CALGARY, ALBERTA--(Marketwire - Dec. 14, 2012) - Argonaut Exploration Inc. (News - Market indicators) ("Argonaut" or "the Company") has completed two late fall geologic field examinations directed at locating and sampling the historic Lucky Luke and Cordillera Gold Mines.

Lucky Luke Mine

The Lucky Luke mine was located through the discovery of the lower and upper adits, ore dump and remnants of old facilities including a cabin, small mill and Wiffly table. The ore dump was randomly sampled for a representative bulk assay on the remaining unshipped ore tonnage (Table 1). The ten randomly taken samples, ranging from 0.49 to 2.02 kilograms (kg), totaled 9.98 kg and returned a weight corrected average grade of 9.47 g/t gold (Au), 119.3 g/t silver (Ag), and 4.16 % copper (Cu). The ore contains broken quartz with common malachite (copper carbonate) and rare occurrences of sulphides, mainly tarnished pyrite with some chalcopyrite.

TABLE 1. 2012 LUCKY LUKE ORE DUMP SAMPLES

Two float samples were collected from the Lucky Luke Mine upper adit at elevation 820 meters (m) some 20 m higher than the lower adit and ore dump. The float samples returned assays of 2.55 g/t Au, 5.6 g/t Ag, plus 1.25 % Cu, and 2.70 g/t Au, 0.7 g/t Ag, and 0.19 % Cu, respectively. A chip sample collected from above the upper adit quartz vein at 830 m elevation returned 0.44 g/t Au and 0.04% Cu.

Cordillera Mine

Two separate field examinations were required, in the late fall of 2012, to locate the remnants of the Cordillera Gold Mine. No documented work since 1930 has been recorded on this property. Old rail tracks, a waste dump, one upper adit and a lower adit were located. A quartz bearing shear zone with a mineralized quartz lense 1 m by 3 m was located directly beside the upper adit at 141 m elevation within altered chloritic schist. Patchy areas within the quartz lense contain significant sulphides that include bornite and pyrite with common green malachite (copper carbonate). 

A 1.4 kg bulk sample composed of three separate samples was collected from the quartz vein and analyzed (Table 2). The resultant weight corrected average grade returned 6.64 g/t Au, 94.0 g/t Ag and 3.9 % Cu, which is similar in grade and composition to the weight corrected average grade result obtained from the Lucky Luke ore dump 820 m southwest.

TABLE 2. 2012 CORDILLERA VEIN SAMPLES

* Gravimetric Gold

Local Geology of the Lucky Luke - Cordillera area near Usk, BC

The most dominant structure in the Lucky Luke - Cordillera area near Usk, 14 km northeast of Terrace, is the Usk detachment fault, which sub-parallels the contact between the overlying welded crystalline tuff of the Kitselas facies, hosting the Lucky Luke mine, and the underlying greenschist facies altered volcaniclastics of the Telkwa formation, hosting the Cordillera mine. Both sequences are Lower Jurassic in age. The Usk fault lies within a metamorphic transition zone of greenschist to zeolite facies described as the Usk shear zone.

The Lucky Luke and Cordillera gold and sulphide mineralized quartz veins are spatially within and closely associated with the inferred location of the Usk fault shear zone.

The shear zone that contains the Cordillera Mine quartz vein and quartz lenses has a strike of 335° NNW - SSE and dips west at between 15° to 30°. The Lucky Luke main vein strikes 105° East-West and has a near vertical dip. Additional subset veins are similar in strike to that of the Cordillera shear zone. The Usk shear zone may have contributed to the formation and location of the precious metal deposits. The mineralizing process leading to the precious metal bearing quartz veins remains to be established.

Dorreen Mine

The Dorreen Gold Mine is located 20.8 km north of the Cordillera Mine site and is situated on Knauss Mountain, 6 km west of the CN rail road. The mine is located on three crown grants that controlled the ownership of the mineral rights since 1952. Argonaut has held mineral claims described as the Fiddler-Dorreen Property to the north, west and south of the crown grants for greater than four years. Approximately two thirds of the crown grants were overlapped by Argonaut's mineral tenure; however, the crown grants had priority on mineral rights as long as they were maintained. On March 2^nd, 2012, the sixty year old crown grants reverted back to the British Columbia government, who in turn assigned the mineral rights to the overlying mineral tenure holders. Accordingly, Argonaut now controls the mineral rights to approximately two-thirds of the historic Dorreen Gold Mine crown granted property.

The Dorreen gold vein was discovered in 1912 and developed intermittently from 1914 to 1952. Three ore shipments were made beginning with 80 tons in 1924, 100 tons in 1926 and 30 tons of mill concentrate from 525 tons mined in 1952. The ore shipped in 1924 graded: 1.67 oz./t (57.2 g/t) gold, 6.0 oz./t (205.2 g/t) silver, 1.3% copper, 6.2% lead and 5.8% zinc. No further development has occurred since 1952.

About Argonaut Exploration Inc.

Argonaut is a junior mineral exploration company focused on the acquisition, exploration and development of gold, silver and copper bearing mineral properties. For more information on the Corporation visit its website at www.argonautexploration.com.

Dr. Mathias Westphal P. Geo., White North West Consulting, is a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical information in the News Release. Analytical results are provided by ALS Canada Ltd of Vancouver, British Columbia. All rock samples were digested by a four acid leach followed by a 33 element ICP analysis. High ends were assayed. Gold was determined separately using a 30 gram sample split treated by fire assay with an ICP-AES finish. Gold results greater than 1 gram were re-analyzed using a 30 gram sample split and treated by fire assay with a gravimetric finish.

Forward - Looking Statements

This news release may contain certain forward-looking information. All statements included herein, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking information and such information involves various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. A description of assumptions used to develop such forward-looking information and a description of risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking information can be found in the Company's disclosure documents on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information except in accordance with applicable securities laws.