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Project Overview

Property Location and Access

Jumping Josephine is in the West Kootenay Region in southern British Columbia. The property straddles Highway 3 in the Blueberry Paulson summit area roughly 30km north of the town of Rossland and 30km west of Castlegar. Access to the property from Highway 3 is by way of well-formed logging roads. 

Composed of 24 current mineral claims totaling 11,667 hectares, the property includes the JJ Main Gold Deposit, with a NI 43-101 Technical Report on Mineral Resources, filed on 24 June 2011.  In addition, the claims cover portions of the historic Granville Mountain Mining Camp, located in the southern portion of the claims.  This area represents a historical collection of crown-granted mineral claims upon which there was limited small-scale production during the post WWII years.  Seven crown granted claims from this camp were previously in Orex’s control (approximately 91 hectares) but have now been relinquished, the area remains covered by Orex’s modern mineral claims  Other small crown granted claims that comprise the historic Granville mountain area not under the control of Orex total approximately 385 hectares.

Mineral Resource Estimation - JJ Main Gold Deposit

Table 1. Mineral Resource Estimation for the JJ Main Gold Deposit on the Jumping Josephine Property – See NI 43-101 Technical Report for details.

Classification Tonnes Grade Au(g/t) Gold Content (oz)
       
Indicated Resource 363,000 2.95 34,000
Inferred Resource 448,000 2.08 30,000

Andrew Turner, P.Geol., Mike Dufresne P.Geol. and Steve Nicholls MAIG of APEX Geoscience Ltd. are the independent qualified persons, as defined by NI 43-101, responsible for the mineral resource estimate. The resource estimate of this advanced exploration project is classified as an Indicated and Inferred mineral resource, consistent with the CIM definitions referred to in NI 43-101. The effective date of the mineral resource is March 24th, 2011. The mineral resource estimate is derived from a total of 71 diamond drill holes, with the average drill hole spacing at 20 to 40 metres within the area of interest. A total of 564 composites of 1m length, capped at 30.0 g/t Au were used for the estimation. The mineral resource was estimated by inverse distance squared within a 3 dimensional mineralization envelope of gold grades greater than or equal to 0.5 g/t Au with similar geological characteristics in terms of alteration and mineralogy. A search ellipsoid of 30m x 30m x 4m orientated along strike (350°) was utilized for grade interpolation into 20m x 2m x 10m blocks. Block grades estimated from samples with an average distance of 15 to 40m away were classified as indicated, and with an average distance of 20 to 80m away were classified as inferred. A nominal density of 2.65 g/cm3 has been applied to all blocks.

Property History

The 24 mineral claims comprising Jumping Josephine were staked during 2003 and 2004 by prospectors operating under a grub-stake arrangement with Kootenay Exploration Inc (now Kootenay Silver Inc). In 2006 Astral Mining Corporation entered into an option agreement with Kootenay and over the course of the next two years fulfilled the terms of the agreement, earning a 60% share in the property and triggering the establishment of a 60/40 Joint Venture with Kootenay, Astral being the majority holder and operator. 

Astral added five blocks of claims to the property through option agreements with other parties between February 2007 and March 2010. By 2013 these additional blocks of claims had been evaluated and subsequently returned to vendors or surrendered.  Today the claim assemblage has reverted to its original 11,667-hectare, 24-claim configuration. The additional option agreements did not affect the Kootenay/Astral JV in any way.

In February 2014 Orex secured 100% ownership of the Jumping Josephine project when it acquired Kootenay's 40% share in the property in exchange for issuing 1,000,000 common shares in Orex. Orex owns 100% of Astral Mining Corp.

Exploration History

The JJ Main Gold Zone is the most advanced showing on the property and much of the exploration to date has focused on this zone. JJ Main comprises structurally controlled quartz stockwork veining intersected by drilling over a strike length of 2.25 km and to vertical depths of up to 240 meters ("m"). Current information indicates JJ Main as having an estimated maximum true width of 12.6 m as evidenced by drillhole 07JD013. Infill aeromagnetics, geological mapping and surface geochemistry had suggested the host structure for JJ Main's mineralized stockwork could extend for over three kilometers. Subsequent drill tests support this concept and quartz stockwork veining bearing anomalous gold values has been intersected along the trend over a length of 2.25 km. In addition, drilling has also encountered mineralization possibly representing a parallel zone hidden under an area of no outcrop. The JJ Main zone is the subject of a 43-101 compliant resource calculation which has identified and modelled potentially economic mineralization over 300 metres of strike length within the core of the mineralized system.

Astral completed two phases of drilling in 2007. The Phase I drill program started in the spring of 2007 and targeted JJ Main (20 holes for 1,431 m), Bonanza Pass (2 holes for 643 m) and Albion-Dubrovnik areas (9 holes for 553 m). The Phase II drill program comprised 5,101 m in 38 holes on the JJ Main Gold Zone. In 2008 Astral carried out a 34-hole 5,071 m drill program and conducted a 40-line km 3D-IP survey as well as carrying out geological mapping and trenching. 

