Aben Extends Mineralized Envelope around High-Grade Gold Discoveries at North Boundary on the Forrest Kerr Project in BC's Golden Triangle

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 19, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aben Resources Ltd. (TSX-V: ABN) (OTCQB: ABNAF) (Frankfurt: E2L2) (the “Company”) reports further results from the recently completed drill program at the Forrest Kerr Project. Drilling has extended the mineralized envelope surrounding the 2017 and 2018 high-grade gold discoveries at North Boundary. This round of focused drilling tested for the depth and lateral extension of known mineralized shear and vein sets located in the North Boundary Zone. Broad horizons of low to moderate grade gold mineralization were encountered in several of the 15 drill holes (FK18-22 à36) reported herein, while all drill holes encountered discrete polymetallic vein hosted mineralization with gold values ranging from trace amounts to 13 grams per tonne (g/t) over 1 meter.

Forrest Kerr Drill Hole Plan View Map:
https://abenresources.com/site/assets/files/4855/abn_fk_north_boundary_inset_drilling.jpg

President and CEO, Jim Pettit states: “The 2018 season has been a geologic and technical success in terms of what we have accomplished this year.  We started out with a 5000 meter drill program and expanded it to 10,000 meters after success with the drill. We raised $5.2 million and an additional $1.7 million from the exercise of warrants.  Logistically, we adapted quickly and efficiently on the fly and actually substantially reduced our overall cost of drilling per meter. We have identified the Boundary Zone as a very large, robust environment for gold mineralization and discovery.  We have 9 more holes to report on from this season and we look forward to compiling all the data available to us generated from this 2018 drilling program as well as new geochemical and geophysical analysis. It is also important to note we have the funds in the treasury for the 2019 exploration and drill program.”   

Analytical results indicate that a coherent zone of vein-hosted mineralization extends up to 30 meters outward from the high-grade Au reported in holes FK18-4,5,6 & 10 (see News Releases Nov. 6, 2017 and Aug. 9, 2018). Results from this area  include 0.8 g/t Au over 11 meters (m) in hole FK18-32, 0.7 g/t Au over 14 m in FK18-33, 1.2 g/t Au over 21 m in FK18-34, 0.8 g/t Au over 15 m in FK18-35 and 0.46 g/t Au over 17 m in FK18-36 (chart below). The mineralization defined by these holes extends for over 30 meters along strike and remains open in multiple directions.

View Forrest Kerr Drill Hole Cross Sections:
https://www.abenresources.com/projects/photo-gallery/

Drilling to date has shown that mineralization extends several meters outboard of the high-grade area within subordinate shear structures and vein arrays. Oriented core tooling was utilized for this phase of drilling in order to collect structural data that will help determine the orientation of both the main and subsidiary mineralized structures. The oriented core data, combined with the surface mapping data and a growing subsurface database at the Boundary Zone will assist greatly in planning future targeted drill programs.

Aben Resources completed 9900 meters of NQ drilling in 2018 on a low cost per meter basis. The number of available drill locations was constrained due to a delay in receiving an updated MX Permit from the British Columbia Provincial Government in response to extreme forest fire activity in the area. As a result the last phase of targeted drilling was completed from only 3 pad locations with fan arrays from each set-up. Subsequent to completion of the summer drill program Aben received the much anticipated 5 year Multi-Year Area Based (MYAB) permit, which will allow for more extensive drill programs going forward. 

Mineralization at Boundary North is structurally controlled and hosted in a package of volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks from the Jurassic Hazelton Group. Several generations of quartz and quartz-carbonate veining are important hosts to mineralization, as are subordinate breccia zones with strong chlorite, hematite and carbonate alteration. The Boundary Zone lies between the Forrest Kerr Fault to the west, a major deep-seated crustal feature, and the unconformable contact between the Jurassic Hazelton Group and the Triassic Stuhini Group to the East. The rock reflects a prolonged history of strong hydrothermal activity combined with brittle deformation. The host package Hazelton is known to be a prolific host to several deposits throughout the region.

Golden Triangle, B.C., claims map:
https://www.abenresources.com/site/assets/files/4287/fk-003.jpg

Analytical and QA/QC Description:

All 1 or 2 meter drill core samples were delivered to ALS Global prep facility in Terrace, British Columbia where they were crushed until 70% passed a 2mm sieve, then a 250g split was pulverized until better than 85% passed a 75 micron screen. Gold was tested via fire assay method Au-ICP21 with all ore-grade samples (>10 g/t) undergoing fire assay with gravimetric finish. ALS performed multi-element ICP-AES package ME-ICP41 in their Vancouver facility to test for 35 other elements. In addition to the quality assurance and quality control program performed by ALS, Aben personnel insert lab certified standards, field blanks and duplicates into the sample stream at the rate of one QA/QC sample in every 10 samples.

Update on the Justin Gold Project, Yukon Territory, Canada

Aben Resources is currently finalizing analytical results from field work completed in September 2018 on its 100% owned Justin Gold Property in the Yukon Territory. The geologic team reports visible gold in trenches and channel samples from quartz stockwork veining in bedrock at the Lost Ace Zone, a gold-bearing zone discovered in 2017. Channel sampling in 2017 at Lost Ace returned 1.44 g/t Au over 5m including 4.77 g/t Au over 1.0 m in addition to a bulk soil sample that contained 1135 visible gold grains, the majority of which were termed ‘pristine’ indicating a proximal bedrock source for the gold. Lost Ace is an exciting new prospect on the Justin Property as it is located within 2km of the main mineralized POW Zone and bears striking similarities to Golden Predators adjacent 3 Ace Property.  

Cornell McDowell, P.Geo., V.P. of Exploration of Aben Resources, has reviewed and approved the technical aspects of this news release and is the Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

About Aben Resources:

Aben Resources is a Canadian gold exploration company developing projects in British Columbia’s Golden Triangle, the Yukon, and Saskatchewan.

For further information on Aben Resources Ltd. (TSX-V: ABN), visit our Company’s web site at www.abenresources.com.

ABEN RESOURCES LTD.

“Jim Pettit”
 ____________________________
JAMES G. PETTIT
President & CEO

For further information contact myself or:
Don Myers
Aben Resources Ltd.
Director, Corporate Communications
Telephone: 604-687-3376
Toll Free: 800-567-8181
Facsimile: 604-687-3119
Email: info@abenresources.com

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This release includes certain statements that may be deemed to be "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that management of the Company expects, are forward-looking statements. Although management believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements, include market prices, exploration and development successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Please see the public filings of the Company at www.sedar.com for further information.