Orford Mining (ORM) - Joutel Resource Drilling Starting Soon

Orford Mining Corp. is a Canadian mineral resource company, focused on the advancement of base and precious metal assets. The company is primarily a gold-focused exploration company with nickel optionality as can be seen through its West Raglan project, in which the company holds an earn-in agreement with Wyloo Metals Pty Ltd. The West Raglan project of the company holds a land position of 70,700 hectares and hosts nickel, copper and platinum group elements (PGE) mineralisation.

The asset portfolio of the company further consists of its Joutel Eagle gold project and Qiqavik project, both located in Quebec. The Joutel Eagle Gold project is an advanced exploration stage property which holds approximately 20,000 m of historic drilling data. Orford Mining Corp. holds an option agreement with Globex Mining Enterprises Inc. to acquire the project.

Orford Mining Corp. announced on the 1^st of December 2022 that it had concluded a 718 line-km helicopter airborne electromagnetic survey at its Joutel Eagle Gold project. The results of the survey will serve to guide the company’s planned 2,000 m diamond drilling program at the project.

Orford Mining Corp. on the 9^th of January 2023 released exploration results from the summer 2022 drilling program conducted as part of the second year of the earn-in agreement the company holds with Wyloo Metals Pty Ltd. at the West Raglan project. The exploration drilling consisted of 2,589 m of diamond drilling in 9 holes at three zones of the project.  The highlights of the exploration results include the intercepting of mineralisation in four of the nine drill holes which showed up to 1.56% nickel, 0.27% copper, 0.71 g/t palladium and 0.32 g/t platinum.

Orford Mining Corp. plans to implement the results of the airborne electromagnetic survey at its Joutel Eagle Gold project, to identify drill targets for its planned 2023 diamond drilling program envisioned to consist of 2,000 m of exploration drilling at the South Gold zone of the project. The company will also in early 2023 publish an exploration drilling budget for its envisioned drilling programs at its 100% Qiqavik project as well as at its West Raglan joint venture project.

Management

Orford Mining Corp. is led by Dave Christie who serves as the company’s president, CEO and Director. Christie is a professionally registered Geologist and has more than 30 years of experience in the resource sector. He previously held the position of Vice President with Goodman and Company Investment Counsel as well as serves as the Vice President of Dundee Resources Inc. Christie’s previous experience further includes serving as president, CEO and Director of Eagle Hill Exploration  Corp. and Director of Osisko Mining Inc.

Cindy Davis is the Chief Financial Officer of the company and brings with her 18 years of accounting experience, 12 thereof being with Marrelli Support Services at a Senior Level. She joined Orford Mining Corp in 2020 and is a registered chartered accountant (CA) and certified public accountant (CPA).

Alger St-Jean is the Chief Geoscientist for the company and has more than 25 years of experience in mineral exploration and development. St-Jean is also the Chief Operating Officer of Dumont Nickel Corp. and previously served as the Director and Vice President of exploration for Orford Mining Corp.

Michelle Sciortino rounds out the team as Vice President of Exploration for the company. Sciortino is a professional geologist with more than 14 years of experience in mineral exploration and development.

The board of directors for Orford Mining Corp. consists of Peter Macphail, who is the Chairman of the board, Mark Goodman, John Mccluskey, Ben Pullinger, Monique Rabideau and Lawrence Smith.

The team is responsible for the advancement of the company’s asset portfolio consisting of the Qiqavik project, the West Raglan project and the Joutel properties.

Qiqavik project

The Qiqavik project of the company is a 100% owned land package which covers approximately 39,000 hectares in the paleo-proterozoic Cape Smith Belt (CSB) in Nunavik, located in Quebec. The company has been able to make a new gold discovery at the project every summer field season. The company has been able to identify various high-grade boulder trains and showings at the surface of the project over its 40 km length.

The company has been able to complete approximately 6,200 m of drilling at the property, with it believing the property holds the potential for multiple gold mineralisation zones.

Orford Mining Corp. in November 2022 announced drilling results from its 2022, 2,720 m diamond drilling program conducted at the Qiqavik project. The 2022 drilling program was able to identify several zones of gold-bearing quartz-carbonate veining associated with alteration zones. The highlights of the results include the intercepting of 0.9 g/t of gold over 10.6 m which included 2.6 m at 2.3 g/t as well as 0.6 m at 5.6 g/t.

Christie explains that the company is aiming to find the origin of the high-grade boulders seen at the Qiqavik project’s surface and has engaged Stuart Averill, the founder of Overburden Drilling Management to interpret the project’s mineralisation data to date.

“This past fall we engaged a gentleman called Stu Averill, he is probably one of the best glacial miners in Canada, he runs a company called Overburden Drilling Management, and he interpreted and went through all our results and came out with some very good and new theories for us as far as how we should target these glacial anomalies. He doesn’t think the boulders have travelled very far at all. We thought that was some transport distance. He thinks they probably have moved very minimally, so maybe 100 m or 200 m away from their source. So, we’re going to go back this year and drill very close to some of those boulders, and likely use a different kind of drilling method so that we can get more drilling done over a much shorter period of time.”

