Shares outstanding: 32,534,695
TORONTO
,
Sept. 25
/CNW/ - Augen Gold Corp. (GLD - TSX.V) has entered into an option agreement to acquire from local prospectors an important mineral property in the centre of its 100% owned Southern Swayze Property. The property lies between 9 and 13 kilometres east of the
Jerome Gold
Mine, and is surrounded by Augen Gold's mining claims. Exploration by the previous operator, Namex Explorations Inc. (Namex) in 2006 and 2007 was most successful in identifying high grade mineral occurrences, with 17 reported grab samples containing gold values ranging from 76 ppb to 54.2 g/t, silver values from 1.3 to 1620 g/t, and up to 12.6% lead, 2.3% zinc, 8.6% copper and 5.9% antimony (Namex news release,
Nov 15
, 2006). Three surface grab samples collected independently by Augen Gold confirmed the tenor of these occurrences, yielding respectively 0.10, 51.3 and 8.82 g/t gold; 561, 730, and 69.7 g/t silver; 0.16%, 8.1% and 0.07% lead; 3.82%, 3.16% and 0.46% copper; 0.65%, 1.49% and 0.12% zinc. The first two samples returned exceeded the upper limit of detection of 1.0% antimony, while the third returned a value of 0.24% Sb. The gold is associated with fine-grained pyrite, galena, molybdenite and tetrahedrite hosted in dark grey and white quartz veins cutting quartz-feldspar porphyry.
Stripped areas reveal silica- and sericite-altered and intensely deformed and quartz-veined quartz feldspar porphyry. Two diamond drill holes totaling 192 metres were completed by Namex, and traced a narrow mineralized fracture in quartz-feldspar porphyry to a vertical depth of 82 metres within a broad zone of low grade gold mineralization. This intercept returned 1.22 g/t gold, 13.2 g/t silver, 0.11% copper and 0.10% antimony over a core length of 1.10 m (Namex news release,
February 19
, 2008). Four of seven surface channels sampled by Namex returned encouraging results including 0.432 g/t Au across a width of 10 metres, 0.328 g/t Au across 34 metres, 0.24 g/t Au across 26 metres and 0.25 g/t across 6 metres. These are believed to approximate true widths (Namex assessment report,
March 25
, 2008). The three other channels returned background to slightly elevated gold values. In total Namex collected 143 one metre long samples from these channels. Namex also collected 479 MMI soil geochemical samples over parts of the property, and reported strong anomalies associated with, and east of, the known mineralized areas (Namex news release
February 19, 2008
, Assessment Report
March 19
, 2008).
The Optioned Property is largely underlain by Timiskaming sedimentary rocks intruded by quartz-feldspar porphyry - the same geological setting as that at the Jerome Mine. The property also covers four kilometers of the sheared contact between Timiskaming sediments and older volcanic rocks to the north. This is interpreted as the possible western extension of the Kirkland Lake/Larder Lake Break, which is associated with the major gold deposits in the Kirkland Lake area.
Augen Gold intends to perform ground IP-resistivity, magnetic and VLF surveys on the Option property to refine targets described above, and identify their potential strike extensions. This will be followed by diamond drilling.
Pursuant to the Agreement, Augen Gold has been granted an option to acquire an undivided 100% interest in 4 mineral claims consisting of 39 units for a total of 624 hectares in Huffman and Potier Townships. Augen Gold may exercise the option by making payments to the vendor totaling
$130,000
in cash and 225,000 common shares of Augen Gold over three years. The vendor retains a 2.0% net smelter returns royalty, and an annual advanced royalty is payable beginning four years after the signing of the Agreement. Augen Gold may purchase one-half (i.e. 1.0%) of the royalty for
$1,000,000
at any time.
"This acquisition with its demonstrated gold, silver and base metal mineralization fills a strategic gap in Augen Gold's already dominant land holdings along a mineralized trend in the southern Swayze greenstone belt which hosts several gold deposits and numerous gold and base metal occurrences. Augen Gold's objective is to delineate a number of gold deposits within our landholdings." says J.
David Mason
, CEO and Director of Augen Gold.
The proposed option agreement is subject to acceptance by the TSX Venture Exchange.
About Augen Gold
Augen Gold is a gold exploration company that owns 24,581 hectares of patented and staked mining claims and the rights to acquire an additional 1,680 hectares of mining claims in the southern Swayze Greenstone Belt, including the formerly producing
Jerome Gold
Mine. The claims cover a 45 kilometre-long section of the Ridout Deformation Zone, believed to be the western extension of the Kirkland Lake-Larder Lake Break. The geological setting is comparable to the major gold camps of Timmins and Kirkland Lake, and the claims contain numerous gold showings that have received very little historical exploration. Augen Gold is the first company to have assembled such a coherent ground position and has performed a detailed airborne geophysical survey over the whole area, and the Company's sampling program has confirmed the historically reported gold values. The correlation of many gold showings with geophysical features indicates excellent potential for the discovery of additional deposits. The Company's objectives are to aggressively explore the gold showings that correlate with geophysical anomalies, continue resource definition at the Jerome Mine, and to expand its property portfolio with highly prospective mineral assets.
The information contained in this news release has been prepared and approved by Augen Gold's Senior Vice-President, Exploration, Christopher Marmont, P.Geo., who is the qualified person for the Company's Southern Swayze Project under the definitions established by National Instrument 43-101.
Mr. Marmont
has visited the Optioned Property and collected selected grab samples described herein. Results obtained by Namex are provided for informational purposes only and Augen Gold has not performed sufficient work to independently verify these results.
For further information: J. David Mason, Chief Executive Officer and Director, Augen Gold Corp., Tel: (416) 479-3300, Toll-free: 1-888-442-8436, For more information on Augen Gold, visit our website at www.augengold.ca
Share this article