Awalé Extends its Exploration Footprint in the Odienné District, Côte d'Ivoire

VANCOUVER, BC, Sept. 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Awalé Resources Limited ("Awalé" or the "Company") (TSXV: ARIC) is pleased to announce that as part of its first-mover advantage and strategy in northeast Côte d'Ivoire, the Company has applied for a further 2 exploration permits located to the northwest of, and along trend from, the Odienné Iron Oxide Copper Gold ("IOCG") Joint Venture (Figure 1). The Odienné Project is subject to an earn in joint venture agreement ("JV") with Newmont Ventures Limited ("Newmont") (see Company News Release dated May 31, 2022).

Both new applications are 100% owned by Awalé and sit outside of the JV area (Figure 2). The two applications add a further 643.7 square kilometers (sq. km) of highly prospective but underexplored ground to the current 1,092km² of exploration applications and 725.6km² of granted tenure in the Odienné district (Table 1).

Link to figures: https://www.awaleresources.com/_resources/maps/2022-09-07-NewAppln-Figs.pdf

Table  1: List of Awalé Permits in the Odienné district.

Company CEO Glen Parsons commented today:

"The Awalé team is extremely excited on the Odienné Project and district as a whole - following our high-grade gold Empire Discovery, the Sceptre and Charger IOCG discoveries and subsequent completion of the Odienné JV over part of this area. We have further capitalised on our first mover advantage in the district with these two new 100% Awalé owned permit applications. We are delighted to have been able to add a further 643 sq km of tenure in what we think has great potential to be a new gold -copper producing district in Côte d'Ivoire.  These applications sit outside of the Odienné JV area with Newmont but complement Awalé's 100% owned permit focus in a district which has a similar geological setting. Awalé's work to date on the Odienné Project has shown potential to host two primary target styles for world-class discoveries: i) the gold-rich Empire corridor in the south and ii) the recently defined Sceptre and Charger IOCG copper -gold targets which have the potential for significant scale."

The Odienné project is subject to an earn-in agreement with Newmont Ventures Limited ("Newmont"; see Company News Release dated May 31, 2022) through which Newmont retains the option to earn-in to a minimum 65% interest, from Awalé, in the project in return for USD 15M of exploration expenditures. Newmont is sole funding the exploration program at Odienné during the earn in period.

Awalé entered an option to purchase agreement with Turaco Gold Limited over the PR 840 "Sienso" permit (Company News Release dated July 19 2022). Under the Agreement Awalé resources can take 100% of the permit through an initial option payment of 30% of the contract value with and option on the remining 70% after the successful first renewal of the Permit in mid-2023.

Awalé Resources entered a exploration earn-in and joint venture agreement with the Newmont Corporation in May 2022.  The Odienné Project currently has two primary targets for world-class discoveries: i) the gold-rich Empire corridor and ii) the recently defined Sceptre Iron Oxide Copper Gold ("IOCG") target, while the remaining 200 km ² of granted tenure and 400 km ² under application remains underexplored and has significant IOCG potential – see recent release announcing the Lando Geochem discovery (Company News Release dated 23^rd August 2022). Based on the regional geological setting of Odienné along with the soil/termitaria data from the Sceptre prospect, and the initial drill results from the adjacent Charger prospect (see Company news releases dated 22^nd July 2021 and 13^th Jan 2022 and figure 2), the Company interprets the geological setting of the Odienné district to be comparable to that of other significant IOCG provinces globally. IOCG deposits are significant contributors to global copper and gold inventories, and the Company considers the Odienné project to contain significant potential for the discovery of the first major IOCG deposit in west Africa.

Precambrian IOCG provinces globally (e.g., Olympic Dam- Gawler Craton, Australia and Carajás - Amazonian Craton, Brazil) are important sources of copper and gold, and are characterized by their association with iron-oxides such as hematite and magnetite. These IOCG deposits formed during brief episodes of extension that postdated accretion of Paleoproterozoic terranes onto an Archean craton nucleus (Hayward and Skirrow 2010, Porter 2010) Figures 4 and 5 depict the crustal setting of both the provinces and Figure 6 includes Odienné location and as a comparison.

These periods of extension and mineralization in the Gawler craton were characterized by bimodal volcanism and plutonism characterized by the Gawler range volcanics and the Hiltaba Suite plutons. The Olympic dam province hosts Carapateena (Proven and Probable Reserve 220Mt at 1.1% Cu, 0.45g/t Au, 4.4 g/t Ag – Oz Minerals Mineral Reserves statement June 2020) and Prominent Hill (Proven and Probable reserves of 62 Mt at 0.9% Cu, 0.6 g/t Au and 2.5 g/t Ag – Oz Minerals Resources and Reserves statement June 2021) along with the giant Olympic Dam deposit (Proven and Probable Reserves of 448Mt @ 1.88% Cu, 0.69 g/t Au, 4 g/t Ag, 0.57 kg/tonne U3O8– BHP Annual report 2021) – Olympic Dam has a current projected mine life of some 43 years and has been operating since 1988*.

