Orford Mining Corp. Identifies Exploration Targets on its Newly Obtained McClure East Gold Property
TORONTO, May 28, 2020 - Orford Mining Corp. ("Orford") (TSX-V: ORM) is pleased to announce that it has identified high quality exploration targets for its newly obtained McClure East Property in the Historic Joutel Mining District. Compilation of historical work on the McClure East Property has identified EM anomalies which may be the source of strongly anomalous gold values up to 30 g/t in reverse circulation (RC) overburden drilling completed in 1986 which had no subsequent follow up work completed. The technical information presented in this release was obtained from historical work reports filed with the Quebec Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources and has not been independently verified by a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43 101. David Christie, commented "The compilation work we are completing on the McClure East property is uncovering some strong gold targets. The new information we have uncovered has made us more impressed with our acquisition now than when we staked it. We look forward to getting on the ground in this belt to explore its tremendous untapped potential."
The McClure East property is located within the Joutel Volcanic Complex (JVC) of the Harricana-Turgeon volcano-sedimentary belt, which is the most northwesterly element of the Abitibi Greenstone Belt that includes the prolific Matagami, Brouillan, Joutel and Casa Berardi mining districts. The property is located on the eastern end of the underexplored extension of the Joutel trend (southern splay of the Casa Beradri deformation zone, "CBDZ") that hosts both Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd.'s (AEM-T) founding gold mines (Eagle and Telbel) which produced in excess of 1.1Moz of gold1 . All commercial operations in the region had closed by 1993.The information presented here from neighboring properties is not necessarily indicative of the mineralization on Orford Mining's Properties.
The McClure East Property contains the eastward extension of the volcanic units of the JVS which hosts the previously operating Eagle and Telbel Mines and straddles the contact marked by the CBDZ between the JVC to the south and Cartwright Hills Volcanic group to the North. Geological compilation results of historic drillhole data suggests that the felsic volcanic package, along with cherty iron formation which hosts the Eagle and Telbel Mines to the West, continue eastward to the McClure East Property and are present more extensively than previously indicated by the SIGEOM regional geology (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Compilation Map for the McClure East Property Showing Updated Geology and Results of Historical RC Drilling2
In 1986 and 1989 two reverse circulation (RC) glacial overburden drilling and sampling programs were completed on the McClure Property by The Ameroil Energy Company (GM459601) and Cominco (GM492441) totalling 21 holes. Overburden material was logged and sampled to create a heavy mineral concentrate to analyse for gold content and number of gold grains present.
Several glacial overburden samples from the eastern part of the property reported strongly anomalous gold up to 30 g/t (30,000 ppb in hole AD-86-22) in proximity to untested EM targets (Figure 1). None of the bedrock chips from the drilling reported anomalous gold.
Several conductor trends from historical EM surveys (Aerodat Airborne Survey in combination with a ground Max-Min survey) have been identified as target areas based on this anomalous RC drilling, but were never followed up on (Figure 1):
- Holes AD-86-21 and AD-86-22 lie to the north and north-east (i.e. in an up-ice direction) along the eastern extent of Conductors C and D. The magnitude of the anomaly in AD-86-22-16, coupled with its proximity to bedrock, warrants further work to assess the untested area along the conductor.
- The area to the north-east (i.e. in an up-ice direction) of hole AD-86-25 is the most probable source area for the anomalous gold values in this hole.
- The source of the anomalies in hole AD-86-14 may be from Conductor E just to the north (Figure 1).
After the RC program was completed in 1986 no further work was carried out on the anomalous southeastern portion of the McClure East Property. All of the previously mentioned conductors as potential sources for the Au anomalies in the RC drilling remain untested on the McClure East Property, including conductor D which was drilled 1.5km to the south of the property in Hole 1430-2 and reported anomalous gold (1.5g/t over 1m, Figure 1).O rford mining is very excited about the follow up potential. The current RC drilling density is quite low, 8 to10 additional holes could further define anomalies around observed conductors on the McClure East Property, to help target follow up with diamond drilling.
