ORM:CC - Orford $9 million 2022 Exploration Program - Focusing on High Grade Gold and Nickel Exploration Projects

Canada NewsWire

TORONTO , April 5, 2022 /CNW/ - Orford Mining Corporation (TSXV: ORM) (Orford) is pleased to provide an update on its exploration property portfolio. 2022 will be Orford's most active year to date with over $9 million in planned exploration spending, including 7,500 metres of diamond drilling over three properties (Figure 1):

• The exciting Joutel Eagle gold Property drill program currently underway in the Abitibi Greenstone Belt of Quebec where historic drilling has yielded up to 6.2 metres grading 3.0 g/t (including 2.7 metres grading 6.5 g/t).
• The upcoming 2022 $5 million exploration program on the West Raglan high grade Nickel-Copper-PGM property following on from the positive results of the first summer (2021) of work on West Raglan under the earn in agreement with Wyloo Metals Pty Ltd (Wyloo) announced January 19, 2021 . Nickel sulphide deposits on the West Raglan property have yielded intersections of up to 28.3 m grading 3.2% Nickel, 1.32% Copper, 2.4 g/t Palladium, and 0.7 g/t Platinum ¹ .
• The Qiqavik high grade gold project where the 2022 work will focus around the Annick Trend, a 3.7 km long high grade gold grab sample trend with grades up to 648 g/t. Qiqavik has a $3.5 million budget for 2022 including 3,000 metres of drilling.

David Christie, President and CEO of Orford, commented, "Orford is embarking on what will be the biggest exploration effort in its short four year history. Orford has pivotal exploration drilling planned on three of its projects, Joutel-Eagle, Qiqavik and West Raglan with over $9 million to be spent and 7,500 metres of diamond drilling.  Orford believes its south gold zone at Joutel Eagle currently being drilled has great potential and high grade gold targets at Qiqavik are very prospective.  We are eager to execute the program outlined for the West Raglan high grade Nickel Copper Platinum Group metals project. We are very eager to see the 2022 results from both our gold target drilling and nickel target drilling".

Joutel Eagle Gold Project

Orford is currently in the middle of its first drilling program at its Joutel Eagle project in the Joutel district of the Abitibi Province of Quebec.  On November 30, 2021 Orford announced that it had entered an option to acquire 100% of the 50 square kilometre Joutel Eagle Project from Globex Mining Enterprises Inc. (TSX: GMX) (OTCQX International: GLBXF) (Frankfurt: G1MM).  The drilling program follows a digital compilation of the historic work that had been completed on the project.  The focus of the current 1,500 metre drill program is the "South Gold Zone" which contains a steeply dipping gold bearing veins with grades of up to 6.4 g/t over 2.7[2] metres in historic drilling that is open at depth.  A diamond drilling program was to start at the end of February but was delayed by a couple weeks until mid-March due to drill availability.  Two holes have been drilled to date, and we are currently drilling the third hole of 3 in Phase 1. The first two drill holes intersected variably mineralized sections with variable amounts of quartz veining and sulphides within sheared lapilli to ash volcaniclastics comparable to those mineralized intervals described by the historic drilling.  The historical technical information presented in this release relating to Joutel-Eagle 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.

The "South Gold Zone" has a strike length of approximately 700 metres and is partially tested to a depth of 500 metres below surface. The South Gold Zone is comprised of two mineralized zones, a steeply dipping vein zone with grades of up to 6.4 g/t over 2.7 metres (hole 89-A-02)[3], and a lower grade zone associated with the regional Harricana Fault which seems to be plunging to the southeast. The best grade intersection of the vein zone was also the deepest leaving high grade mineralization open at depth. The long section in Figure 2 shows how widely spaced the drilling has been both at shallow and deeper levels. In addition, Figure 2 shows holes in the compilation where mineralization and alteration similar to high grade zones in nearby holes were intersected (quartz veining, silica flooding with up to 70% pyrite), but assay results are not available as they were redacted from the drill logs by the operating company at the time upon reporting to the public database. The current drilling program aims to confirm historical results and delineate the full extent of mineralization to determine if a resource can be defined at the South Gold Zone. The first two drill holes intersected considerably more sulphide mineralization and quartz veining than expected based on historical information and as a result the holes continued beyond the planned depth. 2022 Drill hole summaries for these two holes are presented below (assays are pending):

