Orestone initiates exploration on Francisca Gold Project with mapping and sampling program – Richard Mills

2026.03.28

Phase 1 of exploration has begun at Orestone Mining’s (TSXV:ORS) Francisca Gold Project in Salta province, Argentina.

The program will consist of detailed mapping and sampling of a 200 by 500-meter grid covering the surface exposure of the South Zone. Sampling will consist of 600 rock chip, channel and grab samples including the resampling of the 11 existing trenches which crosscut the zone along its 500-meter strike length.

Data from Phase I will be used to refine drill hole orientation for a Phase II reverse circulation (RC) drill program. Fifteen hundred meters of RC drilling in 10 drill holes will be designed to crosscut the presently defined gold-silver mineralized zone on spacings of 40 to 80 meters. Several of these drill holes will test the larger porphyry target at depth below the oxide horizon.

“The Francisca property covers a robust gold system discovered during a period of historically very low gold prices, with no meaningful exploration being conducted during the last 20 years. We are excited to get the surface exploration under way in preparation for drilling to test this large gold target. Our goal is to define an oxide gold deposit that can be mined by open pit,” CEO David Hottman stated in the Jan. 23, 2026 news release.

Francisca Gold Project

Orestone signed an option agreement covering the Francisca property during the first quarter of 2025.

The company describes the geology and mineralization as follows:

Geologic mapping has outlined an oxide gold stock-work mineralized trend along a northwest strike length of 1100 metres outcropping on the crest of a moderate relief hill. Two gold zones have been outlined to date within the trend. The surface expression of the North and South zones each measures 400 to 500 metres in strike length with widths varying from 50-100 metres. The zones are surrounded by a 500- to 1000-metre wide area of strongly hornfels altered sediments and underlain by a large IP changeability anomaly indicating potential for a larger mineralized intrusive body at depth. The oxide gold quartz limonite stockwork trend is associated with quartz feldspar porphyry intrusive dikes and intense sericite alteration along NW-trending faults.

Eighteen surface trenches at 50 to 100 metre spacings have initially outlined the zones with 11 trenches encountering significant gold and silver values.

I like Francisca because it looks like it could have some serious size to it. The management has been involved in the development in several of these oxide heap leach deposits, so I’m looking at this as a unicorn, which is basically a junior run by management that has built companies into cash flow and sold them.When I talked to David Hottman about Francisca, he said it represents a multi-million-ounce opportunity for an open-pit gold project.The option agreement entitles Orestone to earn up to 85% ownership by incurring USD$4.2 million in exploration expenses over seven years.He said they have porphyry dikes that are exposed to surface and there is a big IP anomaly that indicates that there is a larger target deeper, but basically, they are looking at open-pit gold and a heavy silver kicker.

Hottman said if they drill 100 or 200-meter-long holes and encounter mineralization, it could indicate a large deposit that becomes a substantial driver of the market cap and share price.

Last September Orestone expanded Francisca to 9 square km. Approximately two square km contiguous to the property were added.

Orestone expands Francisca to 9 km2; announces $2M financing — Richard Mills

Quinton Hennigh, CEO of privately held San Cristobal Mining, and a well-known geologist to retail investors, had good things to say about the Francisca Gold Project, in a conversation with me last September around stock picks. Here is an excerpt from the interview:

RM: Okay, let’s move over to Orestone Mining (TSXV:ORS). I know you know a lot about the Francisca [project]. I see CEO David Hottman came out with some news this morning. They added some more ground to the project.

QH: Yes, they sure did. I always like to see that because any geologist or mining entrepreneur that is worth their salt is going to make sure they have all the ground they need before they go and drill it, increase the value of whatever discovery that makes up. I always consider the acquisition of more ground a positive.

I know the market came off a little bit today, but this is a pretty thinly traded stock, so one day of volatility is not reflective of the announcement. But it’s a good step. It’s a very robust target, so I think they’re going to be in a much better position to test it. Bear in mind, it’s winter down there right now, right, so it’s a good time to get this kind of work done and then they can come back and have a more holistic geologic drill program when the summer rolls around.

