Orea Drills 5.39 g/t Gold Over 24.3 Meters at the Maripa Gold Project in French Guiana
Vancouver, BC, Canada, February 22, 2022, Orea Mining Corp. (“Orea”) (OREA: TSX) (OREAF: OTCQX) (3CG: FSE) is pleased to report on the first results of the 2022 diamond drilling program at the Maripa Gold Project (“Maripa”), located in eastern French Guiana, France. As announced on February 15, 2022, Orea has entered into an agreement with a subsidiary of IAMGOLD Corporation (“IAMGOLD”) to purchase a 100% interest in Maripa.
Permits for 10,000 meters of diamond drilling on Maripa were approved by the Direction Générale des Territoires et de la Mer (“DGTM”), which regulates mining and exploration activities in French Guiana;
Orea completed 6 diamond drill holes as an initial reconnaissance of the Changement Gold Zone, which has been traced over a strike extent of 1.5 km;
Gold assay results were received for a fence of 4 drill holes centered on the main pit of the former Changement mine; and
Drill holes CHT-22-060B and CHT-22-061 returned important gold mineralized intersections below the main pit:
4.13 g/t gold over 8.1 meters (CHT-22-060B from 27.4 to 35.5 m);
5.39 g/t gold over 24.3 meters (CHT-22-061from 106.4 to 130.7 m); and
Visible gold (“VG”) was observed in both intersections.
Rock Lefrancois, President & CEO of Orea commented “We are extremely pleased with the initial drill results, which have confirmed significant economic potential at Changement, one of the five identified targets at Maripa.”
Changement Gold Zone
The Changement Gold Zone, located at the northern end of Maripa, is one of five partially drill-defined gold zones at Maripa. The Changement area was subject to placer gold mining from 1859 to 1950. All creeks peripheral to the deposit have been worked over time. Underground hard rock mining was recorded as early as 1880 and the deposit was exploited at surface by three shallow open pits from 1985 to 1996. Total declared historical placer and hard rock gold production is estimated to be approximately 100,000 ounces, with 42,000 ounces from hard rock. The Changement gold mineralization was interpreted to be localized within two subparallel north-northwest striking, moderately west dipping, shear zones of 10 to 25 meters in width cutting Paramaca Formation mafic volcano-sedimentary sequences. Gold mineralization is associated with quartz veining and sulfides, mainly as pyrite. The deposit has been traced by drilling to shallow depths over a lateral (strike) distance of 1,250 meters. A total of 63 diamond drill holes (4,500 meters) were completed by the French geological survey (BRGM, 1978-1998) and by IAMGOLD (2002-2004). Most of the drilling was confined to the weathered saprolite layer.
Prospecting by Orea in 2019 identified numerous abandoned mine shafts and adits excavated by illegal artisanal miners, located some 650 to 850 meters to the south of the former Changement mine main pit. Stockpiles of rock extracted from the mine workings consist of mineralized quartz-pyrite veins and mafic volcanic wall rock. Select samples of the mineralized material returned numerous high-grade assays including 115.70, 83.48, 68.43, 42.60, 29.57, 15.51, 14.70, 9.42, 6.05, 5.98, 52.33, 17.20, 16.99, 14.64, 14.50, 9.75, 9.00, 7.36 and 6.83 g/t gold (see news releases dated November 26, 2019). The discoveries extended the Changement gold mineralized trend another 250 meters to the south.
2022 Drilling Program
As announced on January 14, 2022, Orea commenced a diamond drilling program at the Changement Gold Zone, with 1,000 meters of drilling to be completed in January and February. This initial drilling phase was conducted between January 15th and February 8th. Six (6) drill holes, for a total of 911.5 meters, were completed (refer to the Changement Drill Hole Location and Changement Drill Hole Section 1100 maps at the links below).
CHT-22-059, -060, -060B and -061 served as a continuous fence of drill holes centred on the former Changement mine main pit with the objective to trace at depth the principal gold mineralized structure exploited at surface and to test for any subsidiary gold mineralized zones. Hole CHT-22-060B was drilled as a twin of hole CHT-22-060 due to poor core recovery in quartz veining zones within the weathered saprolite layer.
Gold assay results were received for drill holes CHT-22-059, -060, -060B and -061 (up to 130.7 m). Drill holes CHT-22-060B and CHT-22-061 confirmed the depth extension of the principal gold mineralized structure exploited in the main pit:
CHT-22-060B cut a sulfide mineralized quartz veining zone from 28 to 49 meters (21 m) hole depth within the weathered saprolite layer. Specks of VG were observed at one location. The zone returned an intersection averaging 4.13 grams per tonne (g/t) gold over 8.1 meters from 27.4 to 35.5 meters hole depth (25 meters vertical depth).
CHT-22-061 cut a shear zone with intense alteration from 67 to 130 meters (63 m) hole depth containing two sections of sulfide mineralized quartz veins from 67 to 93 meters (26 m) and 106 to 130 meters (24 m). Specks of VG were observed at three locations in the latter section, which returned an intersection averaging 5.39 g/t gold over 24.3 meters from 106.4 to 130.7 meters hole depth (90 meters vertical depth).
The dominant structural fabric in drill hole CHT-22-061 is close to 90° to the core axis indicating that the true width of the gold mineralized zone approximates core length. Oriented core measurements confirmed that the dominant structural fabric in the gold mineralized zone strikes northwest-southeast and dips moderately to the west.
Highlights of results received for drill holes CHT-22-059, -060, -060B and -061 are as follows (true width = approximate core length):
HOLE #
INTERCEPT (M)
GRADE
CORE LENGTH
COMMENTS
FROM
TO
(G/T GOLD)
(M)
CHT-22-059
no significant results
CHT-22-060
0
13.5
1.30
13.5
45% core recovery
19.8
25.0
3.54
5.2
60% core recovery
CHT-22-060B
2.5
11.2
1.04
8.7
45% core recovery
27.4
35.5
4.13
8.1
80% core recovery
46.8
57.0
1.15
10.2
95% core recovery
CHT-22-061
106.4
130.7
5.39
24.3
100% core recovery
incl.
