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or Name
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Argonaut Gold Inc
Symbol AR
Shares Issued 288,442,533
Close 2020-07-27 C$ 2.70
Market Cap C$ 778,794,839
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Argonaut drills six m of 8.31 g/t Au at Magino

2020-07-28 06:30 ET - News Release

Mr. Pete Dougherty reports

ARGONAUT GOLD DRILLS HIGH-GRADE INTERCEPT OF 6.0 METRES AT 8.31 G/T AT MAGINO; PHASE TWO MAGINO DRILL PROGRAM SHOWS PROMISING CONTINUITY BETWEEN HIGH-GRADE INTERCEPTS IN THE ELBOW ZONE, INCLUDING 20.0 METRES AT 4.58 G/T GOLD

Argonaut Gold Inc. has released drill results from phase 2 of its drill campaign, specifically targeting high-grade mineralization below the proposed pit at its 100-per-cent-owned Magino property in Ontario, Canada, including 6.0 metres at 8.31 grams per tonne gold, 1.0 metre of 48.50 g/t Au and 2.0 metres at 25.88 g/t Au.

The phase 2 program has focused on tightening drill spacing around high-grade intercepts encountered during the phase 1 program at both the Elbow zone and Central zone. The results in this press release are from the Elbow zone and the company anticipates reporting results from the Central zone once all assays have been received. To date, the company has completed 54 diamond drill holes, including six wedge holes, for a total of 34,852 metres of drilling in the phase 1 and phase 2 programs.

The phase 1 program discovered a number of high-grade veins over a widely spaced area beneath and adjacent to the Magino gold reserve. Drill spacing in this initial phase was up to 400 metres between holes and reached vertical depths up to 1,000 metres. Phase 2 of the program utilized structural modelling from oriented core and optical televiewer measurements to focus on defining gold continuity within the high-grade shoots. In general, holes were designed to offset phase 1 high-grade intercepts by approximately 40 metres. Results to date show promising gold grade continuity in the upper and deep portions of the Elbow zone.

Recent highlights include:

  • MA20-040 with 20.0 metres at 4.58 grams per tonne gold, including 6.0 m at 8.31 g/t Au;
  • MA20-041A with 16.0 m at 4.86 g/t Au, including 1.0 m at 48.50 g/t Au;
  • MA20-026A with 7.0 m at 7.84 g/t Au, including 2.0 m at 25.88 g/t Au;
  • MA20-026AW5 with 3.0 m at 7.01 g/t Au, including 2.0 m at 10.31 g/t Au;
  • MA20-038 with 4.0 m at 8.70 g/t Au, including 1.0 m at 29.10 g/t Au;
  • MA20-039 with 6.0 m at 5.49 g/t Au, including 1.0 m at 25.20 g/t Au.

Pete Dougherty, president and chief executive officer, stated: "We continue to intersect high-grade gold and, more importantly, we are seeing promising high-grade continuity within the Elbow zone where we have now tightened drill spacing averaging between 40 metres and 50 metres in two areas. We are anxiously awaiting results from phase 2 drilling in the Central zone where, like results from the Elbow zone, we continue to encounter visible gold."

The associated table highlights select drill results from the Elbow zone from the continuing phase 2 program. A three-dimensional model of the Magino deposit and the Elbow zone in relation to the proposed pit and property boundaries is available on the company's website.

                              SELECT DRILL RESULTS -- PHASE 2
  
Hole                 From            To         Length           Grade     Estimated true width
                 (metres)      (metres)       (metres)        (Au g/t)                 (metres)

MA20-026A          984.00        991.00           7.00            7.84                     5.60
including          984.00        986.00           2.00           25.88                     1.60
MA20-026AW1        934.00        938.25           4.25            8.67                     3.40
including          937.00        938.25           1.25           28.10                     1.00
MA20-026AW2        950.00        952.15           2.15            5.28                     1.72
MA20-026AW3        928.00        929.00           1.00            5.65                     0.80
MA20-026AW5      1,017.00      1,020.00           3.00            7.01                     2.40
including        1,017.00      1,019.00           2.00           10.31                     1.60
MA20-038           387.00        391.00           4.00            8.70                     3.20
including          390.00        391.00           1.00           29.10                     0.80
and                419.00        424.00           5.00            4.63                     4.00
including          423.00        424.00           1.00           18.90                     0.80
and                611.00        614.00           3.00            5.71                     2.40
including          613.00        614.00           1.00           15.10                     0.80
MA20-039            39.00         41.00           2.00           10.31                     1.50
including           39.00         40.00           1.00           18.90                     0.75
and                388.00        390.80           2.80            5.50                     2.10
including          389.00        390.00           1.00           14.70                     0.75
and                459.00        465.00           6.00            5.49                     4.50
including          464.00        465.00           1.00           25.20                     0.75
MA20-040           389.00        397.00           8.00            5.05                     6.00
including          395.00        396.00           1.00           22.60                     0.75
and                444.00        464.00          20.00            4.58                    15.00
including          450.00        456.00           6.00            8.31                     4.50
MA20-041A          333.00        349.00          16.00            4.86                    12.80
including          333.00        346.00          13.00            5.74                    10.40
including          345.00        346.00           1.00           48.50                     0.80
MA20-042           892.00        906.00          14.00            1.86                    10.50

All Elbow zone drill results as well as maps and sections are available on the company's website.

