Aton reports 1.33 g/t gold over an interval of 127m from new channel sampling at Rodruin, confirming wide zone of mineralisation at surface

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 03, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aton Resources Inc. (AAN: TSX-V) (“Aton” or the “Company") is pleased to provide investors with an update on recent activities at its Rodruin advanced exploration project at the Company’s 100% owned Abu Marawat Concession (“Abu Marawat” or the “Concession”), in the Eastern Desert of Egypt.

Highlights:        

• The Company recently re-started its surface channel sampling programme of potential mineralisation exposed along drill road cuttings at Rodruin;
• Sampling of channel sample profile ROC-031 returned a mineralised interval of 127m at a grade of 1.33 g/t gold and 7.3 g/t silver;
• Drill road and pad preparation is ongoing at Rodruin ahead of the upcoming diamond drilling programme. Good progress is being made with new roads onto the North Ridge which will allow the first drill testing of veins mined in ancient workings, which returned grades of up to 321 g/t gold at surface.

“We are very happy that Rodruin continues to live up to our expectations and these new channel sampling results vindicate our commitment to the second phase drilling programme that will commence in the coming weeks,” said Tonno Vahk, Interim CEO. “These new results again demonstrate the potential and the continuity of the mineralisation outcropping at surface at Rodruin, and further reinforce our interpretation of broad zones of gold mineralisation on the South Ridge which will be amenable to open pit mining. We are also excited at the prospect of being able to drill for the first time the very high grade veins which we sampled in 2017-18, as we continue to push new roads up on to the North Ridge.”

Rodruin channel sampling programme

Channel sampling of newly exposed mineralisation in road cuttings at Rodruin re-commenced in August 2021, following on from the 2018 reverse circulation percussion (“RC”) drilling and surface sampling programmes (see news releases dated August 7, 2018, September 4, 2018, September 12, 2018, September 24, 2018, and October 29, 2018 for previous details of channel sampling at Rodruin). The current channel sampling programme is focussed on new roads that are being excavated in advance of the upcoming diamond drilling programme, which will commence in the coming weeks.

Channel profile ROC-031 (Figure 1) was sampled along a new high road running southeast from the ROP-031 to ROP-034 drill pad on the Central Buttress Zone (“CBZ”), see news release dated January 3, 2019. A total of 67 samples were collected over a 127m profile length, predominantly within carbonate-silica rocks with patchy gossanous zones. At the southeastern end of the profile quartz filled tensional stockwork veins outcrop. Samples were collected over nominal 2m lengths, along a continuous saw-cut channel profile. A further 5 QAQC samples were submitted for analysis, comprising 1 duplicate sample, 2 blank samples, 1 flushing sample, and 1 standard sample of a certified reference material.

Figure 1: Location of the ROC-031 channel sample profile at Rodruin 

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The results from ROC-031 are very encouraging and are summarised in Table 1 below. The profile returned a mineralised intersection of 127m at a grade of 1.33 g/t gold (“Au”) and 7.3 g/t silver (“Ag”) over its entire length, including a 16.5m interval which returned 4.29 g/t Au and 16.5 g/t Ag at the southernmost end of the profile, close to the Spiral Pit Zone (“SPZ”).

Table 1: Summary of the results from the ROC-031 channel sample profile

Previous channel sampling in the vicinity of ROC-031 returned mineralised intervals of 50.3m grading 1.37 g/t Au (profile ROC-017, see news release dated September 24, 2018), 58.2m grading 1.25 g/t Au (profile ROC-018, see news release dated October 29, 2018), 26.3m grading 2.29 g/t Au (profile ROC-019, also see news release dated October 29, 2018), and 26.0m grading 1.97 g/t Au (profile ROC-026, previously unreported), associated with variably gossanous carbonate-silica rock.

