VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Dec. 04, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rockhaven Resources Ltd. (RK.V) ("Rockhaven") is pleased to announce the results for the remaining seven diamond drill holes and other exploration activities conducted during the reconnaissance phase of the 2017 program at its 100% owned Klaza gold-silver property, located in the Dawson Range Gold Belt of southern Yukon.

A total of 15,922 m in 96 holes were completed during the 2017 exploration program.  Results in this release are from diamond drilling, excavator trenching, soil sampling and ground geophysical surveys that were designed to evaluate prospective areas of the Klaza property, which lie outside of the known mineral resource areas.  The program successfully identified seven new mineralized zones and a number of geochemical and geophysical anomalies, which are priority targets for follow-up drilling in 2018.

Highlights from this news release include:

• A series of new mineralized veins were discovered in a single drill fence completed north of the current resource area, returning 1.16 g/t gold and 18.7 g/t silver over 10.12 m, 12.60 g/t gold and 312 g/t silver over 0.46 m, 9.43 g/t gold and 180 g/t silver over 0.86 m, and 5.63 g/t gold and 91.4 g/t silver over 0.94 m;
• Trenching and prospecting samples collected at the Victoria Target, southeast of the newly discovered veins, returned a chip sample grading 4.95 g/t gold and 135 g/t silver over 1.5 m and rock samples with peak values of 35.3 g/t gold and 1,145 g/t silver; and,
• A new prospecting discovery at the Rusk Target, 5 km south of the current resource area, identified northwest trending linear structures where the peak value from rock sampling returned 2.82 g/t gold and 2,070 g/t silver.

“We are excited by the discovery of multiple mineralized structures north of the Klaza Zone and consider these structures high priority targets for diamond drilling in 2018,” stated Matt Turner, Rockhaven’s CEO.  “These new structures are located within 500 m of the currently envisioned open pit and are similar in character to the known zones that host the current inferred resource of 1,360,000 gold ounces.”  

Northern Drill Fence

A fence, comprising five diamond drill holes, was completed north of the Central Klaza Zone to test an area where no mechanized exploration had been completed previously.  This drilling targeted a number of linear magnetic and electro-magnetic anomalies, similar to those marking known mineralized zones.  The southern three holes intersected a series of semi-massive sulphide veins that are spatially associated with porphyry dykes.  These veins and dykes closely resemble those within the inferred resource.

Exploration in 2018 will test these newly identified structures along strike to the northwest, within the Western Fault Block which hosts the high-grade Western BRX and Western Klaza zones, and to the southeast where soil sampling has identified strong gold-in-soil anomalies.

Significant drill results from the newly discovered vein zones are shown in Table I.

Table I – Significant Diamond Drill Intersections from Northern Drill Fence

^* Represents the diamond drill hole sample length.  True widths are estimated to be approximately 80-90% of the interval.

Rex and Chevron/Dickson Zones

The Rex Zone was discovered in 2016, 1 km southeast of the Eastern BRX Zone (see news release dated September 8, 2016).  In 2017, three additional holes were drilled down-dip and along strike of the discovery hole.  The most significant intersections came from hole KL-17-434 located 75 m along strike to the northwest, as shown on Table II below. Additional work is required to confirm the orientation and character of the mineralization within the Rex Zone.

The Chevron and Dickson Zones are two of the eleven previously identified mineralized zones within the core of the Klaza property.  Four holes were drilled into these lightly explored zones in 2017.  The results from three of the four holes were previously released (see Rockhaven news release dated September 26, 2017).  Significant intersections from the final hole (KL-17-390) are shown in Table II.

Table II – Significant Diamond Drill Intersections from Rex and Chevron/Dickson

^* Represents the diamond drill hole sample length.  True widths are estimated to be approximately 80-90% of the interval.
Drill hole KL-17-433 did not return significant mineralization

Encouraging results from recent surface exploration activities elsewhere on the 287 km² Klaza property are described in the following paragraphs.  None of these outside targets have been systematically trenched or drilled to date.

Victoria Target 

Prospecting in late 2016 and early 2017 returned favourable results 3.2 km to the southeast of the area of the inferred resources.  Two grab samples returned 35.30 g/t gold and 1,145 g/t silver, and 12.10 g/t gold and 2,360 g/t silver, respectively, from a broad recessive linear feature.  An excavator trench across the linear intersected two mineralized intervals, which returned 5.43 g/t gold and 149 g/t silver over 1.0 m and 4.95 g/t gold and 134.75 g/t silver over 1.5 m.  An additional rock sample collected on the eastern, untrenched flank of the linear yielded 7.81 g/t gold and 51.1 g/t silver, suggesting the potential for additional parallel veins.