Orezone Intercepts High-Grade Mineralization Below North Zone Life of Mine Pits Including 2.55 G/T Gold Over 23.00m and 1.14 G/T Gold Over 29.50m

Upgrade to High-Speed Internet for only ₱1499/month!

Enjoy up to 100 Mbps fiber broadband, perfect for browsing, streaming, and gaming.

Visit Suniway.ph to learn

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 26, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Orezone Gold Corporation (TSX: ORE, OTCQX: ORZCF) (the "Company” or "Orezone”) is pleased to provide additional drill results from its recently announced multi-year exploration campaign at its flagship Bomboré Gold Mine. The new results are centered on the North Zone, with high grades intercepted below both the North Zone Footwall and North Zone Hill resource and reserve pits.

Selected Drill Highlights:

• 2.55 g/t Au over 23.00m, including 5.54 g/t Au over 5.00m (BBD1324)
• 1.14 g/t Au over 29.50m, including 2.30 g/t Au over 4.50m (BBD1320)
• 1.20 g/t Au over 23.80m (BBD1323)
• 1.01 g/t Au over 18.70m (BBD1319)
• 1.80 g/t Au over 15.00m (BBD1318)
• 1.59 g/t Au over 9.80m (BBD1318)
• 1.69 g/t Au over 6.85m (BBD1322)
• 24.74 g/t Au over 2.00m (BBD1323)

Patrick Downey, President and CEO stated, "These latest drill results further underscore the significant exploration upside at Bomboré, and the potential to materially expand the resource base from the current global 5.1 million gold ounces, to a targeted 7 to 10 million gold ounces longer term. Given Bomboré's 14km long reserve defined strike length at an average reserve pit depth of less than 40m, we have been aggressive in our pursuit of illustrating this potential. Towards this goal, we are accelerating the Phase I exploration campaign and planning a comprehensive 30,000m drill program through 2025. Recent drilling from only 12 wide spaced drill holes in the North Zone Footwall has successfully extended mineralization 100m to 250m below the reserve pit bottoms along a strike length of over 800m. This has clear implications in terms of extending current life of mine pits to depth and increasing the future production profile at Bomboré.

The discovery potential of the orogenic gold setting at Bomboré is also highlighted by the multiple higher-grade sub-zones, which we believe may host the potential to transition into an underground mining scenario beneath the existing life of mine open pits. This prospect continues to be an area of focus at North Zone Hill, as well as at P16 and P17 where drilling has recently commenced.

Together with our ongoing production expansion, which is currently ahead of schedule, this renewed focus on exploration at Bomboré, and testing the overall size and scale of the broader system, represent a truly exciting time for Orezone on multiple fronts.”

North Zone Footwall - Extending Mineral System to Depth

Initial drilling last year, targeting the North Zone Footwall at depth, was successful in extending high-grade mineralization 240m below the current reserve pit, with intercepts of 1.02g/t Au over 57.00m (BBD1313) and 1.64g/t Au over 46.00m (BBD1314). Wide spaced follow-up drilling was successful in extending mineralization 100m to 250m below the reserve pits along a strike length of over 800m (Figure 2). This was marked by several broad high-grade intercepts including 1.17g/t Au over 29.50m (BBD1320), 1.20g/t Au over 23.80m (BBD1323), 1.01g/t Au over 18.70m (BBD1319) and 1.80g/t Au over 15.00m (BBD1318).

While early-stage, the main takeaways from this recent round of drilling along the North Zone Footwall include:

1)   The potential, with subsequent infill drilling, to materially extend the North Zone Footwall resource and reserve pits to depth. If successful, this would have positive implications in terms of further expanding the production profile at Bomboré.

2)   Given the initial results at the North Zone Footwall, there are comparable opportunities to extend the mineralized system at depth across the greater 14km long reserve defined trend, where the average reserve pit depth is currently less than 40m.

North Zone Hill and Higher-Grade Sub-Zone Targeting

As part of the exploration campaign to test the broader size and scale of the Bomboré mineralized system, a second focus of the current drill program is to further delineate a number of higher-grade sub-zones within, and extending below, the current life of mine open pit resource and reserves. The Company believes that these higher-grade sub-zones may host the potential to transition into underground mining beneath the open pits in the future. This is a well demonstrated mine sequence in-country, and if successful, would not only serve to increase the operating head grade at Bomboré, but also increase the overall production profile.

With exploration efforts initially concentrated in the northern end of the project, initial testing of this thesis was centered on North Zone Hill, where at open pit drill spacing, there is a defined trend of higher-grade mineralization. As detailed in Figure 3, this sub-zone is marked by multiple high-grade intercepts including 8.75g/t Au over 7.20m (BBD1246), 7.17g/t Au over 7.00m (BBD0903), 13.44g/t Au over 2.80m (BBD1249), and 6.92g/t Au over 6.00m (BBD0911). Initial drill testing down plunge along this trend intercepted a broad interval of 2.55g/t Au over 23.00m, with a higher-grade sub-interval of 5.54g/t Au over 5.50m (BBD1324). Follow-up testing at North Zone Hill in the future will focus on additional step-outs down plunge and on tighter spaced drilling along trend to further resolve the controls on this higher-grade mineralization.

The Company's objective to further delineate such higher-grade sub-zones has extended to the P16 and P17S deposits at the southern end of the mining permit, in advance of the start of the rainy season in May. As outlined below, and detailed in Figure 4 and Figure 5, the P16 and P17S deposits host a number of higher-grade sub-zones. Initial testing at these deposits will focus on the down plunge continuity of the high-grade sub-zones and the potential for limb extensions to the East and West. Follow-up drill programs will further reduce the drill spacing towards the base of the pits and down plunge, as well as to test for repeats of the system along strike, a prospect that is well supported by historical drilling.

P16 - selected high-grade historical intercepts:

• 10.63g/t Au over 14.0m (BBD0448)
• 16.50g/t Au over 5.0m (BBD0448)
• 9.03g/t Au over 12.0m (BBC3241)
• 6.69g/t Au over 15.5m (BBD0443)
• 5.91g/t Au over 15.0m (BBD0447)
• 7.82g/t Au over 9.0m (BBD0213)
• 58.91g/t Au over 3.0m (BBD0768)

P17S - selected high-grade historical intercepts:

• 14.67g/t Au over 6.0m (BBD1066)
• 16.58g/t Au over 4.6m (BBD0991)
• 11.52g/t Au over 10.6m (BBD1081)
• 9.44g/t Au over 10.0m (TYD0041)
• 8.47g/t Au over 6.0m (BBD1132)
• 7.08g/t Au over 7.0m (TYC0123)
• 7.62g/t Au over 5.5m (TYD0035)

Figure 1: Bomboré Gold Mine Property Map

Figure 2: North Zone Footwall Long Section Looking Southeast

Figure 3: North Zone Hill Long Section Looking Northwest

Figure 4: P16 Long Section Looking North-Northwest

Figure 5: P17 Long Section Looking North-Northwest

Bomboré Drill Results

Table 1: Highlight Drill Intercepts from the North Zone