A detailed structural analysis was incorporated into the vein model for the Elbow zone, where three veins contain high-grade gold mineralization. Normal and wedge drilling was then implemented to complete close-spaced offsets, nominally 40 metres, around three high-grade zones intersected in phase 1.

In the upper Elbow zone, four additional holes were completed to test continuity around MA19-016 that returned 9.63 g/t Au over 14.0 m. A total of 10 holes have now been completed in phases 1 and 2 around hole 16. All have intercepted significant gold values over estimated true widths (ETW) of 4.0 m to 15.0 m. High-grade values show good continuity throughout the zone as illustrated by hole MA20-041A which returned 4.86 g/t Au over 16.0 m core length, including a higher-grade portion running 14.09 g/t Au over 4.0 m and MA20-039, which returned 5.49 g/t Au over 6.0 m including 13.86 g/t Au over 2.0 m. The associated table lists other significant intercepts.

A second area of continuity drill testing focused on the deeper part of the Elbow zone to a vertical depth over 900 m from surface. The deepest hole to date, MA20-026A, returned 7.84 g/t Au over 7.0 m (984.0 to 991.0 m with an ETW of 5.60 m) including a higher-grade intercept of 47.8 g/t Au over 1.0 m (985.0 to 986.0 m). Four wedge holes were drilled to test the continuity of gold mineralization at these depths at an average hole spacing of 40 m. All four hit mineralization including 8.67 g/t Au over 4.25 m in MA20-026AW1 and 7.01 g/t Au over 3.0 m in MA20-026W5. This mineralization remains open at depth.

Phase 2 drilling is nearing completion within the Elbow zone, with a series of offset holes in progress around MA19-020 (10.59 g/t Au over 4.95 m) establishing a third continuity test zone. This zone is about 650 m deep and lies approximately halfway between the continuity tests noted above around MA19-016 and MA20-026A, thus giving three sequentially deeper continuity drill tests starting from the bottom of the proposed Magino ultimate pit to a vertical depth of over 1,000 m.

Brian Arkell, vice-president, exploration, stated: "I'm very encouraged with the grade and continuity from an underground mining standpoint. We've drilled a diamond pattern at approximately 30-to-50-metre spacing around MA19-016 from the phase 1 program, which returned 14.0 metres at 9.63 g/t Au, and have consistently hit the zone with high-grade mineralization in each of the surrounding holes. Approximately 450 metres below this, our second infill pattern around hole MA20-26 showed similar results with good grade and continuity. We are finalizing a third pattern on the Elbow zone and have shifted one drill to the Central zone offsetting phase 1 intercept MA19-012, which returned 18.1 metres of 8.31 g/t Au. We are looking forward to receiving and publishing these results, as initial results indicate the Central zone will demonstrate similar continuity based on what we see visually in the drill core."

Qualified person comments/quality control procedures

The preparation of this press release was supervised and approved by Brian Arkell, Argonaut Gold's vice-president, exploration, and a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Arkell also reviewed the diamond drilling, sampling and on-site sample preparation procedures at Magino.

For sample analysis, the company utilizes a system of quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) that includes insertion and verification of standards, blanks and duplicates consistent with industry standards.

The company has implemented a quality assurance/quality control program to ensure sampling and analysis of all exploration work is conducted in accordance with the CIM (Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum) exploration best practices guidelines. The entire drill hole is sampled and tagged by geologic personnel. Cores are then photographed and sawn in half by experienced geotechnicians, placed in numbered plastic bags and gathered in rice bags, which are sealed with tamper-proof security tags, under the supervision of the project geologists. The other half of the core is retained for future assay verification and/or metallurgical testing. Other quality assurance/quality control procedures include the insertion of coarse blanks and Canadian reference standards for every 10th sample in the sample stream. Samples are then dispatched and transported by Actlabs personal to the Actlabs facility in Thunder Bay, Ont., for sample preparation and assaying. The laboratory has its own quality assurance/quality control protocols, running standards and blanks with duplicate samples in each batch stream. Gold analysis is conducted by lead collection, fire assay with a gravimetric finish on a 50-gram sample. Metallic screen fire assaying is now completed using a 1.0-kilogram sample and two 50 g fire assays of the pass (minus-100 mesh) pulverized material on all samples containing visible gold. Check assays are conducted at a secondary ISO-certified laboratory.

About Argonaut Gold Inc.

Argonaut Gold is a Canadian gold company that is engaged in exploration, mine development and production. Its primary assets are the El Castillo mine and San Agustin mine, which together form the El Castillo complex in Durango, Mexico, and the La Colorada mine in Sonora, Mexico. The company also has several exploration-stage projects, all of which are located in North America.

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