Pickering, ON - TheNewswire - February 15, 2023 - Renforth Resources Inc. (CSE:RFR) (OTC:RFHRF) (FSE:9RR) (“Renforth” or the “Company”) would like to offer shareholders an update and our current interpretation of the >29kms of battery mineralization at our wholly owned Surimeau District Project located near the town of Malartic Quebec and adjacent to the Canadian Malartic Mine.

 

• Gold has been intersected in drilling at Victoria, these first occurrence intersections demonstrate gold is present within the ~20km long mineralized system at Victoria 

• Lalonde has been confirmed as a mineralized system with drill results similar to surface results, Surimeau hosts two battery metals systems with open pit potential 

• A third band of mineralization was intersected at Victoria in the December drilling. This is interpreted as the northern mineralization splitting, as noted below 

 

"Our successful December drill program effectively confirmed two mineralized systems on this property. Surimeau is still relatively underexplored, both within the 29km of surface battery metals mineralization, and outside of those two systems where we have a copper discovery in the NE part of the property, pegmatites in the southern part of the property, and the presence of lithium, to date in the sediments, with a big question mark as to what that could mean. Our priority is the two battery metals mineralized zones, which start at surface and have only been shallowly explored to date. Located as we are with renewable electricity, road access in an established mining camp, contiguous to Canada's largest open pit gold mine in one of the best mining jurisdictions in the world, it is exciting to contemplate a potential open pit in the future with every cost advantage one could desire, we are working towards that vision " states Nicole Brewster, President and CEO of Renforth.

 

Victoria and Lalonde Mineralization Model

Renforth has begun developing a mineralization model, presented as follows. There is little historic information available as Renforth executes the first modern, systematic exploration on this large-scale property to define the extent of the two surface nickel sulphide polymetallic mineralization over ~29kms in length.

Two trends of between 250 - 500 m thickness run sinusoidally east-west across the central portion of the property, Victoria and Lalonde. Various exploration activities have confirmed strike lengths of 20 km and 9 km respectively. These trends primarily consist of mafic and ultramafics flows intercalated with graphitic mudstones, albite shears and calc-silicate rocks. The mafics are a dark green picrite with numerous quartz-albite and quartz-carbonate veinlets and stringers, these display extrusion textures like pillows and are unmineralized. The ultramafics and calc-silicates host most of the higher-grade Ni and Co mineralization within the structures, the graphitic mudstones and albite shear host most of the higher-grade Zn and Cu mineralization as sphalerite and chalcopyrite respectively.

Some of the ultramafic bodies may in fact be komatiite flows, these komatiite flows at Surimeau consist of light green strongly serpentinized and biotitized flow top breccias. This flow top phase is usually unmineralized and is followed by a basal komatiite consisting of massive blue-grey-greenish base flow containing magnetite cumulates (previously mis-identified as xenoliths) and occasional spinifex textures. This basal komatiite hosts the strongest Ni mineralization as pyrrhotite and pentlandite and forms a gradual contact with the calc-silicates. The calc-silicates are characterized by the presence of strong albitization, Cr-diopsides and stronger mineralization.

Bands of albite-shears, characterized by coarse radiating actinolite needles, are seen within the ultramafics. The albite shear hosts the strongest Zn and Cu mineralization on the property as sphalerite and chalcopyrite respectively. Wide (5-10 m) exposures of the albite shear is seen in the “Main-Trench” at Victoria. Intercalating bands of graphitic mudstones host coarse blebs of pyrrhotite, sphalerite and occasional stringers and smaller blebs of chalcopyrite. The graphitic mudstones mostly host higher grade Zn, Cu and relatively lower grades of Ni.

As Renforth generates more data on these two mineralized systems the mineralization model may change, presently the two systems are interpreted as two arms of a fold, the fold nose is located off the property and to the east.

