VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aton Resources Inc. (AAN: TSX-V) (“Aton” or the “Company") is pleased to update investors on drilling results from the West Garida prospect, located in the Company’s 100% owned Abu Marawat Concession (“Abu Marawat” or the “Concession”), in the Eastern Desert of Egypt.
Highlights:
- 5 percussion RC holes were drilled at the West Garida prospect, testing the down dip extensions of mineralised quartz veins mapped at surface;
- All 5 holes intersected mineralisation associated with the targeted narrow quartz veins;
- Hole WGP-003 intersected 41.7 g/t Au, 263 g/t Ag and 2.08% Pb over a 1m interval from 17m depth;
- Hole WGP-005 intersected 1.54 g/t Au over a 5m interval from 65m depth.
“We are very excited to be able to announce the discovery of high grade quartz vein associated mineralisation from this new drilling at West Garida,” said Tonno Vahk, Interim CEO. “West Garida is an area that has interested us since we first mapped it in 2017, has been on our radar since then, and we are delighted with the results from this initial short RC programme. Its proximity to the Hamama West deposit makes it particularly interesting, in terms of its potential ease of development, and West Garida again confirms the outstanding exploration potential of the entire Abu Marawat Concession. We continue to push strongly ahead at both Rodruin and Hamama West, but these new results show the bigger potential of the Concession, which we fully intend to develop over time. We anticipate further follow-up drilling to come at West Garida, as we look to shift our drilling focus to the numerous other high priority exploration targets at Abu Marawat, including Abu Gaharish, which appears to be a Sukari analogue, following the completion of the current diamond drilling programme at Rodruin. We continue to fully believe that very exciting times lie ahead for Aton.”
West Garida Prospect
The West Garida prospect is located approximately 3 km east-northeast of the Hamama West deposit (Figure 1) and is accessed by a road constructed in 2017. A short programme consisting of 5 vertical reverse circulation percussion (“RC”) drill holes was completed at West Garida during a break in the Hamama West drilling programme (see news release dated August 26, 2022).
The West Garida prospect was discovered, mapped and sampled by Aton geologists in 2017, with individual surface channel samples returning grades including 99.6 g/t and 45.6 g/t Au (see news release dated October 17, 2017). Visible gold was identified in several samples associated with the quartz vein hosted mineralisation. West Garida is located approximately 500m from the western margin of a “Younger Granite” intrusive and is more or less along the strike of the Hamama West deposit. The general geology of the West Garida area is similar to that at Hamama West and is characterised by a sequence of intermediate to felsic volcanic and pyroclastic rocks that are cut by a number of sub-volcanic felsic intrusive bodies.
Mineralisation at West Garida occurs in shallow dipping, narrow gold-bearing quartz veins, and mapping by Aton geologists has identified the presence of three principle gold bearing veins, Veins #1 to #3 (Figure 2), which have all been worked in ancient times, as well as a further three to four minor veins. There are also extensive ancient superficial workings in colluvium in the general surrounding area. Further details on the West Garida prospect can be found in the news release dated October 17, 2017.
Figure 1: Geology plan of the Abu Marawat Concession, showing the location of the West Garida prospect is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7b2cf0c1-113d-4379-8290-510be6c9e9ff
West Garida RC Drilling Programme
| Hole ID | Collar co-ordinates 1 | Dip 2 | Grid azimuth 2 | EOH depth (m) | Comments | ||
| X | Y | Z | |||||
| WGP-001 | 536786 | 2915103 | 620 | -90 | - | 100 | Testing vein #3 |
| WGP-002 | 536733 | 2915113 | 617 | -90 | - | 80 | Testing vein #3 |
| WGP-003 | 536827 | 2914982 | 623 | -90 | - | 50 | Testing vein #2 |
| WGP-004 | 536803 | 2914939 | 622 | -90 | - | 70 | Testing vein #2 |
| WGP-005 | 537328 | 2914767 | 622 | -90 | - | 90 | Testing vein #1 |
| Notes: 1) Collar co-ordinates surveyed by handheld Garmin GPS, collars to be later surveyed by total station 2) Holes were not down hole surveyed, due to vertical orientation of drilling 3) All co-ordinates are UTM (WGS84) Zone 36R | |||||||
Table 1: Collar details of RC percussion holes WGP-001 to WGP-005
5 shallow RC holes were drilled at West Garida, for a total of 390m, to test the mapped shallow dipping quartz veins (Figure 2). Holes were initially laid out using handheld GPS. Collar details of the holes are provided in Table 1.
