Imperial Mining’s Opawica Project Drilling Confirms Presence of Gold in the Central Zone Shear Structure

MONTREAL, May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Imperial Mining Group Ltd. ("Imperial") (TSX VENTURE: IPG) is pleased to announce that partial assay results have been received for Drillhole O-20002 (see Press Release : April 9, 2020) on its 100%-owned Opawica Gold project in the Abitibi region of northwestern Québec (Figure 1). The results confirm the presence of significant gold mineralization averaging 1.21 g/t Au over a 13.3 m core length with smaller intervals grading up to 3.11 g/t Au over 1.1 m within the Central Zone Structure.

“These partial results confirm the potential of the Central Zone shear structure which remains untested over most of its two km strike length,” said Peter Cashin, Imperial’s President & CEO. “Although unable to probe the gold structure at the intended 150 m vertical depth, geological observations in the drill core confirm a very favourable environment for economic gold deposits. Our upcoming project plans will use this new information to target further drilling to evaluate the gold potential over the entire strike length of the favourable structure. We currently await the assay results from the remaining holes completed during the program.”

Drilling was undertaken to evaluate areas of economically significant historical gold intersections (6.9 g/t Au over 3.8m and 5.1 g/t Au over 2.8m), as well as geophysical/geological targets favourable to gold concentration in the area. Of importance was the intersection, in drillhole O-20002, of an intense deformation and alteration structure containing 1% to 15% pyrite, minor pyrrhotite and occasional chalcopyrite and tourmaline. The intensity of the structural deformation, favourable alteration and sulphide mineralization observed has led Imperial staff to interpret the area as highly prospective for economic gold deposits.

The gold-bearing section sits downhole and adjacent to a moderately to strongly sericitized quartz-feldspar porphyry dyke, which is interpreted to represent an important marker horizon for the siting of gold on the property. This significant finding will be used to guide future exploration on the property moving forward. Significant assays from this first hole are reported Table 1 and in Figure 2.

(NOTE: Historical diamond drill results included in this release were obtained from data compilation and verification of available technical reports, including analytical records, submitted to the Quebec Government for property assessment purposes. All previous drill-holes, cross-sections and analytical results were verified from the Quebec Government SIGEOM geoscientific database. No issues were observed or noted during the data validation period.)