Lion One Drills 4.8 m of 30.48 g/t Gold in Near-Mine Expansion at Tuvatu

North Vancouver, British Columbia–(Newsfile Corp. – May 8, 2024) – Lion One Metals Limited (TSXV: LIO) (OTCQX: LOMLF) (ASX: LLO) (“Lion One” or the “Company”) is pleased to report significant new high-grade gold results from near-mine expansion drilling at its 100% owned Tuvatu Alkaline Gold Project in Fiji.

Assay results are presented here for near-mine expansion drilling in the Murau down-dip extension and SKL areas of Tuvatu. Both areas are outside the current mine plan yet are close to current underground workings and are being brought into the mine plan for late 2024 and 2025. The Murau down-dip extension drilling represents an expansion of the Murau lode system in Zone 2, which will be entering production in CY Q3 2024. Previous drill results from the Murau system are available in news releases dated April 25, 2024 and October 19, 2023. The SKL area is in Zone 5 near the entrance to the historical exploration adit and is one of Lion One’s priority resource expansion targets. High-grade results have been returned from both the Murau down-dip extension and the SKL target areas.

Highlights of near-mine drill results (3.0 g/t cutoff):

• 64.46 g/t Au over 8.1 m (including 268.36 g/t Au over 1.2 m) (TGC-0150, from 16.5 m depth)
• 30.48 g/t Au over 4.8 m (including 104.55 g/t Au over 0.6 m) (TUDDH-732, from 36.1 m depth)
• 39.05 g/t Au over 3.3 m (including 223.05 g/t Au over 0.3 m) (TUDDH-729, from 98.8 m depth)
• 76.49 g/t Au over 1.2 m (TUDDH-715, from 174.8 m depth)
• 71.46 g/t Au over 0.9 m (TUDDH-704, from 84.9 m depth)
• 28.44 g/t Au over 2.1 m (including 45.96 g/t Au over 1.2 m) (TGC-0150, from 43.8 m depth)
• 26.28 g/t Au over 2.1 m (including 66.32 g/t Au over 0.3 m) (TUDDH-728, from 51.4 m depth)
• 20.89 g/t Au over 2.4 m (including 38.76 g/t Au over 0.6 m) (TUDDH-710, from 75.2 m depth)
• 26.56 g/t Au over 1.8 m (including 52.34 g/t Au over 0.6 m) (TUDDH-710, from 101.3 m depth)
• 8.51 g/t Au over 5.0 m (including 54.34 g/t Au over 0.3 m) (TUDDH-727, from 184.4 m depth)

*All drill intersects are downhole lengths

Figure 1. Location of Murau extension and SKL near-mine expansion drillholes. Left image: Plan view of Tuvatu showing Murau and SKL drillholes in relation to the mineralized lodes at Tuvatu, shown in grey. Right image: Oblique view of Murau and SKL drilling looking approximately northeast.

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Table 1. Highlights of composited drill results in the Murau Extension and SKL areas, 3.0 g/t Au cutoff. For full results see Table 4 and Table 5 in the Appendix.

*All drill intersects are downhole lengths

Murau Extension Drilling

The Murau lode system is located in the Zone 2 area of Tuvatu, in the northwest part of the deposit. It has historically been modelled as a series of relatively flat-lying lodes that strike approximately east-west and dip moderately to the south. The system is now understood to consist of a stockwork zone of mineralization dipping moderately to the SSW. Underground development has reached the upper portion of the Murau system and additional development is underway ahead of the start of production from the Murau system in Q3 2024.

The Murau drilling included in this release targeted the down-dip extension of the Murau system. A total of 34 Murau drillholes are included in this release, including 18 holes drilled from underground and 16 drilled from surface. The drilling targeted a down-dip area of the Murau system over a strike length of 50 m and a dip length of 115 m, with a drill density of 20 m. This area is outside the current mine plan and is being brought into the mine plan for late 2024 and 2025. The Murau system remains open at depth and along strike.

Figure 2. Murau down-dip extension drilling with high-grade intersects highlighted, 3.0 g/t gold cutoff.

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SKL Drilling

The SKL lodes are located in the Zone 5 area of Tuvatu, in the northeast part of the deposit proximal to the historical exploration adit. They are north of the steeply dipping UR lodes, which are the primary lodes in Zone 5. Minor underground development and trial mining was conducted on the SKL lodes in the late 1990s, and some confirmatory infill drilling was completed in 2019. No significant drilling has been completed on the SKL lodes since 2019 and the SKL drilling reported here represents the start of the first modern systematic drill program targeting the area.

