Feb 2 2011
Auryx Gold Corp. (TSX: AYX, NSX: AYX) has provided an update on three items from the Otjkoto gold project: the fulfillment of the final conditions of the surface rights acquisition agreement, the results from the ongoing drill program, and results from the calcrete sampling program.
Surface Rights to the Otjikoto Gold Project
Auryx recently received the second of two waivers from the Namibian Government that are required in order for a foreign company to purchase farm/ranch land in Namibia. This waiver completes the conditions precedent to the surface rights acquisition. Auryx has agreed to purchase the surface rights to a land package of more than 14,700 ha surrounding the Otjikoto gold deposit and the entire 10km long geophysical anomaly with which it is associated. The Company is currently undertaking work via a surface rights access agreement that expires in June of 2012. The acquisition of the surface rights provides the Company with unhindered access to the ground for exploration and it is an essential step for the eventual development of the project.
Auryx's President, Mr. Searcy comments: "The receipt of the second waiver, allowing Auryx to acquire the surface rights will give the Company unhindered access to distant targets along strike from Otjikoto that have only received limited testing in the past. This is important because the exploration program continues to intercept gold mineralization at the edge of the resource and in wide step-out holes further afield. This is a strong indication that Otjikoto might be part of a significantly larger system."
Holes 268, 272, and 273 intercepted envelop style mineralization. Hole 282 intercepted shoot styled mineralization, but with lower grades than usual for shoots.
The GTR holes (50 - 54, 67, & 68) all come from a shallow zone, the Magnetite Zone, located 300m to 600m south of the Otjikoto resource. The zone has been drilled previously, on wider spacing, and it is has not been included in any resource estimate on the project. The results demonstrate a consistent grade and thickness with only one hole returning no intercepts.
The three diamond drill holes, OT 205, OT 207, and WH17, all tested different areas. OT 205 was drilled on the southeastern edge of the resource and OT 207 was drilled 200m southwest of the resource both holes intercepted envelop style mineralization. WH17 was drilled 900m northeast of resource, its one intercept of 3.60m at 0.97g/t Au, is interesting for a step-out of that size. However, the intriguing part of the intercept remained in the core-box. As part of Auryx's QA/QC procedures, the Company consistently samples the southern half of core keeping the northern half for reference.
The calcrete samples that carry gold grade are most likely to immediately overly the sub-cropping high grade shoots. None of these calcrete samples have been included in previous resource estimates.
Since acquiring the project, Auryx has drilled 31 DD holes for 9126m and 85 RC holes for 6919m at Otjikoto. As of today, results from 12 DD and 19 RC holes have been released.
Quality Assurance/Quality Control
Auryx operates a rigorous QA/QC protocol on all aspects of sampling and analytical procedure. Drill core is checked, logged, marked for sampling and split in half. One half of the NQ core is maintained for future reference and the other half is sent for analysis. Due to the significant nugget effect present at Otjikoto, Auryx consistently samples only the south half of the core in order to avoid personal bias from affecting the samples and, ultimately, the resource. Core and RC samples are both collected in one (1) meter intervals. Each RC sample is riffle split twice to generate four further samples - primary assay, field duplicate, reference, and metallurgical. All core and RC samples are stored in the company's secure core shack in Otjiwarongo and are transported from there and beyond by independent couriers.
Samples are screen fire assayed at Genalysis and SGS laboratories, both of which are in located in Johannesburg, South Africa. Analysis is by screen fire assay process whereby the sample is pulverized and sieved with into +106µm and -106µm fractions. The +106 fraction is assayed until completion, typically 10g to 50g. At SGS a 50g aliquot is split from the -106 fraction and assayed, while at Genalysis, two 25g aliquots are split and assayed.
The final assay result is calculated by a weighted average of mass x grade of the two size fractions divided by the total mass of the un-split sample. For both core and RC blanks are inserted at every 25th sample and standards (for each size fraction) for every 20th sample. For the RC only, duplicates are submitted at every 20th sample.
These QA/QC procedures provide several measures of data quality and assure the Company that the assay data is representative of the original sample. For a more detailed description of QA/QC procedures please see the SRK 43-101 report dated 31 March 2010.
Source: Auryx Gold Corp.