Orford Mining Corporation (TSX-V: ORM) is pleased to report additional assays from the 2022 drill program on its Qiqavik high-grade gold project located in Nunavik, Quebec (Table 1). A total of 2,720 metres of diamond drilling was completed in 14 holes (Table 2), focusing on the potential source to 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 two kilometre extent and has provided a transformative understanding of the gold environment that will support the targeting approach for future programs.

David Christie, President and CEO of Orford, commented “Despite the challenges of pioneering exploration in a new and previously unexplored gold belt located in an area with short field seasons, we have moved forward and sharpened our focus with each passing field season and the knowledge it gives us.  The 2022 season was similarly rewarding and, in fact, we believe it has laid the foundation for a pivotal field season in 2023, when we will utilize a transformative shift in our targeting approach.  In 2022 we successfully discovered mineralized systems over a very broad area and we believe 2023 could be an even bigger game changer for Orford at Qiqavik”.

Previous exploration work identified the Annick Boulder Trend, an approximately 3.5 km long trend of angular quartz-carbonate boulders (up to several metres 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, Figure 1).  Five holes tested the potential source of the Annick trend boulders. These include QK-22-002, that reported up to 5.6g/t Au over 0.6m, and Qk-22-011  (Table 1). The orientation of veins observed in QK-22-002 plot to surface in the same location as a similarly mineralized grab sample which reported 1.2g/t Au (Sample # E5839308). This information along with the narrow dispersion (<30m)  of high-grade boulders and gold grains in till suggest that there has been very little transport in the Annick Boulder Trend and the surface expression of the previously noted high grade boulders may be co-incident with a structure(s) sub-parallel to ice direction which should be tested directly under grab sampled boulders and to the west.

Four holes tested the source of surface gold anomalies in the Turtle Head area. All holes intersected quartz-carbonate veining with ankerite and sericite alteration and similar mineral assemblages to those observed in the Annick Trend boulders (Figure 1, Table 1). Holes QK-22-003, -005, -007 and -008 reported anomalous gold values up to 8.1g/t over 0.7m (QK-22-003, Table 1). The Turtle Head area intersections are spaced up to 700 m apart and appear to have a stacked sub-horizontal nature, which may be localized by late-stage deformation, namely NNE trending structures and folding. While the mineralization intersected in drilling is similar in nature to the Annick Trend boulders, we do not believe that the direct source of the very high gold grade Annick boulders has been found. However, the new evidence found in 2022 suggests the Annick and Turtle Head boulders are local and likely sub-cropping along NNE trending structures which will help define targets along the 3.5km Annick Trend as well as the many other anomalous zones of the Qiqavik Property.  This same targeting approach can likely be applied to many of the high-grade boulder trains with coincident gold in till anomalies such as Erick, Dumbbell Lake, Gerfaut, Focused Intrusive and Central.

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.  In tandem with this, Orford is investigating other drilling methods that may allow for more drill target tests over a shorter period such as RAB or RC drilling.

Table 1: Summary of Significant Assay Results to Date (98% of assay results received)

Table 2: Summary of 2022 Diamond 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.

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 (South of 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)