear objectives for this drilling program and once all requisite permits were received, the program was completed in an efficient, safe and cost-effective manner,” said Tim Coughlin, Royal Road’s President and CEO. “Alouana is an intrusion-related copper-polymetallic system and these systems, particularly where a shallow-dipping control to mineralization is evident, remain a priority target for Royal Road.”
Royal Road Minerals is a mineral exploration and development company with its head office and technical-operations center located in Jersey, Channel Islands. The company currently explores in the Kingdoms of Saudi Arabia and Morocco.