RE: NEWS OUT 118 metres at 1.52 g/t gold,
ALEXANDER NUBIA REPORTS SIGNIFICANT SURFACE TRENCH RESULTS AT THE HAMAMA VMS PROJECT, 118 METRES AT 1.52 G/T GOLD, INCLUDING 24 METRES AT 4.59 G/T GOLD IN A NEW MINERALIZED ZONE
Alexander Nubia International Inc. (AAN) has released results from a surface trenching program at its Hamama gold-zinc volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) property in Egypt. Hamama is located near excellent infrastructure; it is 32 kilometres from a highway, railway and high-capacity electricity grid, and 90 kilometres from a major city, Qena, on the Nile River. The Hamama project is 35 kilometres from the company's Abu Marawat gold-copper vein deposit.
As announced on Feb. 16, 2012, diamond drilling at what is now referred to as the Central VMS zone outlined a 400-metre-long zone of high-grade gold-zinc exhalite mineralization. A fence of drill holes (AHA-003, AHA-004 and AHA-005) and the results of surface mapping and recent trench sampling show that it is continuous to a depth of at least 125 metres. As well, within the 3,000-metre strike-length of the VMS horizon, as mapped on surface by AAN's exploration team, the current trench sampling program has defined two new zones of mineralization, the Western VMS zone and the Eastern VMS zone.
Dr. John Payne, vice-president of exploration, commented: "The broad extent of high-grade gold and related silver values at surface in the Western VMS zone is an exciting and highly significant discovery that greatly enhances the economic potential of the Hamama property. Our next step is to conduct an electromagnetic survey, which will allow us to better define the best drill targets."
Highlights
- Western VMS zone:
- A new high-grade gold zone, 500 metres west of the original drilled zone, is 650 metres along strike and an average of 60 metres wide.
- Based on 437 two-metre-long channel samples from 14 trenches (trenches 2 to 7 and 9 to 16), the average grade on surface is 1.15 grams per tonne gold and 19.4 g/t silver.
- Central VMS zone:
- The Central VMS zone extends for 640 metres along strike and is an average of 20 metres wide.
- Based on 127 two-metre-long trench samples of VMS from eight trenches (trenches 18 to 25), the average grade on surface is 0.56 g/t gold, 20.4 g/t silver, 0.11 per cent copper and 2.55 per cent zinc.
- Eastern VMS zone:
- A second discovery extends 175 metres along strike and is an average of 30 metres wide.
- Based on 44 two-metre-long samples from four trenches (trenches 26 to 29) in ankerite-rich VMS, the average grade on surface is 0.18 g/t gold, 5.1 g/t silver, 0.02 per cent copper and 0.46 per cent zinc.
- As well, stringer zones in strongly altered footwall andesite in all three zones contain moderately to highly anomalous values in zinc and gold.
Alexander Massoud, chief executive officer, added: "We are very pleased by this new discovery. The Nubian shield is well known for VMS-style mineralization, with three significant VMS deposits either in production or at the advanced exploration stage. These are La Mancha's Hassai deposit (Sudan), Nevsun's Bisha deposit (Eritrea) and Tigray's Harvest deposit (Ethiopia), all of which are similar to Hamama. We have identified multiple targets from our trenching program at Hamama, which we will drill aggressively in the coming months. Combined with our maiden NI [National Instrument] 43-101-compliant inferred resource for Abu Marawat, released in March, we have the most advanced exploration property in Egypt."
