Yorbeau Reports Assay Results From the Astoria Area Drilling Program on the Rouyn Project, Quebec; Drilling Resumes on Lac Gamble Area

 

MONTREAL, March 03, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Yorbeau Resources Inc. (TSX: YRB) ("Yorbeau" or the "Company") is pleased to report that its partner IAMGOLD Corporation ("IAMGOLD") released today assay results from its 2020 exploration diamond drilling program completed on the Astoria Target Area at the Rouyn Project. The Rouyn property is located 4 km south of Rouyn-Noranda, Québec, and approximately 45 kilometers southwest of IAMGOLD’s Westwood operation.

IAMGOLD is reporting assay results from eleven (11) diamond drill holes, totaling 5,950 metres drilled on the Astoria area, located approximately one kilometre east of the Lac Gamble Zone. Two (2) drill holes were abandoned or did not reach the target zone due to excessive deviation.

The assay results reported herein are provided in Table 1, below, and include the following highlights (a longitudinal section illustrating the drilling program on the Astoria Area is attached to this news release):

Astoria Area – Upper Piché Zone:

• Drill hole AS-20-773A: 2.0 metres grading 13.2 g/t Au

• Drill hole AS-20-775: 2.8 metres grading 7.5 g/t Au
         includes:       0.8 metres grading 15.0 g/t Au

• Drill hole AS-20-775W: 7.6 metres grading 9.7 g/t Au
         includes:       2.0 metres grading 29.3 g/t Au

Astoria Area – Lower Piché Zone:

• Drill hole AS-17-669W: 2.0 metres grading 7.6 g/t Au

• Drill hole AS-20-772: 11.1 metres grading 3.7 g/t Au
         includes:       1.0 metres grading 23.5 g/t Au

Astoria Area – Main Zone:

• Drill hole AS-20-772: 6.1 metres grading 3.4 g/t Au
         includes:       3.0 metres grading 6.2 g/t Au

• Drill hole AS-20-776: 14.0 metres grading 3.4 g/t Au
         includes:       7.0 metres grading 5.6 g/t Au

In a separate press release on the current results, Craig MacDougall, Executive Vice President, Growth for IAMGOLD, stated: "The completion of this program has provided important information to assess the potential of the historic Astoria deposit. The program was conducted in accordance with well-established Company-wide health and safety protocols to manage the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. These results will be used to update our geological models and help guide our exploration program to continue to assess the resource potential for this area. Drilling has now resumed at Lac Gamble and will include the completion of selected infill holes, as well as geotechnical drill holes to assess rock quality of the host rock units."

The objective of the Astoria area diamond drilling program was to test selected priority targets proximal to the known mineralization to evaluate for the presence and continuity of mineralized extensions with potential to outline a resource.

The program successfully intersected the targeted sheared Cadillac-Piché corridor, which hosts several mineralized zones. At Astoria, mineralized zones are associated with alteration varying from several metres to greater than ten metres in width, hosted in the ultramafic rocks of the Piché Group, exhibiting variable carbonatization, fuchsite, silicification, crosscut by a network of white quartz and brown tourmaline stockwork veins and breccias, which define the Upper and Lower Piché zones. Gold mineralization occurs as small specks of visible free gold associated with minor sulphides in quartz-tourmaline veinlets.

A mineralized zone, referred to as the Main zone, is also observed at the contact with the sedimentary sequence bordering the south contact of the Piché Group and is characterized by grey quartz veinlets containing rare visible gold and up to 10% disseminated to narrow massive bands of Arsenopyrite adjacent to the veins. Occasionally similar mineralization is also observed exclusively hosted in sediments and is referred to as the Footwall zone.

Next Steps

The ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic and local availability of drill rigs continues to impact the pace at which planned exploration activities are advanced. However, exploration drilling has resumed at the Rouyn Project and a 14,000 metre diamond drilling program is planned in 2021 to further delineate the Lac Gamble and Astoria zones. The program will also include the evaluation of the resource potential of other selected targets, including in the Cinderella and Augmitto areas located further west of the Lac Gamble zone. Currently, a geotechnical drilling program has commenced to assess rock quality of the host rock units at Lac Gamble.

The assay results from the drilling programs will be integrated with the existing geological, geochemical and structural information to support the development and refinement of preliminary deposit models on the property to support a future potential maiden resource estimate.

About the Rouyn Project

The Rouyn Property is located about 4 km south of Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec. With a long history of mining, the city of Rouyn-Noranda offers many advantages for mining and exploration, including political and social stability, good access and infrastructure, skilled mining personnel, and one of the most mining-friendly jurisdictions in the world.

The property covers a 12-kilometre stretch of the Cadillac-Larder Lake Break and contains four known gold deposits along the 6-km Augmitto-Astoria corridor situated on the western portion of the property. Two of the four deposits, Astoria in the east portion of the 6 km segment and Augmitto in the west portion of the segment, benefit from established underground infrastructure and have been the subject of technical reports that include resource estimates that were previously filed in accordance with Regulation NI 43-101.

