Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - August 21, 2017) - Austral Gold Limited (ASX: AGD) (TSXV: AGLD) (the "Company" or "Austral") is pleased to announce that it has received the first batch of geochemical results from the maiden regional trenching program on its 100% owned Amancaya property, where the Company commenced open pit mining operations earlier this year. Results have indicated the presence of high grade gold hosted by quartz veining along a 2.8 km long structure (the "Nueva Vein"), identified from previous float sampling and geophysics.
Highlights:
● | A new 2.8 km long vein (Nueva Vein) sampled with anomalous to high grade gold intersections in trenching. |
● | 2.5 metres at 9.70 g/t gold highest trenching interval. |
● | Nueva Vein is mostly covered by shallow gravels and is just one km from open pit mining operations at Amancaya. |
"The discovery of high grade gold mineralisation along the Nueva Vein is very exciting. The high grade results obtained in the first batch of assays received indicate that the vein field at Amancaya potentially hosts more deposits similar to the high grade Central Vein, which we began mining earlier this year. The proximity of these veins to the existing operation and the fact that the veins sub outcrop or are under shallow cover is very encouraging for future development potential," said Stabro Kasaneva, CEO of Austral Gold. "We expect to start planning exploration drilling to follow up these promising results upon receipt of all assays."
Highlights from the assays received (44 trenches) are shown in the following table:
Vein | TrenchID | Width (m) | Au (g/t) | Ag (g/t) |
Julia | AMA-TR-0002 | 1.1 | 3.23 | 6.1 |
Julia | AMA-TR-0003 | 2.7 | 0.50 | 1.4 |
Julia | AMA-TR-0006 | 2.3 | 0.56 | 2.6 |
Nueva Sur | AMA-TR-0013 | 2.3 | 8.12 | 6.1 |
Nueva Sur | AMA-TR-0015 | 2.4 | 4.32 | 2.3 |
Nueva | AMA-TR-0016 | 0.5 | 2.06 | 1.6 |
Nueva | AMA-TR-0017 | 1.4 | 4.83 | 3.7 |
Nueva | AMA-TR-0021 | 1.3 | 0.74 | 2.7 |
Nueva | AMA-TR-0022 | 2.5 | 9.70 | 6.9 |
Nueva | AMA-TR-0025 | 3.2 | 0.44 | 1.5 |
Nueva | AMA-TR-0026 | 0.9 | 1.17 | 4.8 |
Nueva | AMA-TR-0027 | 2.1 | 1.72 | 2.0 |
Nueva | AMA-TR-0032 | 1.6 | 1.04 | 3.6 |
Nueva | AMA-TR-0040 | 1.2 | 2.58 | 17.3 |
Gabriela | AMA-TR-0042 | 2.0 | 0.63 | 0.2 |
Trenches not included in the above table returned insignificant results, based on grade and/or width of intersect, or did not reach mineralization due to post-mineral cover and/or presence of salt crust (caliche). Widths are very close to true widths, given veins are sub vertical and trenches were cut perpendicular to the structures. Grades are weighted averages over the respective total sampled interval.
Trenching was undertaken to test potential structures identified through float sampling of quartz and geophysical surveys undertaken by the Company during the previous year. Assays from 44 out of a total of 136 trenches have been received to date and those with notable results are reported in this release.
The Nueva Vein was identified from quartz float sampling (see Company news release on October 6, 2016) and subsequent geophysical surveys. The results indicate that mineralisation is hosted by quartz veining, veinlets, breccias and stockwork, which appears to have structural continuity for at least 2.8 km from trenches excavated. The vein is sub-vertical in sub outcrop and has a northerly strike. Nueva Sur is approximately one km to the NW of the reserve and resource on the Central Vein (see Company news release dated June 8, 2017) and is believed to be the northerly extension of the Julia vein.
Trenching to the north of the Julia vein, which was drilled by Austral Gold in 2016 (see Company news release January 25, 2017) shows that mineralisation on this vein remains open to the north. The Julia vein was not included in the Amancaya reserve and resource estimate (see Guanaco and Amancaya Project Technical Report, 31 December 2016 on the Company's SEDAR profile.)