SIGNIFICANT CHANNEL SAMPLE ASSAY RESULTSTrench No. Width Au Ag Cu Zn Pb (m) (g/t) (g/t) (%) (%) (%)Trench 1 8 0.01 0.8 0.13 0.27Trench 2 62 0.42 10.8 0.02 0.08Including 50 0.47 6.0 0.03 0.09Including 34 0.60 15.4 0.032 0.10Trench 3 88 0.38 10.0 0.02 0.08Including 32 0.51 1.8 0.03 0.08Trench 4 114 0.84 10.1 0.046 0.17Including 100 0.92 11.1 0.05 0.19Trench 5(1) 14 0.31 25.4 0.24 0.80 0.01And 48 0.05 2.4 0.04 0.02 0.12Not sampled 65Trench 6(1) 70 0.22 14.9 0.25 1.71 0.54Including 22 0.37 28.6 0.44 2.61 0.48And including 24 0.16 8.6 0.16 1.30 0.28Not sampled 43Trench 7 50 0.98 22.3 0.01 0.15Including 34 1.16 23.2 0.03 0.11And 76 0.19 7.8 0.02 0.06Trench 8 30 0.06 5.5 0.01 0.18Trench 9 82 1.73 39.2 0.01 0.13Including 50 2.35 48.1 0.01 0.14And including 24 0.83 32.0 0.01 0.15Trench 10 50 0.49 10.0 0.01 0.065Including 38 0.58 13.8 0.006 0.073 0.05Including 12 1.08 18.7 0.007 0.12 0.10And 54 0.18 13.4 0.01 0.10 0.08Trench 11 88 1.82 31.5 0.023 0.10Including 74 2.09 29.4 0.02 0.10And including 14 0.43 43.0 0.02 0.10Total 88 1.82 31.5 0.023 0.10Trench 12 118 1.52 12.1 0.01 0.05Including 70 2.22 14.5 0.014 0.05Including 24 4.59 12.4 0.014 0.06And 36 0.63 11.3 0.013 0.05Trench 13 60 2.88 34.6 0.02 0.90 0.05And 26 0.64 12.8 0.01 0.04 0.01Trench 14 40 1.74 15.9 0.017 0.10Including 20 3.01 17.7 0.021 0.14And 14 0.31 10.1 0.007 0.27Trench 15 22 1.32 42.3 0.03 0.06And 10 0.28 20.6 0.01 0.08Trench 16(1) 12 0.42 3.7 0.01 0.09Not sampled 21Trench 17 No anomalyTrench 18 14 0.44 16.9 0.23 2.77 0.45And 42 0.05 2.1 0.03 0.15 0.08Trench 19 64 0.05 1.6 0.03 0.37Including 4 0.17 2.0 0.09 0.53 0.32Trench 20 16 0.02 3.7 0.07 3.86 0.18And 30 0.01 1.1 0.05 0.50Trench 21 22 0.04 1.4 0.02 0.81Trench 22 22 0.01 1.0 0.014 0.24Trench 23 44 0.51 28.9 0.04 1.29And 10 0.42 19.2 0.03 0.66Trench 24 24 1.23 21.2 0.1 2.27And 34 0.26 12.2 0.06 1.28Trench 25 48 0.76 24.8 0.14 3.61Including 18 1.42 16.6 0.070 2.41Including 12 0.80 54.2 0.37 9.32Trench 26 14 0.05 2.9 0.03 0.44 0.08Trench 27 30 0.02 1.1 0.01 0.37Trench 28 28 0.37 9.5 0.015 0.21Including 16 0.51 44.1 0.008 0.18Trench 29 16 0.26 6.8 0.05 1.07Including 10 0.35 9.0 0.07 1.55Notes:VMS equals massive sulphide gossan and sulphide-bearing ankerite-rich exhalite.(1) Part of the VMS zone was not sampled.
Detailed trench assay results are available at the company's website.
Detailed technical summary
The Hamama VMS deposit consists of bodies of steeply dipping, overturned VMS gossan and ankeritic exhalite of late Precambrian age. It is stratigraphically underlain by strongly altered massive andesite (stringer zone alteration) that contains values of zinc from 1,000 to 4,000 parts per million. Deeper in the footwall volcanic pile are both andesite and felsite flows and volcaniclastic rocks. A felsic dome overlies the central part of the VMS horizon and is flanked by a strong chargeability and magnetic anomaly, which may represent a second VMS horizon stratigraphically above the known zone.
The new Western VMS zone outcrops on a major peneplane surface, onto which the Paleozoic to Mesozoic Nubian sandstone was deposited unconformably; an outlier of Nubian sandstone covers the VMS zone at its the western end. Composite values in trenches (trenches 1 to 16) are shown in the accompanying table, and are split into hangingwall (HW), VMS and footwall (FW) units. Trenches in the VMS have a relatively uniform average grade, within which are scattered moderately higher-grade zones, mainly in iron-rich gossan and to a lesser extent in ankerite-rich exhalite. Copper and to a lesser extent zinc and probably silver were leached from the surface during a long period of weathering, and probably were enriched in a supergene zone near the water table. Gold may have been enriched slightly in the oxide zone relative to the hypogene zone. The presence of mixed sulphide-facies and carbonate-facies exhalite suggests that the zone may be on the flank of higher-grade massive sulphide zones; such zonal relationships are common in VMS deposits. Locally, stringer mineralization in footwall-altered andesite is of sufficient grade to be included with VMS in outlining the zone of economic interest.
