Abacus Mining drills 325.55 m of 0.33% Cu at Ajax East
2010-01-14 08:29 ET - News Release
Mr. Doug Fulcher reports
ABACUS DISCOVERS NEW NEAR SURFACE MINERALIZATION AT THE AJAX DEPOSIT
Abacus Mining & Exploration Corp. has released the results of a 19-hole drill program completed in December, 2009, on the Ajax East extension area, a near-surface copper-gold rich zone identified by Abacus geologists in 2008. The Ajax East extension area is fault offset of the main Ajax deposit, approximately 200 metres east of the Ajax East pit. Both the Ajax deposit and the Ajax East extension are 100 per cent owned by Abacus.
The focus of the recent drill program is to convert approximately 80 million tonnes of inferred resources in the Ajax East extension to a measured and/or indicated status (as reported in Stockwatch news on June 22, 2009), for inclusion into the 503-million-tonne resource containing approximately three billion pounds of copper and 2.7 million ounces of gold. In addition, the program is designed to outline a near-surface higher-grade resource that could be an initial starter pit for the prefeasibility study mine plan.
Doug Fulcher, president of Abacus, states: "We are very pleased with the excellent results from this phase of the drill program. It definitely demonstrates that the Ajax East extension has the potential for a higher-grade starter pit that potentially supplies the initial years' production of higher-grade feed than the current "in-pit" resource, as well as for converting the inferred resource into a measured or indicated category for the prefeasibility study. The Ajax deposit is currently estimated to contain over 500 million tonnes that could feed a 60,000-tonne-per-day operation yielding an average of 110 million pounds of copper and 100,000 ounces of gold in concentrate annually over a 23-year mine life."
Drilling at Ajax has now resumed and is expected to run through the middle of February. The focus of this phase is to follow up on recent near-surface results with a program of grid drilling in the area of the potential starter pit mineralization with an additional 20 vertical holes.
Please visit the company's website for a drill plan map of this area, and other company information.
Drill highlights include the following:
* Hole AM-09-018 intersects 325.55 metres (1,068 feet) averaging 0.33 per cent copper and 0.27 gram per tonne gold, and 105.05 metres (344.7 feet) averaging 0.47 per cent copper and 0.39 gram per tonne gold, both of which are part of a larger interval consisting of 520.2 metres (1,706.7 feet) averaging 0.27 per cent copper and 0.22 gram per tonne gold. This hole is still in the mineralized zone at the end of the hole at 678.48 metres (2,226 feet) and will be deepened at the first opportunity.
* Hole AM-09-024 intersects 137.5 metres (451.1 feet) averaging 0.39 per cent copper and 0.36 gram per tonne gold, including 37.5 metres (123 feet) averaging 0.68 per cent copper and 0.61 gram per tonne gold. These intercepts form part of a larger mineralized interval consisting of 198 metres (649.6 feet) averaging 0.33 per cent copper and 0.29 gram per tonne gold.
* Hole AM-09-031 intersects 71.5 metres (234.6 feet) averaging 0.47 per cent copper and 0.25 gram per tonne gold, and a 112.5-metre (369.1 feet) intercept averaging 0.35 per cent copper and 0.26 gram per tonne gold, both of which are part of a larger interval consisting of 263.5 metres (864.5 feet) averaging 0.32 per cent copper and 0.21 gram per tonne gold. .....
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