Codrus Minerals Limited advised that its maiden exploration activities are gathering momentum at the highly prospective Bull Run Gold Project, located in Baker County, eastern Oregon, USA. The company has commenced a pivotal ground-based geophysical exploration program to assist with drill target definition after securing additional strategic mineral claims and identifying prospective new anomalous zones through successful soil sampling programs. The Bull Run Project forms part of Codrus' global exploration portfolio, which also includes three projects in Tier-1 locations in Western Australia. Exploration commenced at Bull Run towards the end of 2021 following Codrus' successful IPO and ASX listing last year and is expected to ramp-up significantly in 2022.

The Bull Run Project consists of 102 claims, of which the Company holds a 100% legal and beneficial interest in 91 claims and is party to the Record Mine Option Agreement covering a further 11 claims. The Bull Run Project, situated in the Ironside Mountain Inlier, is prospective for gold and copper and has been mined intermittently since approximately 1929 for narrow high-grade gold. The Project has had little modern exploration completed on it, with the most recent drilling comprising just three holes completed in the 1980s. The Project hosts both gold and base metal mineralisation in north-east trending en-echelon veins, stockwork-type vein filling and disseminations between major veins within older equigranular biotite-quartz diorite and later felsic porphyritic intrusions.

Low-grade mineralisation is also observed within the serpentinite. The most recent exploration work prior to the spin-out and listing of Codrus Minerals last year was soil geochemistry sampling over the claims which identified two gold-in-soil trends: A north trend running approximately parallel to the serpentinite-Bull Run granodiorite contact and the dominant dyke strike through the Bull Run Project area; and A North-east to north-northeast trend parallel to the dominant vein set within the Bull Run granodiorite, highlighted in particular by the Whited, Payton and Sunrise veins. In the last quarter of 2021, Codrus pegged an additional 12 mineral claims, covering the prospective zone to the south.

These claims are 100%-owned by the Company. Once granted, the Company immediately commenced a program of soil sampling, with 99 samples collected in the new mineral claims. The samples were analysed for a multi-element suite including gold. The Company has identified the presence of disseminated pyrite and chalcopyrite mineralisation at Bull Run which may be amenable to pole-dipole Induced Polarisation geophysics.

To test this, the Company has contracted Dias Geophysical, which will conduct a low-noise deep 3D DCIP survey over an area of 5.75km. The survey, which commenced towards the end of last year, is expected to resolve chargeability and resistivity anomalies to a depth of 400m. Dias Geophysical will deliver multi-scale, multi-azimuth datasets and 3D models of the chargeability and resistivity throughout the area.

They will also image and map the sub-surface characteristics associated with the sulphide-rich quartz vein system. The survey was paused in late December as the steepness of the terrain and the accumulated snow made ground activities unsafe. The program will resume as soon as ground conditions allow.

The results from the 3D DCIP IP survey, once received, will be integrated with the current geological knowledge to inform a drilling program. Preliminary drill permitting has commenced with the Bureau of Land Management and will continue with a dedicated consultant in-country supporting the Company's permitting applications. In addition to the 3D DCIP IP survey, the Company will be collecting the following additional datasets: UAV photography to assist drill planning and environmental management; and Modern surveying of the existing underground workings.