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Anglo Asian Mining (LSE:AAZ), the AIM listed gold producer in Azerbaijan, have issued positive exploration update from additional drilling undertaken at its flagship Gedabek gold, copper, silver mine in western Azerbaijan.
– Current c.3,000m drilling programme has discovered new high grade gold extension at Gedabek, north-west of the main Gedabek deposit (see map)
· Elevated gold values received at newly completed core hole (106) – 1m interception 101 g/t Au (3.3 opt Au) from 313m to 314 m with 78 g/t Ag (2.5 opt Ag) and in composite 41m at 7.6g/t Au from 296m to 337m
– Drill hole 107, c.20m south of hole 86 and 20 m south-west of hole 106 is currently being drilled to a target depth of approximately 445m to intercept the newly identified gold zone
– An additional two drill holes are planned as part of the 2013 drill programme to further test the gold mineralisation of this newly discovered area
– Validation assay results due for hole 106 by an outside laboratory should be available by 20 December 2013
– Further drilling of the north-west area of Gedabek will continue if 2013 assay results continue to be favourable to test the gold prospectively of the target area with a view to increasing the total resource and reserve base of Gedabek
Anglo Asian CEO Reza Vaziri said, “This identified extension of the northern portion of the Gedabek deposit has the potential to significantly increase the JORC resource of 1.12Moz of gold in the Measured and Indicated category and the reserve base of 744,038oz of gold at Gedabek, and in turn increase the mine life of our flagship mining operation in Azerbaijan. With this in mind, further drilling will continue at this new target area to help us determine the areal extent of this mineralisation.”
Anglo Asian’s 26,842m resource drilling programme at Gedabek concluded in Q1 2013 and as a result an upgraded Measured and Indicated JORC compliant resource of 44,644,658 tonnes at 0.783 g/t of gold (‘Au’) for 1,123,767 ounces and a total JORC compliant resource of 51,591,901 tonnes at 0.754 g/t Au for 1,250,043 ounces Au, 0.155 % Cu for 80,036 tonnes and 5.915 g/t Ag for 9,811,719 ounces (at a cut-off grade of 0.3 g/t of gold) was announced.
Following this, as part of Anglo Asian’s on-going exploration programme of Gedabek, the Company drilled seven drill holes, from January to June 2013, concentrating on the main Gedabek deposit and also outside of the main deposit area to improve the level of geological knowledge and define new target areas of high grade gold mineralisation. Of this seven hole programme, drill hole AIMCDD86, to the north-west of the northernmost trend of the mine, was drilled to a depth of 650 metres. Drill hole AIMCDD86 exhibited alteration and high grade gold mineralization different to that of the main quartz porphyry gold-copper-silver Gedabek pit to the south-east of the contract area. The difference mineralogically includes zinc rich sphalarite in the gold enriched zones, plus the host rock seems to be a different variety of quartz porphyry volcanic to that being mined in the main Gedabek pits. This rock unit is thought to be equivalent to rocks beneath the Gedabek deposit but petrographic analysis is underway to confirm this hypothesis.
To test the continuity of themineralization exhibited at drill hole AIMCDDC86, an additional hole (AIMCDD106) was drilled 20 metres east of hole 86 to a depth of 349 metres in October 2013. There are two zones of significance in core hole 106. The upper zone of mineralisation has 5m of 95 g/t (3.1 opt) silver at 234 to 238m and a lower zone that contains 41 metres at 7.6g/t of gold from 296 to 337m. Within this lower zone, one metre of 101 g/t (3.3 opt) gold metres with 78.7 g/t (2.5 opt silver) occurs at 313 metres.
This new area, 400 metres from the current pit, is informally called the Gadiz mineralisation, however should the deposit be extended, it will be likely be renamed Gedabek North. The mineralisation is deeper than that currently mined at the main Gedabek deposit however its surface elevation is higher. The top elevation of the mineralised zone is 150 metres deeper than the top elevation of mineralisation in the northern portion of the main Gedabek pit, but truly could be considered an extension of Gedabek. In addition the fault slice is approximately 150 metres wide in the area tested so far and remains open to the east and west where drilling has not yet been undertaken. This mineralised fault block appears to be wedge-shaped, narrowing to the west toward a quartz porphyry surface exposure. The fault block containing the mineralization appears to broaden to several hundred metres to the east and remains untested. (see attached map).
The next drill hole in this area (AIMCDD107) is currently being drilled 20 metres to the south of AIMCDD86 to a target depth of approximately 445 metres. To date, the drill is currently at a depth of 350 metres, but has been slow drilling due to the highly fractured conditions of the bedrock. The Company is confident that the hole will be successfully completed shortly. Two other core holes (108 and 109) are planned for December 2013 to the west of hole AIMCDD86 for an additional 900 metres. This will bring Gedabek’s total exploration drilling for 2013 to c.3,220 metres. From experience, AIMC has found at Gedabek that drilling closer spaced holes is more effective for deposit delineation than wider spaced drilling due to the pod-like nature of the Gedabek high mineralization zones.
