TORONTO, May 28, 2020 /CNW/ - Orford Mining Corporation
("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.
___________________________
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 Corporation