REG - Oriole Resources PLC - Sampling Results & Completion of DD at Mbe

Oriole ResourcesAnnouncement

22/01/2024 07:00

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RNS Number : 3699A  Oriole Resources PLC  22 January 2024

Oriole Resources PLC

('Oriole Resources' or 'the Company' or 'the Group')

 

Due Diligence Sampling Results & Completion of DD at Mbe Gold Project in
Cameroon -

up to 256.74 g/t gold

 

Oriole Resources PLC, the AIM-quoted gold exploration company focussed on West
Africa, is pleased to report sampling results for its 90%-owned Mbe orogenic
gold project ('Mbe' or the 'Project') in Cameroon and that BCM International
Limited ('BCM') has now confirmed it has completed its due-diligence review at
the Project (announcement dated 20 November 2023).

Highlights

·    On 19 January 2024, the Company executed a conditional earn-in
agreement with BCM whereby BCM would earn up to 50% interest in Mbe by meeting
certain financial commitments. Completion of the agreement was conditional on
the successful completion of BCM's due-diligence review on or before 31
January 2024;

·    In December 2023, as part of the due-diligence review, BCM collected
a total of 639 in-situ pit (channel-chip) and outcrop (rock-chip) samples
(total 707 samples including QAQC), over the main 3 kilometre ('km') long zone
identified by the Company's previous exploration (announcements dated 30
January 2023, 27 February 2023, 24 May 2023 and 2 January 2024);

·    The zone is underlain by a northeast to north-northeast trending,
shear-related porphyritic unit (provisionally recorded as
quartz-feldspar-porphyry ('QFP')) that is highly altered along its central
core and is silicified and gold-mineralised where the unit is cross-cut by
east-northeast trending mineralised structures;

·    BCM's results have returned 155 samples grading equal to or greater
than ('≥') 1 gramme per tonne ('g/t') gold ('Au'), 13 of which have graded
≥10 g/t Au;

·    Best results include:

o 256.74 g/t, 133.44 g/t, 75.09 g/t, 33.66 g/t and 22.89 g/t Au from outcrop
sampling;

o 25.16 g/t, 23.97 g/t, 9.98 g/t, and 8.75 g/t Au from pit sampling.

·    A further 232 samples graded between 0.20 g/t and 0.99 g/t Au;

·    The highest grades have been returned from smoky quartz veins and
strongly silicified QFP host rocks, which commonly display stockwork quartz
veining and boxwork textures after pyrite. There is also an abundance of
fine-grained aggregations of pyrite encapsulated by silica;

·    The results provide further support for a northern and southern
target, MB01-N and MB01-S respectively, where increased dilation (on the sites
of structural intersections) has resulted in enhanced levels of gold
deposition over a strike length of at least 650 metres ('m') and 750m
respectively, and over widths of more than 500m;

·    BCM has confirmed to Oriole that it's due-diligence review is now
complete and consequently, the conditions of the Mbe earn-in agreement (see
above) have been satisfied. Now that the agreement is unconditional, the
Company expects to receive US$1 million in signature payments from BCM before
the end of February 2024.

 

 

Oriole CEO, Tim Livesey, said: "These very strong gold results, obtained via
an independent due diligence review, support our belief that the Mbe licence
has the opportunity to host significant gold deposits. As part of the wider
Eastern CLP, the prospects tested by this programme at Mbe appear to represent
the northern edge of the proposed 'mineralised corridor', that runs across all
five licences.

 

"The due-diligence sampling programme was intended to test a broad swathe of
the host units, and not just the most obvious targets, in addition to the
mineralised veins, so it is very encouraging to see so many sample sites
return positive gold grades. It is a strong indication that Cameroon offers
opportunities for new discoveries in areas with no significant exploration
history to date.

 

"On the basis of these results, we are pleased to share that BCM has confirmed
a positive outcome from their due diligence review, and that they will be
moving forward with the earn in agreement and payment of the signature
payments.