 

December Results

Renforth's first drilling at Lalonde delivered grades and widths which justify additional future exploration.  These include SUR-22-34 which gave 26.7m of 0.21% Ni and 159ppm Co, this included 1m of 0.41% Ni. In addition, this hole gave interesting grades of other metals, including 52.75m of 0.45 g/t Ag, a large-scale intercept, albeit at a relatively low grade it is indicative of a silver endowed zone within the mineralization, occurring with, in this hole, Zinc including 1.1m of 1.10%. Renforth interprets this as stringers for a VMS system, we are working with an expert to vector in on a concentration of that mineralization. At Victoria our drilling, in addition to proving a third band of mineralization and growing the scale of that system, gave us results which included 13.10m of 0.17% Ni, followed by 8.8m of 1.87% Zn in SUR-22-37, which also assayed for a significant amount of copper (relative to other Victoria drill holes), this included 4.7m of 0.13% Cu further down the hole.  Alongside these numbers Renforth has noticed the presence of manganese in this round of drilling at both Lalonde and Victoria, SUR-22-37 gave 10.15m of 0.21% Mn, we now have to look at our prior drilling for Mn results. In addition to uses in stainless steel production, like zinc, manganese now has application in NMC and LMO batteries for EV production and will now be tracked at Surimeau. Lastly, the appearance of gold, alongside silver, at Victoria, with 2.5m of 0.55 g/t Au in SUR-22-37, is indicative, and typical, within a VMS system. Drilling into a previously untested anomaly at Victoria gave us our first gold intersections at Surimeau.

"At Surimeau we are seeing mineralized systems with significant footprints, 20 and 9 kilometres are long distances, currently we are seeing low grades, however, these are grades that are in the context of current and historic polymetallic mining operations, like Terrafame's Talvivaara open pit heap leach operation in Finland, or Outokumpu in eastern Finland (as cited by Dr. Franklin). The fact that mines like those, large scale and low grade, north of the Artic Circle, can operate gives us the motivation and validation we need to continue to define the extent of mineralization at Surimeau. We are also located next door to an open pit, that sets a precedent for what is possible on our uninhabited property with road access and hydro-electric power on the property. We have our work cut out for us, however, we see it as valid based on examples and our logistical cost advantages, as well as the macro situation for the various metals at Surimeau, especially nickel." states Nicole Brewster, President and CEO of Renforth.

Lalonde System, Central Area

Renforth completed its first drilling program at Lalonde in December 2022. Lalonde is the northern of the two battery metals mineralized systems currently identified within Renforth's 330 sq. km. wholly owned  and previously underexplored Surimeau property, consolidated and explored systematically on a district scale for the first time by Renforth, commencing in Summer 2021. In December 7 holes were drilled over a strike length of ~430m with a total of 1963.7m of drilling, the deepest piece point obtained was ~120 vertical metres. These holes, commencing at the Rapide 7 road and moving west, were drilled near to, or under, previously stripped and sampled areas, as well as into geophysical anomaly areas.

Click Image To View Full Size

 

Each hole drilled at Lalonde intersected the mineralized zone, in many instances cutting through both the northern and southern bands of mineralization which have been previously seen on surface during prospecting and trenching completed in 2022.

LaLonde Precious Metals December 2022 Drilling

 

Victoria System, Central Area

 

The central area of the Victoria mineralized system is where Renforth began work at Surimeau, after consolidating the property around the claims which formed our Malartic West property.  Work began at Victoria as it was easily accessible via a significant logging road that turns off from the Rapide 7 road, and it had seen some historic drilling and historic trenching/pitting, which left visible sulphides exposed. In December 2022 Renforth drilled 4 holes at Victoria with 1113m, for a total of 6741.7m drilled to date, over a strike length of 2.2km from the Rapide 7 road to the west. The December 2022 drill holes were designed to intersect a geophysical anomaly which we were unaware of until the interpretation of our high-resolution mag and EM survey was completed. That interpretation led to the identification of 18 discrete conductive anomalies within the first ~100m of depth measured by the survey, one of which was located in the central Victoria area within the main mineralized system and accessible from the main logging road in December. The other 3 holes drilled at Victoria were drilled to test for mineralization north of the main system in the area of the stripping at Victoria, as prospecting and geophysics suggested there was a secondary horizon.

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Each hole drilled in this program at Victoria intersected the mineralized system at Victoria. The 3 holes drilled to test for the northern band of mineralization were successful, however they also lead to our interpretation that the northern band of mineralization, in the area between the Summer 2021 stripping (the "Main Trench", mechanically stripped over 275m) and the Rapide 7 road (~1400m of strike), has actually split to form two bands, making 3 horizons/bands.

