Aton Resources has announced it has encountered gold and minerals during the Phase 2 diamond drilling program at its advanced Rodruin gold exploration project, located in the Abu Marawat Concession in the Eastern Desert of Egypt.

The company said that the drilling program involves 11 drill holes (ROD-080 to ROD-090) including ROD-080 to ROD-085 which were drilled in the Aladdin’s Hill area with 2 holes twinning RC percussion holes from the 2018 RC drilling program. It added that holes ROD-086 to ROD-090 were drilled to test oxide resources at the Central Buttress Zone.

Aton explained that ROD-082 and ROD-084 both intersected wide zones of mineralization from surface, associated with phyllic altered sediments, at Aladdin’s Hill returning 2.99 g/t Au and 5.3 g/t Ag over a 53.4m interval (hole ROD-082), and 2.33 g/t Au and 6.6 g/t Ag over a 53.6m interval (hole ROD-084).

It added that four holes were drilled from a single pad at the eastern edge of the CBZ, and all returned wide intersections of mineralization, including 1.07 g/t Au and 14.5 g/t Ag over 42.25m from surface (ROD-088).

Two of the drill holes hit visible gold in phyllic altered oxidized sediments, ROD-083 and ROD-087, indicating the potential presence of zones with “high grade, coarse gold bearing mineralisation within the general Rodruin area”.

Commenting on these results, Tonno Vahk, Interim CEO said “This latest tranche of drill results continues to show the potential of the Rodruin deposit, as we work towards establishing the maiden mineral resource estimate.”

He noted “Aton’s focus is now very much on moving towards the new mineral resource estimates at both Rodruin and Hamama West, with the diamond drilling continuing at Rodruin, and the RC resource infill programme virtually complete at Hamama. We continue to work hand in hand with our partners at the Egyptian Mineral Resources Authority towards the issuance of the long term mining licence covering both deposit areas, which will give the Company the flexibility to initially mine the oxide resources before moving on to the longer term big prize of developing the deep sulphide resources,”

“We are also continuing to hold fruitful discussions with a number of parties as we look to move this long term strategy forwards, including drilling some of our other exciting regional exploration prospects, and the ongoing identification of excellent grades and thicknesses of mineralisation at surface at Rodruin is just another important step along this road towards the full development of the exploration potential of the Abu Marawat Concession,” Vahk added.