New Drilling At Ikkari And Ikkari North As The Program Commences

TORONTO - Rupert Resources reported on the 2022/23 exploration program at its multi-million ounce Ikkari gold discovery at the Lapland Project in Northern Finland. In November 2022, the company published a mineral resource estimate (“MRE”) and preliminary economic assessment (“PEA”) for the project demonstrating the potential for a high margin, low impact mine with a life of over 20 years

Ikkari - Further results from Infill and extension program: 1) #123027 intersected 2.1 grams per tonne gold (“g/t Au”) over 52m from 228m including 4.4g/t Au over 10.0m from 249m highlighting higher grade mineralisation within the felsic unit in the northern part of the deposit. 2) #123047 intersected 4.2 grams per tonne gold (g/t Au) over 72m from 235m including 6g/t gold over 10.3m from 247m and 13.1 g/t over 4m from 277m confirming the high-grade core in the central portion of Ikkari. 3) #123055 intersected 1.7g/t Au over 52m from 108m confirm the continuity of mineralisation in an area of Inferred Mineral Resources within the felsic sediment unit to the west of the deposit. The hole also intersected 1.9g/t Au over 24m at depth from 424m including 8.4g/t Au over 1.0m and 8.8g/t Au over 2.0m up-dip from previously reported mineralisation at depth in the west of Ikkari. 4) #123063 intersected 5.9 g/t over 9m from 540m (420m vertical) including 49.6 g/t Au over 1m extending the western plunging mineralisation at depth with a step out from hole #123026 (1.3g/t Au over 88.7m from 487.3m including 3.1g/t Au over 13.0m from 495m) reported earlier in the spring. 5) #123080 intersected 1.3g/t Au over 43m from 565m (445m vertical) confirming the presence of wide zones of mineralisation beyond 450m vertical depth in the eastern parts of the deposit.

New drilling at Ikkari North successfully targeted the Eastern continuation of mineralisation hosted within an E-W structural corridor. Within this trend multiple intense breccia zones host gold and pyrite mineralisation. Drilling during the winter 2023 has extended the footprint of the mineralisation 200m to the east from previous drilling during the winter 2022: 1) #123059 intersected 2.7g/t Au over 35.1m from 233.1m (165m vertical) including 56.6g/t Au over 1.0m. 2) #123069 intersected 1.1g/t Au over 14.6m from 291.4m including 4.3g/t Au over 0.5m.

James Withall, CEO,  “Diamond drilling for the 2023/24 season has commenced on several targets with the base of till program set to resume in September after the summer break. The results highlight the potential of the mineralising system in Area 1 to yield more discoveries. A significant portion of the drilling in 2022/23 was allocated to infill drilling to upgrade the confidence level of Ikkari resource ahead of the upcoming pre-feasibility study; with this work behind us, the focus can switch back to exploration, both in Area 1 and along the 15km structural corridor extending eastwards from the multi-million ounce Ikkari discovery where new base of till and geophysical anomalies have been identified.”

The 2022/23 infill and exploration drill program at Ikkari successfully extended the mineralised envelope at depth to the west and across the strike extent of the deposit. Infill drilling successfully targeted areas of Inferred resource present within the open pit defined in the PEA and down to approximately 450m vertical depth. The database for assays to be included in an updated NI 43-101 MRE, the basis of a pre-feasibility study to be completed in H1 2024, was closed at the end of June 2023 and the aim is to complete the update in Q4 2023.

The Ikkari North target was identified from the MT-IP survey conducted in spring 2022 and was the first discovery made in Area 1 that was not identified using Base of Till (“BoT”) sampling. The survey identified a strong north-dipping chargeability anomaly that projects towards surface approximately 500m to the north of the Ikkari deposit. The recent drilling has expanded the footprint of this discovery a further 200m to the east. Drilling at Ikkari North is constrained to the winter season and further follow-up drilling is restricted at this time.

The 2023/24 exploration drilling program has now commenced. Following a further update to our geological model and structural interpretation of Area 1, and the completion of the immediate requirements for Ikkari infill drilling, the focus of the drilling is returning to exploration.

