Avala Resources Provides Exploration Update on the Sediment-Hosted Gold Belt, Serbia
June 01 2011 - 10:14AM
Marketwired Canada
Avala Resources Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:AVZ) (the "Company" or "Avala") is pleased to
present an update on drill results from the Korkan-Bigar and Kraku Pestar target
areas, part of the sediment-hosted gold belt within the Cretaceous magmatic arc
bordering the Timok Magmatic Complex ("TMC") in Eastern Serbia.
"We continue to be very encouraged by the results of the wide-spaced drilling
program on the Korkan-Bigar target area, in particular the Bigar Hill area,
where we have established a very broad footprint to mineralization in a
relatively short period of time," said James Crombie, President and CEO of
Avala. "We expect to commence reverse circulation drilling in August and will be
focussing on establishing continuity of mineralization. Additionally, we will
continue to drill test the multiple target areas within the 20 kilometer long
sediment-hosted gold belt defined to date."
1. HIGHLIGHTS
-- Wide-spaced 'step out' drilling (nominal 160 meter by 160 meter) on the
Korkan-Bigar target area continues to intersect gold mineralization
within the target stratigraphy, a sequence of strongly altered and
decarbonatized conglomerates and sandstones with interbedded fine
grained sandstone and clay-rich siltstones, marls and andesitic
volcanics/volcaniclastics.
-- Drilling of the Korkan-Bigar target area (Bigar Hill) returned the
following strong gold intercepts (0.4g/t cut-off grade):
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Hole ID From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Au (g/t) Gram-meters
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BHDD011 118 147 29 1.97 57
BHDD016 29 66 37 1.37 51
BHDD017 136 142 6 7.37 44
BHDD017 194 208 14 3.05 43
BHDD020 6.2 39 32.8 2.04 67
BHDD021 165 178 13 3.18 41
BHDD023 22.5 34 11.5 1.82 21
BHDD023 122 143 21 1.59 33
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-- Drilling of the Korkan-Bigar target area (Korkan) returned the following
gold intercept (0.4g/t cut-off grade):
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Hole ID From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Au (g/t) Gram-meters
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KODD044 259 273 14 5.44 76
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-- To date Avala has outlined gold mineralization at Korkan over an area of
approximately 1,200 meters by 600 meters surrounding the original
discovery hole (KODD001) and an area of 1,000 meters by 1,000 meters on
the Bigar Hill target area (open in all directions). Kraku Pestar has
been traced over 600 meters by 300 meters and is open to the north and
south.
-- Weighted averages of uncut grade and down hole intersection thickness
per hole have been determined for the 160 meter by 160 meter spaced
diamond drilling to date, based on a 5 meter minimum thickness and 5
meter maximum included waste and a range of gold cut off grades. Very
encouraging mean grades and thicknesses have been returned. Multiple
mineralized intercepts per hole are a common feature of the target
areas, (as illustrated in Figure 3):
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0.4g/t Au Cut Off 1.0 g/t Au Cut Off
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Weighted Weighted
Weighted Intersection Weighted Intersection
Average Thickness Per Average Thickness Per
Target No. of Grade Hole No. of Grade Hole
Area Holes (g/t) (meters) Holes (g/t) (meters)
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KORKAN 15 1.84 22 8 3.01 21
BIGAR
HILL 14 1.52 32 12 2.29 20
KRAKU
PESTAR 9 1.11 40 6 2.30 21
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(Note: Down hole intersections do not necessarily represent true
thicknesses)
-- Avala intends to continue the wide-spaced drilling program to test the
prospective 'target stratigraphy' within an initial area of over 3.5
square kilometers in the Korkan-Bigar target area, in order to
effectively outline the size of the newly defined sediment-hosted gold
system.
-- The combined Korkan-Bigar target area is over 10 kilometres long and 2.5
kilometers wide and represents part of the northern portion of the
sediment-hosted gold belt.
-- An initial selection of gold mineralized drill core intervals have been
sent to SGS Cornwall for preliminary metallurgical test work; the
program will focus on the preconcentration (flotation) characteristics
of the gold mineralized clastic sediments.
