Knife Lake Project

NI 43-101 Knife Lake Resource Estimate

Highlights:

• The Knife Lake Project consists of 81 claims totaling 55,471 hectares (137,069 acres)
   
• The Knife Lake Project area is an advanced-stage copper, silver, zinc and cobalt exploration property in Saskatchewan; extensive exploration completed from the late 1960’s to the 1990’s, with the last documented work program completed by previous operators in 2001
   
• Rockridge completed first work program in the last ~20 years in 2019, with highlight results including 2.03% Cu, 9.88 g/t Ag, 0.19 g/t Au, 0.36% Zn, and 0.01% Co (2.42% CuEq) over 37.6m beginning at 11.2m in hole KF19003
   
• Deposit is a remobilized portion of a presumably larger “primary” VMS deposit; most of the historical work has consisted of shallow drilling at the deposit area with little regional work carried out and limited deeper drilling below the deposit
   
• Over 300 holes provided data for first NI 43-101 resource estimate of the shallow Knife Lake deposit
   
• Knife Lake NI 43-101 resource estimate provides excellent anchor for Project:
  • Ind. resources: 3.8 MT @ 1.02% Cu Eq.
    • Or 3.8 MT @ 0.83% Cu, 3.7 gpt Ag, 0.097 gpt Au, 82 ppm Co,1740.7 ppm Zn.
  • Inf. resources: 7.9 MT @ 0.67% Cu Eq.
    • Or 7.9 MT @ 0.53% Cu, 2.4 gpt Ag, 0.084 gpt Au, 53.1 ppm Co, 1454.9 ppm Zn.
       
• Rockridge recently completed the 2021 drill program that was expanded to 2,043.0 metres and consisted of twelve drill holes
   
• Infill drilling was conducted and returned highlight intercept from hole  KF21021: 1.95% Cu, 0.11 g/t Au, 7.41 g/t Ag, 0.53% Zn and 0.02% Co (2.34% CuEq) over 14.02m beginning at 24.62m
   
• Most of the drill program targeted the Gilbert Lake area located ~5-6 km west of the Knife Lake Deposit and consists of a prospective 15km long trend
  
   
• Highlight drill intercepts at the Gilbert South Target area include pyrrhotite-pyrite dominant VMS-style mineralization hosted at the same stratigraphic horizon as the Knife Lake Deposit
   
• There is strong discovery potential in and around the deposit as well as at regional targets on the Property; modern exploration techniques and methods are being utilized with a goal of making new discoveries
   
• A summer exploration program will follow up on the results of this drill program and details on this program are forthcoming

Knife Lake Geology and History:

The Knife Lake Project is interpreted to be a remobilized VMS deposit. The stratabound mineralized zone is approximately 15 m thick and contains copper, silver, zinc and cobalt mineralization which dips 30° to 45° eastward over a strike-length of ~4,000 m, with an average horizontal width of approximately 300 m. Over 400 diamond drill-holes have been completed in and around the current property boundaries, with much of the drill core stored under cover and in very good condition.

1968: Knife Lake mineralization discovered by Straus Exploration 130km NNW of Flin Flon

1968-1972: Extensive drilling completed totaling 87 holes (8,484m), mining lease established

1989: CopperQuest formed, completes extensive geophysics, plans 24 holes

1996: Leader Mining acquires leases from CopperQuest and completes positive preliminary metallurgical work

1996-1998: Leader Mining completes delineation drilling: 317 holes completed (30,866m)

1997: Leader publishes non NI 43-101 geological resource estimate for the Knife Lake Deposit

1999-2002: Metal prices collapse, and exploration budgets are cut during bear mining market

2003: Leader Mining issued Cease Trade Order which remained in place for over 3 years

2009: Ursa Major International acquires Knife Lake lease and surrounding claims

2010-2014: Ursa Major International name change to Minnova Gold and focuses on gold projects; very little exploration carried out on Knife Lake Project

2017: Knife Lake mining lease lapses and area becomes open for staking

2018: Eagle Plains, a prospect generator, stakes area of expired lease and acquires additional tenure as well as access to existing drill-core; seeks to farm out property as part of business model

2018-2019: Eagle Plains and Rockridge enter into option to acquire 100% interest of large, 31,689 ha, property package and TerraLogic contracted to carry out the exploration programs going forward

