Spruce Ridge – Benton Resources Joint Venture in Newfoundland
Spruce Ridge has entered into a joint venture agreement with Benton Resources Ltd. (“Benton”) whereby Benton can earn a 70% interest in the Great Burnt and South Pond copper and gold properties (the “Properties”). As part of the joint venture, Benton has issued 15 million common shares (BEX:TSXV) to Spruce. Once a 70% interest in the Properties is earned by Benton, exploration will continue as a participating joint venture.
The Great Burnt Main Zone has a National Instrument 43-101 compliant resource of 667,000 Tonnes (47.2 Mlb) Cu at 3.21% (indicated) and 482,000 Tonnes (25.0 Mlb) Cu at 2.35% (inferred) contained within mining lease 211 (10210M), prepared by P&E Mining Consultants Inc. in 2022. The copper resource remains open to the south along plunge.
Highlights of Great Burnt drilling by Spruce in 2016, 2018 and 2020 include:
- GB20-05: 27.20 m of 8.06% Cu, including 7.75 m of16.88% Cu
- GB20-20: 22.75 m of 6.89% Cu, including 12.55 m of10.59% Cu
- GB18-05: 20.94 m of 6.21% Cu, including 6.98 m of10.71% Cu
- GB18-06: 9.97 m of 7.45% Cu, including 5.03 m of11.42% Cu
- GB16-08: 7.50 m of 9.45% Cu, including 3.00 m of19.30% Cu
- GB16-09: 5.75 m of 6.68% Cu, including 1.50 m of11.70% Cu
Highlights of the South Pond Gold Zone drilling by Spruce in 2021 include:
- SP21-01: 1.69 g/t Au over 51.00 m, including 3.19g/t Au over 11.00 m, within 10 m of surface
- SP21-03: 2.36 g/t Au over 15.00 m, including 11.33g/t Au over 1.00 m
- SP21-08: 1.75 g/t Au over 21.20 m, including 2.82g/t Au over 10.20 m
- SP21-11: 1.34 g/t Au over 17.60 m, including 2.48g/t Au over 4.20 m
- SP21-14: 2.06 g/t Au over 21.00 m
- SP21-16: 1.72 g/t Au over 10.00 m
Note: True widths areestimated at approximately 70% of the listed core lengths.
In 2023 Benton drilled a series of holes into the Great Burnt Zone as part of an exploration program to increase the resource. Some drillholes twinned previous holes in the upper portion of the mineralization to test the hypothesis that the original drilling under-reported copper grade and interval length due to core loss from the small diameter drillholes. This was confirmed with the 2023 drilling. Deeper drilling down plunge tested the hypothesis that the longer holes deviated off-section and did not represent true intersections through the maintrend. This was also confirmed. In addition, several holes were purposefully drilled outside the resource with the intent to increase the overall size of the zone. Of the 22 holes drilled, 8 intersected massive sulphide outside of the resource outline. The drill results are listed in Table 1 and shown in Figure 1.
Table 1
Figure 1
