August 11, 2011 07:00 ET
Avion Intersects 2.91 g/t Au Over 54.1 Metres and 3.03g/t Au Over 41.5 Metres, at Vindaloo, Hounde Property, Burkina Faso
All Zones Open With Potential for Further Discoveries
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Aug. 11, 2011) - Avion Gold Corporation (TSX:AVR)(OTCQX:AVGCF) ("Avion" or the "Company") is pleased to announce additional results from the 2011 drill program in the Vindaloo zone area, Houndé Project, Burkina Faso (see Figure 1). Significant gold mineralization was intersected 350 meters and 800 metres north of the Vindaloo zone resource area (see Avion News Release dated October 26, 2011) and within the resource area. Additionally, drilling demonstrated extensions to the Madras and Madras NW zones with both of these zones remaining open in all directions.
Highlights of the current drill program include the following intercepts:
2.91 g/t Au over 54.1 metres at Vindaloo zone extension;
1.57 g/t Au over 30.7 meters at Vindaloo zone extension;
3.03 g/t Au over 41.5 metres at Vindaloo zone;
0.43 g/t Au over 58.0 metres at Koho zone;
1.30 g/t Au over 14.0 metres – Vindaloo zone northern extent;
1.60 g/t Au over 17.0 metres at Madras NW zone.
Vindaloo Zone
Drilling to the north of the Vindaloo zone resource model, which ends at section 50200 N, has intersected significant gold mineralization in holes drilled 350 metres and 800 metres north of section 50200N. Hole H-11-38, located on section 50550N, intersected 1.57 g/t Au over 30.7 metres and hole H-11-38, located on section 51000N, intersected 2.91 g/t Au over 54.1 metres (see Figure 2). Both holes intersected thick zones of quartz-pyrite stockwork mineralized gabbro intrusion with much higher gold values and greater widths than nearer surface holes that intersected less well mineralized mafic volcanics. Drilling to date has shown that the host gabbro intrusion varies in width both along strike and to depth.
John Begeman, President and CEO of Avion stated: "The potential of the Vindaloo gold system has continued to expand as we have increased the area tested by our first pass drill program. As a result, management believes that Avion has discovered a significant gold mineralized system that will justify the initiation of a Preliminary Economic Assessment later this year."
Further gold mineralization was intersected at the interpreted northern end of the Vindaloo system in hole RH11-65 which returned 1.3 g/t Au over 14.0 metres. This hole was drilled because the previous hole, RH11-25, which returned 1.86 g/t Au over 17.0 metres, was stopped in mineralization due to technical reasons. Therefore, the intercept in hole RH11-65 demonstrates the presence of a wider zone of gold mineralization than noted previously.
The Vindaloo zone was also extended for another 100 metres to the south with an intercept of 4.2 g/t Au over 2.9 metres in hole H-11-16. With this hole, it appears that the Vindaloo mineralized system can tentatively be traced for approximately 3.7 kilometres along strike and remains open in all directions.
Infill drilling of the Vindaloo zone returned an intercept of 3.03 g/t Au over 41.5 metres near the northern end of the deposit. Infill drilling completed to date has intersected the Vindaloo zone where expected. Assay results are pending for most of the in-fill holes.
Madras and Madras NW zones
Additional gold mineralization has been intersected at both the Madras and Madras NW zones with intercepts of 1.26 g/t Au over 31.9 metres in hole H-11-07 and 1.60 g/t Au over 17.0 metres in hole RH11-29. Both the Madras and Madras NW zones are open along strike. More drilling will be required to determine the extent of these two northern zones, which extend north off of the geophysical survey area.
Koho Zone
A hole, drilled into the Koho zone, located 300 meters east of the Vindaloo zone, has returned another wide intercept of low grade gold mineralization with an intercept of 0.43 g/t Au over 58.0 metres in hole RH11-35. Other previous 2011 holes into this zone include 0.46 g/t Au over 111.0 metres and 0.48 g/t Au over 21.0 metres. While the gold grades intersected to date are relatively low, management believes that the presence of such a large gold-bearing system, so close to the Vindaloo zone is encouraging. Drill, soil and geophysical data suggest that this trend can be traced for at least 3.0 kilometres.
A summary of significant intercepts in attached at the end of this news release.
Don Dudek, Avion's Senior Vice President Exploration stated: "It's obvious to Avion's exploration team that the current drill program will need to be expanded further in order to provide enough information for the continued definition of new mineral resources. Additional holes are being planned so that at a minimum, there are 2 holes per 100 metre section, along the inferred 3.7 kilometre Vindaloo trend and now also for the Madras and Madras NW trends."
In the initial drilling program, step-out holes were positioned every 100 to 400 metres along the Vindaloo, Koho, Madras and Madras NW mineralized trends. In addition, a series of parallel resistivity and resistivity anomalies were tested. To date, 124 holes have been completed with results returned for 85 of these holes. A program to infill the Vindaloo zone commenced in early July with about 13% of the initial, approximately 12,000 metre program completed. Two core rigs are dedicated to the in-fill program. More drill holes are being planned as results are being received and an expanded drill program will likely be proposed. Additional IP surveys are planned to the north and south of the Vindaloo area to provide drill targeting guidance for future drill programs.
Avion's procedures for handling reverse circulation drill chips comprise initial splitting of the rock chips from one metre drill length samples into 2.0 kilogram samples, as well as description and logging into a database. NQ-size, core assay samples are sawn in half with half of the core submitted for analyses; the length of the core samples depends on logged geological controls with samples varying from 0.3 metres to 2.0 metres in length. All assay samples were delivered to the SGS-Xral laboratory in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and Kayes, Mali. Assay standard samples are inserted every 25th sample and duplicate reverse circulation from every 20th sample are sent in as a separate sample to double check the assays from these intervals. This sampling procedure was initiated and periodically reviewed by Avion's Senior Vice President, Exploration, Don Dudek, P. Geo. The assay samples are then crushed to 3 millimetres with a riffle split if required, to 1.5 kilograms and the entire sample milled in a LM2 mill to a nominal 95% passing 75μm. All the preparation equipment is flushed with barren material prior to the commencement of the job and all sample bowls are scraped clean with a scratch pad. Gold values were determined by Fire Assay and AAS with a 50 gram nominal sample weight. In order to ensure that local, exceptionally high grade assays are not overly represented in assay composites, Avion is also presenting assay composites, with high grade samples capped at 30.0 g/t Au.
Don Dudek, P.Geo., the Senior Vice President, Exploration of the Company and a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information in this press release.
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/avion-intersects-291-g-t-au-over-541-metres-303g-t-au-over-415-metres-vindaloo-hounde-tsx-avr-1548516.htm