2019: Rockridge completes inaugural drill program, publishes first NI 43-101 resource estimate for the deposit at the project

2021: Rockridge Resources conducts 2,043 metre diamond drill program with highlight holes:

KF21022 returned 0.73% Cu, 0.06 g/t Au, 2.98 g/t Ag, 0.15% Zn and 0.01% Co (0.88% CuEq) over 21.11m starting at 27.39m

KF21021 returned 1.95% Cu, 0.11 g/t Au, 7.41 g/t Ag, 0.53% Zn and 0.02% Co (2.34% CuEq) over 14.02m starting at 24.62m

The Flin Flon District Highlights:

• Since the initial discovery of mineralization in 1915, the Flin Flon camp has produced over 170 million tons of sulphide ore from 31 VMS deposits worth in excess of $25 billion dollars (2002 NRC, Current Research)
   
• Over 50% of deposits have been advanced to production, which have led to 86 consecutive years of mining
   
• Mining infrastructure in the region requires additional discoveries and deposits; Flin Flon has a long history as a mining town
   
• 31,689 ha Knife Lake Project is 130km NNW of Flin Flon and 45km N of Sandy Bay; new powerline 16km from Knife Lake Deposit area, greatly enhancing the project’s infrastructure
   
• Over $1.6 billion invested towards mine development with road, rail, power and water infrastructure to facilitate quick development of new discoveries
   
• Typically less than six years from discovery to development with reduced capital expenditures
   
• Several other companies are active in the region: Foran Mining, McIIvenna copper-zinc project (technical services agreement with Glencore); Hudbay operates two mines, recently discovered new high-grade zinc zone between the Chisel North and Lalor Mines; and Rockcliff Metals, a well-funded exploration junior drilling ~100,000m (private equity group Greenstone is large shareholder) in coming year

Knife Lake District History:

The Knife Lake deposit is hosted by felsic to intermediate volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks which have been metamorphosed to upper amphibolite facies. The deposit is typical of VMS mineralogy which has been significantly modified and partially remobilized during the emplacement of granitic rocks. The mineralization straddles the boundary between two rock units and occurs on both limbs of an overturned fold.

The Knife Lake area saw extensive exploration from the late 1960’s to the 1990’s with the last documented work program completed in 2001. Drilling has outlined a series of stratabound mineralized lenses which are controlled by complex geological structures. In the copper mineralized zone, significant thickening of the mineralization occurs near the central portion of the deposit. Sulphides and rare native copper are visible in outcrop. Massive sulphides consist of 25% to 60% pyrrhotite and 0.2% to 10% chalcopyrite mineralization. Pyrite is present as irregular disseminations and masses. Locally, up to 8% sphalerite (zinc mineralization) is present.

* Intercepts in the above table refer to an actual drilled thickness in metres and may not represent the true thickness of the intercept

The first documented work in the Knife Lake showing area occurred between 1969-1973, consisting of ground and airborne geophysical surveys and extensive soil geochemical sampling. The discovery drill-hole, collared in September 1969, returned 2.37% Cu over 4.48 m from 19.96-24.44 m, including 3.5% Cu over 2.5 m from 20.27-22.77 m. A total of 96 diamond drill holes (8,232 m) were completed between 1969-1971 and in 1973 Straus Exploration announced a maiden resource on the Knife Lake Deposit.

Hudson Bay Exploration and Development Company Ltd. later carried out a regional Airborne EM geophysical survey in the Knife Lake – Scimitar Lake area followed up by geological mapping, prospecting, ground geophysics, and diamond drilling. The property was subsequently optioned to Copperquest Incorporated in 1989, who carried out further geophysical and geochemical surveys and optioned the property to Leader Mining International in 1996. Between 1996 and 2001, Leader flew various airborne geophysical surveys in the area, including electromagnetic (“EM”), magnetic, and gravity surveys. This was followed up with stripping and trenching of the outcropping deposit area. Ground TEM, magnetic, ground IP/Resistivity and VLF-EM surveys were completed over and adjacent to the main deposit area.

