Montage Gold Corp. Closes Acquisition of Mankono JV from Barrick and Endeavour Exploration of High-Grade Targets

VANCOUVER, BC, Nov. 22, 2022 /CNW/ – Montage Gold Corp. (“Montage” or the “Company”) (TSXV: MAU) (OTCQX: MAUTF) is pleased to announce that it has closed the acquisition of a 100% indirect interest (the “Transaction”) in the Mankono Sissédougou Joint Venture Project (“Mankono”) from subsidiaries of Barrick Gold Corporation (“Barrick”) and Endeavour Mining plc (“Endeavour”).

Montage has acquired 100% of the issued and outstanding shares of Mankono Exploration Limited (a Jersey company) (“MEL”), which indirectly holds Mankono, for total consideration of C$30,000,000 comprised of C$14,500,000 in cash, 22,142,857 common shares of Montage, and the granting of a 2% NSR royalty. Closing of the Transaction follows the receipt by Mankono of the signed Presidential decrees granting it the Gbongogo Exploration Permit (“Gbongogo”) as well as the Sisséplé Exploration Permit (“Sisséplé”).

HIGHLIGHTS

• Montage closes acquisition of Mankono
• With Mankono, consolidated Koné Gold Project (“KGP”) now covers 2,258km²
• Drilling has started on Mankono properties
• 14 drill-ready targets; 25,000m of drilling planned
• Two drill rigs mobilized to cover six initial target areas
• First assay results expected in December
• Transaction will expand the KGP
• High-grade reserves delineated following planned exploration could significantly improve KGP
• KGP economic study will be revised following exploration program
• High-Grade Gbongogo priority prospect to be drill tested
• Initial Inferred Mineral Resource of 5.2Mt at 2.1g/t for 351,000oz at 1.2g/t cut off
• Open in all directions
• 30km trucking distance from Koné deposit
• RC drilling targeting strike extensions north and south
• Five additional district targets being drilled
• Initial RC drilling to be completed before year-end
• Target areas include several historic high-grade intercepts, including:
• Koban North: 20m at 1.94g/t, 21m at 1.67g/t
• Lokolo Main: 20m at 2.19g/t
• Sena: 19m at 1.75g/t
• Sisséplé North anomalies improve with infill soil program
• Two anomalies, each over 1km in strike length, averaging over 100ppb
• Montage welcomes new shareholders Barrick (9.7%) and Endeavour (4.1%)

Rick Clark, Montage CEO commented, “We are very pleased to be closing the acquisition of Mankono and would like to acknowledge the efforts of Barrick and Endeavour in achieving this result and to sincerely thank the Government of Côte d’Ivoire for its support of this transaction.

With the addition of Mankono, our consolidated land position grows to more than 2,250km² over one of the most prolific gold belts in West Africa at the centre of which is our Koné deposit. Drilling has started on our newly acquired ground looking to add higher grade resources to the Koné development plan. Based on our evaluation of the historic data from Mankono we believe that, in addition to the Inferred Mineral Resource at Gbongogo, the rest of the Mankono land package has the real potential for additional discoveries totalling 0.8Moz to 1.2Moz at similar grades (between 1.5-2.5g/t Au)^*. We very much look forward to reporting on the progress of our aggressive exploration program, which is designed to maximize the potential of a strong economic mining operation centered on Koné.

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank our shareholders and our investors, who funded Montage in this transaction, for their patience and confidence in our team to execute what we expect will be a game changer for Montage into 2023.

Finally, we welcome the addition of Barrick and Endeavour as new shareholders and look forward to working with all our stakeholders in achieving our goals.”

DETAILS

District Consolidation

Montage’s expanded KGP (Figure 1) forms a contiguous block of 1,800km² of exploration permits and a further 458km² of exploration permit applications, for a total of 2,258km². Mankono includes the Gbongogo Exploration Permit (PR919, 400km², issued Sept 2022), the Sisséplé Exploration Permit (PR920, 106km², issued Sept 2022) and the Sissédougou Exploration Permit (PR842, 387km², issued July 2019). The KGP now covers a strike length of over 75km on one of the most prospective gold belts in West Africa, connecting Syama to the north with the Séguéla project in the south with over 23Moz of gold discovered to date (Figure 2).

Montage’s exploration objective is to identify high-grade satellite deposits of +50-100koz grading +1.5g/t that can be combined with the large-scale Koné deposit.

Historic exploration spending on the combined land package is approximately US$20 million which has defined over 60 strike-kilometres in soil anomalism and more than 20 targets through drilling and trenching in addition to significant artisanal mining activity in multiple areas.

