Rockfire Resources (ROCK ), a gold and base metal explorer, announced drilling was underway at its 100%-owned Molaoi zinc/silver/lead/germanium deposit in Greece.
Rockfire said drilling had commenced at Molaoi with 4 initial holes to be drilled within the main mineral resource of 2.3Mt @ 11% zinc eq. The average depth of drilling will be 210m with the deepest hole planned to reach 270m.
These initial holes are expected to be followed by further drilling to gather geotechnical information throughout the 1.5km of the resource and beyond, Rockfire explained.
Rockfire said the initial holes are designed to provide analytical and geotechnical outcomes, including confirmation of correlation with previous assay results, gathering of orientation and structural data to refine understanding of the orebody at Molaoi, obtaining core for UCS compressive strength tests, and obtaining core for crushing and grinding work indices.
David Price, CEO of Rockfire, commented: Management is delighted that drilling has now commenced. The achievement of our team in Greece is remarkable. Since winning the international tender for Molaoi in March this year, our talented team in Greece has applied for (and been granted) initial drilling permits, has located and unearthed the portal to the underground mine, and has prepared for and executed a seamless start to drilling."
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Rockfire's maiden drilling campaign at Molaoi has now commenced, bringing the company one step closer to production. The aforementioned geotechnical core tests will inform the company and investors on future feasibility, and Rockfire will update markets accordingly as assay results come in.
Based on the existing maiden JORC mineral resource of 2.3 million tonnes @ 11 % ZnEq for 250,000 tonnes of ZnEq and early metallurgical tests at Molaoi, there is good reason to expect excellent results from these initial geotechnical tests.
Rockfire's consultants, BHM Process Consultants, have reported the performance of the zinc system as "excellent" with a product grade of 57% Zn concentrate achieved in a single pass. This is well above the desired product grade of 50% Zn contained for a saleable concentrate.
First-pass metallurgical recovery of lead was 74%, expected to increase with more detailed test work. The lead circuit recovery was at 63.6% Pb concentrate achieved in a single pass. This also far exceeds the market requirement of 40%-50% Pb contained for a saleable concentrate.
Copper and gold both reported to the lead concentrate with grades of 2.62% Cu and 0.52 g/t Au. Historical copper mines exist in the northern part of the Molaoi tenement, suggesting copper and gold are likely to add material value to future concentrates.
Moreover, Rockfire announced in May the discovery of critical metal Germanium at Molaoi during re-analysis of the historical diamond drill core. The company reported the weighted average grade of 51 samples collected during the re-analysis was 51 grams per tonne (g/t) Ge, with a peak value of 197 g/t Ge.
Germanium currently sells for US$1.1m per tonne which, if commercially recoverable in concentrate from Molaoi, would add material value to the overall financial metrics of the Molaoi deposit.
Molaoi is shaping up to be a major win for Rockfire as Zn prices continue to rise and demand for critical metals increases. Malaoi shows far higher than economical concentrations of Zn and Pb, with the potential of Ge, Cu, and Au to add significant value to the asset in the future.
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