Aton Announces the Start of Drilling at Rodruin
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aton Resources Inc. (AAN: TSX-V) (“Aton” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that as of yesterday, its reverse circulation percussion (“RC”) drilling programme is underway at the Company’s Rodruin prospect (“Rodruin”). The drill program will look to preliminarily test the widespread gold (±zinc) mineralisation that Aton has identified at surface at Rodruin.
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Highlights
- The Company has contracted Capital Drilling Limited to drill approximately 4,000 to 6,000 metres during the first phase of RC drilling at Rodruin (Figure 1). This programme is expected to take approximately 2 months to complete;
- Drilling commenced at Rodruin on August 27, 2018 on hole ROP-001 testing gossanous gold mineralisation exposed at surface at Aladdin’s Hill;
- Surface sampling is ongoing at Rodruin, including channel sampling of road cuttings exposed during drill access road and pad construction, and a grid pattern of grab sampling over the main zone of ancient workings at Aladdin’s Hill. Further assay results will be reported once they become available.
“The Phase 1 RC drill program has been primarily designed with a view to testing the highly prospective area around the ancient workings at Aladdin’s Hill, and its immediate area,” said Javier Orduña, Aton’s Exploration Manager. “We have sampled and identified gold mineralisation at Rodruin over a very significant areal extent, but due to the sheer ruggedness of the area, and the time required to put in access to all the mineralised areas we have identified to date, we have decided to concentrate initially on the Aladdin’s Hill area. Indeed we believe we have advanced the project at a very rapid rate, given its remote location, since its discovery only 9 months ago, and we are very excited to be now starting drilling. As our recent and ongoing channel sampling of road cuts has shown, there is significant gold mineralisation exposed in the area we plan to drill test, and we know from our underground sampling that there is high grade mineralisation at Aladdin’s Hill which we will test in this first phase of drilling. The identification of ancient mine tailings grading over 20 g/t gold several years ago at East Eradiya by Aton, always suggested a potentially very high grade primary source in the general area, and we are confident that we have now identified this at Rodruin. As this first phase of drilling progresses we will continue to build access roads to other significantly mineralised areas at Rodruin, such as the Spiral Pit, with a view to drilling these other targets later in this first phase, or during the next phase of drilling.”
Mark Campbell, President and CEO of Aton said, “The start of our Phase 1 exploration drilling programme at Rodruin is a milestone for the Company as I believe Rodruin to be one of the most prospective undrilled gold targets in Egypt. This drilling programme will be the first test of our belief that Rodruin can become a high grade and bulk mineable gold project.”
Rodruin drilling programme
Construction of drill access roads and pads in the immediate Aladdin’s Hill area is continuing, but has now largely been completed for the planned RC programme. Construction of drill access roads and pads including roads designed to provide access to other mineralised areas at Rodruin is ongoing. Capital Drilling’s track-mounted Gemrok MP-1000 multi-purpose rig 256, which is capable of both RC and diamond drilling, has now started drilling on the first hole ROP-001 at Aladdin’s Hill (Figure 2). The first phase of drilling is planned to consist of approximately 4,000 to 6,000 metres of RC drilling, and will primarily test the main zone of ancient workings and mapped mineralisation in the Aladdin’s Hill area, and is expected to take about 2 months to complete. The first assay results are expected in the second half of September 2018.
Figure 1: Provisional drillhole collar layout at Rodruin, in the immediate Aladdin’s Hill area is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ec1f0561-c2b5-4723-918b-2ac0b06aa6bf
Figure 2: Capital Drilling’s rig 256 collaring RC hole ROP-001 at Rodruin is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/befeb69c-2bed-472f-911a-b2d1fcd6a1b3
Rodruin
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. Field mapping and sampling has indicated the presence of ancient mine workings and extensive gold mineralisation over an area of at least 700m x 400m at surface. Abundant visible gold has been and continues to be identified in hand specimens from surface outcrops, and ancient dumps and underground workings, with individual selective grab samples assaying up to 321 g/t Au. The main series of extensive ancient underground workings in the Aladdin’s Hill area has also been sampled to a depth of approximately 40m below ground level, indicating continuation of the surface mineralisation at depth (see news releases dated February 6, 2018, March 5, 2018 and April 16, 2018).
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 200km north of Centamin’s Sukari gold mine. Aton has identified a 40km long gold mineralised trend at Abu Marawat, anchored by the Hamama deposit in the west and the Abu Marawat deposit in the east, containing numerous gold exploration targets, including three historic British mines. Aton has identified several distinct geological trends within Abu Marawat, which display potential for the development of RIRG and orogenic gold mineralisation, VMS precious and base metal mineralisation, and epithermal-IOCG precious and base metal mineralisation. Abu Marawat is over 738km2 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.
Qualified Person
The technical information contained in this News Release was prepared by Javier Orduña BSc (hons), MSc, MCSM, DIC, MAIG, SEG(M), FGS, 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:
Mark Campbell
President and Chief Executive Officer
Tel: +202-27356548
Email: mcampbell@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.
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