Oriole Resources PLC

('Oriole' or 'the Company')

IAMGOLD Initiates Year 3 Earn-in at Senala

Oriole Resources, the AIM-quoted exploration company focussed on West Africa, provides an update on its Senala project ('Senala' or the 'Project') in Senegal, where joint venture partner IAMGOLD Corporation ('IAMGOLD') has the option to spend up to US$8 million to earn a 70 per cent interest (announcement dated 1 March 2018).

Following the recent successful application for a new licence at the Project, providing security of tenure for up to a further 10 years (Announcement dated 21 January 2020), IAMGOLD has indicated that it will shortly be commencing its Year 3 programme.

Further Details

Since signing the option agreement in March 2018, IAMGOLD has focused on the Madina Bafé prospect in the south of Senala, where best results to date include 9.60metres ('m') grading 16.08 grammes per tonne ('g/t') gold ('Au') from 15.10m (MBDD-002), 15.00m grading 6.10 g/t Au from 14.00m and 8.00m grading 2.56 g/t Au from 76.00m (announcements dated 16 July 2014 and 6 February 2018). Madina Bafé lies within 10 kilometres of the 2.5 million-ounce Boto gold project, where around US$30 million of investment in infrastructure has recently been announced ahead of a construction decision during H1-2020, and has the potential to be a satellite deposit (IAMGOLD Q4 2019 Results).

In November 2019, IAMGOLD completed its 2019/20 work programme, with air core ('AC') drilling at the Saroudia prospect, immediately north of Madina Bafé (announcement dated 20 November 2019). A total of 3,158m were drilled in 454 holes (200m x 50m spacing) to test possible extensions of the surface Au anomalism already defined by Oriole, with a single sample taken in each hole at the saprolite interface. No additional trends were identified at Saroudia and so no further work is planned for this prospect.

IAMGOLD has confirmed that it will now move northwards to commence drilling at the Faré prospect.

Faré is the most advanced prospect within the Senala licence and the Company believes it has potential to host a standalone deposit. Oriole had previously completed more than 10,000m reverse circulation ('RC') and diamond drilling at Faré, delivering best intersections of 96.00m grading 1.51 g/t Au and 7.00m grading 86.39 g/t Au (announcements dated 18 December 2013 and 19 February 2014). Soil sampling at Faré, carried out by Oriole in 2016, identified a south-westward extension of the Faré South Au anomaly (>30 ppb Au) by at least 750m and up to 600m in width (announcement dated 6 June 2016). An initial programme involving approximately 10,000m of AC drilling is planned to further define and confirm areas of anomalism. A follow up RC drilling programme will be designed contingent on results from the AC drilling.

As a result of the new licence, new permits (environmental, water and forestry) applications are underway to enable commencement of the programme.

Since signing the agreement in March 2018, IAMGOLD has spent a total of c.US$1.5 million. As per the terms of the option agreement, IAMGOLD must spend a further US$1 million during Year 3 to keep the option in good standing.

For further information, including a JORC Table 1 and map showing all results please see the Senala page of the Company's website https://orioleresources.com/projects/senala/.

Competent Persons Statement 

The information in this release that relates to Exploration Results has been compiled by Claire Bay (VP 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.

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The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014. Following 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, 

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Notes to Editors:

Oriole Resources PLC is an AIM-quoted exploration company, operating West Africa. It is focused on early-stage exploration in Cameroon (Bibemi and Wapouzé projects) and the more advanced Senala gold project in Senegal, where IAMGOLD has the option to spend US$8m to earn a 70% interest. Year 1 commitments have been met at all three projects. The Company 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.