Resource World Magazine

D E C E M B E R / J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 0 www.resourceworld.com 53 MINING ROCKCLIFF METALS CORP. [RCLF- CSE; SVVZF-OTC; ROO-FSE] is well into a 100,000-metre drilling program at four of its copper projects in the Snow Lake mining camp of west-central Manitoba, Canada – the largest VMS (volcanic mas- sive sulphide) district in the world. Each of the four VMS projects – Talbot, Rail, Tower and Bur – has either NI 43-101 compliant or historic resources (Bur Project). The nearby Bucko mill is available for processing ore. Alistair Ross, President and CEO, told Resource World that Rockcliff has been exploring the Flin Flon-Snow Lake Greenstone Belt since 2006. The fully funded current drilling program will lead to a mine construction decision in the near future. Most of Rockcliff's Snow Lake projects are road-accessible with a few that need trails for access or limited helicopter sup- port. Winter helps as drills can be moved over the frozen muskeg. "At this stage, all our properties are viewed as underground mining opera- tions," said Ross. "At the moment they appear to be ramp accessible rather than shaft access mines, so we'll get there faster and cheaper than if we had to sink a shaft." Ross describes the company's 'Hub and Spoke' strategy whereby the Bucko mill is the Hub with spokes leading to Rockcliff's various VMS deposits that would feed the mill. "The Hub and Spoke concept shortens the timeline and removes the uncertainty of tailings permitting," said Ross. "Our big drive at the moment is a mine design that fills the mill with ore from a narrow vein ore body." He noted that it is difficult and time consuming for a junior with small deposits (2-4 million tonnes) to justify a mill, raise the capital and build the mill. "With the Bucko mill available, we can rapidly move from one mine to the next," Ross said. The initial three spokes lead to Rockcliff's prime targets: the Tower, Talbot and Rail where the bulk of exploration funding is being spent. "We raised nearly $21 million in flow-shares for exploration with a minimum of 60% of that money targeted at the three properties using eight drill rigs," Ross said. The Tower property is road-accessible on Highway 6 with a power line and cell phone tower. The 100%-owned Tower deposit has a NI 43-101 1.08 million-tonne Indicated Resource grading 3.73% copper, 1.05% zinc, 0.55 g/t gold and 17.28 g/t silver, plus 1.25 million tonnes of Inferred Resources grading 2.0% copper, 1.02% zinc, 0.27 g/t gold and 9.78 g/t silver. The Talbot property is a further 20 km west of Tower where a short road can connect it onto Highway 6. The current drilling will result in Rockcliff earning an initial 51% ownership in the Talbot property under its option agreement with Hudbay Minerals Inc. [HBM-TSX, NYSE]. The property hosts the Talbot copper deposit – a 4.2 million-tonne NI 43-101 Inferred Resource grading 1.61% copper, 1.4% zinc, 1.77 g/t gold and 27.96 g/t silver. The 100%-owned Rail property is about 20 km west of the Town of Snow Lake. "The property had highly prospec- tive, geophysical targets," said Ross. "We are drilling there and hope to double the resource from the current Indicated Resource of 822,000 tonnes grading 3.04% copper, 0.99% zinc, 0.7 g/t gold and 9.3 g/t silver with the same sort of copper results," said Ross. "Our first two holes support that and were very favorable with reasonable widths – 2 to 3.5 metres and copper equivalents of between 7% and 10% copper. We're pretty excited about the ability to show continuity of the 4% current copper grade across that deposit given those two results." Rail is very close to surface, in some cases, only about 10 metres below sur- face. The objective of drilling the Rail is to determine if the resource continues along strike and to depth. "Those three have been drilled with the goal of building resources at the Tower and Talbot up to the 2.5-million tonne range," said Ross. "At Rail, given its proximity to surface, 1.5 million tonnes may be suffi- cient for us to get some economic modeling in our favour." Drilling has also been carried out on the 100%-optioned Bur deposit. "The target that we're setting is a low cost operating mine but I think, more importantly, is that can we get there with a low capital expenditure. We plan a mix of equity and debt financing to build these projects so that the funding doesn't dilute existing shareholders significantly. Rockcliff will prepare bankable feasibility studies for their projects." n Greg Robinson, Senior Geologist, logs diamond drill core from the Talbot Project in the Snow Lake Mining Camp of west- central Manitoba. Photo courtesy Rockcliff Metals Corp. Rockcliff Metals conducting major Snow Lake drilling program on path to production by Ellsworth Dickson

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