Alexander Nubia Provides a Summary on the Abu Zawal Gold Deposit Located in the Fatiri Concession, E
21.01.2014 | FSCwire
Alexander Nubia Provides a Summary on the Abu Zawal Gold Deposit Located in the Fatiri Concession, Egypt
Toronto, Ontario CANADA, January 21, 2014 /FSC/ - Alexander Nubia International Inc. (AAN - TSX Venture), the Egyptian VMS base and precious metals focussed development company is pleased to announce the summary results from an extensive sampling and mapping program at its Abu Zawal deposit, a past-producing gold mine near the southern end of the Fatiri Concession. The Fatiri Concession forms part of the Company's overall 2,772 km2 land package in Egypt's Eastern Desert (see Figure 1).
Highlights:
* Significant mineralization occurs in patches within an area 1.3 km by 1.3 km in which numerous discontinuous mineralized felsic dykes up to a few metres wide trend mainly north-south and dip 15-25 degrees to the west.
* 64 anomalous (>100 ppb gold) channel and chip samples from the main underground working, 30 additional, mainly small adits, and 29 old trenches, over widths of 1.5-2 metres and grab samples from mainly altered felsic dykes and quartz veins on surface and underground yielded an average 1.97 g/t gold, with a maximum value of 15.3 g/t gold.
* 33 anomalous samples from dumps yielded an average of 1.86 g/t gold.
* 2 anomalous samples from tailings yielded an average of 2.60 g/t gold. The gold values in the tailings are consistent with higher-grade assay values in the felsic dykes where historical mining was focused.
* The anomalous gold assay results are mainly from altered felsic dykes, suggesting the possibility of a broader exploration target with the potential for disseminated gold in the felsic stocks as well as in the dykes.
Chief Executive Officer, Alexander Massoud said, "We are pleased with the results from our Abu Zawal deposit. One of the more exciting aspects of this target is that it has not had a systematic and modern approach to exploration in over 90 years. These preliminary results and our interpretation of them are encouraging, as they suggest potential for a moderate-grade, larger mineralized target than previously recognized."
V.P of Exploration, Dr. John Payne commented, "The results at the Abu Zawal deposit enhance the potential and prospectivity of the Alexander Nubia's land package. The deposit is near the Abu Marawat copper-gold deposit and the Hamama VMS deposit." Dr. Payne further stated, "The primarily focus of the Company is on its exciting Hamama VMS deposit, whose Main VMS Horizon strike length of 3.0 kilometres compares to world-class VMS deposits in the Arabian-Nubian Shield, such as Bisha, Eritrea controlled by Nevsun Resources (1.2 kilometre strike length) or Hassai, controlled by Weather II Fund (formerly La Mancha) (2.5 kilometre strike length). The drilling and trench results that led to the discovery of a sizeable gold-silver oxidized cap, a zinc-gold-rich exhalite zone and disseminated gold-silver mineralization in a strong footwall alteration zone are indicative of a major VMS system."
Table 1: Abu Zawal Select Significant Assay Results
-***-
Sample No. Type Location Au (g/t)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FAZ-362 channel Underground: face at end of drift 16.9
FAZ-363 channel Underground: Drift - 90m 8.28
FAZ-364 channel Underground: 85 N crosscut - 18" 9.85
FAZ-368 channel Underground: 85 S crosscut- 24" 5.95
FAZ-369 channel Underground: 85 S crosscut- 8" 15.3
FAZ-493 chip - <1m old trench 5.2
FAZ-449 grab Ad9, 290N, entrance 8.85
FAZ-476 channel T21, altered rock with Cu ox 5.56
FAZ-488 grab Ad27, 020N, altered felsite, Cu ox 6.46
FAZ-499 grab Ad30, 150N, quartz vein and felsite 3.28
FAZ 043 chip dump near FAZ 42 3.92
FAZ-444 grab dump near T16 20.1
FAZ-480 channel dump near inclined Ad24, 240N 6.88
FAZ-512 grab dumps of qz + Cu ox near old working 5.17
FAZ-250 grid ~50m*50m tailings 4.41
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-****-
Detailed assay results available at: www.alexandernubia.com
Detailed Description
The Abu Zawal deposit can be reached from Cairo via daily, one-hour commercial airline flights to Hurghada, thence south by paved highway to the Red Sea port city of Safaga, west along Highway 44 to Km 40, northwest and then southwest along the recently constructed highway towards Sohag on the Nile River, and finally 2 km east along a flat desert track (Figure 2). Desert tracks allow easy access to most parts of the deposit and the Fatiri Concession.