Montage has spent the last four months compiling all historic work and has been on the ground for the last month in preparation for the start of drilling.

Figure 1: Consolidated Land Position

Figure 2: Position within Broader District

Exploration Strategy

Montage will concentrate on district exploration for the next 12 months with the primary objective of adding multiple high-grade satellite deposits to an expanded Koné Gold Project.

The top priority is the Gbongogo Prospect (Inferred Mineral Resource of 5.2Mt at 2.1g/t for 351koz) which has delivered intercepts of 135.2m at 2.63g/t from 1m, 92m at 2.99g/t from 33m and 77m at 2.48g/t from 61m in previous drilling. Drilling will start in the coming days targeting expansion and upgrade of this resource. Details of the previous drill results described in Figure 3 and Figure 4 are set out in Appendix 1.

In addition to Gbongogo, there are 13 other drill-ready targets for Montage to test and numerous other areas with strong anomalism on major structures that will receive follow-up work (see Figure 3).

Montage has developed an exploration plan that will include 25,000m of drilling across a total of 11 target areas over the next seven months.

Figure 3: Exploration Target Areas

Drilling Underway

At Gbongogo, an RC rig began drilling on November 21^st, and will execute a drill program designed to fully define the intrusive and targeting extension to the northeast and south (Figure 4).

Gbongogo lies 30km north of Koné and hosts an Inferred Mineral Resource of 5.2Mt grading 2.1g/t for 351koz at a 1.2g/t cut off. Mineralization at Gbongogo is hosted within and on the margins of a plunging quartz diorite plug with a surface expression of only 250m by 100m. High grades are controlled by two distinct groups of quartz-tourmaline veins with scope to develop the grade with systematic drilling.

Montage expects that Gbongogo can be upgraded and expanded quickly with the initial program of RC drilling which will then be followed by core drilling on the depth extensions in the New Year. This drilling is expected to upgrade the current inferred resource to the indicated category and provide samples for metallurgical test work so that the prospect can be incorporated into future engineering studies.

RC drilling will also target the area to the north-east where the strong soil anomaly extends and previous work and current artisanal mining shows the same alteration signature.

Figure 4: Drill plan and prospectivity at Gbongogo

A second RC rig arrived on site on November 3^rd (Figure 5) and will focus on first pass follow up on several district targets including Koban North, Sena, Lokolo North, Lokolo Main and Lokolo West before the Christmas break, as follows:

Figure 5: Drilling at Koban North, November 2023

Koban North

RC drilling targeting an area of mineralization across 200m width not previously followed up to the north and south including 20m at 1.94g/ and 21m at 1.67g/t.

Sena

RC drilling to follow up historic results from two Aircore holes including 19m at 1.57g/t and 19m at 1.75g/t.

Lokolo Main

RC drilling to follow up historic result of 13m at 2.29g/t in an area of artisanal workings; new workings identified nearby that are untested.

Lokolo North

RC drilling targeting a previously untested area of artisanal workings hosted by an intrusive (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Drill plan at Lokolo North

New Discoveries Within KGP

Two new, coherent, +100ppb gold anomalies have been defined and upgraded following three phases of soil sampling in the Sisséplé North Permit. In Figure 7, TZ_2 shows +100ppb anomalism over 1.25km strike and includes current artisanal mining areas. TZ_3 shows +100ppb anomalism over two separate areas of 1.0km in strike. Both anomalies will be targeted with aircore drilling in early 2023 to further develop the targets.

Figure 7: New Sisséplé North Anomalies

Completion of Mankono Acquisition

Pursuant to the share purchase agreement (the “Agreement”) signed by Montage with Barrick and Endeavour, Montage has acquired 100% of the outstanding shares of MEL in exchange for total consideration (the “Consideration”) of C$30,000,000, consisting of C$14,500,000 in cash and 22,142,857 common shares of Montage (priced at C$0.70 per common share), plus a 2% NSR royalty on Mankono. The Consideration has been split pro-rata on a 70/30 basis between Barrick and Endeavour.

In connection with the Transaction, Montage completed a C$20.0M financing through the sale of 28,571,429 Subscription Receipts at a price of C$0.70 per Subscription Receipt (the “Offering”). Concurrent with the closing of the Transaction, the proceeds from the Offering have been released from escrow and the Subscription Receipts have been exchanged on a 1:1 basis for common shares of Montage. Montage has received net proceeds of approximately C$5.2M from the Offering, after deducting all commissions, legal and TSXV fees associated with the Offering, interest charges and the cash consideration paid to Barrick and Endeavour. The Offering was led by Stifel GMP, as lead underwriter, on behalf of a syndicate of…