Rubicon rises on Phoenix gold results

VANCOUVER — Another set of bonanza intercepts from the Phoenix gold project in Red Lake, Ont., added 38% to Rubicon Minerals’ (RMX-T, RBY-X) share price over three days of trading.

Rubicon is drill-testing F2, a highgrade gold zone the company discovered earlier this year. Previous results indicated the grade potential of the southern half of the zone, where drills returned intercepts such as 283.2 grams gold per tonne over 1 metre, 24.4 grams gold over 17 metres, 42.4 grams gold over 11 metres and 353.8 grams gold over 0.9 metre.

The latest set of drill results, however, shows that F2 North also hosts high-grade mineralization. The latest bonanza intercept came from the North zone, where hole 29 cut through “appreciable visible gold” to return 891.1 grams gold over 2 metres from 326 metres down-hole. The intercept sits 35 metres below a previous intercept from hole 19, which returned 361.7 grams gold over 1.8 metres.

Other strong results from the North zone include hole 17, which cut 1 metre grading 62 grams gold, and a deeper intercept from hole 19, which returned 58.8 grams gold over 2.1 metres. And hole 15, which intercepted 7.5 grams gold over 3.7 metres, extended the north zone 40 metres to the southwest.

Hole 29 also returned an intercept at 861 metres depth: 8 grams gold over 6.1 metres, hosted as visible gold and appreciable sulphides in heavily veined, altered and deformed mafic volcanics. The rock matrix closely resembles intercepts from shallower levels in the South zone, indicating this deep intercept is a depth continuation of the South zone.

“We’re very happy,” says Rubicon president David Adamson. “We’ve been exploring for many years in Red Lake, which is famous for highgrade systems, and we think we now have a system that has the potential to deliver. They are exceptional grades.”

Rubicon has drilled over 20,000 metres on F2 already this year and has plans to complete another 8,000 metres before year-end. Two drills are currently turning at the project.

The North zone, which sits just over 100 metres north of the South zone where Rubicon has focused the majority of its work, has now been traced along strike for 140 metres and to 430 metres of vertical depth. The North and South zones remain open along strike and at depth.

Both zones of F2 include breccia mineralization, as well as discrete high-grade structures and broader sulphide zones. This mixed style of mineralization is similar to that in other Red Lake-area deposits.

Mineralization at Phoenix occurs between 200 and 900 metres depth, which is typical for gold deposits in Red Lake. In order to delineate the deposit morerapidly and accurately, Rubicon wants to drill from underground, using an old mine shaft that is 450 metres from the F2 zone. The company is in the permitting stage and hopes to start dewatering and rehabilitating the mine shaft before the end of the year.

“In the context of Red Lake, where systems go 3,000 metres down, this one is still relatively near surface,” Adamson says. “Still, to properly explore a system like this, the best way is to go underground. It gives you the potential to drill from any angle and also gets around the seasonality.”

Adamson says the company has some $20 million in the bank, leaving it well funded to complete the current program and the shaft dewatering and rehabilitation.

Rubicon picked up the Phoenix project in 2002, prior to which the property was in receivership. During the exploration rush in Red Lake in the late 1990s, the Phoenix area was left unexplored.

Rubicon’s first discovery on the project, dubbed the Phoenix zone, returned an average of 10.66 grams gold over 2 metres from 67 drill holes. Phoenix has been delineated for 500 metres along strike and 200 metres width. In February, the company discovered F2 roughly 1 km southwest of Phoenix, close to the project’s historical workings.

Rubicon discovered F2 by following up on anomalies produced from a Titan 24 survey. More anomalies from the survey remain to be tested.

Over the three trading days following news of the latest Phoenix results, Rubicon picked up 52 or 38% to close at $1.88. The company has a 52-week trading range of 95- $2.23 and has 148 million shares issued.