VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aton Resources Inc. (AAN: TSX-V) (“Aton” or the “Company") is pleased to update investors on the latest assay results from the Phase 2 diamond drilling programme at its advanced Rodruin gold exploration project. Rodruin is located in the Company’s 100% owned Abu Marawat Concession (“Abu Marawat” or the “Concession”), in the Eastern Desert of Egypt.
Highlights:
- The first 21 drill holes in the programme have been completed to date, ROD-048 and ROD-051 to ROD-070, for a total of 1,992 metres drilled;
- Hole ROD-054 returned a mineralised intersection of 24.2m grading 2.13 g/t gold and 8.0 g/t silver;
- Hole ROD-055 returned a mineralised intersection of 88.25m grading 1.74 g/t gold and 9.7 g/t silver;
- The latest results from these 2 drill holes continue to confirm the presence of a wide zone of near-surface mineralisation in the Aladdin’s Hill area of Rodruin, which will be amenable to open pit mining.
“These latest 2 diamond drill holes at the Aladdin’s Hill zone at Rodruin have returned excellent intersections and again clearly demonstrate the presence of wide zones of oxide gold mineralisation which outcrop at surface, and will be readily exploitable by open pit mining,” said Tonno Vahk, Interim CEO. “We have now changed the rig over to the conventional steep hole set up and have started drilling deeper holes, and we are very encouraged by a wide zone of sulphide-rich carbonate drilled in hole ROD-048, which represents the primary equivalent of the gossanous carbonate mineralisation we see at surface over large areas of Rodruin. We have now intersected mineralisation over a vertical elevation range of nearly 300m from the top of the South Ridge to the bottom of the carbonate zone in hole ROD-048, and we continue to be excited by the size potential at Rodruin, with much of the mineralisation outcropping at surface. We have also now signed a new RC drilling contract at Hamama West, and we are really accelerating our work on the ground in Egypt as we look to develop new gold mines at both Rodruin and Hamama West.”
Rodruin diamond drilling programme
The Rodruin prospect was discovered in December 2017 by Aton geologists (see news release dated December 14, 2017), and is located approximately 18km east of the Company’s Hamama West mineral deposit (Figure 1). During 2018 Aton constructed a c. 4.5km access road to the prospect, and undertook a highly successful 50 hole Phase 1 reverse circulation percussion (“RC”) drilling programme at Rodruin, which included intersections of 36m @ 12.47 g/t Au from 5m downhole depth (hole ROP-003, see news release dated October 1, 2018 and 61m @ 1.55 g/t Au and 8.9 g/t Ag from 111m (hole ROP-050, see news release dated January 29, 2019).
The Company contracted Energold Drilling (EMEA) Limited to undertake the Phase 2 diamond drilling programme at Rodruin (see news release dated June 14, 2021), which commenced in late November 2021. The specially engineered ID-500-G track-mounted rig is able to drill horizontal and shallow holes, as well as more conventional inclined and vertical holes, and is ideal for the steep and rugged terrain at the Rodruin project. The programme has been designed to rapidly advance the project towards a maiden mineral resource at Rodruin in the shortest time frame possible, with the specific intention of drill testing much of the near-surface mineralisation identified in the 2018 Phase 1 RC programme.
Discussion of results
Drill holes ROD-054 and ROD-055 were drilled horizontally at the Aladdin’s Hill area from the south side of the hill, and were designed to test the phyllic-hosted mineralisation in this area, and also the near-surface gossanous carbonate associated mineralisation to the north and northeast of this zone (Figure 2). Collar and survey details of the holes are provided in Table 1. Borehole ROD-055 was terminated at 133.3m when it drilled out of the mountainside and daylighted on the northern side of the hill, as planned.
