VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 31, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wolf Wiese CEO of Golden Dawn Minerals Inc., (GOM.V) (3G8A.F) (GDMRF) (the “Company” or “Golden Dawn”) announces preliminary results from surface diamond drilling at its Golden Crown property, part of the Greenwood Precious Metals Project.

Surface diamond drilling is underway at the Golden Crown property, part of the Greenwood Precious Metals Project acquired in 2016. To date, a total of 1,488 metres have been drilled in 21 holes. Initial results were received for the first nine holes.  Significant results for gold, silver and copper are presented in the table below.  The results indicate gold and copper values of economic interest in massive sulphide veins and adjacent wall rocks.  The results also show that significant gold mineralization occurs in the host rock diorite and serpentinite (identified as wall rock in the table).  High gold values occur in wall rock containing small sulphide veinlets - essentially these are mixed zones of sulphide and wall rock.  This style of mineralization was not previously recognized and was not systematically tested in the historic drill holes.

Length weighted average grades were calculated for two intercepts as follows:

Table of Significant Results for 2017 Golden Crown Drill Holes 1 to 9.

NS= not significant; g/t = grams per tonne; results for gold above detection limit: >30.00

The widths of zones reported above for the drill holes are core lengths, which may be different from true width.  There is insufficient information at this time to accurately estimate the true width of the zones.

The holes reported above were drilled to test the King and Winnipeg zones.  The most significant gold and copper values are associated with massive sulphide zones or veins, which are comprised of up to 97% sulphides including pyrrhotite and pyrite, with associated chalcopyrite and minor arsenopyrite.

The initial drilling results are consistent with previously reported grades and widths for the Golden Crown deposit within the Greenwood Precious Metals Project. The results support the conclusion that the deposit warrants detailed follow-up investigation.  The Golden Crown property lies 3 kilometres from the Greenwood Processing Plant and is included in the Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) as a key component of the resource to be processed at the plant.  Recommended work for the Golden Crown mine includes infill drilling in areas of low data density to potentially upgrade Inferred resources to Indicated category, and underground rehabilitation and further mine development, followed by bulk sampling and trial mining to prepare the deposit for full scale production. Additional technical studies were also recommended in the PEA report, including mine planning, metallurgical, geotechnical and environmental studies.  The Company plans to complete this initial drilling campaign before the end of the year and then proceed with permitting a bulk sample and mining operation in the coming year.

The Company is also steadily progressing towards re-opening the Lexington mine and milling operation, with de-watering currently being done at the Lexington mine.  A plan and budget is being formulated for a trial mining operation, which will start once the mine is dewatered.  A time frame of about two months has been set for wet commissioning of the Greenwood Processing Plant, which is scheduled to commence once the mining operation is underway.

Samples reported above were collected under the supervision of Dr. Mathew Ball, P.Geo. and delivered to Activation Laboratories (Act-Labs) in Kamloops, B.C.  Activation Laboratories (Act-Labs) is an independent commercial laboratory that is ISO 9001 certified and ISO 17025 accredited.  Analyses for gold were by the fire assay method using 30 gram samples with an AA finish.  Fire assay gravimetric analyses are done on initial gold analyses that assayed in excess of 30 grams per tonne gold.  Silver and other elements were analyzed by ICP-OES using an aqua regia digestion.  Quality control was monitored using reference and blank samples inserted into the sample sequence at intervals. Check analyses are being performed on selected samples.