Orford Identifies Significant Lithium Potential at its Northern Quebec Sites

Orford Mining Corporation has defined  prospective lithium targets on its properties and also in the areas surrounding its Qiqavik Gold property and West Raglan Nickel Copper PGM property.

Orford identified new lithium potential after completing an extensive review of government lake sediment surveys, magnetic surveys, geological mapping and rock geochemical data.

Several areas were identified as having significant lithium potential within the Qiqavik Gold property. Orford controls 2,717 mining claims covering over 1,115 square kilometres in the Qiqavik and West Raglan Projects. 

Orford also identified lithium potential on areas near its Qiqavik and West Raglan properties and they have staked 804 new claims totaling 334 square kilometres in several properties including Vault, Radiant, Ampere, Electrode, KWatt and Wire, bringing its total property position in Nunavik to 1,449 square kilometres.

The Nunavik Region is already a critical mineral powerhouse in Quebec and Canada with Glencore's Raglan Nickel Mine and Canadian Royalties' Nunavik Nickel Mine shipping out concentrates from the all-season port at Deception Bay which is approximately 70 km from our Qiqavik and West Raglan properties.

 "We believe the world's need for critical minerals has become a priority and is only going to grow as we move away from fossil fuels and countries strive to secure local access to critical minerals," said David Christie, President and CEO of Orford. " Minerals like lithium, nickel, cobalt and copper for which Orford is exploring are used in net-zero technologies such as batteries for electric cars and for storage of solar and wind power."

 "We believe the potential on our properties for lithium is significant and is totally unexplored for in the Nunavik Region of Northern Quebec, " Christie added. "We believe that being close to tide water at the deep all season port facility at Deception Bay gives the Nunavik Region an advantage to other districts exploring for lithium."

The new Lithium potential at the  Ampere, Vault, Radiant, Electrode, KWatt and Wire sites and additional satellite properties were map staked totaling 804 claims (334 km2) based on the presence of:

- proximity to favourable tectonic regimes; namely geological boundaries where favourable (spodumene-bearing pegmatitic) rocks may be emplaced
mapped pegmatitic bodies in government data
- geochemical anomalies in grab samples and lake bottom sediments samples which reported values in the 90th percentile or higher for Quebec (MRN Lake Bottom Sediment Database) for elements of interest such as Li, Cs, Rb, Nb and Be. 
-These properties have never been explored for lithium despite showing very anomalous geochemistry in grab samples in government mapping data and lake bottom sediments.

Grab samples on these properties reported up to 218 ppm Li, 27 ppm Ta, 67 ppm Cs, and Rb up to 560 ppm. Orford will undertake its first lithium-specific exploration programs in 2023.

On January 23, 2023, Orford launched a drill program on the Joutel Eagle South Gold Zone. The Qiqavik gold exploration property is a camp scale property covering an area of 40,180 ha hosted in the paleoproterozoic Cape Smith Belt (CSB) in Nunavik, Quebec (1.8Ga). The property hosts greenschist to lower amphibolite facies alteration and multiple through-going camp scale structures with proximal anomalous granitic intrusions.

Although lithium has not been directly explored for, Orford has completed a full re-evaluation of the Qiqavik database and found that geologic and tectonic environments along with anomalous grab samples and drill core geochemistry suggest prospective lithium exploration potential.  Qiqavik rock samples (both grab and drill core) report up to 155ppm Li, 255 ppm Cs, 7160 ppm Rb, 71 ppm Hf, 174 ppm Nb, 314 ppm Ga and till samples report anomalies of up to 90ppm lithium proximal to felsic intrusives.

About Orford Mining Corporation
Orford Mining is a gold explorer focused on highly prospective and underexplored areas of Northern Quebec. Orford's principal assets are the Qiqavik, West Raglan and lithium exploration projects comprising a land package totaling over 144,900 hectares in the Cape Smith Belt of Northern Quebec. The Qiqavik Project hosts several new high-grade gold discoveries along a mineralized trend in excess of 40 km. The West Raglan Project hosts a number of high-grade Raglan-style nickel/copper/platinum group metal discoveries along a 55 km mineralized trend.

 The lithium claim blocks acquired in the Nunavik Region in 2023 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.

Orford's common shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol ORM. This information from neighbouring properties is not necessarily indicative of the mineralization on Orford Mining's properties.

Qualified Person
The disclosure of scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been approved by Alger St-Jean, P.Geo., Chief Geoscientist of Orford, a Qualified Person under NI 43-101. The technical information presented in this release was obtained from historical work reports filed with the Quebec Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources and has not been independently verified by a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101.

To view further details about Orford's exploration projects please visit Orford's website, www.orfordmining.com.

For further information: David Christie, President and CEO, 2 St. Clair Avenue West, 18th Floor, Toronto, ON M4V 1L5, T: 647-255-8037

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