Drill hole 22-JE-001, was planned to confirm the historical results intersected in drill hole 82-01 which reported 6.2 metres grading 3.0 g/t (including 2.7 metres grading 6.5 g/t)[4] (figure 2). 22-JE-001 intersected altered volcaniclastics with variable amounts of silica and alteration and quartz veining consistent with the historical 82-01 which ended at 180m . Variable pyrite and pyrrhotite was observed throughout the hole as disseminated and banded to semi massive sulphides. A 33.9 metre interval from 213.1 to 247 metres reported up to 35% quartz and 15% Po-Py locally over 40 centimetres with an average of 5% disseminated and banded sulphides throughout the almost 34 metre interval. Measurements collected via portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) suggests some of the sulphides are gold bearing however due to the nature of pXRF readings, they cannot be considered representative. Core will be prepared for laboratory analysis.  Observations made in 22-JE-001 are consistent with the historical hole 82-01, in addition, hole 22-JE-001 continued beyond the original planned depth of 82-01 and encountered new and previously unknown mineralization after 180 metres including sulphides and veining to the end of the hole at 246 metres.

Drill hole 22-JE-002, intended to confirm results encountered in the historical diamond drill hole 82-02 which reported 14.4 metres grading 1.6 g/t (including 2.6 metres grading 5.3 g/t) [5] (figure 2). 22-JE-002 encountered the similar altered pyroclastic units with variable deformation and amounts of pyrite and pyrrhotite throughout. 82-02 ended in a massive graphitic unit at 206m . Hole 22-JE-002 encountered a similar unit at approximately 200m which contained sulphide nodules. Hole 22-JE-002 continued into a dacitic quartz-feldspar porphyritic unit between 200 and 213 metres containing up to 35% quartz veining with moderate potassic alteration, and 1% disseminated very fine to medium grained cubic pyrite. The remainder of the hole alternates between altered pyroclastic and graphite schists with local quartz alteration and several places where semi massive to massive sulphides are observed. Measurements collected via pXRF suggests some of the sulphides are gold bearing however due to the nature of pXRF readings, they cannot be considered representative. Core will be prepared for laboratory analysis.  Observations made in 22-JE-002 are consistent with the historical 82-02, in addition, hole 22-JE-002 continued beyond the original planned depth of 82-02 and the first massive graphite marker horizon and encountered new and previously unknown sulphide mineralization and veining after 206m .

Table 1: Joutel Eagle: South Gold Zone First Three Drill Hole Co-Ordinates

The historical technical information shown in this image 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. All drilling intervals are down-hole lengths. True thicknesses cannot be estimated with available information.

Orford announced on March 7, 2022 that it will complete a 3,000 metre drill program as part of a $3.5 million exploration program on its Qiqavik property in 2022 to test the Annick and Eric north south trends as well as additional targets on the IP Lake and Interlake Structural zones.  The 2021 exploration program was focused along the seven kilometer plus IPLS which is associated with several high-grade gold boulder trains of up to 648 g/t Au and high gold grains anomalies in glacial till samples of up to 560 grains per 10kg. In 2021, 2,030 meters of diamond drilling was focused along a three kilometer strike length of the IPLS (Figure 3), along with the collection of 7kg till samples for gold grain counting. All assays from drilling and grab samples have been received, 26% of till samples property wide have been reported with 50% of samples around the Annick Trend still outstanding. Work to date suggests that the high-grade boulder trains may be related to sub-horizontal extensional quartz veins systems associated with second-order oblique cross-structures oriented NNE that occur periodically along the first-order IPLS.

Over much of the IPLS strike, boulder trains and till dispersion trains are observed to the northeast in the down ice direction and they return gold analyses well above background. In 2021 the very high gold grain in till anomalies to the north of the IPLS was successfully cut off ( See Orford's news release dated September 1, 2021 ) to the south along a 5km stretch of the IPLS except along the Annick and Eric trends (previously reported in Orford's September 1, 2021 press release) (Figure 3). This provides further evidence that the IPLS and associated oblique structures are the probable source of the mineralization. There are two places along the IPLS where the high-grade grab sample trend extends beyond the southern limit of the IPLS. These are the Annick and Eric trends. Along the Annick Trend, boulder and till anomalies form a narrow corridor stretching over 3.7 km. The Eric Trend is 2 km long and also extends south of the IPLS (Figure 3). New grab samples collected in 2021 reported up to 648 g/t gold on the Eric Trend and previously reported up to 648.8 g/t gold on the Annick Trend. The Annick Trend features boulders up to 1 metre in size consisting of grey quartz veins with up to 20% disseminated pyrite with lesser galena and sphalerite. The Eric boulder trend features banded quartz veins with up to 1% sulfosalt and frequent visible native gold. The Eric and Annick trends may be associated with structures sub-parallel to ice direction that control the localization of high-grade mineralization within the IPLS as little high-grade mineralization is observed along the IPLS outside these zones (Figure 3). Drilling and geophysics to date have been focused on the East-West trending IPLS structure. Future work will focus on resolving and targeting the NNE trending cross-structures.

