Lion One Metals drills 80.78 g/t gold over 6.6 metres in the Main Zone at Tuvatu, Fiji

Lion One Metals Limited [LIO-TSXV; LOMLF-OTCQX; LLO-ASX] report exceptional high-grade gold results from ongoing infill and grade control drilling at its 100%-owned Tuvatu Alkaline Gold Project in Fiji.

Assay results are presented here for infill and grade control drilling completed in the Zone 5 area of the deposit, which encompasses the near-surface portions of lodes UR1 to UR8, as well as URW2A and URW3. The Zone 5 area of the deposit is scheduled for mining in early 2024.

Grade control drilling is being conducted in anticipation of future mining and is therefore focused on the first part of Zone 5 to be mined whereas infill drilling is focused on the parts of Zone 5 scheduled to be mined later. Zone 5 includes the main north-south oriented lodes at Tuvatu (UR1, UR2, and UR3), and represents the upward extension of the Zone 500 feeder zone, which includes intercepts such as 20.86 g/t gold over 75.9 metres (TUG-141), 12.22 g/t gold over 54.90 metres (TUDDH-601), and 17.52 g/t gold over 23.7 metres (TUDDH-608).

Zone 5 will be the second major part of Tuvatu to commence mining after mining in the URW1 area began May 18, 2023. Once Zone 5 is in production, Tuvatu will have two major zones of very high-grade, near surface mineralization developing and producing simultaneously.

Highlights of new Zone 5 drilling: 80.78 g/t Au over 6.6 m (including 793.24 g/t Au over 0.6 m) (TUDDH-643, from 242.7 m depth); 261.93 g/t Au over 1.8 m (including 1839.55 g/t Au over 0.3 m) (TGC-0067, from 48.2 m depth); 93.05 g/t Au over 0.9 m (including 300.47 g/t Au over 0.3 m) (TGC-0067, from 53.3 m depth);9.96 g/t Au over 6.8 m (including 165.95 g/t Au over 0.3 m) (TUDDH-653, from 89.5 m depth); 17.48 g/t Au over 3.3 m (including 95.63 g/t Au over 0.6 m) (TUDDH-643, from 111.6 m depth); 17.2 g/t Au over 2.7 m (including 124.52 g/t Au over 0.3 m) (TUDDH-651, from 194.5 m depth); 11.84 g/t Au over 3.9 m (including 48.27 g/t Au over 0.6 m) (TUDDH-650, from 203.5 m depth); 9.53 g/t Au over 3.9 m (including 55.08 g/t Au over 0.3 m) (TUDDH-653, from 53.0 m depth); 15.96 g/t Au over 1.5 m (including 72.46 g/t Au over 0.3 m) (TUDDH-637, from 161.7 m depth); 14.93 g/t Au over 1.5 m (including 23.89 g/t Au over 0.9 m) (TUDDH-650, from 192.6 m depth).

Infill drilling is being conducted from surface on approximately 20-metre centres while grade control drilling is being conducted from underground on 5-10 metre centres. Infill drilling is considered an intermediate stage of drilling and is designed to increase understanding of the deposit in targeted areas whereas grade control drilling is designed to provide much higher resolution and detailed understanding of the geometry and mineralization of lode arrays in advance of underground development.

Zone 5 is located along the main north-south corridor of Tuvatu and represents the shallower portions of the UR lodes, occurring between the surface and the exploration decline.

The results reported in this news release therefore represent high-grade mineralization that is the direct vertical upward extension of the Zone 500 feeder zone. The region between Zone 5 and Zone 500 has only been tested by relatively wide-spaced exploration drilling. The results reported here represent the initial stages of a more systematic infill and locally grade control drilling program in Zone 5, which has a strike length over 300 metres in the north-south direction and a vertical extent of approximately 250 metres.

A total of 14 Zone 5 infill drillholes are included in this news release. The infill drill program was drilled from surface and was designed to target the near-surface portions of the main UR lodes.

The Tuvatu Alkaline Gold Project is located on the island of Viti Levu in Fiji. The January 2018 mineral resource for Tuvatu as disclosed in the technical report “Technical Report and Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Tuvatu Gold Project, Republic of Fiji”, dated September 25, 2020, and prepared by Mining Associates Pty Ltd of Brisbane Qld, comprises 1,007,000 tonnes indicated at 8.50 g/t Au (274,600 oz. Au) and 1,325,000 tonnes inferred at 9.0 g/t Au (384,000 oz. Au) at a cut-off grade of 3.0 g/t Au.

Lion One’s flagship asset is 100%-owned, fully permitted high grade Tuvatu Alkaline Gold Project, located on the island of Viti Levu in Fiji. Lion One envisions a low-cost high-grade underground gold mining operation at Tuvatu coupled with exploration upside inside its tenements covering the entire Navilawa Caldera, an underexplored yet highly prospective 7km diameter alkaline gold system.