Wallbridge Commences First Phase of Drilling at Martiniere

TORONTO, March 04, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wallbridge Mining Company Limited (TSX: WM, OTCQX: WLBMF) (“Wallbridge” or the “Company”) today announced the start of approximately 7,500 meters of diamond drilling with two rigs at its Martiniere gold project located in Northern Abitibi, Quebec, 30 kilometres west of the Company’s Fenelon gold project and 45 kilometres east of Agnico Eagle’s Detour Lake gold mine.

The 2024 drill campaign at Martiniere has been designed to meet three principal objectives:

• to expand and upgrade the current gold resource;
• to collect a representative sample of mineralized material for metallurgical characterization studies; and,
• to collect oriented drill core data to support geotechnical rock mass characterization studies.
  

The 2024 drill program will be conducted in two phases. This first phase is to be completed during March and April; phase 2 will be based on the results returned from phase 1 and is scheduled to commence in early Q3. The results from the Martiniere drilling program will be incorporated into a combined Fenelon/Martiniere Preliminary Economic Assessment (“PEA”) scheduled for completion in early 2026.

“Given its close proximity to Fenelon, the current 684,300 ounce indicated and 632,300-ounce inferred gold resources and indications that Martiniere is part of a substantially larger gold system, continued exploration is clearly warranted to better define the principal controls on mineralization, identify the centers of higher gold grades and delineate the overall limits of the mineral resource,” said CEO Brian Penny.

Wallbridge recently completed its nine-hole, 2,500 metre first phase of drilling targeting near-surface high-grade gold mineralization at the Fenelon project site. Assays are pending. The second phase of drilling at Fenelon will be developed once final results of phase 1 have been received and incorporated into the geologic model.

About Wallbridge Mining

Wallbridge is focused on creating value through the exploration and sustainable development of gold projects along the Detour-Fenelon Gold Trend in Québec’s Northern Abitibi region while respecting the environment and communities where it operates.

Wallbridge’s most advanced projects, Fenelon Gold (“Fenelon”) and Martiniere Gold (“Martiniere”) incorporate a combined 3.05 million ounces of indicated gold resources and 2.35 million ounces of inferred gold resources. Fenelon and Martiniere are located within an 830 square kilometre exploration land package controlled by Wallbridge.