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or Name
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Argonaut Gold Inc
Symbol AR
Shares Issued 293,724,097
Close 2020-11-23 C$ 2.30
Market Cap C$ 675,565,423
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Argonaut drills seven m of 14 g/t Au at Magino

2020-11-23 06:53 ET - News Release

Mr. Pete Dougherty reports

ARGONAUT GOLD DISCOVERS FOUR NEW HIGH-GRADE MINERALIZED GOLD ZONES BELOW AND TO THE WEST OF THE PLANNED MAGINO OPEN PIT

Argonaut Gold Inc. has discovered four new high-grade zones below or adjacent to the planned open pit at its 100-per-cent-owned Magino property in Ontario, Canada: the Scotland zone, the No. 42 zone, the Sandy zone and the South zone, which sit between 350 and 700 metres southwest of the previously identified Elbow zone. Since commencing the exploration drilling program in July, 2019, the company has completed 56 diamond drill holes and approximately 48,000 metres of drilling targeting high-grade mineralized structures at depth.

Recent highlights include:

  • Scotland zone: MA20-50A with 7.0 metres at 14.0 grams per tonne gold, including 3.0 m at 31.9 g/t Au;
  • No. 42 zone: MA20-051 with 8.0 m at 9.3 g/t Au, including 5.0 m at 14.6 g/t Au;
  • Sandy zone: MA20-051 with 9.0 m at 5.4 g/t Au, including 3.0 m at 13.5 g/t Au;
  • South zone: MA20-051 with 7.0 m at 4.2 g/t Au, including 2.0 m at 10.0 g/t Au;
  • Elbow zone: MA20-053 with 4.4 m at 14.1 g/t Au, including 3.4 m at 18.15 g/t Au.

Pete Dougherty, president and chief executive officer, stated: "The discovery of these four new high-grade zones below the planned Magino open pit demonstrates the exploration potential of the Magino project. Magino is a past producing mine and has been a well-known project for decades; yet, we are only now beginning to scratch the surface of the full potential of the exploration upside to this mineralized system. The fact that we are now discovering new high-grade zones speaks to the future possibilities at Magino. These results continue to demonstrate the high-grade gold potential at the project. Importantly, we have now demonstrated results at depth farther westward from the boundary between Magino and the adjacent Island gold mine."

Brian Arkell, vice-president of exploration, commented: "Through an ongoing structural investigation over the past two years, we can now trace higher-grade ore shoots within the planned open pit and test the downdip potential of these structures. It's very encouraging to intersect high-grade gold mineralization in our initial drill holes testing these structures at depth, and we've hit some of the highest grades encountered to date. Based on the success we have demonstrated in our first drilling at depth at the new Scotland, No. 42, Sandy and South zones, combined with the Elbow and Central zones, we now have six very exciting high-grade mineralized targets that all warrant further drilling."

Recent drilling has focused on widely spaced scout drilling to test multiple potential high-grade mineralized structures at depth westward from the Elbow and Central zones. Results indicate that the four high-grade structures continue downdip, as the first drilling to test these downdip extensions has encountered high-grade gold mineralization in all four targets. Drilling will now focus on continuing to test the continuity of the Elbow and Central zones as well as moving westward to continue testing new targets below and to the west of the planned open pit.

                                 SELECT DRILL RESULTS
  
Hole              From        To    Length   Grade Au*          Estimated true width
                   (m)       (m)       (m)       (g/t)                           (m)

MA20-017W1       647.0     648.0       1.0         5.4                           0.8
and              767.0     769.0       2.0         6.4                           1.6
including        767.0     768.1       1.1        11.4                           0.9
MA20-050A        431.0     438.0       7.0        14.0                           5.3
including        431.0     434.0       3.0        31.9                           2.3
and              717.0     725.0       8.0         4.5                           6.0
including        721.0     724.0       3.0        10.1                           2.3
MA20-051         365.0     373.0       8.0         9.3                           6.0
including        366.0     371.0       5.0        14.6                           3.8
and              605.0     613.0       8.0         5.5                           6.0
including        605.0     607.0       2.0        18.3                           1.5
and              741.0     750.0       9.0         5.4                           6.8
including        742.0     745.0       3.0        13.5                           2.3
and              884.0     891.0       7.0         4.2                           5.3
including        884.0     886.0       2.0        10.0                           1.5
MA20-052         703.0     708.0       5.0         7.3                           3.5
including        706.0     708.0       2.0        17.5                           1.4
and             945.00    950.00       5.0         5.7                           3.5
including       945.00    948.00       3.0         8.9                           2.1
MA20-053        419.60    424.00       4.4        14.1                           3.1
including       419.60    423.00       3.4        18.2                           2.4
                            
* Grade is uncut.

This round of drilling has shown promising results in the No. 42 zone where visible gold has been observed in many of the quartz veins. Several stopes from past production are within this zone and using the historical level plans, detailed information on vein orientation and density was extracted. Hole MA20-051 intersected the down-plunge extension about 150 m below the old workings returning 8.0 m at 9.3 g/t Au. Testing along strike on this zone, MA20-050A intersected 8.0 m at 4.5 g/t Au, including 3.0 m at 10.2 g/t Au. This intersection was an additional 150 m down plunge and to the east of MA20-051. Along with these holes, MA20-052 also intersected 5.0 m at 7.3 g/t Au another 200 m down plunge. With these positive intersections in this pattern of drilling, the zone has expanded by 350 m down plunge and approximately 150 m of strike length to a vertical depth from surface greater than 650 m.

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 NI 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 QA/QC 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 QA/QC procedures include the insertion of coarse blanks and Canadian reference standards for every 10th sample in the sample stream. Samples are bagged, sealed with numbered security tags and shipped to the Activation Laboratories facility, Thunder Bay, Ont., for sample preparation and assaying. The laboratory has its own QA/QC protocols, running standards, blanks and 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-gram fire assays of the pass (minus-100 mesh) pulverized material on all samples containing visible gold. Check assays are conducted at a secondary International Organization for Standardization-certified laboratory.

About Argonaut Gold Inc.

Argonaut Gold is a Canadian gold company 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, the La Colorada mine in Sonora, Mexico, and the Florida Canyon mine in Nevada, United States. Advanced exploration projects include the Magino project in Ontario, Canada, the Cerro del Gallo project in Guanajuato, Mexico, and the Ana Paula project in Guerrero, Mexico. The company holds several other exploration-stage projects, all of which are located in North America.

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