 

"With two of our key projects now fully funded, we are able to progress
exciting district-scale exploration at Mbe in parallel with the resource
definition and expansion programmes at Bibemi. This promises to deliver plenty
of news flow in the coming months. It's also worth noting that we have four
other licences in the Eastern CLP and so look forward to continuing our
exploration programmes there, and on our lithium licences, later this year."

 

"As always, we will keep the markets appraised of progress, which has been
positive for every programme we have completed within the Eastern CLP since we
were granted the licences in February 2021."

 

Figure 1:  Rock-chip sampling results to date within the main 3km-long trend
at Mbe, highlighting the zones of higher-grade gold mineralisation. BCM's due
diligence samples (except those grading less than 0.20 g/t Au) are denoted by
larger labels than the Oriole samples. The half arrows denote a sinistral
shear sense on the main NE/NNE -trending QFP zone. Inset map shows the
relative location of the Mbe mineralisation in relation within the wider
Central Licence Package.

 

 

Further Details

 

The Mbe project (312km(2)) is covered by one of five contiguous gold-focussed
licences within the broader Eastern Central Licence Package ('Eastern CLP') in
central Cameroon, a district-scale landholding covering 2,266km(2) of
highly-prospective geology. Following the initial identification of a
c.12.5km-long zone of en-echelon gold-in-soil anomalies at Mbe during regional
programmes, subsequent mapping and rock-chip sampling during 2023 identified a
3km-long geological zone containing areas of high-grade gold mineralisation
that yielded results of up to 134.10 g/t Au from surface samples and artisanal
workings (announcements dated 30 January 2023, 27 February 2023 and 21 June
2023).

 

 

Figure 2:   Simplified summary of the prospective areas of gold
mineralisation defined to date within the Eastern CLP, comprising five
licences within the wider Central Licence Package

 

 

This 3km-long zone, which trends northeast to north-northeast, comprises a
(sinistral) shear-related QFP unit that is highly silicified and mineralised
where the unit is cross-cut by east-northeast trending mineralised structures,
and exhibits a wide halo of pervasive albite alteration. High-grade gold
mineralisation has been identified at two sites along the strike length, where
these cross-cutting east-northeast veins (also with sinistral movement)
intersect the QFP unit, creating zones of dilation. These cross-cutting,
east-northeast veins correlate well with the gold-in-soil anomalism identified
during Oriole's soil sampling programme in 2022.

 

In December 2023, BCM completed (at its own cost) a three-week long site visit
to Mbe and collected 639 samples weighing 2-5 kilograms each over the 3km-long
zone. Of these, 542 samples were collected from pits (5-10 metres deep and
exclusively dug by artisanal miners) and 97 samples were collected from
outcropping rocks. All of the pit samples were collected from in-situ
(weathered saprolite or saprock) material, with composite channel-chip
sampling being applied over the exposed pit wall (and perpendicular to the
dominant vein set, where apparent) to ensure sample representivity.

 

Results have returned 155 samples grading ≥1 g/t Au, 13 of which have graded
≥10 g/t Au. Of these higher-grading samples, best results include 256.74
g/t, 133.44 g/t, 75.09 g/t, 33.66 g/t and 22.89 g/t Au from outcrop sampling,
and 25.16 g/t, 23.97 g/t, 9.98 g/t, and 8.75 g/t Au from pit sampling. A
further 232 samples graded between 0.20 and 0.99 g/t Au. A review of the QAQC
results related to these analyses has confirmed that all materials have
reported within acceptable limits, although natural variation has resulted in
some outliers in the field duplicate data, which is typical of these systems.

 

The highest grades have been returned from smoky quartz veins and strongly
silicified QFP host rocks, which commonly display stockwork veining and
boxwork textures after pyrite. These samples also have an abundance of
fine-grained aggregations of pyrite encapsulated by silica.

