Molaoi Drilling Update: Germanium Intersected at Over 50g/t
Rockfire Resources PLC (LON: ROCK) said drilling at its wholly owned Molaoi zinc deposit in Greece has continued to intersect high-grade germanium, with results from hole HMO-017 returning grades of up to 52.3 grams per tonne.
The base metal, critical mineral and precious metal exploration company said diamond drilling is continuing as part of a programme designed to upgrade the project’s inferred resource to indicated status. Hole HMO-020 is currently in progress.
Laboratory results from HMO-017 included 2.20 metres at 4.5% zinc, 38.8 grams per tonne silver, 1.2% lead and 35.7 grams per tonne germanium from 254.45 metres downhole.
The same hole also returned 1.00 metre at 16.1% zinc, 33.8 grams per tonne silver, 0.7% lead and 21 grams per tonne germanium from 288.00 metres, as well as 5.9 metres at 5.0% zinc, 20.5 grams per tonne silver, 1.4% lead and 16 grams per tonne germanium from 309.50 metres.
Rockfire said results from drill holes HMO-018 and HMO-019 are still awaited.
Portable XRF readings from hole HMO-019 included peak individual values of 50.0% zinc, 18.8% lead, silver readings of 179 grams per tonne and 163 grams per tonne, and a highest individual copper reading of 2.50%. The company noted that the portable XRF does not measure germanium.
Chief executive David Price said results from HMO-017 continued to confirm the widths and grades of the deposit and would feed into the company’s planned indicated resource upgrade.
He added that high-grade zinc, silver, germanium and lead values continue to be intersected, while the geological model is holding up under ongoing drilling.
Price said an interval of 16% zinc over 1.0 metre could potentially be captured in an underground mine plan using a minimum mechanised mining width of 2.0 metres, which would still result in an average grade of 8% zinc over that mining width before the contribution of silver and germanium by-products.
Rockfire said it will continue to update the market as further laboratory results are received.