-- Avala currently has four diamond drill rigs operating on the Korkan-
Bigar target area. Two diamond drill rigs have been allocated to the
southern portion of the sediment-hosted gold belt on the Umka-Strnjak
target area where scout drill holes are being drilled on nominal 320
meter by 320 meter centers within the target stratigraphy.
-- A Reverse Circulation (RC) drill rig (GEMEX RC-500) is expected to be
onsite and operational during August 2011. The RC rig is scheduled to
undertake infill drilling at an initial 80 meter by 80 meter spacing
within the mineralized 'footprints' currently being outlined by the 160
meter by 160 meter diamond drilling program. Further drill rigs are
currently being sought.
-- Additionally, Avala has submitted several exploration licence
applications to the Serbian Ministry of Environment, Mining & Spatial
Planning for areas that the Company believes are prospective for
sediment-hosted gold style of mineralization within the Timok. Together
with currently granted exploration licences, Avala believes that the
overall strike length of the sediment-hosted belt could potentially
increase from the currently defined 20 kilometers to approximately 50
kilometers.
-- Please see the following link to view all Korkan-Bigar and Kraku Pestar
drill holes located spatially in three dimensions:
http://www.corebox.net/properties/potoj-cuka-gold-belt
2. GEOLOGY AND MINERALIZATION STYLE
-- Sediment-hosted gold, located along the western margin of the Timok
Magmatic Complex, represents a previously unrecognized style of gold
mineralization within the Timok region.
-- In the Korkan-Bigar target area, stratabound, fault-controlled breccia
together with minor karst-infill breccia represent the styles of
sediment-hosted gold mineralization recognized to date.
-- Gold mineralization appears to be associated with fine-grained pyrite
(sulfidation reaction) and a number of alteration styles including
kaolinitization, decarbonatization of calcareous sedimentary rock
adjacent to the gold mineralization and occasionally jasperoids.
-- Gold mineralization is hosted within a favourable sedimentary package -
the 'target stratigraphy' - which is underlain by Jurassic and Lower
Cretaceous limestones and consists predominantly of calcareous
sandstones and conglomerates which include an interbedded fine grained
sandstone and clay-rich siltstone unit.
-- The upper portion of the target stratigraphy consists of 'red'
sandstones and volcanic-lithic clastics which are in turn overlain by
calcareous marls and andesitic volcanics, which represent the youngest
portion of the stratigraphy.
-- To date gold mineralized intervals have been returned from all portions
of the target stratigraphy, excluding, to a certain extent, the marl
unit and the interbedded fine grained sandstone and clay-rich siltstone
unit which have been only weakly mineralized; Avala believes that these
units may be locally acting as an aquitard, or capping unit, to
hydrothermal fluids.
-- In general the target stratigraphy in the Korkan-Bigar target area
appears to be gently dipping towards the east and may have been gently
folded with a northwest axial plane.
-- Figure 1 shows the location of the Korkan-Bigar and Kraku Pestar target
areas within the currently defined 20 kilometer long sediment-hosted
gold belt, defined in this image by anomalous gold soil geochemistry,
together with their respective total metal contour plots superimposed.
The significant potential of the belt can be clearly seen when the
surface area of the 'footprints' of the currently drilled target areas
are compared to the overall extent of the presently defined gold soil
anomalies.
3. DRILLING AT KORKAN-BIGAR
-- Bigar Hill: Avala is continuing the 'step out' drilling program at the
Korkan-Bigar target area, on a nominal 160 meter by 160 meter spacing.
See Table 1 for a summary of all intersections at various cut-off grades
for the results of diamond drill holes BHDD008 to BHDD023.
-- Figure 2 shows a gram-meter (intervals greater than 0.4g/t Au x
thickness), total metal contour plot of all Korkan-Bigar drilling to
date superimposed on mapped geology.
-- Strong gold mineralization is hosted within polymict conglomerate and
sandstone intervals which have been strongly decarbonatized with
intense, sooty, fine grained pyrite matrix infill. Recent drilling has
now also confirmed gold mineralization (BHDD014: 20m @ 1.65g/t Au (from
114m)) within the andesitic volcanics/volcaniclastics which were
previously thought to be a poor host to gold. To date gold
mineralization within the footwall Jurassic massive limestone at Korkan-
Bigar has been of an overall low-moderate tenor and is generally
associated with brecciation, either karst or brittle deformation.
