Orex Exploration is a former Canadian gold mining company that conducted exploration work on mining properties it owned in the Goldboro and Guysborough County areas of Nova Scotia. The properties owned by Orex were the sites of the former Boston Richardson Mine, Dolliver Mountain Mine, West Goldbrook Mine, and East Goldbrook Mine which operated between 1892 and 1912. Headquartered in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, the company was founded in 1987 and raised funds for exploration work, in part, by issuing stocks traded on the Montreal Stock Exchange and then the TSX Venture Exchange. It became a subsidiary of Anaconda Mining Inc. after Anaconda acquired the company in a stock swap deal in 2017.
Property Description
Orex's Goldboro main property consisted of 37 contiguous claims (600 hectares) held under license from the Province of Nova Scotia. It is located along the eastern shore of Nova Scotia and is wholly owned by Orex. The property is situated 185 kilometers northeast of Halifax and is accessible by a 2.5 kilometer unpaved road from Highway 316 which links the village of Goldboro, Nova Scotia to the town of Antigonish, NS. The main project location is found at Latitude: 45° 10´ North ; Longitude: 61° 40´ West (NTS 11F/04)
On November 26, 2009, following a joint venture agreement with Osisko Mining, Orex staked hundreds of additional contiguous claims which cover 960.8 square kilometers surrounding the Goldboro strike area. The current map of these claims highlighted in yellow is below. Initial exploration on these claims is now underway.
Resource Estimates
In September 2009, Orex published a Mineral Resource Estimate compliant with National Instrument 43-101 standards. They presented the resource estimate with a variety of cut off grades, the two most notable are represented below:
With a cut-off grade of 0.5 g/t Au, the Mineral Resource was as follows:
519,000 tonnes grading 3.08 g/t AU (51,400 ounces) within the Measured category
7,414,000 at 2.06 g/t Au (491,400 ounces) within the Indicated category; and
7,933,000 grading 2.13 g/t Au (542,800 ounces) within the Inferred category.
The Measured, Indicated and Inferred Resource represents a total of 15,866,000 tonnes grading 2.21 g/t Au (1,085,600 ounces).
The Results of the 2009 Mineral Resource Estimate with a cut-off grade of 1.50 g/t Au are as follows:
270,000 tonnes grading 4.99 g/t Au (43,300 ounces) within the Measured category
2,441,000 tonnes at 5.99 g/t Au (353,900 ounces) within the Indicated category; and 3,438,000 tonnes grading 3.67 g/t Au (405,900 ounces) within the Inferred category.
The Measured, Indicated and Inferred Resource represents a total of 2,711,000 tonnes grading 4.56 g/t Au (803,100 ounces).
A major issue with this estimate was that 96 DD samples used in previous reserve estimates were assigned a value of 0 g/t in the model due to less than complete historic sampling required for the new geological model being used. This resulted in a significantly lower than expected resource. Orex is currently resampling the areas that these holes covered as well as new areas.
Joint venture with Osisko
On November 12, 2009, Orex signed an option and joint venture agreement with Osisko Mining.
The key terms of the agreement are:
Osisko invested $1.3million in Orex and received 13,000,000 shares at a price of $0.10/share Osisko received 13,000,000 transferable warrants to acquire one common share at a price of $.125/share over a period of 3 years Osisko receives a 50% interest in the property before September 29, 2013 if it incurs exploration/development expenditures of: $1,500,000 before September 29, 2010 $3.5 million (aggregate) on or before September 29, 2011 $8.0 million (aggregate) on or before September 29, 2013 Osisko may receive a 60% interest in the property if it completes a prefeasibility study before September 29, 2015
Between November 12, 2009 and September 29, 2015 Osisko is the manager of the project, with a joint management committee during the option period with two representatives from each party. This Management Committee will be responsible for revising programs submitted by Osisko and for approving and evaluating the results of all programs. Osisko has the tie casting vote.