Figure 1. Location Map of the Fatiri Concession
The Abu Zawal area was worked in Pharaonic and Roman times. During 1902-1905, the Fatiri Exploration Company mined the deposit in shallow workings along several sub-parallel felsic dykes dipping 15-25 degrees W, and milled the product on site. Although the ruins of the mill and employee housing are evidence of this activity, the volume of tailings suggests that only minor production was achieved. Based on head-grade records archived by EMRA, a 1968 report by Kochin & Bassyuni estimated 25,000 to 30,000 tons were mined at Fatiri, but the authors questioned the reported grade of 15.5 g/t Au as being too high. Although some grab samples containing high-grade copper-oxide mineralization were collected from underground workings, no copper production was recorded. The Abu Zawal area was re-evaluated by the Egyptian Mining and Prospecting Company in 1957, and again from 1975-1977 by the Egyptian Geological Survey (EGSMA, now EMRA).
The geology of the Fatiri Concession compiled by EMRA shows the oldest rocks are part of an ophiolite sequence of meta-volcanic rocks and argillite (Shadli group) that was intruded by a series of granitoid batholiths. These rocks were overlain unconformably by Late Proterozoic calc-alkaline, andesitic to rhyolitic volcanic and volcanoclastic rocks (Dohkan group) with some associated sedimentary units (Hammamat Group). These were intruded by syn-late tectonic mafic intrusions and calc-alkaline granitoid (monzonite and monzodiorite) bodies. Scattered alkali dykes, sills, and stocks intrude the older rocks.
Figure 2. Abu Zawal Geology
At Abu Zawal, gold mineralization occurs in a series of shallowly westerly dipping Late Precambrian hypabyssal felsic dykes up to 2.5 metres thick that were intruded into older meta-andesite, meta-argillite, and granodiorite (see Figure 2). Known mineralization is concentrated in two distinct areas, whose surface extents are 400 x 400 metres (Eastern Zone), and 400 x 150 metres (Western Zone). Gold mineralization occurs in hydrothermally altered felsic dykes that contain braided quartz veins, mainly in the commonly sheared, upper halves of the dykes; secondary copper-oxides, goethite, and hematite are common. Some of these dykes are associated spatially and probably genetically with several larger monzonite to monzodiorite dykes, stocks, and plugs, some of which were altered moderately with similar silicate alteration as in the main mineralized zones. In the Eastern Zone, bedrock is dominated by granodiorite, whereas in the Western Zone it is dominated by steeply dipping meta-sedimentary and meta-volcanic rocks that were intruded by monzodiorite to monzonite stocks and sills. AAN has done detailed geological mapping and lithogeochemical sampling (425 grab, chip, and channel samples), and has located accurately all showing, pits, trenches and underground workings. At each recognizable historic excavation, two vertical chip-channel samples, each three metres long, were collected across moderately to strongly altered and quartz-veined felsic dykes, which host much of the mineralization on the property. Samples were also taken of numerous dumps near adits (possibly rejected material from hand-sorting of mined rock) and of two tailings at the abandoned mill.
