Orogen Gold PLC Drilling To Commence At Silverton (4746M)

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RNS Number : 4746M

Orogen Gold PLC

13 October 2016

13 October 2016

Orogen Gold Plc

("Orogen Gold", "Orogen" or "the Company")

Orogen prepares for drilling start-up at Silverton gold-silver property Nevada, USA

Orogen (AIM:ORE) a precious metals exploration company with projects in a developing gold province in Armenia and the Nevada gold-silver district announces that it has signed a drilling contract for an initial programme of reverse circulation drill testing on Galileo Resources plc's ("Galileo") Silverton property ("Property") in Nevada USA. The Company has the right to earn a majority interest in the Property under the terms of an earn-in agreement with Galileo, the terms of which were first announced in an RNS released on 27 June 2016, and are also included below.

Highlights

   --     1,200m drilling programme set to commence 

-- Inclined drill holes planned to test the 100m wide Silverton Fault system at depth for economic vein, stockwork and disseminated gold and silver deposits

   --     Earlier holes yielded several mineralised intervals ranging 1-5g/t Au and 100-600g/t Ag 
   --     Historic silver-gold mining on Silverton Fault 

-- Drilling also planned on structural junction on east of property with nearby intercepts up to 3.6g/t Au over 4.6m and 1.05g/t Au over 15.2m including 2.7g/t over 4.6m.

Ed Slowey, Operations Director said: "Orogen will focus on the potential for deeper high grade feeder zones to the widespread gold and silver mineralisation occurring throughout much of the Silverton project area. We have identified two strong targets for immediate drilling which we believe were not adequately tested by historic exploration work. We are excited to get the drilling programme up and running on this exceptionally gold-endowed property"

Planned Drilling Programme

The planned programme totals circa 1,200m of reverse circulation drilling. The holes are primarily laid out to test the potential of the Silverton Fault system to host economic vein, stockwork and disseminated gold and silver deposits at depth beneath the shallower mineralisation encountered by previous explorers.

Historic vertical drilling on the southern end of the Silverton Fault returned several mineralised intervals of 1.5m @ 1-5g/t Au and 100-600g/t Ag within wider lower-grade zones. However, vertical holes drilled into a steeply-dipping structure do not give an accurate picture of the gold potential of the zone and Orogen will drill deeper angled holes to obtain more representative intercepts and to target potential higher grade feeder zones at depth.

In addition the Company proposes to test a further target towards the east of the property where a mapped gold-mineralised unconformity horizon truncates against a major caldera-margin boundary structure. It is believed that this structure may have been the conduit for hydrothermal fluids feeding much of the widespread gold mineralisation on the property. Nearby historic drilling through the unconformity zone, but away from the boundary fault, returned intercepts up to 3.6g/t Au over 4.6m (hole S-4) and 1.05g/t Au over 15.2m (hole 88-13), including 2.7g/t over 4.6m. The planned Orogen drilling will test the potential of the structural junction to host high grade stockwork and disseminated gold-silver mineralisation.

Drilling is expected to commence very shortly and to be completed within 3-4 weeks, with follow-on sample assaying to be undertaken at the ALS Minerals analytical laboratory in Reno.

The Silverton Property

The Property is located northeast of Tonopah in the central Pancake Range. The Silverton claim block comprises 72 lode claims staked by Newcrest in March 2002. The geologic environment is similar to disseminated and bonanza epithermal gold mineralisation at the Round Mountain mine Nevada. The Silverton property is prospective for a range of deposit types, including bonanza style epithermal gold mineralisation.

The property contains a >100ppb Au rock chip anomaly measuring 2.5km x 3km. Au, Ag, As, and Hg mineralization are broadly coincident. Within the anomaly, a section of the N-S Silverton Fault measuring 1km x 0.5km returned chip samples values assaying >0.5g/t Au. These are centred on a 100m wide silicified contact between rhyolite to the east and carbonate rocks to the west.

Small-scale mining operated in the area from 1930 to 1937 and in 1953. Total production for the district is <100,000 oz. silver, <2,000 oz. gold and <1 ton of antimony. Over the last three decades multiple companies including Olympic Mining, Westgold, Newcrest and Pittston have explored the property for gold and silver. Work completed comprised extensive geochemical sampling, fluid inclusion studies, mapping, geophysics and drilling.

Earn-in Agreement

In June 2016 Orogen signed a definitive agreement with Galileo pursuant to which Orogen has the right to earn-in to a 51% interest in the Property by way of exploration expenditure of US$400,000 (the "First Expenditure") within 18 months and thereafter the possibility to spend an additional US$1,500,000 (the "Second Expenditure") within 30 months to earn-in a further 24% interest, in total 75%, in the Property.

Galileo will have the right to participate pro rata after the First Expenditure; should it exercise this right it would retain a 49% equity interest in Silverton (as opposed to being diluted down to 25%).

Technical Sign-Off

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

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014.

Enquiries:

 
Orogen Gold plc                    +353 1662 
 Colin Bird, CEO                    8395 
---------------------------------  ---------- 
Cairn Financial Advisers 
 LLP (Nominated Adviser)           +44 (0) 20 
 Liam Murray / Sandy Jamieson       7148 7900 
---------------------------------  ---------- 
Beaufort Securities Limited 
 (Broker)                          +44 (0) 20 
 Jon Belliss                        7382 8300 
---------------------------------  ---------- 
Walbrook (Public Relations 
 and Investor Relations)           +44 (0) 20 
 Paul Cornelius / Gary Middleton    7933 8780 
---------------------------------  ---------- 
 

About Orogen Gold

Orogen Gold plc is a UK public company quoted on the London Stock Exchange AIM market (ticker: ORE). The Company is focused on mineral exploration and development and is currently operating a gold exploration project at Mutsk in Armenia as well as the Silverton property. The Mutsk project was optioned by Orogen early in 2013 to follow-up reports of a new epithermal discovery within an established gold district. Exploration by Orogen has confirmed and extended the gold discovery through diamond drilling and the deposit remains open in several directions. Orogen has just completed earning an 80% interest in the property and can increase that holding if its' local partners elect not to contribute towards future work programmes.

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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October 13, 2016 07:00 ET (11:00 GMT)