Between 1996 and 1998, Leader completed 315 diamond drill holes, outlining a broad zone of mineralization occurring at less than 100 meters depth (AF 63M-0006, Report 10). Late in 1998, Leader published a historical estimate for the deposit. Within the historical estimate, there is a higher grade near surface zone. (SMDI 0406). 

In 1997, Leader International shipped a 2.4 tonne bulk sample of mineralized material excavated from the surface outcrop of the Knife Lake deposit to Lakefield Research Limited for metallurgical test-work. Lakefield concluded that the copper metallurgy was straightforward. Following a simple flowsheet, greater than 90% copper recovery was achieved at a concentrate grade of 28% Cu. Gold recovery in the copper concentrate was 80%. The cobalt recovery in the copper cleaner concentrate was 13%, with 28% of the cobalt present in cleaner tailing products. Another 48% of the cobalt was present in the sulphide concentrate.

A 357kV powerline has recently been completed to within 16 km of the Knife Lake Deposit area, greatly enhancing the project’s infrastructure.

Knife Lake Regional Potential and Strategy Highlights:

• Strong discovery potential in and around deposit as well as at regional targets on the 31,689 ha property
   
• The Knife Lake deposit is hosted by felsic to intermediate volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks which have been metamorphosed to upper amphibolite facies
   
• The deposit contains typical VMS mineralogy which has been significantly modified and partially remobilized during the emplacement of granitic rocks
   
• Knife Lake is likely a remobilized portion of a presumably much larger “primary” VMS deposit based on general observations about the mineralogy, mineral textures and metal ratios in the deposit
   
• This remobilized deposit may have a different metal content and texture due to it being heated and transported
   
• Vectoring using metal ratios and structural interpretation to identify “primary” VMS deposit
   
• Two significant phases of exploration in 1970’s and 1990’s focused on Knife Lake deposit; no exploration in current Knife Lake property package since 2001 until Rockridge completed inaugural drill program in 2019
   
• Last regional work by Leader in 1999-2000 (airborne geophysics, regional mapping, geochemistry) and limited shallow follow up diamond drilling in 2000 confirmed VMS style alteration and mineralization associated with EM conductors along the prospective Knife Lake horizon
   
• Knife Lake property package is potentially ripe for new discoveries using modern exploration techniques/methods
   
• Regional targeting strategy will focus on identifying buried mineralization using:
   
  • Modern geophysics – high-resolution, deep penetrating EM to identify conductors as well as drone mag surveys to cover large areas in detail
     
  • Groundwork and sampling – analyze rock geochemistry to identify prospective VMS style hydrothermal systems
     
  • Follow up on historic conductors, alteration and mineralization at regional targets (Pistol, Gilbert and Red Hill Targets)

Knife Lake Deposit NI 43-101 Resource Estimate:

The tables below summarize the sensitivity of the Knife Lake mineral resource estimate to cutoff grade, with the base case cutoff of 0.40% copper equivalent (CuEq) highlighted.  The base case CuEq cutoff is equal to an NSR cutoff of approximately CDN $30/tonne and is based on processing costs of comparable deposits.

There are no known current environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-economic, marketing, or political factors that could materially affect the mineral resource estimate. Factors that may affect the estimate are typical of any deposit and include; metal price assumptions, changes in interpretations of mineralization, metallurgical recovery assumptions, delays or other issues in reaching agreements with local or regulatory authorities and stakeholders, and changes in land tenure requirements or in permitting requirements.

Indicated Resource (effective date of June 12, 2019):

Inferred Resource (effective date of June 12, 2019):

The mineral resources have been estimated in conformity with generally accepted CIM “Estimation of Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserves Best Practices” guidelines (CIM, 2014) and are reported in accordance with the Canadian Securities Administrators’ National Instrument 43-101 (CSA, 2018). Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. There is no certainty that all or any part of the mineral resource will be converted into mineral reserve. The NI 43-101 resource estimate has an effective date of June 12, 2019.

The resource for the Knife Lake deposit has been confined within an open pit shape to define “reasonable prospects of eventual economic extraction” using the following input parameters:

Interpolation for all metals has been done using 4 passes with anisotropic distances based on variography for 5 domains that have been created based on the mineralization. Ordinary kriging (OK) has been used as the final grades for all metals except Au which has final grades based on inverse distance squared (ID2) for better validation of the model. Outlier restriction of high grades for each metal and domain have been applied where deemed necessary based on cumulative probability plots (CPP) and percent of metal removed.

