Oriole Resources plc / Index: AIM / Epic: ORR / Sector: Mining

Oriole Resources PLC 

('Oriole' or 'the Company' or 'the Group')

Statement ahead of pre-AGM Q&A Meeting

Oriole Resources, the AIM-quoted exploration company focussed on West Africa, makes the following statement ahead of the live Q&A session scheduled for 11.00am on 19 April 2022. The meeting will be hosted on the Investor Meet Company platform and will be open to all existing and potential shareholders.

The Q&A session is taking place ahead of the Company's Annual General Meeting ('AGM') which will be held at 11.00am on 26 April 2022 at the offices of Grant Thornton UK LLP, located at 30 Finsbury Square, London, EC2P 2YU.

Chair's Statement

The start of 2022 has been exceptionally busy, with solid progress on our projects in Cameroon, confirmation from IAMGOLD of the completion of the first phase of their earn-in in Senegal, refocussing of the Turkish operations and completion of the Annual Report, which has enabled the early and successful submission of the 2021 Research and Development ('R&D') tax claim.

At Bibemi, in Cameroon, we were delighted to report promising results from our third phase of diamond drilling at the Bakassi Zone 1 prospect ('Bakassi Zone 1'). This phase delivered mineralised intervals of up to 9.20 metres ('m') grading 1.31 grammes per tonne ('g/t') gold ('Au') and 2.10m grading 19.04 g/t Au including a bonanza intersection of 1.10m grading 36.06 g/t Au (announcement dated 9 February 2022). In addition, the soil sampling results reported early in the year confirmed continuity of the system southwards to the Lawa West prospect, giving a confirmed strike length of almost 12 kilometres ('km').

At the Central Licence Package ('CLP'), also in Cameroon, the team continues to advance its early-stage exploration programme over this nearly 3,600 square kilometre ('km²') package of eight contiguous licences. Building on the 2021 regional stream sediment programme, an extensive programme of semi-regional soil sampling commenced over the eastern licences and initial results have also identified several areas of significant interest. The highest reported result to date of 838 parts per billion Au was returned from the Mbe licence, within a circa 11.5km in-situ anomalous gold-in-soil zone (announcement dated 14 March 2022). We are in the initial stages of exploration at the CLP and are delighted that the area is already confirming the promise identified during our prospectivity analysis undertaken in 2019.

In Senegal, IAMGOLD confirmed that it had completed the required US$4 million spend to earn a 51% holding in the Company's Senala licence. IAMGOLD's fourth year of exploration on the licence was completed at the end of February 2022 with further excellent results from the Faré prospect announced early this year, including a best interval of 5.00m grading 12.45 g/t Au that included 2.00m grading 26.61 g/t Au (announcement dated 17 January 2022). We are now moving through the process of formalising the ownership position and discussing the year 5 programme with IAMGOLD. Further announcements on these topics will follow in due course.

In Turkey, we have successfully completed the restructuring of the business so that our legacy interests in Turkey are still being actively managed but at a low cost to the Group. The sale of a small antimony royalty in March (for US$22k) and the collection of working capital balances have already generated enough funds to ensure that the Turkish operation will be cash neutral or better for 2022. We are also actively pursuing US$1.4 million of overdue debts.

At a corporate level, the team has been hard at work delivering the Annual Report and submitting tax returns in order to bring in £403k of R&D tax credits, as announced last week. This, alongside the exploration work, is a real team effort and will help drive further work in Cameroon.

Competent Persons Statement 

The information in this release that relates to Exploration Results has been compiled by Claire Bay (Executive Director - Exploration and Business Development). Claire Bay (MGeol, CGeol) is a Competent Person as defined in the JORC code and takes responsibility for the release of this information. Claire has reviewed the information in this announcement and confirms that she is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects the information reproduced here.

The information contained within this announcement is deemed to constitute inside information as stipulated under the retained EU law version of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 (the "UK MAR") which is part of UK law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. The information is disclosed in accordance with the Company's obligations under Article 17 of the UK MAR. Upon the publication of this announcement, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.  

For further information please visit www.orioleresources.com, @OrioleResources on Twitter, or contact: 

Notes to Editors:

Oriole Resources PLC is an AIM-listed exploration company, operating in West Africa. It is focussed on early-stage exploration in Cameroon (Bibemi, Wapouzé and Central Licence Package projects) and the more advanced Senala gold project in Senegal, where IAMGOLD has the option to spend US$8 million to earn a 70% interest. IAMGOLD has recently notified the Company that it has, under the terms of the agreement, met the first commitment by spending US$4 million within an initial four years. Subject to the Company completing a review of these expenditures, IAMGOLD will acquire a 51% interest in Senala. The Company also has several interests and royalties in companies operating throughout Africa and Turkey that could deliver future cash flow, and it continues to assess new opportunities in both regions.