Nov 3 2010
African Aura Mining Inc., the TSX-V (AUR) and AIM (AAAM) listed exploration and development company focused on gold and iron ore in sub-Saharan Africa, announces that it has delineated an encouraging target at its Ndablama gold prospect in the Company's Bea Mountain mining licence in western Liberia.
- Soil sampling defines a 1.4km long gold anomaly that is open along strike
- Follow up trench results included 1.38 g/t Au over 70m (inc 5.2 g/t Au over 8m)
- A fourteen hole (2,200m) diamond drilling programme has commenced
- First hole drilled to 190m intersected visible gold at approximately 80m
- Geology is similar to New Liberty deposit which is located 40km to the southwest and is within the same licence
Luis da Silva, President and CEO of African Aura commented:
"We are very excited by these early stage exploration results from the Ndablama gold prospect, which has many of the hallmarks of a potentially significant occurrence. The promising initial trench results within a large soil anomaly attests to the prospectivity of this gold target. On our recent site visit last week, a group of analysts and brokers were able to visit and see for themselves New Liberty and Ndablama to gauge the potential of both sites. Ndablama is 40km northeast of and within the same Bea Mountain mining licence as New Liberty and with its current strike of 1.75km, Ndablama is rapidly showing similar scale.
As we move New Liberty towards production, the satellite projects of Ndablama, Gondoja and Weaju demonstrate our conviction that the Archaean geology of western Liberia represents a potentially significant gold province, with geology as prospective for major Greenstone gold deposits as that of Western Australia, Ontario in Canada, Eastern DRC and the Lake Victoria goldfields in Tanzania. We look forward to receipt of the assay results from the current drilling campaign at Ndablama."
Ndablama Prospect
The Ndablama prospect is located in the northeast corner of the Company's 457km2 25 year mining licence in western Liberia and approximately 40km northeast of the Company's New Liberty Archaean age shear zone hosted gold deposit. New Liberty has a resource of 1.38 million ounces (NI 43-101 compliant 13.533 Mt measured and indicated at 3.18 g/t gold) and is presently the subject of a Preliminary Economic Assessment as well as a resource definition drilling programme.
Ndablama is defined by the presence of extensive artisanal gold mining activity. The largest workings have a strike length of approximately 200m and attain a width of up to 50m. Artisanal miners operate on one year surface mining permits under the Liberian mining code with the regulations ensuring that subsurface mining rights, as held by African Aura, take precedence.
A soil survey undertaken by the Company at Ndablama delineated a 1.2km long north south trending anomalous zone of gold enrichment, up to 100m wide and remains open along strike. Follow up trenching was undertaken by the Company along a 400m long southern section of the anomaly. The trenches were 2-3m deep and exposed weathered tourmaline granites, amphibolites and sheared and folded ultramafic schists, the latter attaining widths of over 150m. Sampling of the trenches returned best results of 1.38 g/t Au over 70m (including 5.21 g/t Au over 8m) and 1.06 g/t Au over 70m (including 1.58 g/t Au over 10m). A follow-up 14 hole diamond drilling programme has now commenced to test the anomalous zone at depth.
Qualified Person
African Aura's Qualified Person responsible for preparing this release is Dr Tom Elder, who holds a BSc and Doctorate in Geology from the University of Durham in the UK, is a Fellow and former Member of Council of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, and a Fellow of the Geological Society.
Quality Control and Sample Preparation
African Aura has a rigorous Quality Control Programme (QCP) inserting a minimum 5% of standards, blanks and duplicates into the sample stream. The Company employs independently owned and managed OMAC Laboratories for all its assay requirements, including the preparation of pulps to 90% -100 micron at their in-country preparation facilities in Liberia, followed by chemical analysis at its main laboratory in Loughrea, Ireland. OMAC is accredited to ISO 17025 by INAB (Irish National Accreditation Board), which is a member of ILAC (International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation), and is a signatory to the ILAC Mutual Recognition Arrangement. OMAC operates an internal QA/QC check assay programme using in-house standards, reagent blanks and duplicates.
Source: African Aura Mining Inc.