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Riverside acquires part of Pichette Gold Project near Geraldton

Jul 24, 2023


Riverside Resources Inc. has acquired part of P.A.T. Gold Mine inside of the larger Pichette Project west of Geraldton. The P.A.T Mine project was drilled extensively in the 1950s and then had test mining conducted in the 1970s with an initial bulk sample extracted during that period. The historical work (non NI43-101) includes geophysics, geochemistry, geology, and drilling, which delivered strong gold intercepts at shallow depths including 16.65 g/t Au over 3.81m and 34.28 g/t Au over 1.1m both intervals at less than 80m depth (see Figure 1). This historical work at Pichette was located on recently reverted mineral leases that Riverside acquired through staking as the Company had surrounded strategic area with mineral claims.

Highlights:

  • 100% Riverside owned, no underlying royalty.
  • >1 Oz/ton Au in historical core intercepts for 1m+ intervals at 30m depth, thus shallow and open at depth.
  • Close to past producing 1M oz Au Leitch Mine with associated iron formation host rocks.
  • Within Greenstone Gold Mines, Hard Rock deposit >10M Oz Au so far.
  • Riverside magnetics survey has defined banded iron formation targets that fit with surface gold showings make this exciting and highly prospective for drilling gold.

"Riverside is very excited to have acquired this new area of gold mineralization, which is on trend with the previously identified Banded Iron Formation (BIF) gold mineralization at Pichette and appears to have continuity to the west with Leitch Gold Mine BIF host rock sequence . The BIF unit extends across the project outlining a multi-kilometer target in this district of significant past gold production. The historical work comprising geophysics and drilling gives us a solid focus for advanced drilling in this part of the Geraldton Gold Belt," states Riverside's President and CEO, John-Mark Staude who has been on site and notes the similarities to the Leitch Mine geology 15 kilometers to the west of Pichette. 

The Pichette Project is well located with excellent road infrastructure immediately south of the Trans-Canada Highway with drive up targets within the Beardmore-Geraldton Greenstone Belt. The Pichette targets are underlain by the east-west trending Archean-aged metavolcanic and metasedimentary suite consisting of greywacke and iron formation, which is the same geologic 

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Figure 1: Drone magnetics survey completed recently by Riverside with historical drill holes plotted. Dashed black line subterrane boundary discussed in text.

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sequence that hosts the <1M Oz Brookbank deposit1  opposite the highway from the project. Multiple banded ironstone units are interbedded with the metavolcanics throughout the sequence making stratigraphic traps for gold. BIF hosted gold deposits occur in many major Canadian mining camps and are a significant target on the Pichette Project seen as red and blue areas in the northern portion of the Figure 1. The BIF layers consist of recrystallized chert alternating with magnetite with small amounts of pyrite, chalcopyrite and other indicator minerals. There is favorable structural preparation for gold with major fractures acting as conduits for mineralizing fluids and minor intrusions. The veins and fractures contain secondary quartz, carrying gold which becomes a second habit of gold on the project. The ironstones have been traced across the project and were better defined by the recent drone magnetic survey. Medium-grained, quartz-porphyry sills, 0.5-1.5 m wide, intrude some of the ironstones and provide a third host for gold and in crossing structures for targeting gold bearing fluid flow.

Much of the historical exploration and mining work was conducted during the 1950s with Tombill Mines Ltd. carrying out a program of surface work and diamond-drilling. Tombill conducted VLF-EM geophysics and then a soil survey of the anomalous zones defining very shallow drill targets. Later during the 1974 and 1975 field seasons, P.A.T. Mines completed thirty-two core drill holes (see figure 2). The P.A.T. drilling returned high grade intercepts at shallow depths, leaving the system open at depth.

Mineralization
In 1952 Tombill Mines Ltd. outlined 4 mineralized zones in the area of the claims. The drilling conducted by P.A.T. Mines on the Pichette property recorded gold mineralization associated with two persistent subparallel chert-magnetite-carbonate ironstones (see figure 3). The ironstones are 40 m apart and strike 75 and dip 85 north. Surface prospecting and historical diamond drilling have traced the ironstones 600 m along strike, and they average 2.0-2.5 m wide. Up to 20% magnetite has been noted in the ironstones and can contain up to 2% arsenopyrite.



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