Most old underground workings, trenches, and dumps contain anomalous gold values. The average of eight channel samples from faces in the underground workings is 7.34 g/t gold, with a high value of 16.9 g/t gold. The best surface channel sample contains 8.85 g/T Au, with 64 surface samples containing gold grades in excess of 0.1 g/T Au. Dumps and tailings returned a number of significant gold values with the highest dump value being 20.1 g/t Au and the highest tailings sample being 4.41 g/t gold. The gold values in the tailings are consistent with higher-grade assay values in the felsic dykes where historical mining was focused. Numerous grab samples collected from dumps near the mine entrance contain over 300 ppm copper, with a maximum value of 4370 ppm copper. Silver values are uniformly low. With minor exceptions, granodiorite, metamorphic wall rocks, and mafic dykes contain no anomalous gold values. Detailed gold assay values of anomalous samples from Abu Zawal are shown in the Appendix.
Positive assay results suggest the potential for a broader zone of gold mineralization within altered felsic rocks, including the monzonite stocks, which are most abundant in the Western Zone near the granodiorite/meta-volcanic contact, which defines the boundary between the Eastern and Western Zones.
The next exploration phase will include a drill program of six to eight diamond drill holes, each from 50-200 metres in length along the projected dip of the main felsic dykes in the Eastern Zone near the principal underground drift, and two similar diamond drill holes to test the down-dip continuation of the felsic dyke in the Western Zone and to test the associated monzonite stock.
Qualifying Person
The technical information contained in this news release was prepared or reviewed under the direct supervision of John Payne (P.Geo.), Alexander Nubia Inc.'s Vice President. Dr. Payne is a qualifying person under National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101").
Alexander Nubia employs an on-site sample preparation facility where core is diamond sawed into two equal halves; and one half of the core is returned to its core box for permanent, on-site storage and the other half, weighing approximately 2 kilograms, is crushed to minus 5 mm and riffle split to 500 g. The 500 g sample is 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 pulverizes the entire 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 5-10 g sample is removed for Ag-Cu-Zn analysis by atomic absorption after digestion in aqua regia. Over-range copper (>10,000 ppm), zinc (>10,000 ppm) and silver (>100 ppm) are re-analyzed 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 insertion of blanks and analytical control standards has been implemented to monitor laboratory performance; this is in addition to ALS's internal QA/QC program. Discrepancies have been few, and when discovered, the 'laboratory batch' (usually 20 samples in a batch) is re-analyzed.
About Alexander Nubia International Inc.
Alexander Nubia International Inc. is an established Canadian mineral exploration company that has been operating in Egypt since 2007. It is committed to identifying, focusing on and advancing gold and base-metal projects in the Eastern Desert of Egypt. The Company holds two exploration concessions in Egypt: Abu Marawat and Fatiri, which cover areas of 1,027 km2 and 1,745 km2, respectively. The Company is focused on exploration within the Abu Marawat Concession, which contains its two main properties, the Hamama volcanogenic massive sulphide ("VMS") deposit and the Abu Marawat mesothermal vein deposit, the latter with an NI 43-101-compliant inferred gold-copper-rich resource. The Abu Zawal deposit is in the Fatiri Concession.
The Company holds a highly prospective land package with an established history of mining dating back to the Pharaonic era, with three historical gold mines and four major prospects. The land package is enhanced by excellent and nearby infrastructure, which includes access to highway and railway, a high-capacity electricity grid, and nearby major cities: Qena, on the Nile River, and Port of Safaga, on the Red Sea.
For more information on Alexander Nubia please contact:
A. Alexander Massoud
President and Chief Executive Officer
Egypt: +2 (0) 22 287 6914
Email: amassoud@alexandernubia.com
General Information
Canada: +1 (604) 727-1813
Email: info@alexandernubia.com
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. The securities of Alexander Nubia International Inc. described herein have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available. Some of the statements contained in this release are forward-looking statements, such as estimates and statements that describe the Company's future plans, objectives or goals, including words to the effect that the Company or management expects a stated condition or result to occur. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions; by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results in each case could differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
To view the press release as a PDF file, please click on the following link:
http://www.usetdas.com/pr/alexander01212014.pdf
Source: Alexander Nubia International Inc. (TSX.V - AAN) http://www.alexandernubia.com
Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com