MONTREAL – Management of SIRIOS (TSX-V: SOI) is pleased to announce assay results of the first six drill holes, totaling 1,580 metres, of the winter drilling campaign completed last March on the Cheechoo gold project at Eeyou Istchee James Bay, Quebec. Five drill holes, forming a section located west of the Cheechoo gold deposit, have all intersected the extension of the auriferous mineralization, confirming the current model. This recent mineralization, that is for the most part located outside the conceptual pit, has demonstrated the potential of increasing the resource toward the west. Drill holes #248, 249 and 254 ended in gold mineralization that continues at depth.
Among the significant results:
CH20-246: 2.2 g/t Au over 11.1 m, including 4.7 g/t Au over 4.6 m
1.2 g/t Au over 26.5 m
CH20-248: 1.0 g/t Au over 19.6 m, including 4.6 g/t Au over 4.0 m
CH20-253: 1.1 g/t Au over 12.5 m
0.5 g/t Au over 59.5 m
The holes were stopped at a vertical depth of 250 m based on the current conceptual pit limits. While the recent mineralization was intersected in the bottom part of the holes, the casing has been left in place and these drill holes can be extended in the future if necessary.
The first resource estimate, published in December 2019 and based on an open-pit model, resulted in an inferred resource of 1.6 million ounces of gold hosted in 71.0 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.69 grams of gold per tonne with a waste to ore strip ratio of 1.1: 1. In addition, a significant potential for increasing the current mineral resources has been identified with the possible extension of the pit to the west. This is what the current drill results seem to indicate, along with the possibility of adding an additional 25% more ounces of gold on the Cheechoo property in the event of an agreement with the owners of the neighbouring property can be reached to access this material. The resource estimate was defined using US $ 1,300 per ounce of gold and a cut-off grade of 0.3 g/t Au (ref. Press release of December 11, 2019, NI report 43-101, www.sirios.com).
The significant results are illustrated on the vertical section and presented in the table below.
SIGNIFICANT DRILL RESULTS #246, 248, 249, 251, 253, 2541
| Drill holes CH20- | From | To | Width | Au (g/t) |
| 246 | 83.5 | 96.1 | 12.6 | 0.4 |
| 111.3 | 123.1 | 11.8 | 0.5 | |
| 134.3 | 145.4 | 11.1 | 2.2 | |
| incl. 137.0 | 141.6 | 4.6 | 4.7 | |
| 192.5 | 219.0 | 26.5 | 1.2 | |
| incl. 194.0 | 204.6 | 10.6 | 2.4 | |
| 207.7 | 213.0 | 5.3 | 1.1 | |
| 226.5 | 232.5 | 6.0 | 0.6 | |
| 248 | 28.0 | 47.6 | 19.6 | 1.0 |
| incl. 40.9 | 44.9 | 4.0 | 4.6 | |
| 124.5 | 130.4 | 6.0 | 0.4 | |
| 249 | 223.0 | 241.0 | 18.0 | 0.5 |
| 251 | 204.0 | 212.7 | 8.7 | 0.4 |
| 259.2 | 264.6 | 5.4 | 0.3 | |
| 253 | 130.0 | 142.5 | 12.5 | 1.1 |
| incl. 131.8 | 136.4 | 4.6 | 2.2 | |
| 148.6 | 162.0 | 13.4 | 0.4 | |
| 167.3 | 190.3 | 23.0 | 0.3 | |
| 195.5 | 255.0 | 59.5 | 0.5 | |
| incl. 228.8 | 234.6 | 5.8 | 1.1 | |
| 286.0 | 293.5 | 7.5 | 0.7 | |
| 254 | 286.4 | 301.0 | 14.6 | 0.6 |
| incl. 289.4 | 293.1 | 3.7 | 1.2 |
1The mineralized intervals were selected following the criteria used for the resource estimate of 0.3 g/t Au (cut-off grade) and a minimum length of 5 m.
A table of collar coordinates is available at the following link:
https://www.sirios.com/bd-coordinates-drilled-20200512
The winter 2019 drilling campaign on Cheechoo included 22 NQ-size drill holes, for a total of 5,237 meters drilled. Due to the restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, assay results were received with a significantly longer than normal delay.
Sirios’100% owned Cheechoo property is located in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region of Quebec, approximately 800 km north of Montreal, 200 km east of Wemindji and less than 10 km from Goldcorp’s Éléonore gold mine. The property hosts the Cheechoo deposit of Sirios where the first resource estimate defined more than 1.6 million gold ounces with a strong potential for an increase.
Assay quality control
All NQ drill core are logged by Sirios personnel at the Cheechoo exploration camp. The drill core is then sent to Rouyn-Noranda to be sawed in half, with one half sent to a commercial laboratory for assaying and other half kept for future reference. A strict QA/QC program is in place by integrating blanks and certified reference standards to the core sample sequence. The samples are assayed for gold by fire assay with an atomic absorption finish by Actlabs. Samples assaying greater than 2 g/t Au as well as drill core samples with visible gold are assayed by fire assay with metallic sieve on a 1 kg sample.
Jordi Turcotte, MSc., Geo., and Dominique Doucet, P. Eng., Qualified Persons pursuant to National Instrument 43-101, prepared and verified the technical information of this press release, as well as reviewed the final text.
About Sirios
Founded in 1995, Sirios Resources develops and explores its own mining exploration projects. Pioneer in the discovery of significant gold deposits in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region of Quebec, Canada, over the years, Sirios focuses mainly on its Cheechoo gold deposit while actively exploring the auriferous potential of the Eeyou Istchee James Bay area in Quebec.