Figure 2: Drill hole collar plan of the West Garida area is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1080e290-f1dd-4302-80bd-62871b2d909b
All 5 RC holes intersected mineralisation associated with quartz veins and stringers, and significant assay results and intersections are provided below in Table 2:
| Hole ID | Intersection (m) 1 | Au (g/t) | Ag (g/t) | Cu (ppm) | Pb (ppm) | Zn (ppm) | Comments | ||
| From | To | Interval | |||||||
| WGP-001 | 17.0 | 18.0 | 1.0 | 0.56 | 0.7 | 65 | 16 | 401 | Vein #3 - mineralisation associated with quartz stringers, hosted in andesitic tuffs |
| and | 26.0 | 27.0 | 1.0 | 1.30 | 1.7 | 131 | 15 | 1,910 | |
| and | 33.0 | 35.0 | 2.0 | 1.16 | 1.5 | 62 | 13 | 115 | |
| WGP-002 | 30.0 | 31.0 | 1.0 | 0.51 | 1.0 | 55 | 15 | 484 | Vein #3 |
| WGP-003 | 17.0 | 19.0 | 2.0 | 21.15 | 142.7 | 4,524 | 11,945 | 5,290 | Vein #2 – quartz stringers in cherty felsic (ash?) tuffs |
| incl. | 17.0 | 18.0 | 1.0 | 41.7 | 263 | 8,120 | 20,800 | 6,480 | |
| WGP-004 | 25.0 | 27.0 | 2.0 | 0.60 | 10.5 | 44 | 285 | 989 | Vein #2 |
| WGP-005 | 64.0 | 74.0 | 10.0 | 0.93 | 2.0 | 91 | 20 | 784 | Vein #1 – broader zone of quartz vein style mineralisation, hosted in andesitic tuffs |
| incl. | 65.0 | 70.0 | 5.0 | 1.54 | 2.6 | 104 | 28 | 893 | |
| and incl. | 72.0 | 73.0 | 1.0 | 0.73 | 3.0 | 163 | 15 | 1,045 | |
| Notes: 1) Significant assays > 0.5 g./t Au | |||||||||
Table 2: Mineralised intervals from RC percussion holes WGP-001 to WGP-005
Hole WGP-003 tested the down-dip extension of Vein #2 and intersected a 2m mineralised interval from 17m depth, returning grades of 21.15 g/t Au, 142.7 g/t Ag, 0.45% Cu, 1.19% Pb and 0.53% Zn, which included 1m @ 41.7 g/t Au, 263 g/t Ag, 0.81% Cu, 2.08% Pb and 0.65% Zn (Table 2). The mineralisation was hosted in dark green cherty felsic tuffs, and the high grades of Cu, Pb and Zn reflected the presence of chalcopyrite, galena and sphalerite which were recorded in surface samples from Vein #2 (see news release dated October 17, 2017). Mineralisation was associated with narrow iron and copper-stained quartz veinlets and stringers.
Hole WGP-005 tested the southerly down-dip extension of Vein #1, and intercepted a weakly weathered, broader 10m wide mineralised zone, which returned a grade of 0.93 g/t Au, and which contained an intersection of 5m @ 1.54 g/t Au from 65m downhole depth (Table 2). The mineralisation was hosted in andesitic tuffs with finer cherty felsic tuffs, and associated with clear, glassy and somewhat iron-stained quartz veins, which were observed to carry free gold at surface (see news release dated October 17, 2017).
In all cases the drilling intersected the targeted narrow visible gold-bearing quartz veins and quartz stringer zones mapped at surface, with hole WGP-003 apparently confirming the down-dip continuation of the precious and base metal hosting Vein #3 and confirmed the presence of high grade gold at West Garida. It is anticipated that further diamond drilling will be undertaken to follow up this short first RC programme. When the ongoing Rodruin diamond drilling programme has been completed the rig will be mobilised to Hamama where it is scheduled to drill at the Hamama East zone, as well further follow-up holes at West Garida.
Sampling and analytical procedures
The RC holes were drilled at 140mm diameter, and the bulk percussion chip samples were collected directly into pre-written large plastic bags from the cyclone every metre, numbered with the hole number and hole depths, and laid out sequentially at the drill site. Between each metre of drilling the cyclone and top box were cleaned out with compressed air. The bags were then moved to a logging and storage area where the chips were logged by Aton geologists. The bulk 1m samples were weighed, and subsequently riffle split through a 3-tier splitter onsite by Aton field staff to produce an approximately 1/8 split, which was collected in cloth bags, numbered and tagged with the hole number and depth. The splitter was cleaned with compressed air between each sample. The reject material from this initial bulk split was re-bagged, labelled and tagged, and the bulk reject samples will be stored and retained on site at Hamama. A representative sample of each metre was washed, stored in marked plastic chip trays, each containing 20m of samples, photographed, and retained onsite as a permanent record of the drill hole.
All the 1m split samples were weighed again, and the samples were riffle split onsite at the Hamama sample preparation facility, typically a further 3-4 times using a smaller lab splitter, to produce a nominal c. 250-500g sample split for dispatch to the assay laboratory. Again, the splitter was cleaned with compressed air between each sample. The laboratory splits were allocated new sample numbers.
QAQC samples are inserted into the sample stream at a rate of approximately 1 certified reference material (or “standard”) sample every 30 samples, 1 blank sample every 15 samples, and 1 field duplicate split sample every 15 samples.
The c. 250-500g split samples were shipped to ALS Minerals sample preparation laboratory 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 Rosia Montana, Romania for analysis.
Samples were analysed for gold by fire assay with an atomic absorption spectroscopy (“AAS”) finish (analytical code Au-AA23), and for silver, copper, lead and zinc using an aqua regia digest followed by an AAS finish (analytical code AA45). Any high-grade gold samples (>10 g/t Au) were re-analysed using analytical code Au-GRA21 (also fire assay, with a gravimetric finish). Any high-grade Ag and base metal samples (Ag >100 g/t, and Cu, Pb and Zn >10,000ppm, or >1%) were re-analysed using the ore grade technique AA46 (also an aqua regia digest followed by an AAS 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 VAHK
Interim CEO
Tel: +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.