The Carajás IOCG province is developed on the NE margins of Southern Amazonian Craton, although older than the Gawler has a similar setting is similar with accreted terranes, bimodal volcanism and plutonism and similar age to the Leo-Man Craton in west Africa. The deposits are located within the east-southeast trending 150 km long Itacaiúnas Shear Belt, which cuts obliquely across the bimodal, but mainly mafic to intermediate volcanism which overlies the Mesoarchaean granitoid nucleus of the Amazonian craton (Porter 2010). Combined, all the Carajás deposit have been estimated to contain combined resources of >8 Gt @ 0.9 wt.% Cu and 0.2 g/t Au (Xavier et al., 2010)*. 

Awalé has now adopted an IOCG model as the setting of the Odienné Project which consists of a suite of volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks of basaltic to felsic composition that are synchronous or intruded by a series of late plutons. The Odienné Project sits on the margins of an interpreted deep seated major crustal structure where Paleoproterozoic rocks have accreted on to an Archean nucleus (Man Craton) that extends from Côte d'Ivoire westward into Guinea for over 200km. Recent studies by Grenholm et. al. (2019) show that a large igneous intrusive province has formed along this paleosuture zone, and this province extends through Odienné.

The similarities in Odienné crustal setting to the Major Olympic Dam and Carajás IOCG provinces in Australia and Brazil are convincing.  The Sceptre and Sceptre East and Charger Prospects are associated with a sequence of late bimodal intrusions likely coeval undeformed bimodal volcanic rocks along with hematite breccia within magnetite altered diorite at the Charger prospect.  When paired with the Cu Au and Silver (Ag) mineralization and polymetallic zonation containing pathfinder elements typically associated with IOCG systems (including bismuth, silver, molybdenum, and tungsten) all provides compelling evidence for the comparison to the major global IOCG provinces.

^*References made to mines and analogous deposits provide context to the prospectivity for the Odienné Project but are not indicative that the Odienné Project host similar tonnages or grades of mineralization.

BHP Annual Report 2021, section 4.6 Resources and reserved pp 245, https://www.bhp.com/-/media/documents/investors/annual-reports/2021/210914_bhpannualreport2021.pdf?sc_lang=en&hash=15F0B58BC27ADFA860F0BE29B61E199D

Grenholm, M, Jessell, M, Thébaud, N. A geodynamic model for the Paleoproterozoic (ca. 2.27–1.96 Ga) Birimian Orogen of the southern West African Craton – Insights into an evolving accretionary-collisional orogenic system, Earth-Science Reviews, Volume 192, 2019, Pages 138-193.

OZ Minerals Ltd, Mineral Resource and Reserve Statement and Explanatory notes, Prominent Hill, 30 June 2021. https://www.ozminerals.com/ArticleDocuments/362/20211116-2021ProminentHillMineralsResourceAndOreReserveStatement-ASXRelease.pdf.aspx?Embed=Y

OZ Minerals Ltd, Mineral Resource and Reserve Statement and Explanatory notes, Carapateeena, 30 June 2020. https://www.ozminerals.com/ArticleDocuments/364/201116_ASX_Release_OZL_Carrapateena_MROR_Final.pdf.aspx?Embed=Y

Porter, T.M., 2010 - Current Understanding of Iron Oxide Associated-Alkali Altered
Mineralised Systems: Part II, A Review; in Porter, T.M., (ed.), Hydrothermal Iron Oxide
Copper-Gold and Related Deposits: A Global Perspective,  v. 3 - Advances in the
Understanding of IOCG Deposits; PGC Publishing, Adelaide, pp 33-106.

Xavier, R.P., Monteiro, L.V.S., Souza Filho, C.R., Torresi, I., Carvalho, E.R.,  Dreher, A.M.,
Wiedenbeck, M., Trumbull, R.B., Pestilho, A.L.S. and Moreto, C.P.N., 2010 - The Iron
Oxide Copper-Gold Deposits of the Carajás Mineral Province, Brazil: an Updated
and Critical Review; in  Porter, T.M., (ed.), Hydrothermal Iron Oxide Copper-Gold and
Related Deposits: A Global Perspective,  v. 3 - Advances in the Understanding of IOCG
Deposits; PGC Publishing, Adelaide, pp. 285-306.

The technical and scientific information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved for release by Andrew Chubb, the Company's Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Mr Chubb is the Company's Chief Operating Officer and holds an Economic Geology degree, is a Member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists (AIG) and is a Member of the Society of Economic Geologists (SEG). Mr Chubb has more than 18 years of experience in international minerals exploration and mining project evaluation.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

AWALÉ RESOURCES LIMITED.                                                                                    

"Glen Parsons"                                                                                                

Glen Parsons, President and CEO                                                                                            

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by such information. The statements in this news release are made as of the date hereof. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information except as required by applicable law.

NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE

SOURCE Awale Resources