Aton Resources Inc. (AAN: TSX-V) (“Aton” or the “Company") is
pleased to provide investors with an update on recent activities at
its Rodruin advanced exploration project at the Company’s 100%
owned Abu Marawat Concession (“Abu Marawat” or the “Concession”),
in the Eastern Desert of Egypt.
Highlights:
- The Company recently re-started its
surface channel sampling programme of potential mineralisation
exposed along drill road cuttings at Rodruin;
- Sampling of channel sample profile
ROC-031 returned a mineralised interval of 127m at a grade
of 1.33 g/t gold and 7.3 g/t silver;
- Drill road and pad preparation is
ongoing at Rodruin ahead of the upcoming diamond drilling
programme. Good progress is being made with new roads onto the
North Ridge which will allow the first drill testing of veins mined
in ancient workings, which returned grades of up to 321 g/t gold at
surface.
“We are very happy that Rodruin continues to
live up to our expectations and these new channel sampling results
vindicate our commitment to the second phase drilling programme
that will commence in the coming weeks,” said Tonno Vahk, Interim
CEO. “These new results again demonstrate the potential and the
continuity of the mineralisation outcropping at surface at Rodruin,
and further reinforce our interpretation of broad zones of gold
mineralisation on the South Ridge which will be amenable to open
pit mining. We are also excited at the prospect of being able to
drill for the first time the very high grade veins which we sampled
in 2017-18, as we continue to push new roads up on to the North
Ridge.”
Rodruin channel sampling
programme
Channel sampling of newly exposed mineralisation
in road cuttings at Rodruin re-commenced in August 2021, following
on from the 2018 reverse circulation percussion (“RC”) drilling and
surface sampling programmes (see news releases dated August 7,
2018, September 4, 2018, September 12, 2018, September 24, 2018,
and October 29, 2018 for previous details of channel sampling at
Rodruin). The current channel sampling programme is focussed on new
roads that are being excavated in advance of the upcoming diamond
drilling programme, which will commence in the coming weeks.
Channel profile ROC-031 (Figure 1) was sampled
along a new high road running southeast from the ROP-031 to ROP-034
drill pad on the Central Buttress Zone (“CBZ”), see news release
dated January 3, 2019. A total of 67 samples were collected over a
127m profile length, predominantly within carbonate-silica rocks
with patchy gossanous zones. At the southeastern end of the profile
quartz filled tensional stockwork veins outcrop. Samples were
collected over nominal 2m lengths, along a continuous saw-cut
channel profile. A further 5 QAQC samples were submitted for
analysis, comprising 1 duplicate sample, 2 blank samples, 1
flushing sample, and 1 standard sample of a certified reference
material.
Figure 1: Location of the ROC-031
channel sample profile at Rodruin
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/de730f6a-4e5a-49bb-a5f0-20ac5c17cb01
The results from ROC-031 are very encouraging
and are summarised in Table 1 below. The profile returned a
mineralised intersection of 127m at a
grade of 1.33 g/t gold (“Au”) and 7.3 g/t silver (“Ag”)
over its entire length, including a 16.5m interval which returned
4.29 g/t Au and 16.5 g/t Ag at the southernmost end of the profile,
close to the Spiral Pit Zone (“SPZ”).
Profile ID |
Length (m) |
Intersection (m) |
Au (g/t) |
Ag (g/t) |
Zn (%) |
Comments |
From |
To |
Interval |
ROC-031 |
127 |
0 |
127 |
127 |
1.33 |
7.30 |
0.79 |
South Ridge high road from the SPZ to the CBZ |
incl. |
0 |
42 |
42 |
0.51 |
4.97 |
0.16 |
incl. |
42 |
95 |
53 |
1.38 |
6.70 |
0.73 |
incl. |
95 |
110.5 |
15.5 |
0.19 |
6.08 |
1.21 |
incl. |
110.5 |
127 |
16.5 |
4.29 |
16.5 |
2.20 |
Table 1: Summary of the results
from the ROC-031 channel sample profile
Previous channel sampling in the vicinity of
ROC-031 returned mineralised intervals of 50.3m grading 1.37 g/t Au
(profile ROC-017, see news release dated September 24, 2018), 58.2m
grading 1.25 g/t Au (profile ROC-018, see news release dated
October 29, 2018), 26.3m grading 2.29 g/t Au (profile ROC-019, also
see news release dated October 29, 2018), and 26.0m grading 1.97
g/t Au (profile ROC-026, previously unreported), associated with
variably gossanous carbonate-silica rock.
Furthermore the first phase of RC drilling in
the vicinity of channel sample profile ROC-031 also returned
significant mineralised intervals including 20m grading
5.36 g/t Au and 15.9 g/t Ag from surface (drill hole
ROP-029, see news release dated December 10, 2018), 34m grading
2.00 g/t Au, from 10m depth (drill hole ROP-033, see news release
dated January 3, 2019), 31m grading 2.45 g/t Au and 12.5 g/t Ag,
from 2m depth (drill hole ROP-034, also see news release dated
January 3, 2019), and 70m grading 1.16 g/t Au, from 11m depth
(drill hole ROP-047, see news release dated January 29, 2019).
Mineralisation was again associated with gossanous carbonate-silica
rock, except from ROP-029 at the SPZ where the host rock consisted
of mineralised carbonate and heavily phyllic altered
quartz-sericite rock.