Note that grab samples are selective by nature and values reported may not be representative of mineralized zones. Till gold grain results from IOS Geoscientific, total gold grain counts are coarse(+50um) plus fine (-50um) normalized to 10kg.

The 2022 exploration efforts will focus on the Annick and Eric trends and will include geophysical surveys oriented east-west, to create an orthogonal survey to help understand the potential north south gold mineralizing events. Till sampling will continue in areas where anomalous result from the 2021 work have been reported. These zones will be further defined over the next few months as 507 of 674 till samples are yet to be reported by the laboratory. Up to 3,000 metres of drilling will be focused on the Annick, Eric, and Interlake Trends.  Some of the drilling will be focused on the western extent of the Interlake Structural zone to which some of the till samples yet to be received will help focus the targeting.

Orford recently received approval from its partner, Wyloo Metals Pty Ltd (Wyloo) for a $4.9 million exploration program as part of Wyloo's earn-in to Orford's high grade Nickel-Copper-Platinum Group Metal West Raglan Property in the Nunavik region of Northern Quebec (see March 10, 2022 news release). The program will focus on diamond drill testing of high priority targets generated as a result of the 2021 ground geophysical moving loop electromagnetic surveys (MLTEM). Analysis of the results from the 67 line-kilometre geophysical survey has identified several high conductance anomalies that are consistent with possible high grade (3%+ Nickel) nickel sulfide sources similar to those found elsewhere on the large property. The 2022 program will be focused on diamond drilling of between 2,500 to 3,000 metres to test these newly defined targets at Frontier, Beverly & Boomerang along with borehole electromagnetics (BHEM). Field crews will focus on mapping and prospecting the vast and underexplored south trend.

Historically, six significant discoveries have been made on the property with the best results being from the Frontier Zone. The Frontier Zone contains five high grade Nickel-Copper-Platinum Group Metal (Ni-Cu-PGM) mineralized lens clusters over a 2,500 meter strike with grades in the range of 2-3% Nickel, 1% copper and 2+gpt PGM including a drill intersection of 28.3 m grading 3.2% Nickel, 1.32% Copper, 2.4 g/t Palladium, and 0.7 g/t Platinum at the Seahawk Lens[6]. The Beverly and Boomerang areas of the West Raglan property have had very limited historical drill testing, but have surface showing reporting up to 1.34% Ni, 0.35% Cu and 2.3g/t (Pd+Pt) (Figure 4). The purpose of the 2021 program was to generate drill targets at Frontier and on other parts of the West Raglan property where there are large volumes of ultramafic volcanics and high-grade Ni, Cu and PGM at surface.

The 2021 work program focused on ground MLTEM geophysical surveying using very sensitive SQUID sensors at Frontier, Red, Beverly and Boomerang along the North Trend and highly prospective portions of the South Trend. The use of these sensors at Glencore's Raglan mine property in the early 2000s are reported to have increased exploration success by 58% while targeting 2.5 times deeper[7]. This method had not previously been applied on Orford's West Raglan property. The 2021 MLTEM-SQUID survey returned 435 responses which have been modelled. Of these, 72 have been identified as potential nickel sulphide targets with high conductance responses. Approximately 10 to 12 of the highest priority responses will be tested with diamond drilling during the 2022 exploration season. Orford will be operating the 2022 exploration program.

Note: grab samples are selective by nature and values reported may not be representative of mineralized zones. All drilling intervals are down-hole lengths. True thicknesses cannot be estimated with available information. The technical information presented for the Ekwan part of the West Raglan property 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.