The technical information presented in this release was obtained from historical work reports filed with the Quebec Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources and has not been independently verified by a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43 101.
About Orford Mining Corporation
Orford Mining is a gold explorer focused on highly prospective and underexplored areas of Northern Quebec. Orford's principal assets are the Qiqavik and West Raglan projects comprising a land package totaling over 80,000 hectares in the Cape Smith Belt of Northern Quebec. The Qiqavik Project hosts several new high-grade gold discoveries along a mineralized trend in excess of 40 km. The West Raglan project hosts a number of high grade Raglan-style nickel/copper/platinum group metal discoveries along a 55 km mineralized trend. Orford also recently acquired two property positions in the Joutel region of the Abitibi district of northern Quebec, which hosts historical deposits such as the Eagle/Telbel, Joutel Copper, Poirier Copper, and Vezza deposits. Orford continually seeks new gold exploration opportunities in North America. Orford's common shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol ORM. This information from neighbouring properties is not necessarily indicative of the mineralization on Orford Mining's properties.
To view further details about the Orford's exploration projects please visit Orford's website, www.orfordmining.com.
Qualified Person
The disclosure of scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been approved by Alger St-Jean, P.Geo., Vice President Exploration of Orford, a Qualified Person under NI 43-101. The technical information presented in this release was obtained from historical work reports filed with the Quebec Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources and has not been independently verified by a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43 101.
Other Information
In a response to the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus, the Québec Government recently issued an updated directive that mineral exploration operations are now allowed to proceed in all parts of the province except the Nunavik region where there is a flight ban. Orford had yet to initiate the field portion of our 2020 exploration program at Qiqavik or West Raglan in the Nunavik region and therefore the Company's programs are not immediately affected It is uncertain at this time as to when the flight ban in Nunavik will be lifted but we will update shareholders at that time. In the Joutel region where our Joutel South and McClure East projects are situated mineral exploration is allowed and once Orford has finished our compilation work it will propose a budget for these projects.
Mr. Jonatan Julien, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Quebec announced on April 9, 2020, the postponement of the requirement to carry out field work to renew a claim, for a period of one year. Therefore all renewal dates falling in 2020 on Orford held claims have been extended by one full fiscal year. This was a very important and helpful step to exploration in the province of Quebec during the current COVID – 19 Pandemic.
Orford is concerned about the health and safety of our staff, contractors and the communities we work and we are adhering to a work from home policy for our employees, contractors and partners until further notice. We will work on compilation and geological interpretation on all four of our properties in Quebec until both the capital markets and all the Quebec districts are open to mineral Exploration companies to complete field work. In the meantime, Orford is conserving cash and cutting costs where it can to preserve the cash it has on hand ($1.04 million cash at the end of December 2019) until the environment improves.
Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
This news release contains "forward-looking information" including without limitation statements relating to the liquidity and capital resources of Orford and potential of one or more of the Qiqavik, and West Raglan, properties.
Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Orford to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could affect the outcome include, among others: future prices and the supply of metals; the results of drilling; inability to raise the money necessary to incur the expenditures required to retain and advance the properties; environmental liabilities (known and unknown); general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; political instability, terrorism, insurrection or war; or delays in obtaining governmental approvals, failure to obtain regulatory or shareholder approvals. For a more detailed discussion of such risks and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, refer to Orford's filings with Canadian securities regulators available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
Although Orford has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this news release and Orford disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws.
The TSXV has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release.
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1 Système d'information géominière of Québec "SIGEOM", Quebec Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources. April 20, 2020
2 where more than one sample was taken from the RC Holes, the total gold grain count from all samples is shown along with the highest assay from that hole.
SOURCE Orford Mining Corp.
Contact
For more information, please contact: David Christie, President and CEO, 141 Adelaide St West, Suite 1608, Toronto, ON Canada M5H 3L5, T: (416) 309-0609, www.orfordmining.com