 

The Victoria Main Trench exposes the southern-most mineralized horizon consisting of calc-silicates, albite shear and graphitic mudstones, sandwiched between ultramafics and mafics. The second trend seems to originate roughly 700m northwest of the main trench near SUR-21-04. It split into northern and southern limbs around SUR-21-18. The southern limb is exposed approx. 50 m north of the Main Trench whereas the northern limb (the third band) splays off further north with a north-south separation of ~250 from the second trend. All the three trends seem to converge towards the east closer to Rapide 7 around SUR-21-17.  Although Ni grades up to 1500 ppm are seen in all the three trends, to date Ni grades > 2000 ppm are not seen in samples more than ~200 m north of the southern-most trend, further drilling may change this.

 

Victoria Precious Metals December 2022 Drilling

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Renforth has commenced 2023 field work, with the receipt of our applied for drill permit we have a crew commencing ground preparation ahead of drilling anticipated to occur in March, after PDAC, where Renforth will have a booth.

In addition, Renforth will be presenting at the following two webinars;

February 15th Red Cloud Webinar presentation 2pm EST  https://redcloudfs.com/rcwebinar-cse/

February 22nd at 2:55pm EST with Emerging Growth for an update presentation (10 minutes), registration link is https://goto.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1595541&tp_key=7d6588b9a9&sti=rfhif

 

Technical disclosure in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Francis R. Newton PGeo, OGQ a “qualified person” pursuant to NI 43-101.

 

For further information please contact:

Renforth Resources Inc.

Nicole Brewster

President and Chief Executive Officer

C:416-818-1393  

E: nicole@renforthresources.com

#Unit 1B – 955 Brock Road, Pickering ON L1W 2X9

 

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About Renforth

Renforth is focused on Quebec's newest battery metals district, our wholly owned ~330 km2 Surimeau District Property, which hosts several known areas of polymetallic "battery metals" mineralization, each with various levels of exploration, as well as a significant amount of unexplored ground. Victoria West has been drilled over a strike length of 2.2km, within a 5km long mineralized structure, proving nickel, copper, zinc and cobalt mineralization, in the western end of a 20km magnetic anomaly. The Huston target, during initial reconnaissance, resulted in a grab sample grading 1.9% Ni, 1.38% Cu, 1170 ppm Co and 4 g/t Ag. Additionally, the Lalonde, Surimeau and Colonie Targets are all polymetallic mineralized occurrences which, along with various gold showings, comprise the areas of potential of this NSR free property.

 

In addition to the Surimeau District battery metals property Renforth wholly owns the Parbec Gold deposit, a surface gold deposit contiguous to the Canadian Malartic Mine property in Malartic, Quebec. In 2020/21 Renforth completed 15,569m of drilling which successfully twinned certain historic holes, filled in gaps in the resource model with newly discovered gold mineralization and extended mineralization deeper. Based upon the success of this significant drill program the Company considers the spring 2020 MRE, with a resource estimate of 104,000 indicated ounces of gold at a grade of 1.78 g/t Au and 177,000 inferred ounces of gold at a grade of 1.78 g/t Au to be out of date. With the new data gained Renforth will undertake to complete the first ever structural study of the mineralization at Parbec, as well as additional total metallic assay work in order to better contextualize the nugget effect on the gold mineralization.

 

Renforth also holds the Nixon-Bartleman property, west of Timmins Ontario, with gold present on surface over a strike length of ~500m.  

 

No securities regulatory authority has approved or disapproved of the contents of this news release.

 

Forward Looking Statements

 

This news release contains forward-looking statements and information under applicable securities laws.  All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward looking. Forward-looking statements are frequently identified by such words as ‘may’, ‘will’, ‘plan’, ‘expect’, ‘believe’, ‘anticipate’, ‘estimate’, ‘intend’ and similar words referring to future events and results. Such statements and information are based on the current opinions and expectations of management. All forward-looking information is inherently uncertain and subject to a variety of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, including the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development, fluctuating commodity prices, the risks of obtaining necessary approvals, licenses and permits and the availability of financing, as described in more detail in the Company’s securities filings available at www.sedar.com. Actual events or results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements and the reader is cautioned against placing undue reliance thereon. Forward-looking information speaks only as of the date on which it is provided and the Company assumes no obligation to revise or update these forward-looking statements except as required by applicable law.