Aton samples up to 102.5 g/t Au at Safaga South

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 09, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aton Resources Inc. (AAN: TSX-V) (“Aton” or the “Company") is pleased to update investors on follow-up fieldwork at the recently discovered Safaga South prospect. Safaga South is located within the Company’s 100% owned Abu Marawat Concession (“Abu Marawat” or the “Concession”), located in the Eastern Desert of Egypt.

Highlights:      

• A second phase of reconnaissance field inspection and selective grab sampling has been undertaken a Safaga South, with a further 36 samples collected;
• Gold mineralisation is associated with narrow quartz veins, hosted in granodioritic to dioritic basement rocks, and occurs over an area of several square kilometres;
• Samples returned assays of up to 102.5 g/t Au, associated with coarse visible gold;
• Of the 36 samples, 26 returned assays greater than 1 g/t Au, and 10 returned grades above 10 g/t Au, confirming the widespread development of quartz vein hosted gold mineralisation at Safaga South, at significant grades.

“Following up on our recent new gold discovery at Safaga South, we have now significantly expanded the footprint of the outcropping mineralisation, and this second sampling programme has returned some very solid results,” said Mark Campbell, President and CEO. “Over the past months we have been primarily focused on securing our mining licence at Hamama and working with the Government and Wood Mackenzie on mining reform in Egypt, but importantly we continue to develop the overall exploration potential of the Abu Marawat Concession”.

Safaga South

The Safaga South prospect is located at the northeastern corner of the Abu Marawat Concession, predominantly on the southern side of Wadi Safaga, and is approximately 14 km east-northeast of the Abu Marawat deposit (Figure 1). Aton has discovered gold mineralised quartz veins over a significant area at Safaga South (see news release dated June 20, 2019), which have been partially worked in ancient times; as well as ancient dwellings and alluvial wadi workings in the general area. There are no previous records known to the Company of this historic mining site.

Aton field crews undertook a second phase of reconnaissance sampling at Safaga South between June and August 2019 to follow up on the initial programme, with a total of 36 selective grab samples taken during this second phase (Figure 2). The main objective of the programme was to identify and sample further mineralised quartz veins away from the 2 main zones of veins sampled in the initial discovery phase of sampling (see Figure 3 of news release dated June 20, 2019). Details of all new samples and assay grades are provided in Appendix A.

Mineralisation has been identified at Safaga South in numerous narrow quartz veins, mainly hosted in basement granitic rocks, predominantly granodiorites, and dioritic rocks in the northern part of the area. A distinctive high relief, late Younger Granite intrusive (Figure 1) outcrops in the northeast corner of the Concession. A late regional structural fabric strikes at approximately 070°, and is associated with very fine-grained, predominantly felsic (to mafic?) composition dyke emplacement. Many of the mineralised quartz veins are sub-parallel to this fabric, and are directly spatially related to dykes. The quartz vein mineralisation and the general geology of the area show broad similarities to the Zeno and Sir Bakis prospects (see Figure 1; and news releases dated May 30, 2018 and September 13, 2017).

Figure 1: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/52b5ff6e-fdeb-41e2-a1ff-ef1f4ea0ed48

The programme again returned very encouraging results with exactly half the samples returning gold grades greater than 5 g/t Au, up to a maximum of 102.5 g/t Au (see Appendix A). Of the 36 samples 10 returned gold grades greater than 10 g/t Au, 18 returned gold grades greater than 5 g/t Au, and 26 returned gold grades greater than 1 g/t Au. At one location coarse visible gold was identified in iron oxide bearing quartz veins, with 2 samples returning assays of 102.5 g/t Au and 95.7 g/t Au.

