Sosandar Regulatory News (SOS)

Orogen Gold Plc

('Orogen' or 'the Company')

Positive Drill Results from Deli Jovan

First exploration drilling at historic Gindusa gold mine confirms extensions to gold-bearing veins beneath old workings and the discovery of new gold-bearing veins at depth.

Highlights

·; Down hole intercepts of 22.2g/t Au over 0.5m, 16.25 g/t over 0.5m and 13.30 g/t over 1.0m.

·; Most of the 15 drill holes reported intersected mineralised structures with several cutting potentially economic mineralisation.

·; Initial interpretation suggests continuity of narrow, vertical shear/vein structures at Gindusa containing gold-bearing pyrite mineralisation to at least 60m below the historic workings (about 120m below surface).

·; New blind zone of irregular multiple gold-bearing quartz-pyrite veins and lenses in several deeper holes - open to depth.

Orogen Gold Plc (AIM:ORE), the AIM listed mineral exploration company focussed on Gold exploration and development in eastern Europe, is pleased to provide the following preliminary information on assay results from its surface diamond drilling programme at the Deli Jovan project in eastern Serbia.

The Company has completed its initial 18-hole diamond drill programme at the historic Gindusa gold mine and has received preliminary gold assay results for core samples from the first 15 holes. As this is the first exploration drilling at Gindusa, management has released these results as soon as possible with preliminary comment, prior to the completion of the drilling campaign at Deli Jovan and detailed analysis of structural controls and modelling of the mineral lodes.

Chief Executive of Orogen Gold Plc, Ed Slowey, commented:

"Drilling results to date beneath the old Gindusa mine workings have achieved our objectives by confirming that the gold mineralising system at Gindusa continues to at least 280m depth. We look forward to receiving the remaining results from the on-going drill programme at Deli Jovan and will focus on the important task of modelling the geometry and continuity of the gold lodes at Gindusa over the coming weeks with a view to guiding further drill testing of the zone." 

Drilling at the historic Gindusa mine commenced in May of this year on eight profiles 25-50 metres apart covering a strike length of 250 metres. This represents the first drilling campaign undertaken at the prospect. Most of the drilling was focussed on testing the continuity at depth of the narrow, steeply-dipping gold-bearing quartz-pyrite lodes and fault structures exploited in the old mine workings. The old mine had been developed on two levels to 60 metres below surface. Limited drilling also tested the potential for continuity of the lodes along strike. Drilling totalled 4,426.5 metres in the 18 holes completed - 3,624 metres in the 15 holes for which assay results have been received. Maximum vertical depth tested by drilling was 280 metres.

The more significant drill intercepts to date are summarised in Table 1 below.

* Downhole intercepts quoted. True widths not yet established, but will generally be less and determined by the dip of the steeply dipping mineralised lodes intersected by the inclined drill-holes.

Previous mapping of the underground workings at Gindusa confirmed that much of the mine development followed a series of faults containing complex anastomosing gold-bearing quartz-pyrite veins within a larger shear system hosted in gabbros. Vein widths in the underground workings vary from several tens of centimetres to about one metre and preliminary drilling through the shallower mineralisation confirms these thicknesses. The drilling appears to confirm that the mapped fault/vein system continues to at least 60m vertically beneath the old workings (120m+ below surface) and perhaps deeper, with low-grade gold haloes occurring marginal to the main lodes. Assay values from this zone (down hole depths, uncorrected for intersection angle) include 16.25 g/t Au over 0.5m within a wider interval of 8.3 g/t Au over 1.0m (DE-1), 6.13 g/t Au over 0.6m within a wider interval of 3.4 g/t Au over 1.2m (DE-2), 14.55 g/t Au over 0.5m within a wider interval of 4.97 g/t Au over 2.5m (DE-3), 9.73 g/t Au over 1.0m within a wider interval of 2.98 g/t Au over 4.7m (DE-4).

Discovery of a new blind-zone

A zone of particularly strong shearing up to about 20m wide was encountered in several deeper holes between approximately 200-280m depth, with irregular multiple gold-bearing quartz/pyrite veins and lenses seen. Gold bearing intersections in this zone include 13.3 g/t over 1.0m within a wider interval of 4.05 g/t Au over 3.9m (DE-14), 22.2 g/t Au over 0.5m within a wider zone of 8.15 g/t Au over 1.7m (DE-15), 10.85 g/t Au over 0.5m (also DE-15).

For some guidance at this very preliminary stage in evaluation of these drilling results and based on similar mineralised systems elsewhere, management considers grades in excess of 3.5 g/t Au over a mining width of 1.2m (4.2m.g/t Au), or equivalent, to have a reasonable prospect for economic extraction, where sufficient vein continuity is established. Six of the intercepts obtained to date from the Gindusa drilling are in excess of this threshold (subject to correction for true width). 

Considerable further work is required in interpreting and modelling the structural information gathered from logging of the drill core at Gindusa in order to establish the true width, continuity and geometry of the structural zones and the associated mineralised lodes, with the aim of developing a 3-D model of the deposit. This will help guide future drilling on the project.

Sampling and assaying of core from the final three holes of the drill programme at the historic Gindusa mine remain to be completed. Drilling of additional targets on the Deli Jovan shear belt is now in progress. Results of this work will be reported when they are received and interpreted.

Additional Information

The mineralisation at the old Gindusa Mine is characteristic of orogenic (mesothermal) gold systems such as the Mother Lode in California. Gold mineralisation is characterised by sheared quartz veins often containing free gold which is locally high-grade and which can make estimation within ore shoots difficult. There can be a strong nugget-effect, with gold distribution being highly erratic along strike within individual veins and possibly also at the sample scale. Veins in these mineralising systems typically pinch and swell in thickness and there is also evidence of later brittle movement at Gindusa. Gold grades of greater than one ounce of gold can quickly change to one gram just a few metres along strike. For this reason the primary goal of drilling is to establish and build confidence in continuity of the mineralised structure to provide a platform for underground drifting to establish grade and gold concentrations. Closely spaced drilling and underground development are required to demonstrate the existence of resources with economic potential. Drilling is used primarily to confirm continuity of the hosting structure but typically a decision to proceed with driving underground exploration development is made when, at appropriate drill-hole densities, only 20%-40% of holes actually yield potential ore grade and width ("Drill for structure, drift for grade").

Sampling, Assaying, and Quality Assurance / Quality Control

Orogen's drill core splitting and sampling conforms to industry-wide good practice, with chain of custody being observed for all samples. Gold analysis is undertaken by ALS Chemex at its laboratory in Romania and the Company maintains QA/QC on all analytical work via the use of certified reference materials and blank samples in addition to monitoring of internal laboratory check-analyses.

Ed Slowey, CEO of Orogen is a Competent Person as defined by various international instruments and takes responsibility for the release of this information.

-Ends-

Notes to Editors

The Deli Jovan gold project is in eastern Serbia, the site comprising two shallow underground gold mines at Rusman and Gindusa, about 6 kilometres apart along a major shear zone, that were last in production over seventy years ago.