VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA–(Marketwired – July 25, 2016) – Aton Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE:AAN) (the “Company”) is very pleased to report that following the break for Ramadan and Eid El Fitar, that it has recommenced the 3500m drilling program at its wholly owned Hamama gold-rich Project in Egypt’s Eastern Desert. Drilling will continue to be concentrated on Hamama West, in particular on the gold-oxide cap and the primary sulphides zone, where previous drilling intercepted significant mineralization.
PROGRAM SUMMARY
- The balance of 800m will be drilled to complete a total of 3,500 m of diamond core drilling across 32 holes
- Drilling will be focused on oxide mineralization at surface, the oxide/sulphide transition zone and the primary sulphides at depth
- Drill hole lengths will range from 40 m to 220 m
- Cube Consulting Pty to prepare an initial NI 43-101 resource estimate.
- ALS Chemex will continue to process the core samples
- Ten oxide composite drill core samples from the Gold-Oxide Cap will be shipped to ALS Minerals in Kamloops for metallurgical testing including mineral identification using QEMSCAN and XRD analysis
- Capital Drilling’s Rig 217 will continue drilling at Hamama
Mark Campbell, President and Chief Executive Officer stated: “We are continuing our exploration program in Egypt, to finish off our drilling program on the Hamama oxide and primary sulphides as part of our program to generate our initial resource estimate at Hamama West. We are extremely pleased with the great job that Capital Drilling has done for us and we look forward to our continued working relationship. Once we have completed the drilling, we will undertake our metallurgical test work and begin the process of preparing our NI 43-101 compliant initial resource estimate at Hamama West. We also intend during August and early September to do extensive geophysical work, covering an area of between 6sqKm and 8sqkm, covering all of the Hamama project area. This will assist us in developing drill targets for our exciting planned fall drilling campaign.”
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ABOUT HAMAMA GOLD DEPOSIT
Hamama is located within a northeast-trending gold-copper belt that extends for 40 km across the Company’s Abu Marawat Concession. The Main Horizon of Hamama has a strike length of 3 km and is divided into three main zones; Hamama West (see Figure 1), Hamama Central and Hamama East. Mineralization at Hamama crops out at surface, and at Hamama West is deeply weathered into a soft and friable oxidized blanket called the Gold-Oxide Cap, which extends over 900 m in strike length and has an average vertical depth of 35 m. Drill results in oxide at Hamama West include 37 m at 2.32 g/t Au and 107.1 g/t Ag in AHA-15, 32.6 m at 1.37 g/t Au and 56.4 g/t Ag in AHA-37 and 19 m at 2.46 g/t Au and 157.3 g/t Ag in AHA-46. Preliminary metallurgical (bottle-roll) test results on the Gold-Oxide Cap returned up to 92.2% Au and 65% Ag recovery by cyanide leach from oxide (see January 13, 2015 News Release).
Primary sulphide mineralization at Hamama West returned such intercepts as 48 m at 1.45 g/t Au and 31.8 g/t Ag in AHA-23 and 88 m at 1.11 g/t Au and 118 g/t Ag in AHA-31 (see News Release dates May 12, 2015). The last drill hole from the 2015 drilling program, AHA-58, was entirely mineralized, from surface to 210 m depth, and includes 39 m at 1.64% Zn, 0.25 g/t Au and 25.7 g/t Ag (53 m to 92 m), 12.3 m at 2.49% Zn, 0.29% Cu, 0.26 g/t Au and 41.4 g/t Ag (92 m to 104.3 m), 43.5 m at 3.70% Zn, 0.23% Cu, 2.61 g/t Au and 150 g/t Ag (112.5 m to 156 m) and 50.7 m at 0.69 g/t Au and 29.7 g/t Ag (160 m to 210.7 m).
About Aton Resources Inc.:
Aton Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE:AAN) is in the business of exploring for and developing potentially economic gold deposits in the Central Eastern Desert of Egypt in the Arabian Nubian Shield (“ANS”). The Company’s 100%-owned concessions, Abu Marawat and Fatiri, between them cover 2,772 km2 of underexplored ground. Evidence of gold and copper mining in the concessions dates the many surface workings to pre-historic (Bronze Age) and Old Kingdom (Pharaonic), through Ptolemaic, Roman, Early Arab times and into the European Era of the early to mid-20th Century. Three historic gold mines occur within the two concessions: British miners produced gold at Sir Bakis, Semna and Abu Zawal into the 1950s.
Much of the gold-vein mineralization in the ANS is of the orogenic, quartz-carbonate-type and is associated with major north-northwest and northeast trending shear-zones. Centamin’s Sukari gold mine is located 400 km to the south of Abu Marawat, in the same mountain belt.
The Abu Marawat and Fatiri Concessions are underlain by the Proterozoic-aged Pan-African greenstone belt of the ANS. The ANS also underlies the Red Sea and large parts of Saudi Arabia, The Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia. Significant VMS deposits in the ANS include Barrick and Ma’aden 50:50% JV of Jabal Sayid in Saudi Arabia; Nevsun Bisha Main and Harena in Eritrea; La Mancha’s Hassai and Hadal Awatib in the Sudan and Sunridge Emba Derho, Debarwa and Adi Nefas in Eritrea. The Company’s Hamama gold-rich VMS shares key geological similarities with these major VMS deposits.
Similar geological settings to the ANS include the greenstone belts of the Yilgarn of Western Australia, the Birimian of West Africa and the Abitibi in Quebec, Canada. The ANS is most similar in age to the Birimian.
The Company’s land package, located 350-400 km southeast of Cairo, includes excellent infrastructure; Hamama has direct access to two four-lane highways, a zero-gradient railway bed that runs through Abu Marawat concession to a Red Sea port, multiple high-voltage (capacity 220kV) power lines that cross between the two concessions, a water pipeline and nearby major cities: Qena, on the Nile River, 70 km to the west, and Port of Safaga, on the Red Sea, 50 km to the east. The city of Luxor, ancient Thebes, is a two-hour drive from Hamama and has an international airport.
Qualifying Person:
Rick Cavaney is Aton Resources’s Exploration Manager. He has over forty-five years of experience in the mining industry and was formally an exploration manager with Centamin at Sukari and Abu Marawat for eight years. As a fellow of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (Aus.I.M.M) is a competent person under the Joint Ore Resources committee (JORC) Code and is a qualified person, as such term is defined in NI 43-101 of the Canadian Securities Administrators, and he has reviewed and approved this release.
For more information on Aton Resources Inc., visit us at www.atonresources.com.
Cautionary 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.
