Fieldwork Set to Resume at Surimeau Battery Metals Project as Renforth Awaits Assay Data from Previous Work

A recurring gripe rightfully expressed by many exploration companies this year is the extensive delays to receive laboratory analysis of samples. Many companies have stepped up their exploration work during the recent regime of higher metals prices. Overworked labs are having trouble keeping up and it may take months to get results. It can lead to a project remaining stalled pending the receipt of assay data. Given the current reality, it makes sense therefore that Renforth Resources Inc. (CA:RFR – $0.03 & US:RFHRF – $0.02 & GER:9RR – €0.02) has opted to proceed with extended fieldwork programs at its 100% owned Surimeau District Battery Metals Project.

After a productive second year of exploration work focused on the Victoria West structural corridor in 2021, the Company opted to complete a high-resolution geophysical survey to start off work this year. The survey was completed further along the Victoria West system plus a portion of the nearby Lalonde target to the north. Some very attractive targets were identified from this program, and a field team was engaged in sampling and trenching work shortly after. This fieldwork exceeded all expectations as attractive mineralized systems were encountered at outcrops.

Although the use of a handheld XRF unit confirmed the presence of battery metals, Renforth has been waiting all summer for assay data for the samples that were previously submitted. Of these, more than 400 samples were collected from pegmatites for potential lithium alteration. The assay process has been halted due to an equipment issue at the laboratory. Therefore, these samples will now be shipped to a different assay laboratory with the expectation to accelerate progress. The Company remains hopeful that results for the remaining samples related to base metals alteration will be confirmed shortly.

Fieldwork Contributes to Effectiveness of Drilling Programs

It would be counterproductive to be in the field exploring simply for the sake of having more data and news to present to the market. It is true that the confirmation of positive results is usually effective to build interest in a story and perhaps move the share price up a notch. The more important objective however is to advance an exploration prospect further along the value curve. This requires a patient strategy to complete preliminary phases first. Sometimes that necessary work is not very newsworthy at all.

Note that the successful drilling programs launched at the Victoria West target of Surimeau were also generated from preliminary fieldwork and sampling campaigns. Geophysical data at a regional scale outlined many significant structural anomalies. The Victoria West target was considered among the easiest of these structural corridors to access for fieldwork through existing seasonal roads. The rest is history as the appealing mineralization encountered through trenching and sampling of outcrops was confirmed as the drilling commenced. Several rounds of drilling have now been completed to extend this broad deposit area at Victoria West for several kilometers with tens of kilometers of interpreted strike length yet to be tested.

Shareholders should also note that the approach to complete preliminary fieldwork has already created significant shareholder value in the past. For example, sampling and prospecting at the New Alger property encountered previously overlooked mineralized outcrops. Subsequent drilling below these targets revealed some impressive drill core intervals and added Indicated gold resource ounces to the overall deposit. The expansion of the historic deposit area along with the increase in the confirmed gold resources at New Alger ultimately contributed to the premium value secured for the project in the transaction with Radisson Mining Resources Inc.

Lalonde Represents an Exciting Opportunity to Outline New Resource Zones

Renforth management has opted to make the best use of time during this delay to proceed with a larger preliminary exploration program at Lalonde. A field team is being mobilized back to this emerging base metals target with the objective to expand the scale of the early stage work that commenced in the spring. Even though late summer temperatures remain pleasant at the current time, the seasonal window for efficient fieldwork in the Abitibi Greenstone Belt is drawing to a close. The first snowfall often arrives in this region in October. Therefore Renforth anticipates mobilizing the field team shortly to enable boots on the ground across more of the Lalonde target area. It was a similar effort earlier this spring that successfully confirmed some of the anomalies generated through geophysical surveying work this year.

Some of the trenching completed in the first round will be getting more attention to continue the trenches across a wider extent of the mineralized structures. This makes sense given that a second arm of the Victoria West system has also been encountered this year which was previously unknown. It is possible that the mineralized zones encountered at Lalonde may continue beyond the sections exposed in outcrops. The geos will be active with mapping and prospecting as they navigate the terrain, learning more as they go.

Ideally, additional near-surface sections of mineralization will be outlined from this work. The sample results will be reviewed when completed, to determine the best of the targets for a subsequent drilling program. And the data from the prospecting will also count towards a resource if indeed significant mineralized sections are ultimate achieved in the drilling work. The Lalonde target represents a superb opportunity to build the overall resources of the project.

Conclusion

The silver lining to this situation is that Renforth has made the decision to continue with fieldwork and wait until the snow flies before getting a drilling program underway. Surface prospecting and trenching is limited to warm-weather months, while drilling can proceed almost all year. The delay for the results from the sample material is not preventing exploration activity moving forward. In addition, fieldwork has proven extremely valuable to the Company on many occasions in the past. This includes successful confirmation of mineralized outcrops and locating near-surface extensions of the mineralized systems at Surimeau. It is also very cost-effective compared to even a modest drilling program.

The Lalonde target is emerging as a complimentary system to the more advanced Victoria West structural corridor. Some of the most intensely mineralized samples encountered so far at Surimeau were selected from Lalonde earlier this year. Hints of higher grade mineralization plus the attraction of an untested system extending for more than 9kms along strike builds further excitement for the next round of drilling this fall/winter. If additional higher grade zones are revealed in the current program, and confirmed through the receipt of assays thereafter, the potential for a much larger overall deposit area may be coming into focus.

Suffice to state that the excitement related to fieldwork is perhaps muted, but the phase is necessary to increase the odds for the drilling that will follow. Renforth has been extremely successful using this approach in the past.

Surimeau is enormous with many large target systems identified that remain entirely untested. The progress achieved at Victoria West and Lalonde will contribute towards positive expectations as the attention on these other targets eventually gets underway as well. Smallcaps Recommendation: BUY.

Smallcaps.us Advice: Buy	Price Target: $0.29	Latest Company Report (pdf)
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