The SKL lodes have historically been modelled as a series of stacked flat-lying mineralized lodes, known as flatmakes. They typically have limited lateral extent, approximately 50 m to 100 m, but with very high bonanza grades (>30 g/t gold). These lodes are associated with stockwork veining, similar to the URW1 and Murau lodes in Zone 2. A total of 27 SKL lodes have been modelled at Tuvatu, including 11 SKLW lodes which are located west of the historical exploration adit, and 16 SKL lodes which are located proximal to and east of the exploration adit. The drilling reported in this news release targeted 11 of those lodes; SKL1 to SKL7, as well as SKL1A, SKL1B, SKL2A, and SKL7A. The SKL lodes are not included in the current mine plan at Tuvatu. The purpose of this drilling was to confirm the orientation of the mineralization so that a follow-up infill drill program can be designed. The goal of the infill drill program will be to bring the SKL mineralization into the mine plan for 2025. The current SKL drill program is ongoing.

Figure 3. SKL exploration drilling with high-grade intersects highlighted, 3.0 g/t gold cutoff. The SKL lode system has historically been modelled as a series of stacked flat-lying mineralized lodes (light brown). The drillholes reported here are the first modern drillholes designed to target the SKL lodes and represent near-mine expansion of the Tuvatu resource. View is to the northeast.

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Qualified Person (NI43-101)

In accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (“NI 43- 101”), Alex Nichol, MAIG, VP Geology and Exploration, is the Qualified Person for the Company, and has reviewed, validated, and approved the technical and scientific content of this news release.

Lion One Laboratories / QAQC

Lion One adheres to rigorous QAQC procedures above and beyond basic regulatory guidelines in conducting its drilling, sampling, testing, and analyses. The Company operates its own geochemical assay laboratory and its own fleet of 5 diamond drill rigs using PQ, HQ and NQ sized drill rods.

Diamond drill core samples are logged and split by Lion One personnel on site and delivered to the Lion One Laboratory for preparation and analysis. All samples are pulverized at the Lion One lab to 85% passing through 75 microns and gold analysis is carried out using fire assay with an AA finish. Samples that return grades greater than 10.00 g/t Au are re-analyzed by gravimetric method, which is considered more accurate for very high-grade samples.

Duplicates of 5% of samples with grades above 0.5 g/t Au are delivered to ALS Global Laboratories in Australia for check assay determinations using the same methods (Au-AA26 and Au-GRA22 where applicable). ALS also analyses 33 pathfinder elements by HF-HNO3-HClO4 acid digestion, HCl leach and ICP-AES (method ME-ICP61). The Lion One lab can test a range of up to 71 elements through Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES), but currently focuses on a suite of 23 important pathfinder elements with an aqua regia digest and ICP-OES finish.

About Lion One Metals Limited

Lion One Metals is an emerging Canadian gold producer headquartered in North Vancouver BC, with new operations established in late 2023 at its 100% owned Tuvatu Alkaline Gold Project in Fiji. The Tuvatu project comprises the high-grade Tuvatu Alkaline Gold Deposit, the Underground Gold Mine, the Pilot Plant, and the Assay Lab. The Company also has an extensive exploration license covering the entire Navilawa Caldera, which is host to multiple mineralized zones and highly prospective exploration targets.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,
Walter Berukoff, Chairman & CEO

Contact Information
Investor inquiries: [email protected]
Phone:1-855-805-1250 (toll free North America)
Website: www.liononemetals.com

Neither the TSX-V nor its Regulation Service Provider accepts responsibility or the adequacy or accuracy of this release

This press release may contain statements that may be deemed to be “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are forward-looking information. Generally, forward-looking information may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “plans”, “expects” or “does not expect”, “proposed”, “is expected”, “budget”, “scheduled”, “estimates”, “forecasts”, “intends”, “anticipates” or “does not anticipate”, or “believes”, or variations of such words and phrases, or by the use of words or phrases which state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, or might occur or be achieved. This forward-looking information reflects Lion One Metals Limited’s current beliefs and is based on information currently available to Lion One Metals Limited and on assumptions Lion One Metals Limited believes are reasonable. These assumptions include, but are not limited to, the actual results of exploration projects being equivalent to or better than estimated results in technical reports, assessment reports, and other geological reports or prior exploration results. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance, or achievements of Lion One Metals Limited or its subsidiaries to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors may include, but are not limited to: the stage development of Lion One Metals Limited, general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; the actual results of current research and development or operational activities; competition; uncertainty as to patent applications and intellectual property rights; product liability and lack of insurance; delay or failure to receive board or regulatory approvals; changes in legislation, including environmental legislation, affecting mining, timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms; not realizing on the potential benefits of technology; conclusions of economic evaluations; and lack of qualified, skilled labor or loss of key individuals. Although Lion One Metals Limited has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated, or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Lion One Metals Limited does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Appendix 1: Full Drill Results and Collar Information

Table 2. Collar coordinates for Murau Extension drillholes reported in this release. Coordinates are in Fiji map grid.

Table 3. Collar coordinates for SKL drillholes reported in this release. Coordinates are in Fiji map grid.

Table 4. Composited results from Murau Extension drillholes reported in this release (grade >3.0 g/t Au)

Table 5. Composited results from SKL drillholes reported in this release (grade >3.0 g/t Au)

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/208360