More gold for Rockhaven at Klaza

VANCOUVER — With over 20 million historical oz. of placer gold scoured out of the gravel creeks across the northern latitudes of the Yukon Territory, Matthew Turner, president, CEO and director of Rockhaven Resources (TSXV: RK), says there’s plenty of gold left to discover — and not all of it is entrained at surface.

The company has seen a 53% increase in the gold resource estimate for its Klaza project, 8 km from the historical Mt. Nansen mine and 50 km west of the town of Carmacks, where gold is confined to narrow, parallel-trending veins that carve through the rolling hillside.

“We’re pleased with the resource upgrade, considering we used the same methodology as our previous estimate and doubled the gold ounces,” he says. “We’re the highest-grade, plus 1 million oz. gold deposit ever discovered in the Yukon, and we’re quite sure it’s only going to get better.”

Resources at Klaza stand at 9.4 million tonnes at 4.48 grams gold and 89 grams silver for a total of 1.4 million oz. gold and 27 million oz. silver, assuming optimistic prices of US$1,300 oz. gold and US$20 oz. silver.

The deposit comes with lead and zinc credits, which amount to 155 million lb. lead at 0.8% lead and 198 million lb. zinc at 0.95% zinc.

The upgrade incorporated 13,700 metres of drilling from last year, along with the Eastern BRX zone — one of nine structurally controlled mineralization zones traced from surface along open-ended strike lengths ranging between 250 metres and 2.4 km.

“Our cost-per-discovery ounce is pretty fantastic, considering we only did $3.2-million worth of drilling last year,” Turner adds. “And there’s still lots of room for expansion on those high-grade mineralized zones.”

Drill results at the Western BRX, Klaza and Eastern BRX zones last year returned high-grade hits of 14.88 grams gold per tonne and 162 grams silver per tonne over 2 metres, 9.12 grams gold and 90.5 grams silver over 1.9 metres, and 4.08 grams gold and 63.5 grams silver over 2.4 metres.

The mineralization at the property is like a carbonate-base metals gold system, which Turner describes as a low-sulphidation epithermal deposit.

Epithermal deposits are divided between high- and low-sulphidation types, Turner notes, the latter occurring when metal-rich magma interacts with groundwater.

“But Klaza has substantial depth extent, which is unusual for epithermal systems,” he adds.

“They usually extend 200 to 300 metres deep, but Klaza is down below 500 metres and it’s still open, which is fairly strange for this type of deposit.”

Historically, finding the bedrock source for the placer gold in the Yukon has always been an enigma for explorers, and it wasn’t until Underworld Resources, since acquired by Kinross Gold (TSX: K; NYSE: KGC), found the White Gold deposit in 2008 that explorers got hot on its trail.

Exploration spending surged to $300 million from below $10 million in the early 2000s, unveiling discoveries such as Kaminak Gold’s (TSXV: KAM; US-OTC: KMKGF) Coffee deposit, 30 km south of White Gold, which hosts probable reserves of 46 million tonnes grading 1.45 grams gold for 2.2 million contained oz. gold.

“It’s amazing — the more in detail people look the more unique deposits pop up, especially in the cordillera where there are so many rock types and potential ore hosts,” Turner says. “There’s such great potential to make major discoveries here, and it’s a great place to work.”

Working in the remote reaches of Canada’s north makes access an issue for any aspiring miner, but Turner says he has no pressing concerns.

“One the best things going for us compared to the other projects is that we’re road accessible from the Klondike Highway and a short drive away from Whitehorse,” he says. “For an advanced project in the Yukon, it’s one of the best located.”

This year the company will pursue an economic study on the deposit, Turners says, and move ahead on permitting and environmental work. He reckons this is “the best use of the money for the markets we’re in.”

“We’ll look at financing, and it’s hard to say what kind of reaction we’ll get, there are so many variables,” he adds. “We’ve focused on expanding the resource, and next year we’ll build the project up even more.”

Rockhaven will take part in the coreshack at this year’s Mineral Exploration Roundup held Jan. 25–28 in Vancouver, B.C., and hosted by the Association for Mineral Exploration British Columbia.

Rockhaven has traded within a 52-week range of 10¢ to 26¢ per share, and closed at 13¢ at press time. The company has 105.2 million shares outstanding for a $13.7-million market capitalization.