West Raglan project

The West Raglan project of the company is a 100% owned camp-scale property located in Nunavik. The project holds a land position of approximately 70,700 hectares and is located in the west-central portion of the Paleo-Proterozoic Cape Smith Belt (CSB).

The project has seen exploration works conducted by its previous owners including Anglo American Exploration (Canada) Ltd. between 2003 and 2010, and True North Nickel between 2012 and 2016. The previous exploration initiatives include several airborne magnetic and electromagnetic surveys, ground magnetic and electromagnetic surveys, till and soil geochemical surveys, regional and detail mapping and surface rock sampling, as well as 45,062 m of exploration drilling through 239 holes.

Orford Mining Corp. in January 2021 announced that it had reached a definitive agreement with Wyloo Metals Pty. Ltd. for a CAD$ 25 million earn-in joint venture agreement over the West Raglan project. The agreement allows Wyloo Metals Pty. Ltd. to earn up to 80% of the project for a total expenditure of CAD$ 25 million over 7 years.

Christie explains that the company has the advantage of being able to implement the same personnel for the advancement of both the West Raglan and Qiqavik projects, creating an optimal cost environment.

“…we use 1 camp, so all the logistics are the same, 1 cook, 1 set of helicopters. It just makes everything a little easier as far as running the 2 projects, and a little cost-effective. We bring fuel for both projects at the same time. All those little things add up. 1 nurse for both projects, 1 drill manager. So, once we get the idea of what they want to do next, and we’re actually doing some reviews of our Qiqavik project, but we’re trying to understand what we want to do with that project next as well and we have some really good ideas there. We’ve done some great work over the fall and this past summer season was quite successful. So, we’re looking to move forward on both of those projects, and I expect us to have some similar-sized budgets to what we had this year. This year, between the 2 projects, we spent probably CAD$ 8 million.”

Orford Mining Corp. on the 9^th of January 2023 released exploration results from the summer 2022 drilling program conducted as part of the second year of the earn-in agreement the company holds with Wyloo Metals Pty Ltd. at the West Raglan project. The exploration drilling consisted of 2,589 m of diamond drilling in 9 holes at three zones of the project.  The highlights of the exploration results include the intercepting of mineralisation in four of the nine drill holes which showed up to 1.56% nickel, 0.27% copper, 0.71 g/t palladium and 0.32 g/t platinum.

Joutel properties

Orford Mining Corp. in November 2021 entered into a definitive agreement with Globex Mining Enterprises Inc. to acquire its 50 km² land position in the Joutel region of the Quebec Abitibi. The property is an advanced exploration stage property with approximately 20,000 metres of historic drilling having been conducted. The property includes amongst others the McClure East and Joutel South properties as well as the Joutel Eagle gold project.

The Joutel Eagle gold project is a 50 km² land package located within the Abitibi region. The project is located adjacent to the joint venture between Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. and Maple Gold Mines Ltd. The Joutel Eagle gold project is also located on strike to the Eagle Telbel mine. Christie explains that the Joutel properties have not seen exploration since the early 1990s with a majority of the properties not having seen exploration since the 1980s.

“Since 1993 when they closed the Eagle Telbel mine, there’s been no exploration in the area, and on the properties we’ve picked up, mostly there’s been no exploration since the mid-1980s. So, I think those 2 things combined allow for a lot of potential and a lot of under-explored lands to see some modern exploration techniques. In 2021, we picked up the Joutel Eagle property from another company that had staked in the area and this property ties onto the Eagle Telbel property and what is now the Maple gold joint venture, where Agnico Eagle has to spend CAD$ 18 million to earn into all of Maple’s properties.”

The South Gold zone of the Joutel Eagle gold project is, according to Christie, one of the reasons, if not the reason, that the company acquired the land position. The zone historically showed high-grade mineralisation at depth, but Orford Mining Corp. was able to identify near-surface gold mineralisation at the zone.

“We went in there last winter to drill a few holes just to test our theory and we sampled the entire core length of the drill core unlike in the old days. So, in the 1980s and 1970s when Agnico was working in that area, they only basically sampled the mine horizon, and they didn’t sample much beyond or above or below it of course. So, we went in there and sampled a much thicker horizon, and we found that we were finding intersections of 28 m of 1.24 g, or 21 m or 1.1 g, so some very thick intersections and mineralisation close to the surface.”

Orford Mining Corp. announced on the 1^st of December 2022 that it had concluded a 718 line-km helicopter airborne electromagnetic survey at its Joutel Eagle Gold project. The survey was completed in 100 m line spacings and covers the entire area.

Future plans

Orford Mining Corp. plans to implement the results of the airborne electromagnetic survey at its Joutel Eagle Gold project, to identify drill targets for its planned 2023 diamond drilling program at the South Gold zone of the Joutel Eagle gold project. The diamond drilling program is envisioned to consist of 2,000 m of exploration drilling and will also focus on following up on the 2022 drilling results of the area which includes 1.11 g/t over 20.64 m.

The company will also in 2023 publish an exploration drilling budget for its envisioned drilling programs at its 100% Qiqavik project as well as at its West Raglan joint venture project. 

To find out more, go to the Orford Mining website