The results provide further support for targets at MB01-N and MB01-S, where
increased dilation (on the sites of structural intersections) has resulted in
enhanced levels of gold deposition. These zones extend over strike lengths of
at least 650m and 750m respectively, and over widths of more than 500m.
Importantly, the data shows that the plus 1 g/t Au grades persist outside of
the discrete veins, extending well into the more weakly-altered QFP host rocks
to create wider halos of pervasive mineralisation and alteration.

 

Figure 3.                Left: Outcrop sampling results to date
(Oriole and BCM) at MB01-N.

Right: Pit sampling results (BCM only) at MB01-N.

 

 

 

Figure 4:                Left: Outcrop sampling results to date
(Oriole and BCM) at MB01-S.

Right: Pit sampling results (BCM only) at MB01-S.

 

 

Further testwork is ongoing, including preliminary metallurgical test work to
ascertain the recoverability of the gold, but BCM has confirmed to Oriole that
it's due-diligence review is now complete, with very positive results
obtained.

 

Accordingly, and following execution of the Mbe earn-in agreement earlier this
month, the Company expects to receive US$1 million in signature payments from
BCM, with the first tranche of US$500,000 to be made on or before 31 January
2024 and the balance of US$450,000 to be paid on or before 29 February 2024
(announcement dated 19 January 2024).

 

Work programmes are currently being designed for the next phase of exploration
at the Project, and further guidance on these will be announced in due course.

 

For further information on the Mbe project, including a JORC Table 1, please
see the following page of the Company's website
https://orioleresources.com/projects/central-licence-package/
(https://orioleresources.com/projects/central-licence-package/) .

 

Competent Persons Statement

 

The technical information in this release that relates to Exploration Results
and the planned exploration programme has been compiled by Claire
Bay (Executive Director, Exploration and Business Development). Claire
Bay (MGeol, CGeol) is a Competent Person as defined in the JORC code and
takes responsibility for the release of this information. Claire has reviewed
the information in this announcement and confirms that she is not aware of any
new information or data that materially affects the information reproduced
here.

 

The information contained within this announcement is deemed to constitute
inside information as stipulated under the retained EU law version of the
Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 (the "UK MAR") which is part of UK
law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. The information is
disclosed in accordance with the Company's obligations under Article 17 of the
UK MAR. Upon the publication of this announcement, this inside information is
now considered to be in the public domain.

 

 

 

** ENDS **

 

 

 

For further information please visit www.orioleresources.com
(http://www.orioleresources.com) ,  @OrioleResources on Twitter,

or contact:

 

 

 Oriole Resources Plc                    Tel: +44 (0)20 7830 9650
 Tim Livesey / Bob Smeeton / Claire Bay

 BlytheRay (IR/PR Contact)               Tel: +44 (0)20 7138 3204
 Tim Blythe / Megan Ray

 Grant Thornton UK LLP                   Tel: +44 (0)20 7383 5100
 Samantha Harrison / Ciara Donnelly
 SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP          Tel: +44 (0)20 3470 0470

 Ewan Leggat / Harry Davies-Ball

 

Notes to Editors:

 

Oriole Resources PLC is an AIM-listed gold exploration company, operating
in West Africa. It is focussed on early-stage exploration
in Cameroon, where the Company has reported a Resource of 375,000 oz Au at
2.30g/t in the JORC Inferred category at its 82.2%-owned Bibemi project and
has identified multi-kilometre gold and lithium anomalism within the
district-scale Central Licence Package project. BCM International is currently
earning up to a 50% interest in the Bibemi and Mbe projects in return for a
combined investment of US$1.5m in signature payments (US$0.55m of which has
already been received), up to US$8m in exploration expenditure, as well as
JORC resource-based success payments.

 

At the more advanced Senala gold project in Senegal, AGEM Senegal
Exploration Suarl ('AGEM'), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Managem Group, has
earned an initial 51% beneficial interest in the Senala Exploration Licence by
spending US$4 million and has the option to spend up to a further US$4
million by 17 February 2024 to earn an additional 19% interest in the
licence. The Company also has several interests and royalties in companies
operating in East Africa and Turkey that could deliver future cash flow.

.

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