Orford Mining Corporation (TSX-V: ORM) is pleased to announce it has completed the 2022 drill program on its Qiqavik high-grade gold project located in Nunavik, Quebec. A total of 2,720 metres of diamond drilling was completed in 14 holes (Table 2), focusing on the high-grade gold in quartz boulder Annick Trend and the Turtle Head areas (Figure 1). The 2022 drill program has identified several zones of gold-bearing quartz carbonate veining associated with alteration zones over a 2km extent. Highlights of the summer 2022 Qiqavik exploration program along with preliminary assay results are presented below.

2022 Program Highlights:

• Newly discovered gold mineralization is associated with a quartz and iron carbonate vein system that may extend over a 2 km strike length from North to South. 2,720 metres of diamond drilling in 14 Holes was completed. Only 19% of the assays from this drilling have been received to date.
• Preliminary assay results have reported up to 8.1 g/t gold over 0.7 metres in QK-22-003 in quartz veining with sphalerite and visible gold (Table 1 and Figure 1).
• Extensive mapping focused on the area around the Annick trend and Turtle Head area has identified new metre-scale, gold-bearing quartz carbonate veins in subcrop.
• 392 frost boil (till) samples were collected as part of the regional Qiqavik exploration program. Results for these sample have yet to be received.
• 29 line-kilometres of induced polarization (IP) ground geophysics were completed along the Annick Trend.
• 121 line-kilometres of ground magnetic surveying (Walking Mag) were completed along the Annick & Eric Trends.

David Christie, President and CEO of Orford, commented “Orford’s technical team was successful in discovering a mineralized altered vein system that we believe is related to the system hosting the Annick style high-grade gold boulders.  With two of our drill holes intersecting visible gold and 12 of 14 drill holes intersecting mineralized quartz and iron carbonate veins, I believe the summer’s efforts have been successful. Our understanding of the structural and mineralization environment of the region has evolved to a much better level than it was at the start of the summer. Once we receive all the analytical results, we will complete our geological interpretation and plan the best method to follow up the 2022 results”.

Previous exploration work identified the Annick Boulder Trend, an approximate 2.5 km trend of angular quartz-carbonate boulders (up to several meters in size) containing pyrite +/- sulfosalts, galena, sphalerite, arsenopyrite and graphite grading up to 648 g/t Au (see Orford’s news release dated December 8, 2021).  2022 exploration work focused on the area around the Annick Trend and southwest toward the Turtle Head area (Figure 1).

Five holes tested the potential source of the Annick trend boulders, and four holes tested the source of surface gold anomalies in the Turtle Head area. All holes intersected quartz-carbonate veining with ankerite +/- sericite alteration and similar mineral assemblages to those observed in the Annick Trend boulders (Figure 1, Table 1). These intersections are spaced up to 2 kilometres apart and appear to have a stacked sub-horizontal nature, which may be localized by late-stage deformation. While the mineralization intersected in drilling is similar in nature to the Annick trend boulders, we do not believe that the direct source of these boulders has been found. However, these similar intersections spaced by up to 2km apart suggest an extensive gold mineralizing system that remains largely unexplored.

To date only 19% of drill core assays from the 2022 exploration program have been received, along with 0% of frost boil (till) and 5% of grab sample assays. Future work will focus on integrating all assay, structural and glacial geology data collected to date to identify additional potential high grade gold targets for the 2023 exploration program.

Table 1: Summary of Results to Date (19% of assay results received)

Table 2: Summary of 2022 Drilling

About the Qiqavik Property

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.

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 located in two areas 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.

Qualified Person

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.

2022 Grab & Drill Core samples:

Sample shipments were sealed and shipped to AGAT Laboratories, Val-d’Or, Québec. All gold assays reported were obtained by standard fire-assaying on 50-gram for core samples and on 30-gram for grab samples nominal weight with an atomic absorption spectroscopy finish or by gravimetric finish in the case of overlimit and on request (methods 202551/202051 and 202564/202064) at AGAT Laboratories, Mississauga, Ontario. All samples were also analyzed for multi-elements, including copper and silver, using a four-acid method with an ICP-OES finish (method 201070) at AGAT Laboratories, Mississauga, Ontario.

Drill program design, Quality Assurance/Quality Control and interpretation of results is performed by qualified persons employing a QA/QC program consistent with NI 43-101 and industry best practices. Standards and blanks are inserted at a minimum rate of 10% for core and 5% for grab samples respectively for QA/QC purposes in addition to those inserted by the lab. A subset of samples has not yet been sent for a verification assay at another lab. AGAT Laboratories are accredited by the Standards Council of Canada and found to comply with the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025:2017.

Figure 1: 2022 Drilling Along the Annick Trend, Turtle Head and IPLS (IP Lake Shear Corridor). Note that 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 (CNW Group/Orford Mining Corporation)