Interpolation parameters are summarized in the table below:

Qualified Assurance Program and Quality Control Measures (“QA/QC”)

Rockridge implemented QA/QC protocols including insertion of duplicate, blank, and standard samples in all 2019 drill holes.  Check samples of 25 selected intervals from Leader Mining drilling in the 1990s were sent to ALS in North Vancouver, BC, Canada, for analysis. The historic samples were not consistently assayed for cobalt, lead and zinc so those comparisons are limited. Check assays returned acceptable results for all samples except one.

All lab internal standards and duplicates were within acceptable values. Core from Rockridge’s 2019 diamond drilling program was logged and sampled on site by staff of Terralogic Exploration Inc.  Whole core was sawn in half and a total of 609 samples were sealed and shipped directly to ALS Environmental in Saskatoon for internal transportation to ALS Geochemistry in North Vancouver for analysis.

Analysis consisted of 48 element four acid ICP-MS (ME-MS61) and gold (Au) 30 g Fire Assay – AA finish (Au-AA23). Over limit analysis were completed using the following analyses: Ore Grade copper (Cu), nickel (Ni) and zinc (Zn) – four acid ICP-AES (ME-OG62). A total of 33 QAQC samples were inserted over 12 drill core sample shipments, including 18 standards and 15 blanks. Standards and blanks from 2019 returned acceptable values.

Below is a three-dimensional view of the Knife Lake block model illustrating the copper equivalent grade for the entire length of the deposit within Rockridge’s claims. The view is looking northwest with a grid size of 200m x 200m to indicate the scale.

Qualified Persons:

Stephen Kenwood, P.Geo., an independent qualified person visited the Knife Lake Property on May 15, 2018, and March 22, 2019, and is responsible for the geology and QAQC.

Sue Bird, P.Eng., Principal of Moose Mountain Technical Services (MMTS) is the QP for the Resource estimate and has reviewed the QAQC for the deposit. Tracey Meintjes, P.Eng., Principal of MMTS is the QP for the metallurgy including the processing and recovery estimates.

Exploration Strategy Highlights:

• The Knife Lake deposit is open along strike and at depth; also gaps in the historical resource that could be filled in
   
• Initial Rockridge diamond drilling program completed in 2019 consisted of 1,053m in 12 drill holes
   
• Drilled several confirmation holes as well as resource expansion holes to upgrade the historical resource and produce NI 43-101 resource estimate 

• Very limited previous drilling below 100m but some deeper holes intersected mineralization at around 300m
   
• 2021 drill program consisting of 2,043m in twelve holes focused on infill drilling of the Knife Lake deposit and exploration drilling at the Gilbert Lake target
   
• Potential for deposit expansion at depth on overturned fold limb

Future Exploration and Development Plans:

• A summer field exploration evaluated existing, highly-prospective targets within the large landholding, with targets in the immediate vicinity of the Knife Lake deposit being prioritized
• A subsequent program of geophysics and drilling is planned to test the highest priority targets as the Property is highly prospective for new discoveries using modern exploration techniques / methods

Terms of Option Agreement:

Under the terms of the Agreement, Rockridge may acquire a 100% interest in the Knife Lake Project by making cash payments to Eagle Plains Resources totaling CDN $150,000, issue up to 5,250,000 common shares of Rockridge, and incur exploration expenditures of up to CDN $3,250,000, over a four year period as follows:

• On Exchange acceptance: issuing 2,000,000 shares of which 1,000,000 shall be held in escrow with an escrow agent for 6 months and the remaining 1,000,000 shall be held in escrow with an escrow agent for 12 months; cash payment of $150,000;
   
• By the first anniversary date: issuing 750,000 shares and incurring exploration expenditures of $750,000;
   
• By the second anniversary date: issuing 750,000 shares and incurring additional exploration expenditures of $750,000;
   
• By the third anniversary date: issuing 750,000 shares and incurring additional exploration expenditures of $750,000; and
   
• By the fourth anniversary date: issuing 1,000,000 shares and incurring additional exploration expenditures of $1,000,000.

Copyright 2021 Rockridge Resources Ltd.