Cora Gold Limited (AIM:CORA) Sanankoro Exploration Target 2022

Cora Gold Limited, the West African focused gold company, is pleased to announce the results of an Exploration Target estimate (‘Exploration Target’) for the Company’s wider Sanankoro Gold Project (‘Sanankoro’ or the ‘Project’) in southern Mali completed by independent consultancy CSA Global.

The Exploration Target, based on data from historical drill programmes and other exploration activity, defines the mineralised potential of the areas currently drilled at Sanankoro. Further exploration potential is still considered likely due to limited exploration activity outside of the known structures hosting the Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources.

Highlights

● The Exploration Target for Sanankoro is estimated to contain between 26.0 Mt and 35.2 Mt with a grade range of 0.58 g/t Au to 1.21 g/t Au for a potential content of 490 koz Au to 1,370 koz Au

● The Exploration Target is in addition to the Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource of 24.9 Mt at 1.15 g/t Au for 920 koz announced on 19 July 2022

● In total, 12 areas comprise the Exploration Target, with three areas responsible for over 50% of the Exploration Target, these being Target 3, Target 5 & 6 and Selin-Bokoro West Extension

● Oxide and transitional material make up +90% of the Exploration Target

● The Exploration Target will form the basis of future drill programmes to expand the recently published July 2022 Mineral Resource estimate

● The Exploration Target was focused on brownfield areas within 8km of the existing Mineral Resource and was predominantly estimated using drill data

Bert Monro, Chief Executive Officer of Cora, commented, “This Exploration Target, focused on brownfield areas at Sanankoro, all within 8km of existing deposits, is clear evidence of our opportunity to considerably expand our Mineral Resource over time. The Exploration Target shows the uplift potential for an additional 1.37 Moz of gold over and above our existing 920 koz Mineral Resource at Sanankoro.  This Exploration Target will be used as part of our planning of future exploration programmes as we look to grow our flagship Sanankoro Gold Project.

“Cora remains fully focussed on the DFS and looks forward to updating shareholders on its progress during the quarter.”

Sanankoro Gold Project Map

Figure 1:  Map showing the locations of the deposits and discoveries at the Sanankoro Gold Project

Geology

Sanankoro is located on the leading western edge of the Yanfolila-Kalana Volcanic Belt, which is the western-most expression of the cratonic Baoulé-Mossi domain, on the major transcrustal margin with the Siguiri Basin. There is major deep-seated structural architecture across the district which links the major gold mines at Siguiri, Lero, Tri-K, Kalana and Yanfolila.

The Sanankoro property is underlain by a Paleoproterozoic Birimian volcano-sedimentary formation that trends north-northeast to south-southwest, controlled by regional-scale shear zones. The formations comprise intercalated units of weakly metamorphosed feldspathic sandstones, siltstones and phyllites, often with a carbonaceous component. Volcanoclastic sediments/tuffs of acidic to intermediate composition occur within the sedimentary package in conjunction with both mafic (dioritic-gabbroic composition) and felsic igneous intrusive units locally incorporated (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Geology of the Sanankoro Project (SRK 2019)

On a project scale, Sanankoro is characterised by the 2km wide Sanankoro Shear Zone, which can be traced over 30km from Kabaya South in the western Yanfolila mine area to north of the Niger River beyond Selin and onto Karan. Within the Project area, each of the prospects are underpinned by a strong linear parallel, and where strong mineralisation is developed, a pronounced localised northeast-southwest focused zone of en-echelon veining and associated sulphide development.

Gold mineralisation occurs along a large surficial elevated gold anomaly (>50 ppb Au) of approximately 4.5km x 7.5km, an area characterised by widespread artisanal mining activity. The observed imagery indicates that artisanal miners appear to be exploiting alluvial and eluvial ferruginous and kaolinitic regolith material.

Given the approximate extents of the artisanal gold workings, two well defined trends are evident. Most of the larger workings are elongated in a north-northeast to south-southwest orientation (approximately 010°), a trend that is consistent with regional structures and gold mineralised zones in Mali. Oblique to this is a southeast-northwest trend (approximately 120°), along which artisanal workings are preferentially elongated. Structurally, the property includes mapped and inferred linear and curvilinear north-south and northeast-southwest orientated faults, with most annotated as being associated with dextral movement.

The dominant form of structural development is shear/thrust fronts with secondary internal shear zones and local folding, most of which are now steeply dipping. Gold mineralisation broadly occurs within planar zones that dip steeply to the east at approximately 70°. However, given the apparent structural control on mineralisation, this represents a generalisation and localised variation, and complexities will inevitably occur.

Exploration Data

Exploration drilling focused on regional exploration, targeting known and potential areas of shallow mineralisation, and included air core, auger, pits, trenches and rotary air blast (‘RAB’) drilling. Most of the historical exploration activities on the Sanankoro property were completed between the mid-2000s and 2012 by Randgold Resources Limited (merged with Barrick Gold Corporation in 2018) and Gold Fields Limited, and included soil sampling, termite mound sampling, ground geophysical surveying (induced polarisation, resistivity, magnetics), trenching, drilling, and associated sampling.

