Ruttan is a copper-zinc massive sulphide deposit located approximately 21 km east of the village of Leaf Rapids, which in turn is approximately 750 km north-northwest of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The property is accessible by all weather roads.
Discovered in 1968, the Ruttan Mine operated from 1973 to 2002 and historic production has been reported to be approximately 55 million tonnes grading 1.23% copper (Cu) and 1.41% zinc (Zn).
Trevali (and predecessor Kria Resources) completed an option to acquire 100% of Ruttan and Bill 5025 claims subject to a combined 4% NSR royalty (2% NSRs held by two separate parties).
Acquisition terms included combined cash payments of $780,000 (paid) and 200,000 shares of Kria (issued). The work commitment on the property has been satisfied.
Half of each 2% NSR royalty can be purchased back by Trevali after payments of $2 million and $1.5 million respectively.
Ruttan is a bimodal-siliciclastic type of volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit (VMS) similar to those found in the Iberian Pyrite Best of Portugal and Spain and in the Bathurst district of New Brunswick.
An initial NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource estimate for the Ruttan Project was completed by Tetra Tech Wardrop in February 2008, which was subsequently updated in September 2008 to incorporate drill hole and assay data from the 2007/2008 exploration programs that targeted both the West Anomaly and Hanging Wall Zinc Zone (HW Zinc). The new estimate is based on 4,875 holes totalling 577,263 metres, which includes an additional 30 holes and 9,123 metres compared to the previous resource estimate.
Property Potential*
Two drilling programs have been conducted since acquiring the Ruttan property: one in the summer of 2007 that consisted of 9 holes totalling 2,421 metres and a second in the fall/winter of 2007/08 that consisted of 23 holes totalling 6,594 metres (please see Kria press releases dated October 30, 2007, January 10, 2008 and June 10, 2008 for complete assay results).
The Ruttan property has good exploration potential. Priorities for future potential exploration include the following:
*Where Trevali discusses exploration/expansion potential, any potential quantity and grade is conceptual in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the target being delineated as a mineral resource.
