Aton discovers 2 new zones of mineralisation at Safaga South and Wasif, sampling up to 16.45 g/t Au

 

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 20, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aton Resources Inc. (AAN: TSX-V) (“Aton” or the “Company") is pleased to update investors on 2 new gold mineralised prospects at Safaga South and Wasif, identified and discovered during the Company’s ongoing regional exploration programme (see Figure 1). These new targets are both located within the Company’s 100% owned Abu Marawat Concession (“Abu Marawat” or the “Concession”), located in the Eastern Desert of Egypt.

Highlights:      

• A number of ancient mine workings and settlements have been identified at the Safaga South prospect. Reconnaissance field inspection and grab sampling has been undertaken, which has returned assays of up to 16.45 g/t Au from mineralised quartz veins;
• At the Wasif prospect a significant ancient mining settlement has been identified from satellite imagery. Preliminary field inspection has identified a number of ancient workings associated with gossanous metavolcanic rocks, in a geological setting analogous to that of the Hamama deposit. Preliminary grab sampling has returned assay grades of up to 0.98 g/t Au, 7.6 g/t Ag, 0.30% Cu, 0.20% Pb and 0.22% Zn.

“These two new discoveries, which have both returned very positive preliminary results, are located in an area previously unexplored by Aton, and highlight once again the overall potential that exists across our Abu Marawat Concession area. Our extensive regional exploration program begun in early 2017 has uncovered many new potential targets, and of course led to our major discovery at Rodruin.” said Mark Campbell, President and CEO. “We will follow up the preliminary reconnaissance work undertaken to date, including further sampling, with the aim of outlining the potential size and disposition of the mineralised areas, and developing an understanding of the different styles of mineralisation that we are seeing at Safaga South and Wasif.”

Safaga South

The Safaga South prospect is located at the northeastern corner of the Abu Marawat Concession, on the southern side of Wadi Safaga, and is approximately 14 km east-northeast of the Abu Marawat deposit. Mineralised quartz veins have been identified on the ground over an area of several square kilometres, and have been partially worked in ancient times (see Figure 2). There is also archaeological evidence of ancient dwellings and alluvial wadi workings in the surrounding area. Aton has not been able to locate any previous record of this apparently unknown historical mining site.

Mineralisation was identified at Safaga South in numerous quartz veins, mainly hosted in coarse grained basement granodiorites, and close to the contact of a late Younger Granite intrusion. The main zone of veins strikes approximately E-W (see Figure 2), and can be traced for approximately a kilometre. The host rocks are intruded by a series of late felsitic or aplitic dykes which appear to be spatially related to the mineralised quartz veins. The quartz vein mineralisation and the general geology of the area show broad similarities to the Sir Bakis and Zeno prospects, and possibly also to Bohlog and Abu Gaharish (see Figure 1; and news releases dated September 13, 2017, May 30, 2018, December 4, 2017, and December 19, 2017).

Figure 1: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/9d817bf1-6c1c-471e-9825-d23267d9befd

12 selective grab samples were taken at Safaga South during this first pass reconnaissance programme (see Figure 3). The programme returned very encouraging results with half the samples having gold grades greater than 5 g/t Au, up to a maximum of 16.45 g/t Au (see Table 1). These 12 samples returned a mean average grade of 5.29 g/t Au.

Sampling confirmed the presence of gold in both the quartz veins as well as the altered, weathered and in places sheared host rocks. The host granodiorites and felsites/aplites are typically weathered, bleached and kaolinised, with some limonite staining after pyrite and occasional minor copper staining. Quartz veins typically occur on the margins of felsite/aplite dykes, and mineralisation also occurs as networks of fine stringers and veinlets hosted in altered felsites/aplites, associated with weathered and disseminated pyrite.