The Lac Gamble zone is located between the Augmito and the Astoria deposits. The exploration target potential at Lac Gamble is interpreted to be between 400,000 and 600,000 ounces of gold at a grade between 7.0 and 8.5 g/t Au. The potential quantity and grade of the exploration targets referred to are conceptual in nature and insufficient exploration work has been completed to define a mineral resource. The property may require significant future exploration to advance to a resource stage and there can be no certainty that the exploration target will result in a mineral resource being delineated. The exploration targets are consistent with similar deposits in the area, deposit models or derived from initial drilling results.

IAMGOLD signed a definitive option agreement in December 2018, whereby IAMGOLD has the option to acquire a 100% interest in the Project by making scheduled cash payments totaling C$4 million and completing exploration expenditures totaling C$9 million over a four year period. By the end of the expenditure period, the Company is required to complete a NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate, after which the Company, at its election, can purchase a 100% interest in the Project, subject to a 2% net smelter return production royalty, by paying Yorbeau the lesser of C$15 per resource ounce or C$30 million. IAMGOLD is currently in the third year of the option agreement.

Figure 1: Rouyn Gold – Lac Gamble zone longitudinal section and highlighted 2020 assay results:
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/79b9f3d0-e580-4157-a5de-95878b7b0af5

Table 1: Rouyn Project Drilling Results – 2020 Astoria Drilling program:
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8248fa43-1f56-4441-b439-12c2a73de98c

Table 1 Notes:

<sup>1. True widths of intersections are estimated at at 55 to 80% of the core interval approximately.
2. Drill hole intercepts are calculated with a lower cut of 1.0 g/t Au and may contain lower grade interval of up to 3 metres in length. They are generally reported with a minimum g*m (or Metal factor) of 2.
3. Assays are reported uncut but high grade sub-intervals are highlighted.
4. Drill holes with the suffix W are wedge cuts from previously drilled master holes.</sup>

Technical Information and Quality Control Notes

The drilling results contained in this news release have been prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Work at Yorbeau is carried out under the supervision of Sylvain Lépine, M.Sc, P. Geo. He is a qualified person (as defined by NI 43-101) and has reviewed and approved the content of this release.

The design of the drilling program and interpretation of results is under the control of IAMGOLD’s and Yorbeau’s geological staff, including qualified persons employing strict protocols consistent with NI 43-101 and industry best practices. The sampling of, and assay data from, the drill core is monitored through the implementation of a quality assurance - quality control (QA-QC) program. Drill core (NQ size) is logged and samples are selected by geologists and then sawn in half with a diamond saw at the project site. Half of the core is retained at the site for reference purposes. Sample intervals may vary from half a metre to one and a half metres in length depending on the geological observations.

Half-core samples are packaged and transported in sealed bags to AGAT laboratories in Val d’Or, Quebec, and Mississauga, Ontario. Samples are coarse crushed to a -10 mesh and then a 1,000 gram split is pulverized to 95% passing -150 mesh. AGAT prepare analytical pulps at their facilities located in Val-d’Or and processed the pulps at their Mississauga laboratory which is ISO / IEC 17025:2005 certified by the Standards Council of Canada. Samples are analyzed using a standard fire assay with a 50 gram charge with an Atomic Absorption (AA) finish. For samples that return assay values over 3.0 grams per tonne, another pulp is taken and fire assayed with a gravimetric finish. Core samples showing visible gold or samples which have returned values greater than 10.0 grams per tonne are processed with a protocol involving fine grinding of the entire sample, followed by metallic screen analysis of the entire pulverized material. Insertion of duplicate, blanks and certified reference standards in the sample sequence is done in all drill holes for quality control.

About Yorbeau Resources Inc.

The Rouyn Property, wholly-owned by the Company, contains four known gold deposits in the 6-km-long Augmitto-Astoria corridor situated on the western portion of the property. The Company signed a definitive agreement in December 2018, whereby IAMGOLD has the option to acquire a 100% interest in the Rouyn property, and a major drilling program is underway. Two of the four deposits, Astoria and Augmitto, benefit from substantial underground infrastructure and have been the subject of technical reports that include resource estimates and that were filed in accordance with Regulation 43-101. In 2015, the Company expanded its exploration property portfolio by acquiring strategic base metal properties in prospective areas of the Abitibi Belt of Quebec that feature infrastructure favourable for mining development. The newly acquired base metal properties include the Scott Project in Chibougamau, which bears important mineral resources (see the press release dated March 30, 2017) and on which a positive Preliminary Economic Assessment was recently completed.

For additional information on the Company, consult its website at www.yorbeauresources.com.

For further information, please contact:
G. Bodnar Jr.	Sylvain Lépine, M.Sc, P. Geo
President, Chief Financial Officer	Vice-President Exploration
Yorbeau Resources Inc.	Yorbeau Resources Inc.
gbodnar@yorbeauresources.com	slepine@yorbeauresources.com
Tel: 514-384-2202	Tel: 819-277-0577
Toll free in North America: 1-855-384-2202

Forward-looking statements: Except for the statement of historical fact, all statements in this news release, including without limitation, regarding the prospects of the Rouyn project, drilling results, future plans and objectives are forward-looking statements which involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate; actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Yorbeau disclaims any obligation to update such forward-looking statements, other than as required by applicable securities laws.