North Vancouver, BC, August 14, 2019. Lion One Metals Limited (TSX-V: LIO) (OTCQX: LOMLF) (ASX: LLO) (“Lion One” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce it has commenced a regional geochemical survey on its Navilawa exploration tenement adjoining the mining lease on its 100% owned and fully permitted Tuvatu Alkaline Gold Project located on the island of Viti Levu in Fiji.
“Gold mineralization was first observed in the Navilawa Caldera over 80 years ago”, said Lion One Managing Director Stephen Mann. “Over the last 50 years some notable exploration syndicates and mining companies have worked in the area, but until Lion One secured tenure over the Navilawa volcanic complex, no single Company has been able to systematically explore the consolidated, district-scale project area.”
The first stage of the 2019 exploration program consists of a geochemical survey utilizing a gold exploration technique known as Bulk Leach Extractable Gold (“BLEG”) to analyze the fine-grained gold fraction taken from stream sediment sample sites across the 7km diameter caldera. The BLEG survey over the Tuvatu mining lease and the immediate adjacent parts of the exploration licences (SML1283, SML1296, SML1465) is ongoing, whilst the second part of the program covering Navilawa SPL 1512 has recently commenced.
The second stage of the 2019 exploration program consists of a caldera-wide geophysical survey utilizing the Controlled Source Audio-frequency Magnetotellurics (CSAMT) method, capable of obtaining high resolution subsurface 3D map imagery to depths of 1,000m below surface. The CSAMT survey will be utilized to evaluate the deeper structural framework of the mineral system and further refine drill targets.
Lion One’s technical advisor Dr. Quinton Hennigh commented “Alkaline gold systems are notable not only for large high-grade gold deposits, but also for deep vertical profiles. At Tuvatu the majority of drilling has focused on a very small area approximately 600m long by 200m wide, within 300m of surface. There is no indication that the gold system diminishes at depth below Tuvatu, and it remains open laterally across 7km of highly prospective ground in the caldera. The nearby +11Moz. Vatukoula gold deposit has been mined at depths to 1,200m, so we believe Tuvatu has significant resource upside potential.”
Navilawa Caldera Fast Facts:
Geological Setting: 40km from +11Moz. Vatukoula Gold Mine, on Fiji’s Viti Levu gold corridor
Gold Deposit Type: a 7km diameter volcanic intrusive system associated with alkaline magmatism
Mineralogy: Silica-adularia-calcite, carbonate,
K-feldspar, pyrite, roscoelite, tellurides, with significant anomalies
chalcopyrite, galena and sphalerite, primarily hosted in a monzonitic
intrusive
Gold styles: Primary gold is fine-grained, occurring with native gold in narrow, bonanza-grade lodes
Figure 1: Location Map, Tuvatu Alkaline Gold Project. Viti Levu, Fiji
Figure 2: Banana Creek looking SW towards Tuvatu
Figure 3: High-grade gold veinlets typical of the main gold mineralizing stage at in the Navilawa Caldera. Virtually all significant gold intervals examined in core exhibit narrow dark grey silica-adularia veinlets, occasionally with fine specks of native gold. Their dark gray color comes from fine pyrite or other minerals, perhaps tellurides, scattered throughout the silica-adularia. Dark green roscoelite often occurs along their margin. Late, white to tan carbonate minerals are sometimes present, usually filling voids within veinlets. Very subtle K-feldspar alteration appears to penetrate surrounding wallrock over a few millimeters to centimeters. Traces of disseminated pyrite are sometimes present in wallrock alteration.
Figure 4: A 3 cm-wide high-grade gold vein from Porgera (left) and a 1.5 mm-wide high-grade gold veinlet from Navilawa (right). Gold in the sample from Porgera (along the left side of the sample) is intergrown with fine dark gray silica-adularia. Roscoelite (green) forms patches throughout the sample and carbonates (white) are late and occupy the core of the vein. The veinlet from Navilawa displays remarkably similar mineralogy and style to the vein from Porgera. Gold is intergrown with dark grey silica-adularia along the left margin of the veinlet. Dark green roscoelite is visible along the right side of the veinlet, and white carbonates fill the core. Dr. Hennigh believes this comparison is critical to demonstrating the gold system at Navilawa is indeed of the same alkaline type. Moreover, it is entirely possible that more robust versions of the veinlet seen on the right have yet to be discovered at Navilawa.
The photographs presented herein are of selected samples and are not necessarily representative of the mineralization hosted on the property.
Qualified Persons
Stephen Mann P. Geo, Managing Director, is a “Qualified Person”
as such term is defined in National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed
and approved the scientific and technical information included in this
News Release.
About Lion One Metals Limited
Lion One Metals Limited is a Canadian exploration and
development company focused on advancing its 100% owned and fully
permitted Tuvatu Alkaline Gold Project towards production. Lion One
envisions a low-cost high-grade underground gold mining operation at
Tuvatu coupled with district-scale exploration upside of the adjoining
Navilawa Caldera, located near the Nadi International Airport on the
island of Viti Levu in the South Pacific island nation of Fiji.
