Orford Mining Corporation has discovered two new quartz vein systems and a new copper showing on its Qiqavik gold property. The Qiqavik gold property, West Raglan and the company’s lithium exploration projects comprise a land package totaling more than 111,000 hectares in the Cape Smith Belt of Northern Quebec.
The Qiqavik gold property (100% interest) hosts high-grade gold occurrences at surface, in multiple project areas, across its more than 40 km breadth. Orford completed drilling on both the new Gerfaut East and Central Intrusive quartz vein gold systems and channel sampling on the copper showing and awaits assay results.
The 2023 work focused on drilling, geophysics, and prospecting on the Gerfaut East, Central, Annick and Eric project areas of the belt. In total 34 Rotary Air Blast holes were drilled for a total of 2,435 meters and 32 line-km of ground IP surveys were completed. Orford is waiting for results from 88% of the 2620 samples taken from drilling and the 233 surface samples collected.
The newly discovered Gerfaut East vein system, found within a NNE-trending structure that can be traced for over 400m along strike, is comprised of a series of sulfide-bearing quartz veins outcropping up to 15 m in length containing galena, chalcopyrite and pyrite. This structural corridor hosts gold-bearing quartz veins cutting a felsic intrusive, with assays received to date from surface grab samples returning up to 32.3 g/t Au. Six RAB drillholes were also completed which intersected quartz veins within the top 50 m of drilling, with assays pending.
The newly discovered Central Intrusive vein system is defined by a series of subparallel E-W shears with ankerite alteration and sulfide veins up to 2 cm in width containing galena, pyrite and arsenopyrite in local granodiorite boulders. Grab samples of quartz veins previously collected in nearby areas reported up to 30.8 g/t Au. Three holes intersected altered granodiorite containing minor sulfides. Again, grab sample and drilling assay results are pending.
The Esperance area hosts a trend of copper and gold mineralization over 4 km in length hosted in a basalt shear zone. In 2023, prospecting and mapping identified a new zone of semi-massive sulphide with up to 5% chalcopyrite hosted in a sheared basalt. The new mineralization outcrops discontinuously over 10 m by 25 m and occurs 200 m to the south of the main Esperance trend and may represent a secondary parallel mineralized zone. Four channel samples were collected totalling a 5.0 metre width of the exposed mineralization with assays pending. Airborne EM conductors suggest the mineralization may extend to the east for 250 m.
David Christie, President and CEO, commented: “The expertise of our field crews has been rewarded with new gold and copper discoveries on the vastly underexplored Qiqavik property. The ability of our team to continue to make new discoveries illustrates the high prospectivity of the Qiqavik property and how underexplored it remains.”
The West Raglan Project hosts a number of high-grade Raglan-style nickel/copper/platinum group metal discoveries along a 55 km mineralized trend. In early 2023 Orford acquired large claim blocks targeting lithium in the Nunavik Region. These lithium claim blocks have been carefully selected as having promising lithium potential after an exhaustive compilation of available data. Orford also has four property positions 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.