Significant Copper and Gold Mineralization Located on Georgetown Project, Australia

Vancouver, B.C., March 20, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rugby Resources Ltd., (“Rugby” or the “Company”) (TSX-V: RUG) is pleased to report that recent exploration by Rugby’s joint venture partner, EMU NL (“EMU”) (ASX: EMU) at Georgetown has located significant copper and gold mineralization. EMU’s geological assessment and geochemical sampling program was designed to assess a number of higher-priority prospects (see Figure 3 below).

Highlights

• Visible gold in pan concentrate and a six-gram crystalline gold nugget discovered at Camp Oven Creek Prospect (“Camp Oven”). See Figures 1 and 2.
• Fiery Creek Copper Prospect (“Fiery Creek”) surface rock assay results report up to 23.5% copper.
• Sampling results highlight strong potential for the presence of critical and strategic minerals (Cu, Bi, In), with precious and base metals.
• Fiery Creek/Yataga surface rock polymetallic results assayed up to 0.27ppm gold, 460 ppm silver, 1.9% bismuth, 89 ppm indium, 2.7% lead.
• Alteration mineralogy, mineralization geochemistry and areal extent of the Fiery Creek quartz-copper bismuth vein swarm strongly suggests a possible porphyry Cu-Mo system nearby.
• Yataga Granitoid Complex termite mound and coincident rock chip sampling returned several anomalous polymetallic zones that require further investigation.
• Other prospects identified and sampled within the Georgetown Project, including Snake Creek Prospect returning to 0.20 ppm gold, 390 ppm silver and 22.4% lead.

Figure 1. Single pan-concentrate containing 40+ visible gold grains, panned at Camp Oven Creek.

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Figure 2. Six-gram crystalline gold nugget found in the Camp Oven Creek prospect area.

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The region has had a long history of mining, particularly for gold, with over 1,000 mines, prospects and mineral occurrences identified within the district. This includes the Kidston mine located approximately 90 kilometres (“km”) to the southeast. Kidston operated from 1985 to 2001 and was one of Australia’s largest historical gold producers producing 5.1 million ounces (145 tonnes) of gold*.

EMU’s December 2023 Exploration Program

Figure 3. EMU’s Prospect and sample locations (blue crosses).

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EMU’s sampling program was designed to assess a number of higher-priority prospects within the Georgetown Project tenements utilizing termite mound and outcrop rock chip geochemistry. A total of 46 rock chip and 489 termite mound samples were collected across eight prospects (Figure 3). The program was curtailed due to the arrival of a cyclone. EMU’s announcement “Exploration Update Georgetown, Scale Potential Confirmed” dated March 4 2024, provides details of the work conducted and interpretation of sampling results.