The West Raglan property (Figure 2) is a large 707 km2 property situated in the Cape Smith Belt in the Nunavik Region of northern Quebec . West Raglan Ni, Cu, PGE, Co mineralization is hosted in the ultramafic units of the Lac Esker Suite (1.89-1.87 Ga). These ultramafic units host all known nickel sulphide mineralization in the Cape Smith Belt, including Glencore's Raglan mine (North Trend) and the Canadian Royalties, Nunavik Nickel mine hosted on the South Trend. The West Raglan property covers a 50-km strike of both the "North" Trend, that hosts Raglan- style deposits, and the "South" Trend, that hosts Canadian Royalties-style deposits. Raglan is a first quartile cash cost nickel producer with one of the highest grade reserves amongst significant global nickel deposits (Proven and Probable Reserves as of December 2021 of 9.32 million tonnes at 2.66% Ni, 0.74% Cu, 0.79 g/t Pt, 1.91 g/t Pd and 0.06% Co. Information from neighbouring properties is not necessarily indicative of the mineralization on Orford Mining's properties.Historical work on Orford's West Raglan property has improved the geological knowledge and understanding of the area, and has led to the identification of multiple Ni-Cu-PGE mineralized lenses in several zones of the Frontier area, all located along the main Chukotat-Povungnituk contact. Examples of drill hole intersections from the Frontier Zone are shown in  Table 2.  A review of the geological and geophysical data in the Frontier area suggests that portions of the area remain almost untested and still have the potential for additional Ni-Cu-PGE discoveries. More recent exploration work completed in 2015 has also highlighted surface Ni- Cu-PGE mineralization in other areas such as Red, Boomerang, and Beverly (Figure 2) along the north (Raglan) trend. The West Raglan property also covers the south group of rocks which hosts the Canadian Royalties deposits to the east. This part of the West Raglan property is largely unexplored, however minimal past work has identified high grade nickel and copper mineralization in grab samples (Figure 2).

The Qiqavik Property covers the 40-km long Qiqavik Break, part of the Cape Smith Belt event which is of Paleoproterozoic age (1.8-1.9 billion years). This geologic era is marked by its significant metal endowment as illustrated by the important gold districts that occur worldwide related to geological events of Paleoproterozoic age. These include the Flin Flon-Snow Lake Belt, the Ashanti Gold Fields of West Africa , the Tapajos-Parima Belt of Brazil , and the Tanami Region in Australia . The Cape Smith Belt is also home to Glencore's world class Raglan Mine. Early-stage exploration work completed to date on the Qiqavik Property shows that high-grade gold and copper occurrences are structurally controlled and associated with secondary splay structures located along the district-scale Qiqavik Break Shear Zone which extends the full 40 km length of the Qiqavik Property.

The property is situated just to the northwest of Agnico Eagle's past producing Eagle-Telbel operation which produced in excess of 1.1 Moz of gold from 1974 to 1993. The Joutel Eagle property covers 11 km of the Casa Berardi structural zone south splay (CBSZ) which is associated with several gold deposits and, together with our McClure East property, gives Orford over 17 km coverage on the prolific CBSZ (Figure 3). The Joutel Eagle Property sits to the north of Orford's 100% owned Joutel South Property and to the west of Orford's 100% owned McClure East property. Information from neighbouring properties is not necessarily indicative of the mineralization on Orford Mining's properties.

Orford Mining is a gold explorer focused on highly prospective and underexplored areas of Northern Quebec . Orford's principal assets are located in two areas of the Cape Smith Belt in the Nunavik region and the Joutel region of the Abitibi district. The Qiqavik and West Raglan projects comprise a land package totaling over 105,000 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 50 km mineralized trend. Orford has acquired four property positions(Joutel – Eagle, McClure East, Joutel – South and Joutel – Omega) totaling 26,815 hectares 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 Orford's Projects please visit Orford's website, www.orfordmining.com .

Wyloo Metals is the metals and mining subsidiary of Tattarang, one of Australia's largest private investment groups. Led by a multidisciplinary team of geology and financial professionals, Wyloo Metals manages a diverse portfolio of exploration and development projects and cornerstone interests in a number of public and private companies. Wyloo Metals seeks to work closely with all stakeholders to accelerate projects through the development cycle while meeting the highest international environmental, social and governance standards. See more at:

www.wyloometals.com

The disclosure of scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been approved by Alger St-Jean, P.Geo., Chief Geoscientist of Orford, a Qualified Person under NI 43-101.

The historical information disclosed herein in respect of the West Raglan Property is based on the independent report of Clement Dombrowski, P.Geo. titled "NI 43-101 Technical Report on West Raglan Project, Northern Quebec, Canada" effective February 20, 2017.

The technical information presented for the Ekwan part of the West Raglan property 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.

N either 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.

Fo rw a r d -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.

A lthough 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.

SOURCE Orford Mining Corporation

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