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Attention Business Editors
Augen Gold Acquires Strategic Claims in Southern Swayze
Shares outstanding: 32,534,695
TORONTO, Sept. 25 /CNW/ - Augen Gold Corp. (GLD - TSX.V) has entered into
an option agreement to acquire from local prospectors an important mineral
property in the centre of its 100% owned Southern Swayze Property. The
property lies between 9 and 13 kilometres east of the Jerome Gold Mine, and is
surrounded by Augen Gold's mining claims. Exploration by the previous
operator, Namex Explorations Inc. (Namex) in 2006 and 2007 was most successful
in identifying high grade mineral occurrences, with 17 reported grab samples
containing gold values ranging from 76 ppb to 54.2 g/t, silver values from 1.3
to 1620 g/t, and up to 12.6% lead, 2.3% zinc, 8.6% copper and 5.9% antimony
(Namex news release, Nov 15, 2006). Three surface grab samples collected
independently by Augen Gold confirmed the tenor of these occurrences, yielding
respectively 0.10, 51.3 and 8.82 g/t gold; 561, 730, and 69.7 g/t silver;
0.16%, 8.1% and 0.07% lead; 3.82%, 3.16% and 0.46% copper; 0.65%, 1.49% and
0.12% zinc. The first two samples returned exceeded the upper limit of
detection of 1.0% antimony, while the third returned a value of 0.24% Sb. The
gold is associated with fine-grained pyrite, galena, molybdenite and
tetrahedrite hosted in dark grey and white quartz veins cutting
quartz-feldspar porphyry.
Stripped areas reveal silica- and sericite-altered and intensely deformed
and quartz-veined quartz feldspar porphyry. Two diamond drill holes totaling
192 metres were completed by Namex, and traced a narrow mineralized fracture
in quartz-feldspar porphyry to a vertical depth of 82 metres within a broad
zone of low grade gold mineralization. This intercept returned 1.22 g/t gold,
13.2 g/t silver, 0.11% copper and 0.10% antimony over a core length of 1.10 m
(Namex news release, February 19, 2008). Four of seven surface channels
sampled by Namex returned encouraging results including 0.432 g/t Au across a
width of 10 metres, 0.328 g/t Au across 34 metres, 0.24 g/t Au across 26
metres and 0.25 g/t across 6 metres. These are believed to approximate true
widths (Namex assessment report, March 25, 2008). The three other channels
returned background to slightly elevated gold values. In total Namex collected
143 one metre long samples from these channels. Namex also collected 479 MMI
soil geochemical samples over parts of the property, and reported strong
anomalies associated with, and east of, the known mineralized areas (Namex
news release February 19, 2008, Assessment Report March 19, 2008).
The Optioned Property is largely underlain by Timiskaming sedimentary
rocks intruded by quartz-feldspar porphyry - the same geological setting as
that at the Jerome Mine. The property also covers four kilometers of the
sheared contact between Timiskaming sediments and older volcanic rocks to the
north. This is interpreted as the possible western extension of the Kirkland
Lake/Larder Lake Break, which is associated with the major gold deposits in
the Kirkland Lake area.
Augen Gold intends to perform ground IP-resistivity, magnetic and VLF
surveys on the Option property to refine targets described above, and identify
their potential strike extensions. This will be followed by diamond drilling.
Pursuant to the Agreement, Augen Gold has been granted an option to
acquire an undivided 100% interest in 4 mineral claims consisting of 39 units
for a total of 624 hectares in Huffman and Potier Townships. Augen Gold may
exercise the option by making payments to the vendor totaling $130,000 in cash
and 225,000 common shares of Augen Gold over three years. The vendor retains a
2.0% net smelter returns royalty, and an annual advanced royalty is payable
beginning four years after the signing of the Agreement. Augen Gold may
purchase one-half (i.e. 1.0%) of the royalty for $1,000,000 at any time.
"This acquisition with its demonstrated gold, silver and base metal
mineralization fills a strategic gap in Augen Gold's already dominant land
holdings along a mineralized trend in the southern Swayze greenstone belt
which hosts several gold deposits and numerous gold and base metal
occurrences. Augen Gold's objective is to delineate a number of gold deposits
within our landholdings." says J. David Mason, CEO and Director of Augen Gold.
The proposed option agreement is subject to acceptance by the TSX Venture
Exchange.
About Augen Gold
Augen Gold is a gold exploration company that owns 24,581 hectares of
patented and staked mining claims and the rights to acquire an additional
1,680 hectares of mining claims in the southern Swayze Greenstone Belt,
including the formerly producing Jerome Gold Mine. The claims cover a 45
kilometre-long section of the Ridout Deformation Zone, believed to be the
western extension of the Kirkland Lake-Larder Lake Break. The geological
setting is comparable to the major gold camps of Timmins and Kirkland Lake,
and the claims contain numerous gold showings that have received very little
historical exploration. Augen Gold is the first company to have assembled such
a coherent ground position and has performed a detailed airborne geophysical
survey over the whole area, and the Company's sampling program has confirmed
the historically reported gold values. The correlation of many gold showings
with geophysical features indicates excellent potential for the discovery of
additional deposits. The Company's objectives are to aggressively explore the
gold showings that correlate with geophysical anomalies, continue resource
definition at the Jerome Mine, and to expand its property portfolio with
highly prospective mineral assets.
The information contained in this news release has been prepared and
approved by Augen Gold's Senior Vice-President, Exploration, Christopher
Marmont, P.Geo., who is the qualified person for the Company's Southern Swayze
Project under the definitions established by National Instrument 43-101. Mr.
Marmont has visited the Optioned Property and collected selected grab samples
described herein. Results obtained by Namex are provided for informational
purposes only and Augen Gold has not performed sufficient work to
independently verify these results.
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/For further information: J. David Mason, Chief Executive Officer and
Director, Augen Gold Corp., Tel: (416) 479-3300, Toll-free: 1-888-442-8436,
For more information on Augen Gold, visit our website at www.augengold.ca/
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