Sampling again confirmed the presence of gold in both the quartz veins as well as the altered, weathered and in places, sheared host rocks. Most of the mineralisation at Safaga South is associated with narrow iron stained, and occasionally weakly gossanous quartz veins typically up to about a metre in width. Some of the veins are copper stained, although many are not. The Cu mineralisation, where present, is typically zoned, usually towards and within the often sheared margins of the veins, as well as laterally along the veins. Samples returned Cu grades up to 0.66% (sample AHA-20384), and chalcopyrite was occasionally identified. Silver values were typically low, and less than the gold grades, up to a maximum of 11.6 g/t Ag. No significant Pb or Zn assays were returned, and the original sulphide content of the veins was typically low, below 5% as a maximum.

As previously described the gold mineralised veins are frequently associated with narrow felsic (to mafic?) dykes, are sometimes sheared, and are typically orientated in an approximately E-W direction. Many, but not all, of the veins appear to be sub-parallel to the regional structural fabric, striking at about 070°, which appears to control much of the dyke and vein emplacement. Distribution of the gold mineralisation within the veins appears to be zoned, with the highest grades apparently occurring at the margins with, and extending into, the mineralised wallrocks. Some of the dykes appear to host gold mineralisation (eg. sample AHA-20384) whereas others do not (eg. samples AHA-25054 and AHA-25055).

One sample (AHA-20388) was collected from an outcrop of quite strongly and pervasively copper stained and altered granodioritic (?) rock, and returned an assay of 0.20% Cu. Interestingly, there was no obvious quartz veining at this locality, and the assay grade and pervasive Cu staining are suggestive of disseminated Cu mineralisation through the intrusive host.

Further follow-up work is justified and planned at the recently discovered Safaga South prospect to further define the extent and the significance of the widespread mineralisation identified to date.

Figure 2: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6e7731c2-fdf1-41ae-91a1-a289c6d1255f

Exploration activity update

A number of other regional exploration fieldwork programmes have been undertaken during the summer months at Abu Marawat, including the following:

• Further follow-up sampling has been undertaken at the Wasif prospect, which is located about 5 km to the south of Safaga South (see news release dated June 20, 2019). Detailed examination of an ancient village in the area suggests it to have been an ancient copper smelting site.
   
• Further preliminary reconnaissance field work has been undertaken in the general Wasif-Waayrah area towards the eastern margin of the Concession. No previous work has been undertaken by the Company in this area of the Concession.
   
• A preliminary programme of mobile metal ion geochemical sampling has been completed at the Abu Gaharish prospect (Figure 1) to follow up on the results of the 2017 GPR geophysical survey, which identified potentially mineralised structures buried beneath wadi sediments (see news release dated December 19, 2017). The aim of this programme was to identify potential blind mineralisation buried beneath wadi sediments at Abu Gaharish, and to further refine targeting. The Company has previously identified significant outcropping mineralisation in granitic ‘islands’ at Abu Gaharish, within a broad, flat-lying zone of wadi sediment cover. These samples have not yet been dispatched for analysis.
   
• A sampling programme has been carried out at the Semna East prospect, a reduced intrusive related gold (“RIRG”) target located approximately 4km east-southeast of the historic Semna gold mine (Figure 1), and located on the northern margin of the highly prospective Gaharish granite pluton. Extensive ancient alluvial wadi workings have been identified at Semna East. The field programme comprised targeted sampling of outcropping mineralised quartz veins, as well as a grid lithogeochemical sampling programme.

Further details of the results of these programmes will be released in due course, as they become available.

Sampling and analytical procedures

Grab samples were manually and selectively collected at Safaga South, weighing in the order of 2-3 kg per individual sample. The samples were 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). High grade gold samples (>10 g/t Au and >100 g/t Au) were re-analysed using analytical codes Au-AA25 (also fire assay with an AAS finish), and Au-GRA21 (fire assay with a gravimetric finish), respectively. All samples were also analysed for silver, copper, lead and zinc using an aqua regia digest followed by an AAS finish (analytical code AA45).

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. Three historic British mines are also located on the Concession at Sir Bakis, Semna and Abu Garida. 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 over 596 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:

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.

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.

Appendix A