Figure 2: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d888f2ec-984a-4eb4-8bd2-509496b6ed7b

Sample ID	X	Y	Prospect	Au (g/t)	Ag (g/t)	Cu (%)	Pb (%)	Zn (%)
AHA-17558	576065	2939308	Safaga South	2.89	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
AHA-17559	575980	2939499	Safaga South	5.62	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
AHA-17560	575984	2939496	Safaga South	1.20	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
AHA-17561	576012	2939508	Safaga South	2.02	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
AHA-17566	576412	2938483	Safaga South	16.45	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
AHA-17567	576445	2938483	Safaga South	8.91	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
AHA-17568	576797	2938532	Safaga South	9.44	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
AHA-17569	576847	2938536	Safaga South	5.72	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
AHA-17570	576892	2938542	Safaga South	7.04	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
AHA-17571	576883	2938483	Safaga South	3.11	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
AHA-17572	577209	2938597	Safaga South	0.91	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
AHA-17573	577333	2939317	Safaga South	0.11	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
AHA-17562	576131	2934897	Wasif	0.03	0.5	0.06	0.01	0.04
AHA-17563	576235	2934041	Wasif	0.98	7.6	0.29	0.20	0.22
AHA-17564	576213	2934118	Wasif	0.07	1.9	0.30	0.01	0.10
AHA-17565	576267	2934522	Wasif	0.04	0.9	0.22	0.01	0.06
AHA-17578	576174	2934886	Wasif	0.02	0.6	0.08	0.00	0.19
AHA-17579	576293	2935000	Wasif	0.01	<0.5	0.00	0.00	0.00
AHA-17580	576244	2935039	Wasif	0.01	<0.5	0.01	0.00	0.01
Notes: All coordinates are UTM (WGS84) Zone 36R n/a – not assayed

Table 1: Safaga South and Wasif grab sample assay results

Figure 3: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/387e2d57-a762-466f-b3c3-d7d7d4ae1c68

Wasif

The Wasif prospect is located about 5 km to the south of Safaga South, lies on the northeastern boundary of the Concession, and was identified from satellite imagery by the presence of a significant ancient mining village. A second large settlement lies about 2 km further to the south, but has not yet been visited. The layout of the many ancient houses suggests their occupants were mining and processing alluvial gold at this second site.

Preliminary field inspection of the Wasif area indicated the presence of numerous small ancient mine workings exploiting gossanous and iron-rich lenses occurring within a N-S striking zone of highly sheared felsic metavolcanics and tuffs with quartz stringers, which extends over a distance of at least 1-2 km. This gossanous and sheared zone is contiguous with and parallel to a distinctive silicate-carbonate unit.

7 selective grab samples were taken from the Wasif area during preliminary reconnaissance and were analysed for gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc, as well as a multi-element geochemical suite, with assay results provided in Table 1. A single sample returned grades of 0.98 g/t Au, 7.6 g/t Ag, as well as Cu, Pb and Zn grades all in excess of 0.2%, as well as being significantly anomalous in Ba, Bi and Mo. A further 2 of the 7 samples also returned strongly anomalous base metal values, including grades in excess of 0.2% Cu.

Aton is very encouraged by the preliminary inspection of the Wasif zone, with the identification of previously unknown ancient mine workings and gossanous and iron-rich metavolcanic rocks, indicating a significant primary sulphide content in the precursor rocks. Preliminary grab sampling has shown the presence of both gold, silver and base metal mineralisation at Wasif. The lithologies present, notably the metavolcanics and the silica-carbonate unit identified over a structural/stratigraphic trend of at least 1-2 km in length, along with the strong gold-silver-polymetallic geochemical anomalism and the gossanous weathering of primary sulphides are all very similar to the Hamama area.

Further field follow-up of the initial reconnaissance fieldwork at both Safaga South and Wasif is warranted and will be undertaken in the near future.

Sampling and analytical procedures

Grab samples were manually and selectively collected, and weighed in the order of 3-10 kg per individual sample. The samples were then transported to and crushed to -4mm at the Company’s onsite sample preparation facility at Hamama. The final c. 500g splits were shipped to ALS Minerals at Rosia Montana, Romania for analysis. All samples were analysed for gold by fire assay with an atomic absorption spectroscopy (“AAS”) finish (analytical code Au-AA23) with high grade gold samples (>10 g/t Au) being re-analysed using analytical code Au-AA25 (also fire assay with an AAS finish). The Wasif samples were also analysed for silver, copper, lead and zinc using an aqua regia digest followed by an AAS finish (analytical code AA45), and a multi-element geochemical suite using a four acid digest with an inductively couple plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (“ICP-AES”) finish (analytical code ME-ICP61).

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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