-- Additional drilling was completed within the Korkan target area and
results have been returned for the following nineteen drill holes:
KODD022 and KODD027 to KODD044. See Figure 2 & Table 2.
-- Final assays have also been received from the Phase I wide-spaced
diamond drill program on the Kraku Pestar target area (see AVZ press
release Oct. 7th, 2010 for background information). See Figure 4 & Table
3.
-- Multiple gold mineralized intercepts per hole are a common feature of
the gold mineralization outlined to date in the Korkan, Bigar Hill and
Kraku Pestar target areas.
4. DISCUSSION
-- A major sediment-hosted gold belt bordering the western boundary of the
Timok Magmatic Complex, identified by soil and trench samples, extends
over 20 kilometers along strike and is up to 8 kilometers wide.
-- The geology, geochemistry and available drill intersections suggest a
strong similarity to the style of gold mineralization typified by the
North Carlin Trend, Nevada, USA.
-- The recognition that the majority of the significant trench and diamond
drill intercepts returned to date occur within the same flat lying or
shallow dipping sedimentary package has significant implications for the
gold potential of the Korkan-Bigar target area and the entire sediment-
hosted gold belt.
-- The mineralized intersections detailed in Tables 1, 2 and 3 (for Bigar
Hill, Korkan and Kraku Pestar respectively) have been compiled using a
minimum 5 meter thickness and a maximum of 5 meters of included waste
and a variety of lower cut off grades. Weighted mean gold grades and
intersection thicknesses have been compiled for each area and are
displayed in Table 4. Very encouraging grades and thicknesses have been
returned. Multiple intercepts per hole are commonly encountered,
particularly at Korkan and Bigar Hill.
Table 4: Weighted average intersection grades and intersection thickness per
hole for the three target areas drilled to date in the 160 meter by 160 meter
diamond drilling program.
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0.4g/t Au Cut Off 1.0 g/t Au Cut Off
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Weighted Weighted
Weighted Intersection Weighted Intersection
Average Thickness Per Average Thickness Per
Target No. of Grade Hole No. of Grade Hole
Area Holes (g/t) (meters) Holes (g/t) (meters)
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KORKAN 15 1.84 22 8 3.01 21
BIGAR
HILL 14 1.52 32 12 2.29 20
KRAKU
PESTAR 9 1.11 40 6 2.30 21
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(Note: Down hole intersections do not necessarily represent true
thicknesses)
-- Bulk density data is also routinely collected from diamond drill core as
part of the standard set of procedures employed by Avala. To date some
246 density samples have been collected and measured from samples
returning greater than 0.1g/t Au and 85 density measurements from
samples grading over 0.4g/t Au within the sediment-hosted gold belt.
Density data from the three target areas return very similar average
bulk densities at 2.63 tonnes per cubic meter, as summarised in Table 5
(note that there is currently a backlog of density samples from the
Bigar Hill drilling).
Table 5: Bulk density data from the Sediment-Hosted Gold project.
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0.1g/t Au Cut Off 0.4g/t Au Cut Off
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Average Average
Bulk Bulk
Target Density Number of Density Number of
Area (t/cm) Measurements (t/cm) Measurements
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BIGAR
HILL 2.62 11 2.54 3
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KORKAN 2.63 140 2.63 52
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KRAKU
PESTAR 2.63 95 2.59 30
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Average/
Total 2.63 246 2.61 85
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(Note: Densities determined using the wax coating immersion method by SGS
Bor)
-- Drill testing of the Korkan-Bigar sediment-hosted gold target area will
continue with wide spaced (nominal 160 meter by 160 meter) diamond drill
holes to allow Avala to outline the potential size of the sediment-
hosted gold system within an initial area of approximately 3.5 square
kilometers.
-- In addition, the Jurassic limestone package has strongly anomalous gold
in soil geochemistry where it is exposed in the Korkan-Bigar & Umka-
Strnjak target areas and numerous gold mineralized trench intercepts
have been returned to date, hosted in limestone, which require drill
follow-up in due course.