| Hole ID | Collar co-ordinates 1 | Dip 2 | Grid azimuth 2 | EOH depth (m) | Comments | ||
| X | Y | Z | |||||
| ROD-054 | 552327 | 2912950 | 757 | -0.6 | 358 | 80.60 | Aladdin’s Hill |
| ROP-055 | 552362 | 2912947 | 760 | -0.0 | 009 | 133.30 | Aladdin’s Hill |
| Notes: 1) Collar co-ordinates as laid out using handheld GPS 2) Collar surveys of drill holes undertaken at c. 5-6m depth, using Reflex EZ-Trac survey tool 3) All co-ordinates are UTM (WGS84) Zone 36R | |||||||
| Table 1: Collar details of diamond drill holes ROD-054 and ROD-055 | |||||||
| Hole ID | Intersection (m) 1 | Au (g/t) | Ag (g/t) | Cu (%) | Pb (%) | Zn (%) | Comments | ||
| From | To | Interval | |||||||
| ROD-054 | 20.60 | 44.80 | 24.20 | 2.13 | 8.0 | 0.21 | 0.05 | 2.25 | |
| ROD-055 | 25.75 | 114.00 | 88.25 | 1.74 | 9.7 | 0.15 | 0.05 | 1.07 | Includes 5.6m of mining voids/workings 2 |
| incl. | 32.30 | 78.30 | 46.00 | 2.78 | 11.2 | 0.25 | 0.06 | 1.64 | |
| 130.35 | 133.30 | 2.95 | 1.80 | 4.3 | 0.05 | 0.02 | 0.79 | T o EOH | |
| Notes: 1) Intersections calculated at a nominal cutoff grade of 0.3 g/t Au in runs of continuous mineralisation 2) Zones of poor (or no) recovery through ancient mining voids/workings were not sampled and allocated zero grade | |||||||||
| Table 2: Mineralised intersections from diamond drill holes ROD-054 and ROD-055 | |||||||||
Both drill holes intersected the phyllic-hosted (quartz-sericite-iron oxide) mineralisation with ROD-054 returning an intersection of 24.4m grading 2.13 g/t Au and 8.0 g/t Ag from 20.6m (Table 2 and Figure 2). The phyllic-hosted mineralisation at Aladdin’s Hill is separated from gossanous carbonate associated mineralisation to its north and northeast by a zone of east-west faulting (Figure 2). In hole ROD-055 the mineralisation was continuous on the north side of this structural contact, with the phyllic-hosted mineralisation faulted directly against a zone of gossan and gossanous carbonate hosted mineralisation. Hole ROD-055 returned an intersection of 88.25m grading 1.74 g/t Au and 9.7 g/t Ag from 25.75m (Table 2 and Figure 2)
These 2 drill holes again confirm a ‘wedge’ of phyllic-hosted mineralisation at Aladdin’s Hill that extends to and is exposed at surface (see news release dated January 25, 2022), as well a wide extent of near-surface mineralisation associated with the outcropping gossanous carbonates to the north of the phyllic zone. The phyllic-hosted mineralisation at Aladdin’s Hill consists of very heavily quartz-sericite-pyrite altered rock, interpreted as having a meta-sedimentary precursor, that is consistently mineralised, and contains high grade coarse gold bearing zones. RC drill hole ROP-003 returned an intersection of 36m grading 12.47 g/t Au and 9.3 g/t Ag (see news release dated October 1, 2018) from this wedge of phyllic-hosted mineralisation.
The results from ROD-054 and ROD-055 back up the results from holes ROD-052 and ROD-053 (see news release dated January 25, 2022), and further confirm the potential for a significant tonnage of near-surface open pittable oxide mineralisation at the Aladdin’s Hill zone at Rodruin. The current diamond drilling programme has been designed with the objective of quantifying this potential resource, with holes to date drilled at horizontal or shallow angles to test the near surface potential at the Aladdin’s Hill and Central Buttress/Spiral Pit/South Ridge zones at Rodruin.
The rig has now been converted to the more conventional steep or vertical hole setup, and the first vertical hole ROD-048 was completed on February 19, 2022. A c. 90m wide zone (c. 60-70m estimated true width) of sulphidic carbonate rock was intersected in this hole with zones of significant visible copper-zinc mineralisation. The sulphidic carbonate is interpreted as being the protolith of the gossanous sulphide mineralisation which outcrops at surface. This hole has already been logged, cut and sampled and dispatched from site for assay. Aton will continue to provide results of the ongoing drilling programme as they become available.
Sample processing and analytical procedures
Drill core was logged by Aton geologists, and marked up for cutting and sampling at the Rodruin core farm. Samples were typically selected over nominal 1m intervals, but as determined by the logged lithologies. The core was half-cut by Aton staff onsite at the recently constructed onsite Rodruin sample preparation laboratory.
Full half-core samples were collected and bagged up in cloth bags, weighed and crushed to -4mm onsite, and split to a nominal c. 250-500g sample size. The coarse crushed reject samples are retained onsite at the Rodruin sample prep lab.
The c. 250-500g 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 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). High grade gold samples (>10 g/t Au) were re-analysed using analytical code Au-GRA21 (also fire assay, but with a gravimetric finish). 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.
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