The latest results from channel profile ROC-031
again confirm the presence of significant gold mineralisation at
surface, associated with the variably gossanous carbonate-silica
rock mapped between the Central Buttress and the Spiral Pit (Figure
1). The new results combined with the results of previous surface
channel sampling and the first phase of RC drilling indicate that
much of the carbonate-silica rock in the CBZ and SPZ areas may be
mineralised. The area is structurally complex, but it is quite
possible that the carbonate-silica hosted mineralisation on the
Central Buttress and the higher grade mineralisation hosted in
phyllic altered rocks at the SPZ is contiguous.
These latest results continue to provide Aton
with strong encouragement that the Rodruin area may host
significant bulk tonnages of gold mineralisation, associated with
the mapped carbonate-silica rocks, and with localised zones of
potentially high grade, coarse gold bearing mineralisation, such as
at Aladdin’s Hill and the Spiral Pit, associated with heavily
phyllic altered host rock.
The upcoming planned diamond drilling programme
using Energold’s specially engineered rig, which will include a
series of horizontal and shallow dipping holes, will target this
potentially broad zone of outcropping mineralisation on the South
Ridge, associated with the mapped silica-carbonate unit and
associated gossans, amongst other areas.
Exploration activity update
- Final results for the wadi sediment
sampling programme at Abu Gaharish have now been received. The
samples were submitted for ultra-low level multi-element ionic
leach (mobile metal ion) geochemical analysis. The results of the
programme are now being evaluated and interpreted, and will be
released once this has been completed.
- Drill road and pad preparation is
ongoing at Rodruin in advance of the upcoming diamond drilling
programme. 2 excavators continue to operate at Rodruin, and are
making good progress on the North Ridge, which will enable Aton to
drill the high grade veins, which returned assays of up to 321 g/t
gold (see news release dated February 6, 2018), for the first
time.
- Energold’s drill rig arrived in
Egypt on October 22, 2021, and is now undergoing customs clearance
procedures, which are expected to take potentially another 1-2
weeks.
Sampling, sample processing and
analytical procedures
Access road cuttings and drill pads selected for
channel sampling initially had their exposed faces cleaned by an
excavator, prior to sampling. A single continuous sample channel
was cut along each profile using a large, generator powered angle
grinder. Sample intervals were marked up on the cleaned faces with
spray paint, with the start and end points of individual samples
marked on the exposed faces. The channels were created by sawing 2
parallel cuts, approximately 50-75mm apart, with the angle grinder.
The cut channel was subsequently sampled using a hammer and chisel,
with the sampled material excavated from between the 2 cuts. The
profiles were sampled at nominal 2m intervals, but with individual
sample lengths varying from less than 1m to greater than 3m, as
appropriate.
Samples were bagged up in cloth bags, and dried
and crushed to -4mm at Aton’s onsite Hamama sample preparation
laboratory, and split to a nominal c. 250-500g sample size.
The dried, crushed and split samples were
shipped to ALS Minerals sample preparation facility at Marsa Alam,
Egypt where they were pulverised to a size fraction of better than
85% passing 75 microns. From this pulverised material a further
sub-sample was split off with a nominal c. 50g size, which was
shipped on to ALS Minerals at Loughrea, Ireland for analysis.
Samples were analysed for gold by fire assay
with an atomic absorption spectrometry finish (analytical code
Au-AA23); and for a 34 multi-element suite using ICP atomic
emission spectrometry (analytical code ME-ICP61).
High grade overlimit gold samples (>10 ppm
Au) were re-analysed using analytical code Au-GRA21 (also fire
assay, but with a gravimetric finish). High grade overlimit zinc
samples (Zn >10,000 ppm or >1%) were re-analysed using the
ore grade technique OG62 (consisting of a four acid digestion with
an ICP finish).
About Aton Resources Inc. Aton Resources Inc.
(AAN: TSX-V) is focused on its 100% owned Abu Marawat Concession
(“Abu Marawat”), located in Egypt’s Arabian-Nubian Shield,
approximately 200 km north of Centamin’s world-class Sukari gold
mine. Aton has identified numerous gold and base metal exploration
targets at Abu Marawat, including the Hamama deposit in the west,
the Abu Marawat deposit in the northeast, and the advanced Rodruin
exploration prospect in the south of the Concession. Two historic
British gold mines are also located on the Concession at Sir Bakis
and Semna. Aton has identified several distinct geological trends
within Abu Marawat, which display potential for the development of
a variety of styles of precious and base metal mineralisation. Abu
Marawat is 447.7 km2 in size and is located in an area of excellent
infrastructure; a four-lane highway, a 220kV power line, and a
water pipeline are in close proximity, as are the international
airports at Hurghada and Luxor. |
|
Qualified person The technical information
contained in this News Release was prepared by Javier Orduña BSc
(hons), MSc, MCSM, DIC, MAIG, SEG(M), Exploration Manager of Aton
Resources Inc. Mr. Orduña is a qualified person (QP) under National
Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.For
further information regarding Aton Resources Inc., please visit us
at www.atonresources.com or contact:TONNO VAHKInterim CEOTel: +1
604 318 0390 Email: info@atonresources.com |
Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Some of
the statements contained in this release are forward-looking
statements. Since forward-looking statements address future events
and conditions; by their very nature they involve inherent risks
and uncertainties. Actual results in each case could differ
materially from those currently anticipated in such statements.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider
(as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange)
accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this
release. |
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