-- Avala controls 100% of the newly identified sediment hosted gold belt
which totals approximately 250 square kilometers and intends to
systematically drill test all currently defined priority target areas.
-- Please see the following link to view all Korkan-Bigar and Kraku Pestar
drill holes located spatially in three dimensions:
http://www.corebox.net/properties/potoj-cuka-gold-belt
5. SAMPLING AND ANALYSIS
The majority of soil samples have been assayed at the ALS Chemex laboratory,
Perth, Australia. More recent programs have been assayed at the SGS managed
laboratory at Chelopech in Bulgaria using a combination of ICP-OES and ICP-MS
whereas gold has been assayed by low level detection fire assay method with an
AAS finish. The Company has established a laboratory facility at Bor, Eastern
Serbia which is independently managed by SGS. Trench samples were prepared at
the laboratory facility at Bor and the samples have been assayed at the SGS
managed laboratory at Chelopech in Bulgaria or the laboratory facility at Bor.
Diamond drill core has been prepared at the laboratory facility at Bor and
assayed at either the SGS managed laboratory at Chelopech in Bulgaria or the
assay laboratory at Bor. A one metre sampling interval has been used where
possible for the Sediment-Hosted Gold project diamond drilling program. Half
core is routinely submitted to the laboratory for analysis. Following Avala
standard quality assurance procedures, a full suite of field and laboratory
duplicates and replicates along with internationally accredited standards and
blanks, have been submitted with each batch of samples.
Trench sampling was carried out as channels in the wall just above the trench
floor on 2m intervals. Except where extensive soil cover is encountered,
trenches were sampled in their entirety. The samples were routinely weighed
prior to final bagging to maintain an even sample size and to avoid sampling
bias in harder rock types. An average channel sample weight was maintained at
3kg/m, which produces a consistent sample weight approximating half HQ core
samples. Field duplicate samples were taken every 20 samples and known standards
were inserted into the sample stream after every 20th sample. A geological and
structural log was completed as for diamond drilling. All data collected in the
field was routinely entered into geology and structural geology spread sheets
using Field Marshal software for subsequent entry to an acQuire database and
validation.
Dr Julian F. H. Barnes, a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101, a
Director and the Company's Special Consultant, has supervised the preparation of
the technical data in this press release.
Previously released data refers to data included in the "Potoj Cuka Gold
Project, Serbia National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report" by Paul Mazzoni
dated March 10, 2010 (the "Technical Report"), filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
Further information in respect of results, investigations, interpretations,
quality assurance and quality control measures, along with geology, mineralogy,
sampling, and analytical procedures is included in the Technical Report.
About Avala Resources Ltd.: Avala is a recently-formed company focused on the
exploration and development of the Potoj Cuka sediment-hosted gold project and
the Timok gold-copper project in Serbia. The common shares of Avala trade on the
TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol AVZ.
Avala is well-capitalized, with approximately $44 million in its treasury at May
31, 2011, which it plans to use for the exploration and development of its
mineral projects in Serbia. Avala's issued and outstanding share capital totals
214,492,223 common shares, of which approximately 51.4% is held by Dundee
Precious Metals Inc. (TSX: DPM).
Cautionary Statement
The potential quantity and grade described in this press release are conceptual
in nature. There has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource
and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the Korkan-Bigar
target area being delineated as a mineral resource.
This press release contains forward-looking information. Although the Company
believes in light of the experience of its officers and directors, current
conditions and expected future developments and other factors that have been
considered appropriate that the expectations reflected in this forward-looking
information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on them because
the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Forward
looking information in this news release includes statements regarding the
nature of the mineralization of the project, the results of the exploration
activities and interpretation of such results, the gold potential of the
project, the potential size of the sediment-hosted gold system, the suggested
similarity to the style of gold mineralization of the North Carlin Trend project
and the similarities suggested and with timing and location of future work
programs. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks,
uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause actual results or
events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking
information. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are
made as of the date hereof and the Company undertakes no obligations to update
publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a
result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by
applicable securities laws.
Maps and tables are available at the following address:
http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/avala0601.pdf