Eastward Mine Extension Drilling Continues To Produce Excellent Results


TORONTO - Mandalay Resources Corporation reported on the Eastern Plunge Extension drilling and significant intercepts from the Aurora Upper Extension program at its Bjorkdal operation in Sweden. The Eastern Plunge Extension drilling: 783.0 g/t gold over 0.35 m (Estimated True Width "ETW" 0.25 m) in MU22-032; 104.7 g/t gold over 1.00 m (ETW 0.87 m) in MU22-031; and 22.7 g/t gold over 3.90 m (ETW 3.19 m) in MU22-029. Intercepts at the Aurora Extension: 89.5 g/t gold over 0.30 m (ETW 0.23 m) in MU22-027; 2.9 g/t gold over 3.50 m (ETW 3.05 m); and 36.0 g/t gold over 0.30 m (ETW 0.15 m) in ME22-004.

Dominic Duffy, President and CEO of Mandalay, said, ”Bjorkdal is a high tonnage and low-grade gold mine with the potential for significant profit growth at relatively small increases to mined gold grades. To this end, a major focus of our near mine exploration program was to identify areas of higher grades that can be prioritized within our short to medium term mining schedules. Excitingly, these consistent drill results from the Eastern Plunge Extension program are exceeding our expectations by producing highly significant grades the likes of which we would consider exceptional at our high-grade Costerfield mine in Australia.

"The impact of this program has flowed through and upgraded Bjorkdal's recently announced year-end 2022 Mineral Resources and Reserves estimate with an 11% lift to Mineral Reserves' gold grade from 1.39 g/t to 1.54 g/t for the 11.6 million tonnes in Proven and Probable Reserves.  

"As the Eastern Plunge Extension drilling is still in its infancy and currently there is little access to drill further east and down plunge, we do not know how far this significant grade increase will continue. However, to date the Eastern Plunge drilling is completely open to the East and Down Plunge. We will continue to drill this area over the remainder of 2023 to try and establish the continuation of this area and the impact it will have on the long term operations at Bjorkdal. The mining permit extension which will allow for mining in this area is currently being processed by the authorities and we expect the permit to be issued in 2023.

"Further to the successes of the Eastern Plunge Extension, the Aurora system has been tested successfully approximately 150 meters up dip and to the east from current and scheduled mining. Not only is Aurora itself and the surrounding veining continuous, but significant grades comparable to the core of system have been identified within the veining. This extension is encouraging as Aurora has been, and is currently, the main source of bulk ore tonnage at Bjorkdal.

"We look forward to providing further updates on these projects throughout the year as well as the developments from our North Zone Extension drilling and the Aurora Depth Extension drilling, which are both currently ongoing."