Cora commenced exploration in 2017 and has subsequently completed detailed geological and regolith mapping across an area of some 120km² at a scale of mainly 1:2,000 over both the Sanankoro and Bokoro II permits, although local areas more distant from the primary structural corridor were covered at a scale of 1:5,000. This work was supported by termite mound sampling and mapping of artisanal workings

Between December 2017 and April 2022, Cora completed 1,321 drill holes across the Sanankoro Project area for a total of 99,834 m. This drilling was a combination of reverse circulation (‘RC’), air core (‘AC’), RAB and diamond drill (‘DD’) holes, with diamond core tails on a small number of RC and AC holes (Table 1).

Table 1: Cora drilling (2017-2022)

Exploration Target

Criteria used to define the Exploration Target areas were based primarily on identifying continuous mineralised zones above a threshold of 0.1 g/t Au that were located along the primary NNE-SSW trend that is the preferred structural control to gold mineralisation at Sanankoro. The data used to estimate the Exploration Target comprised of predominantly drilling data. The Exploration Target considered all available drilling data and included a total of 3,363 drill holes. A total of 12 Exploration Target areas were identified and modelled. The Exploration Target is in addition to the existing Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource of 24.9 Mt at a grade of 1.15 g/t Au reported in July 2022.

12 areas were identified (Figure 3) based on:

● the extrapolation of the current Mineral Resource estimate ( ‘MRE‘) i.e., mineralisation outside the reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction (‘RPEEE‘) pit shells at Selin, Zone A, Zone B North, Zone B, and Zone C

● targeted drilling that intersected mineralisation beyond the MRE areas

Figure 3:Plan view of the Exploration Target areas

The model informing the July 2022 MRE was used for the areas below the RPEEE pit shells. Other areas were modelled at a 0.1 g/t Au threshold value and to a depth between 120 m and 170 m below surface, depending on the depth of the drill holes in each area. The 0.1 g/t Au threshold was used to ensure continuity between drill holes. The number and type of drill holes informing the different areas are summarised in Table 2. The mineralisation is generally consistent along strike and down dip, with volumes similar in shape to the modelled areas of the 2022 MRE. The most significant geological risk identified is the uncertainty in the depth extent and grade continuity of the gold mineralisation outside of the Mineral Resource.

The grade range was determined using a cut-off of 0.4 g/t Au (equivalent to the 2022 MRE cut-off). The 30^th and 70^th percentiles were used to determine the grade range within each volume. The modelled volumes were split by weathering/oxidation surfaces into oxide, transitional and fresh. Representative volumes for the 0.4 g/t Au cut-off were determined using the ratio between the total sample length informing the modelled volume against the total sample length informing the cut-off. The volume range was determined using ±15% of the modelled volume.  Density values were applied to the weathering/oxidation domains, such that oxide material has a density of 1.86 t/m³, transitional 2.58 t/m³ and fresh a density of 2.74 t/m³. The densities applied were the same as applied for the July 2022 MRE. The tonnage range was determined using the modelled volume range multiplied by density. Approximately 50% of the Exploration Target is in oxide, 40% in transitional and 10% fresh material. The minimum gold content is estimated from the minimum tonnage and grade and maximum content from the maximum tonnage and grade.

Table 2: Drillhole type and count informing the Exploration Target by area

The Exploration Target for Sanankoro is estimated to contain between 26.0 Mt and 35.2 Mt with a grade range of 0.58 g/t Au to 1.21 g/t Au (490koz to 1,370 koz) (Table 3). The potential quantity and grade of the Exploration Target is conceptual in nature and is therefore an approximation. There has been insufficient exploration drilling to estimate a Mineral Resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the estimation of a Mineral Resource.

Additional drilling is under consideration to validate the size of the Exploration Target and identify further areas of interest.

Over the coming months, future exploration budgets and drill plans will be considered with the aim of upgrading the Exploration Target areas in the Table 3 to further increase the mine life and Mineral Resource growth at Sanankoro before gold production commences.

Table 3: Sanankoro Exploration Target (15 September 2022)

Quality Assurance/ Quality Control

The Exploration Target is informed by Cora Gold and historical drill holes (pre-Cora). The historical drill holes have no quality control results available

Cora has implemented an extensive QAQC programme which includes the analyses of blanks, certified reference materials (‘CRMs’), duplicates and screen test work for all laboratories. One blank and one CRM is inserted into sample batches at a rate of 1:20. Cora has both oxide and sulphide CRMs, and these are inserted depending on the material of the sample batches, such that the CRM matches the sample material type.

Competent Persons Statement

The information in this release that relates to the Exploration Target was reviewed by Mr Anton Geldenhuys, a Competent Person who is a Member of the South African Council for National Scientific Professions (SACNASP). Mr Geldenhuys (Principal Resource Consultant) is an independent consultant with CSA Global and has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration, and to the activity which he is undertaking, to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the ‘Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves’. Mr Geldenhuys consents to the inclusion in this release of the Exploration Target in the form and context in which it appears. Mr Geldenhuys confirms that the information contained in the Appendix of this release that relates to the reporting of the Exploration Target at Sanankoro is an accurate representation of the available data. In addition, Mr Anton Geldenhuys qualifies as a Competent Person in accordance with the guidance note for Mining, Oil & Gas Companies issued by the London Stock Exchange in respect of AIM Companies, which outlines standards of disclosure for mineral projects.

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