Infill Scandium Drilling Underway at Murga Exploration Target

Rimfire Pacific Mining (ASX: RIM, “Rimfire” or “the Company”) is pleased to advise that it has commenced a scandium aircore drilling program at the Murga Exploration Target which is located on the Company’s Fifield Project approximately 70 km NW of Parkes in central NSW (Figures 1 and 2).

Highlights

• Initial phase of infill drilling underway at the Murga Exploration Target
• Current 50-hole (1,500m) aircore program to infill strong scandium anomalism previously obtained from wide spaced (400m x 400m) drilling throughout the area, i.e.;
  • 13m @ 188ppm Sc from 3 metres in FI2514 including 4m @ 248ppm Sc
  • 6m @ 111ppm Sc from 6 metres in FI2513
  • 21m @ 106ppm Sc from 3 metres in FI2547
  • 3m @ 127ppm Sc from 13 metres in FI2549
  • 18m @ 174ppm Sc from 1 metre in FI2561 including 3m @ 226ppm Sc
  • 27m @ 188ppm Sc from 0 metres in FI2434 including 12m @ 224ppm Sc
• Drilling is sole funded by Rimfire with results expected late November 2024
• If successful, the drill results will be used to convert the Murga Exploration Target to a Mineral Resource estimate.

Commenting on the announcement, Rimfire’s Managing Director Mr David Hutton said: “the commencement of infill aircore drilling at Murga is the critical next step in converting the Murga Exploration Target into a Mineral Resource.

In conjunction with the Melrose and Murga North Mineral Resources, Rimfire is well on the way to achieving its primary objective of building a globally significant scandium resource inventory at Fifield.

With results expected late November we look forward to updating shareholders when new information becomes available”. 

Murga Drilling details

At Murga scandium occurs within a strongly weathered horizon overlying magnetic ultramafic (pyroxenite) intrusive rocks of the Ordovician-age Murga Intrusive Complex interpreted to be part of a large scale arcuate shaped mafic – ultramafic intrusive complex that has a surface area of approximately 20km² (Figure 2).

Rimfire has previously announced a Mineral Resource estimate of 21Mt @ 125ppm Sc (4,050t Scandium Oxide) for Murga North and an Exploration Target for the broader Murga area (excluding the Murga North Mineral Resource) of 100 to 200Mt at 100 to 200ppm Sc (15Kt – 46Kt Scandium Oxide)*. (Rimfire ASX Announcement dated 5 September 2024).

The Exploration Target is based on an outline of the scandium-bearing pyroxenite interpreted from aeromagnetic data and results of Rimfire’s 2024 reconnaissance aircore drilling (on nominal 400m x 400m centres) throughout the Murga area which successfully intersected strong scandium anomalism (see Rimfire ASX Announcement dated 6 May 2024), i.e.;

• 13m @ 188ppm Sc from 3 metres in FI2514 including 4m @ 248ppm Sc,
• 6m @ 111ppm Sc from 6 metres in FI2513,
• 21m @ 106ppm Sc from 3 metres in FI2547,
• 3m @ 127ppm Sc from 13 metres in FI2549,
• 18m @ 174ppm Sc from 1 metre in FI2561 including 3m @ 226ppm Sc, and
• 27m @ 188ppm Sc from 0 metres in FI2434 including 12m @ 224ppm Sc

To better understand the significance of the wide spaced drilling results, an initial phase of infill aircore holes (50 holes / 1,500 metres) is currently being drilled on 100m x 100m spacings (as recommended by Rimfire’s external resource consultant) to better define internal grade zones and mineralisation thickness variation. As shown in Figure 3 the initial phase of holes will be drilled in the southern portion of the Murga Exploration Target and will also test several magnetic anomalies that are interpreted to represent underlying scandium source rocks (i.e.; pyroxenite).

The drilling is sole funded by Rimfire and is part of a planned larger drilling program that will resume next month when the current drill rig becomes available again. If successful, the results of the infill drilling will be used to convert the Murga Exploration Target to a Mineral Resource estimate.

Next Steps

The Murga aircore drilling will take approximately 2 weeks to complete with analytical results expected 4 weeks after drilling completion and Rimfire looks forward to providing further market updates as new information comes to hand.

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