106.4
111.5
7.70
5.1
incl.
119.6
120.6
71.41
1.0
CHT-22-062 and CHT-22-063, drilled 850 meters and 650 meters south of the main pit, respectively, targeted high-grade gold veins exploited by artisanal miners and the southern extent of the principal gold mineralized structure exploited by open pit. Gold assay results are pending for these holes.
Maripa and Changement maps are available at the following links:
Orea Project Locations:
www.oreamining.com/i/nr/2022-02-22-map-maripa-location.pdf
Maripa Project Geology:
www.oreamining.com/i/nr/2022-02-22-map-maripa-geo.pdf
Changement Drill Hole Location:
www.oreamining.com/i/nr/2022-02-22-map-maripa-changement.pdf
Changement Drill Hole Section 1100:
www.oreamining.com/i/nr/2022-02-22-map-maripa-changement-section1100.pdf
About Maripa
Maripa is located in eastern French Guiana along a paved national road, approximately 60 kilometers south of the capital city of Cayenne. The project is comprised of up to five contiguous exploration permits that cover an area of 120 square kilometers, namely the Changement, Maripa, Orapu, Crique Véoux (pending) and Maripa Sud-Est permits.
Past exploration at Maripa includes 134 diamond drill holes, for a total of 9,000 meters, which partially defined 5 broad gold zones; namely, from north to south, Changement, Filon Dron, Maripa Sud-Est, Rhyodacite and Filon Scieur. Drilling was limited to shallow depths within the weathered saprolite layer with all 5 prospects returning drill hole intersections of economic interest with demonstrated potential for expansion and mineral resource delineation. Gold mineralization is associated with shear-tension quartz vein systems and vein stockworks localized along major fault zones marking a regional deformation corridor known as the Northern Guiana Trough (“NGT”).
Initial prospecting by Orea in 2019 and 2020 in the northern half of Maripa led to the discovery of 5 new quartz-gold vein systems with high-grade gold potential in the vicinity of the Changement and Filon Dron gold zones.
In October-November 2020, Orea completed 8 diamond drill holes, for 1,168 meters, which tested 4 separate targets identified in the central part of the Maripa Gold Project (see news release date January 27, 2021). Six (6) of the 8 drill holes served to test the depth and lateral extent of 3 gold mineralized shear-hosted vein systems traced at surface in and around the Filon Dron gold zone. Four (4) drill holes intersected wide shear zones marked by quartz veining, strong hydrothermal alteration, and sulfide mineralization over 18 to 27 meters, which returned gold values.
Technical Info, QA/QC and Qualified Person
Orea obtained all permits required to conduct drilling operations on Maripa. Mining work declarations (“DOTM”) to conduct 10,000 meters of diamond drilling on Maripa were submitted to and approved by the DGTM.
Diamond drill holes were bored with HQ-size core (63.5 mm) in the upper weathered saprolite zone and telescoped to NQ size core (47.6 mm) in fresh rock. The core was placed in heavy PVC plastic core boxes with covers and transported by Orea personnel to the Company’s Matoury logging facilities, located at the outskirts of Cayenne along National Road 2 (RN2), 65 km by road north of the Maripa project. Orea personnel were present on site at all times during the drilling program.
The core was photographed for reference and logged by Orea geologists who also identified the sampling intervals. Samples were collected by sawing the core in half; sample lengths vary between 0.7 and 1.3 meter. Individual half-core samples were sealed in heavy duty cellophane plastic bags and placed by batch in sealed polypropylene bags and delivered by Orea personnel to the Filab Amsud depot in Cayenne for trucking to Filab Amsud laboratory in Paramaribo, Suriname, an ISO 9001:2015 accredited laboratory. The remaining half-core is stored in sturdy core racks at the Matoury logging facility. Samples were assayed for gold by the fire-assay method using an atomic absorption finish on a 50-gram pulp split. Samples assaying above 5 g/t gold are systematically re-analyzed with gravimetry finish. Mineralized sections were also analyzed by ICP-MS multi-element analysis, including copper.
A quality assurance and quality control program (QA/QC) was implemented by Orea and Filab Amsud to ensure the accuracy and reproducibility of the analytical method and results. The QA/QC program includes the insertion of gold standards, blanks and field duplicates in each laboratory assay batch. Check assaying of select gold mineralized sections was performed by screen metallics method for better reproducibility when metallic gold is present in the sample to overcome the “nugget effect”. In this method, a 500g sample is screened to 140 mesh (106µ). The fraction plus fraction is fire assayed for gold and a duplicate assay is performed on the minus fraction. The size fraction weights, coarse and fine fraction gold content and total gold content are reported.
The drilling program was conducted under the supervision Rock Lefrançois, President & Chief Executive Officer of Orea and Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed this news release and is responsible for the technical information reported herein, including verification of the data disclosed.
About Orea Mining Corp.
Orea is a leading gold exploration and development company operating in a prospective and underexplored segment of the Guiana Shield, South America. Its mission is to develop gold deposits with a reduced environmental footprint using innovative technologies, upholding the highest international standards for responsible mining. In French Guiana, Orea holds a major interest in the world-class Montagne d’Or mine development project and is also advancing the Maripa and Suriname gold exploration projects.
For more about Orea visit the company’s website at www.oreamining.com
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD:
Rock Lefrançois
President & CEO
For more information contact:
Investor Relations
(604) 634-0970 or
1 888-818-1364
ir@oreamining.com