Furthermore the first phase of RC drilling in the vicinity of channel sample profile ROC-031 also returned significant mineralised intervals including 20m grading 5.36 g/t Au and 15.9 g/t Ag from surface (drill hole ROP-029, see news release dated December 10, 2018), 34m grading 2.00 g/t Au, from 10m depth (drill hole ROP-033, see news release dated January 3, 2019), 31m grading 2.45 g/t Au and 12.5 g/t Ag, from 2m depth (drill hole ROP-034, also see news release dated January 3, 2019), and 70m grading 1.16 g/t Au, from 11m depth (drill hole ROP-047, see news release dated January 29, 2019). Mineralisation was again associated with gossanous carbonate-silica rock, except from ROP-029 at the SPZ where the host rock consisted of mineralised carbonate and heavily phyllic altered quartz-sericite rock.

The latest results from channel profile ROC-031 again confirm the presence of significant gold mineralisation at surface, associated with the variably gossanous carbonate-silica rock mapped between the Central Buttress and the Spiral Pit (Figure 1). The new results combined with the results of previous surface channel sampling and the first phase of RC drilling indicate that much of the carbonate-silica rock in the CBZ and SPZ areas may be mineralised. The area is structurally complex, but it is quite possible that the carbonate-silica hosted mineralisation on the Central Buttress and the higher grade mineralisation hosted in phyllic altered rocks at the SPZ is contiguous.

These latest results continue to provide Aton with strong encouragement that the Rodruin area may host significant bulk tonnages of gold mineralisation, associated with the mapped carbonate-silica rocks, and with localised zones of potentially high grade, coarse gold bearing mineralisation, such as at Aladdin’s Hill and the Spiral Pit, associated with heavily phyllic altered host rock.

The upcoming planned diamond drilling programme using Energold’s specially engineered rig, which will include a series of horizontal and shallow dipping holes, will target this potentially broad zone of outcropping mineralisation on the South Ridge, associated with the mapped silica-carbonate unit and associated gossans, amongst other areas.

Exploration activity update

• Final results for the wadi sediment sampling programme at Abu Gaharish have now been received. The samples were submitted for ultra-low level multi-element ionic leach (mobile metal ion) geochemical analysis. The results of the programme are now being evaluated and interpreted, and will be released once this has been completed.
• Drill road and pad preparation is ongoing at Rodruin in advance of the upcoming diamond drilling programme. 2 excavators continue to operate at Rodruin, and are making good progress on the North Ridge, which will enable Aton to drill the high grade veins, which returned assays of up to 321 g/t gold (see news release dated February 6, 2018), for the first time.
• Energold’s drill rig arrived in Egypt on October 22, 2021, and is now undergoing customs clearance procedures, which are expected to take potentially another 1-2 weeks.

Sampling, sample processing and analytical procedures

Access road cuttings and drill pads selected for channel sampling initially had their exposed faces cleaned by an excavator, prior to sampling. A single continuous sample channel was cut along each profile using a large, generator powered angle grinder. Sample intervals were marked up on the cleaned faces with spray paint, with the start and end points of individual samples marked on the exposed faces. The channels were created by sawing 2 parallel cuts, approximately 50-75mm apart, with the angle grinder. The cut channel was subsequently sampled using a hammer and chisel, with the sampled material excavated from between the 2 cuts. The profiles were sampled at nominal 2m intervals, but with individual sample lengths varying from less than 1m to greater than 3m, as appropriate.

Samples were bagged up in cloth bags, and dried and crushed to -4mm at Aton’s onsite Hamama sample preparation laboratory, and split to a nominal c. 250-500g sample size.

The 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 Loughrea, Ireland for analysis.

Samples were analysed for gold by fire assay with an atomic absorption spectrometry finish (analytical code Au-AA23); and for a 34 multi-element suite using ICP atomic emission spectrometry (analytical code ME-ICP61).

High grade overlimit gold samples (>10 ppm Au) were re-analysed using analytical code Au-GRA21 (also fire assay, but with a gravimetric finish). High grade overlimit zinc samples (Zn >10,000 ppm or >1%) were re-analysed using the ore grade technique OG62 (consisting of a four acid digestion with an ICP finish).