Infill drilling at JJ Main in 2008 comprised 30 HQ diamond drill holes (08JD070-100, 08JD091 abandoned) for a total of 3,632.49 m; all holes intersected quartz stockwork veining within and below the known JJ Main stockwork zone. The 2008 drilling provides better definition to the mineralized zone delineated in 2007 with significant assays including 4m grading 21.04 g/t gold from Hole 08JD092. Drilled intercept density within the higher-grade mineralized shoot underneath the surface discovery zone stands at approximately 20m x 20m. 

Other drilling completed in 2008 included testing of two selected IP chargeability anomalies (2 holes for 893.59m) and further work along trend (2 holes for 545.73m). Independent NI 43-101 reports detailing work on the Jumping Josephine Claims up to the end of 2009 have been completed by Apex Geoscience and are posted on Orex's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.

A multi-stage exploration program was recommended in the July 2009 NI 43-101 report by Apex Geoscience, referred to above and much of the work was carried out during the 2009 field season. Phase 1A included prospecting, stream sediment sampling and a large regional 5,000 point soil program over much of the northern part of the JJ Property. The program was designed to identify gold and arsenic soil anomalies related to JJ Main type gold-bearing structures with associated arsenopyrite mineralization. Phase 1B included 136 m of trenching at the Highway showing, located 1.5km southwest of the drilling carried out to date along the JJ Main structure. Details of the work are included in the Apex Geoscience updated NI 43-101 report, dated July 14, 2009 posted on Orex's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.

Astral's 2010 exploration program included a total of 644 m of trenching at the Hillside (211 m), Highway (222 m), Big Sheep (165 m) and Siren (46 m) showings. Weakly anomalous results were returned from most trenches. Astral completed an additional 31 diamond drill holes for a total of 5054 m during summer 2010. The program aimed to test for extensions and/or parallel mineralized zones at the JJ Main prospect. Three holes for 531 m were drilled at the Big Sheep prospect area roughly 4.3 km southwest of the JJ Main showing for no significant results. In addition, a late fall drilling program comprising five holes for 520 m was completed in the newly identified Cedar zone prospect, a potential parallel zone of mineralization roughly 250 m northwest of the JJ Main showing. Completed in December 2010, these holes were logged and analysed in early 2011.

Summer drilling in 2010 identified extensions of the JJ Main structure, which may be projected from JJ Main to the Highway showing, a total length of 2.25 km. Results from the step out drilling were anomalous although high grade shoots such as the core of the JJ Main zone were not encountered. Best values from the 2010 drilling at JJ Main include 13.21 m averaging 0.57 g/t Au. Summer drilling also targeted a potential parallel zone 250 m northwest of the JJ Main and returned best drill results of 0.5 m averaging 2.90 g/t Au and 1.73 m averaging 1.60 g/t from an area of no outcrop known as the "Cedar Zone". Drilling during late fall of that year at Cedar returned elevated silver concentrations compared to comparable intercepts from the JJ Main Zone. Best results from the late drilling included 1 m averaging 3.17 g/t gold ("Au") and 138 g/t silver ("Ag") and 1.2 m averaging 3.39 g/t Au and 284 g/t Ag.

In June 2011 Astral reported a gold resource for the core JJ Main discovery area. Apex Geoscience of Edmonton, Alberta completed a NI 43-101 compliant resource calculation on a 400 m long portion of the mineralized zone at JJ Main. Apex estimated the current resource at 363,000 tonnes averaging 2.95 g/t Au for 34,000 ounces indicated category and 448,000 tonnes averaging 2.08 g/t Au for 30,000 ounces Au inferred category. The report, dated June 24, 2011 is the most recent technical report on JJ and is posted on Orex's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.

The 2014 exploration program undertaken by Orex totaled 24 drill holes for a total of 8,115 metres.  Drilling targeted deep extensions of JJ Main as well as testing outlying prospect areas JJ West, JJ Main (north) and the Bonanza area.   
 
All drill core samples from Astral's programs were from NQ or HQ diameter core halved by diamond saw. Given the occurrence of visible gold often observed in the mineralized zone, a large 1,000 gram portion of each pulverized sample was analyzed for gold by the Screen Fire assay method. 

All reported analyses from 2007 to 2009 were carried out by ALS Chemex in North Vancouver B.C. ALS Chemex is an internationally recognized analytical service provider compliant with ISO 9001:2000 for the provision of assay and geochemical services. The Vancouver laboratory has also been accredited to ISO 17025 standards for specific laboratory procedures by the Standards Council of Canada. The 2010 analytical work was completed by Eco-Tech Laboratory Ltd, then owned by The Stewart Group Global fully accredited to ISO 9001-2008.   The 2014 analyses were undertaken by ALS Chemex, as above. In addition to laboratory standards, Astral has included independently prepared standards into the sample sequence to assure proper quality assurance/quality control ("QA/QC").

The exploration work at the Jumping Josephine Claims was completed under the supervision of Dale Brittliffe, B.Sc., P.Geo., a Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101. 

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