As published in a press release by AAN on Feb. 16, 2012, preliminary drilling tested two 200-metre-long blocks in the Central VMS zone of the 3,000-metre-long outcropping VMS horizon. Most of the holes were collared in highly altered andesite volcanic rocks in the stratigraphic footwall of the overturned, steeply to moderately northwest-dipping VMS horizon. The andesite contains stringer zone mineralization with moderately to highly anomalous values in zinc (up to 1 per cent) and locally moderately anomalous values in gold, silver and copper. The Central VMS zone contains areas of ankerite-rich exhalite (weathered buff on surface) and areas of semi-massive to massive sulphide (weathered to dark brown ferruginous gossan). In drill core, both rock types in the Central VMS zone contain high values of zinc, moderate values in gold, with lesser values in copper and silver. A fence of three holes (AHA-003, AHA-004 and AHA-005) demonstrates downdip continuity of the Central VMS zone to a depth of at least 125 metres below surface.
Channel samples from 12 new trenches (trenches 18 to 29) show that on surface, the Central VMS zone is 640 metres long and averages 20 metres wide, and contains an average of 0.55 g/t gold, 18 g/t silver, 0.09 per cent copper and 2.09 per cent zinc (see table). The zone consists mainly of ankeritic exhalite with moderately abundant zones of ferriferous gossan. Fourteen grab samples from the surface of the Central VMS zone average 0.98 g/t gold, 28.6 g/t silver, 0.45 per cent copper and 12.2 per cent zinc. Six of these taken near the surface trace of holes AHA-003 to AHA-005 yielded 1.15 g/t gold, 45.3 g/t silver, 0.61 per cent copper, 20.3 per cent zinc, 0.63 per cent lead, 5.27 per cent manganese, 175 ppm cadmium and 120 ppm antimony.
The second discovery (Eastern VMS zone) is northeast of the Central VMS zone, with a trenched strike length of 175 metres and average width of 30 metres. Based on 44 two-metre-long samples from four trenches (trenches 26 to 29) of ankerite-rich exhalite, the average grade is 0.18 g/t gold, 5.1 g/t silver, 0.02 per cent copper and 0.46 per cent zinc (see table). No trenching has been done between the Central VMS zone or the Eastern VMS zone, and possibly these two zones are parts of one continuous zone.
The 3,000-metre-long strike length of the VMS horizon and the associated footwall stringer zone, up to 425 metres thick with highly anomalous values in zinc, suggests an extensive system, of which drilling has tested a limited portion. Comparison with other VMS deposits in the Nubian Shield and elsewhere suggests that the system may contain more distinct and higher-grade massive sulphide bodies.
Limited thin-section petrography from drill core samples indicates that the sulphides are coarse enough to be readily separated, which confirms preliminary metallurgical testing by a previous operator (Minex, 1988).
Upcoming results and future exploration
- Hamama:
- Results of trench sampling program to identify and characterize other VMS targets;
- Geophysical program to identify priority drill targets within the VMS horizon;
- Diamond drilling to explore these targets and extensions of known zones of mineralization;
- Abu Marawat:
- Property-first National Instrument 43-101-compliant resource estimate;
- Interpretation and assay results for diamond drill holes AAM-072 through AAM-081;
- Diamond drilling to enlarge extent of intersections in known veins and test other subparallel veins and faults in the vein system that contain significant precious and base metal values in surface trenches.
Qualifying person
The technical information contained in this news release was prepared or reviewed under the direct supervision of Ralph Gonzalez, PGeo, AAN's project manager for exploration in Egypt. Mr. Gonzalez is a qualifying person under National Instrument 43-101, standards of disclosure for mineral projects.
Quality assurance/quality control
AAN employs an on-site sample preparation facility where core is diamond sawed into two equal halves. One-half of the core is returned to its core box for permanent, on-site storage, and the other half, weighing approximately two kilograms, is crushed to minus five millimetres and riffle split to 500 grams. The 500-gram sample is pulverized to a nominal minus 75 mesh and divided into two halves. One-half is delivered to the Egyptian Mineral Resource Authority for storage, and the other half is shipped for analysis to the ALS Minerals laboratory in Romania. ALS Minerals is an internationally recognized and accredited analytical facility. ALS repulverizes all samples to insure the samples are homogenized, and removes a one-assay-ton cut (approximately 30 grams) for gold analysis, followed by an atomic absorption finish using industry-accepted fire assaying techniques. In addition, a five- to 10-gram sample is removed for silver-copper-zinc analysis by atomic absorption after digestion in aqua regia. Overlimit copper (greater than 10,000 ppm), zinc (greater than 10,000 ppm) and silver (greater than 100 ppm) are reanalyzed using readjusted atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) techniques. Selected samples are determined by inductively coupled plasma spectrometry-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) after a four-acid digestion for near-total digestion. This technique scans a total of 33 elements. A quality control program consisting of blanks and analytical control standards has been implemented to monitor laboratory performance; this is in addition to ALS's internal quality assurance/quality control program. Discrepancies have been few, and when discovered, the laboratory batch (usually 20 samples in a batch) is reanalyzed.
We seek Safe Harbor.