RM: Yes, I’m excited about this one. It’s not often you get an oxide quite this size, and there is one not that far away, pretty much next door, that has been mined for quite a while, and it seems to be a little richer than your normal oxide or heap leach.

QH: Exactly. I always love to look at camps where there’s operating mines especially that are nearby, because you can gauge what the company is likely going to find, and that’s kind of the basis.

Geologically, it is a bit of a head scratch exactly what this thing is. Is it a skarn? Is it a porphyry-related thing? Don’t quite know, but do we have an analog right nearby? Heck, yeah. So that’s good enough for me, and it’s oxidized, too. It’s oxide material. So, I talked to their team, and the metallurgy sounds like it could be very good.

Under the Spotlight: Quinton Hennigh, Geologist, Geologic & Technical Advisor, Crescat Capital

Previous sampling

The South Zone outcrops over an area 50 to 100 meters wide with a strike length of 500 meters, and is the most prominent target outlined to date. A confirmation sampling program consisting of 20 rock chip samples taken over lengths varying from 0.1 to 5 meters was completed in March 2025.

The assay values confirm the high-grade nature of the target ranging in value from 0.03 to 33 g/t gold and 2.0 to 160 g/t silver, averaging 5.78 g/t gold and 29.2 g/t silver (for averages the gold grades have been cut to 10 g/t and silver grades cut to 60 g/t). Eleven samples assayed greater than 6.0 g/t gold and eight samples assayed between 0.36 and 4.5 g/t gold.

Financing

During the second quarter of 2025, Orestone completed a $600,000 capital raise through a non-brokered private placement and issued shares for debt in the amount of $180,000. The company welcomed a new strategic shareowner, Crescat Capital, which took down $400,000 of the $600K financing.

A non-brokered private placement of $2.24 million at $0.08 per unit closed on Dec. 17, 2025. Crescat Capital provided $247,555 of the financing.

Conclusion

In January Hottman told me, “The next stage for the property is to initiate exploration and start defining and de-risking this opportunity. We’ve already laid out the initial drill program, but drilling is a lot more expensive than taking samples and mapping, so we have initiated a program of detailed mapping and 600 samples prior to drilling.

The first quarter of 2026 will be the mapping and sampling, and the second quarter, we should be drilling.

The initial program is approximately 1,500 meters of RC or reverse circulation drilling. The budget in the first quarter is approximately USD$100,000 and then the drilling program will be approximately USD$400,000. 

It’s an exciting time for the company and for our shareowners. This is an opportunity to drill off an open-pit gold and silver deposit.”

Under the Spotlight: David Hottman, CEO, Orestone Mining

The Orestone team are experienced mine developers.

Chairman and CEO David Hottman has 30+ years in corporate finance and management of resource companies. He was a founder of Nevada Pacific Gold, serving as chairman, CEO or president from 1997 to 2007. Nevada Pacific Gold proved to be a great success as an aggressive gold and silver production/exploration company focused on Nevada and Mexico prior to a $150 million takeover by McEwen Mining in 2007.

Director and President Bruce Winfield has more than 40 years of experience in the industry as a geologist, corporate executive and consultant.

Gary Nordin, director and senior consulting geologist, has a proven track record of identifying and developing mining projects. 

The bottom line for me is Orestone management has put numerous heap leach projects into production, and those companies went on to do very well. Their Francisca project is an effort to replicate that.

Orestone Mining Corp.
TSXV:ORS
Cdn$0.095 2026.03.26
Shares Outstanding 78m
Market Cap Cdn$10.1m
ORS website  

Richard (Rick) Mills
aheadoftheherd.com

Subscribe to AOTH’s free newsletter

Richard owns shares of Orestone Mining Corp.
TSXV:ORS). ORS is a paid advertiser on his site aheadoftheherd.com This article is issued on behalf of ORS