Drilling to date outside of the Ikkari deposit has been limited and focused on testing surface anomalies identified through base of till drilling. The aim for the upcoming season is to systematically explore the potential extensions to the key mineralising structures identified from the updated geological model at Ikkari. The work in this area will include: extension testing of the Ikkari deposit to the west and along the contact with black shale to the east; potential for continuity between Ikkari North and Heina South and extensions of the Heina Central system southwards.

Further exploration is also underway at a number of targets that have been identified along the original 20km domain boundary, the initial regional target structure identified in 2019. Base of till was completed on these targets as part of the 2022/23 programme and systematic drilling of these has now begun where access is possible in the summer and will be continued during the winter.

The pre-feasibility study (PFS) for the Ikkari project has now begun and is being led by Rupert’s owner’s team and consultancy firm WSP. The PFS metallurgical test work is now underway and the mineral resource update for the Ikkari deposit should be concluded by the end of Q4 2023. In conjunction with the PFS our environmental impact assessment (“EIA”) programme work is also underway and feedback from stakeholders has recently been received allowing evaluation of additional work required to be incorporated into the preparation of the EIA report in mid-2024.

The Company has continued to add to the strength of the Ikkari development team with the recruitment of Tuula Roimaa as Principal Process Engineer. Tuula previously held the roles of Chief Metallurgist for Boliden’s Kevitsa base metals operation and Chief Metallurgist at Agnico Eagle’s Kittila mine and has extensive experience in both gold and base metals recovery.

Ikkari was discovered using systematic regional exploration that initially focused on geochemical sampling of the bedrock/till interface through glacial till deposits of 5m to 40m thickness. No outcrop is present, and topography is dominated by low-lying swamp areas. The Ikkari deposit occurs within rocks that have been regionally mapped as 2.05-2.15 billion years (“Ga”) old Savukoski group greenschist-metamorphosed mafic-ultramafic volcanic rocks, part of the Central Lapland Greenstone Belt (“CLGB”). Gold mineralisation is largely confined to the structurally modified unconformity at a significant domain boundary. Younger sedimentary lithologies are complexly interleaved, with intensely altered ultramafic rocks, and the mineralized zone is bounded to the north by a steeply N-dipping cataclastic zone. Within the mineralised zone lithologies, alteration and structure appear to be sub-vertical in contrast to wider Area 1 where lithologies generally dipping at a moderated angle to the north.

The main mineralized zone is strongly altered and characterised by intense veining and foliation that pervasively overprints original textures. An early phase of finely laminated grey ankerite/dolomite veins is overprinted by stockwork-like irregular siderite ± quartz ± chlorite ± sulphide veins. These vein arrays are often deformed with shear-related boudinage and in situ brecciation. Magnetite and/or haematite are common, in association with pyrite. Hydrothermal alteration commonly comprises quartz-dolomite-chlorite-magnetite (±haematite). Gold is hosted by disseminated and vein-related pyrite. Multi-phase breccias are well developed within the mineralised zone, with early silicified cataclastic phases overprinted by late, carbonate- iron-oxide- rich, hydrothermal breccias which display a subvertical control. All breccias frequently host disseminated pyrite, and are often associated with higher gold grades, particularly where magnetite or haematite is prevalent. In the sedimentary lithologies, albite alteration is intense and pervasive, with pyrite-magnetite (± gold) hosted in veinlets in brittle fracture zones.

Ikkari North is the characterised by broad, 100-200m wide intersections of fine-grained Savukoski sediments between mafic intrusive bodies. The sediments are pervasively carbonate altered and in places brecciated such that rafts of the wall rock occur in a carbonate matrix. Variable amounts of disseminated and semi-massive pyrite occurs at the contacts to preserved rafts of sediments within the matrix. Assays and observations of visible gold grains, indicate that these pyrite zones are variably mineralised with gold. Higher grade zones are associated with silica-sericite alteration and quartz veining that is confined to siltstone units within the larger brecciated domain.