• PROJECTS AND EXPLORATION
together and are very excited to be finally starting drilling at some of these great targets . We are absolutely confident that the results of the drilling will speak for themselves in the coming months ."
Aton signed a contract with Geodrill ' s Egyptian branch , Geodrill for Leasing and Specialised Services Freezone LLC , for 10 000m of RC drilling at the Abu Marawat Concession in April 2023 . Geodrill ' s X900 multi-purpose drill rig arrived at the West Garida prospect on May 18 , 2023 , and commenced drilling on the first hole of the programme , WGP-006 . The powerful X900 multi-purpose rig carries a 1200cfm / 430psi onboard compressor , and an additional service unit equipped with a 1200cfm / 430psi auxiliary compressor and 1800cfm / 900psi booster pack . The X900 rig has a rated RC depth capacity of 400m .
Drilling commenced at the West Garida prospect , which is only 3km away from the Company ' s Hamama West deposit . A short programme of 19 holes was planned at West Garida , for a total of 1 370 metres to follow up on a previous drill intersection of 41.7g / t Au , 263g / t Ag and 2.08 % Pb over a 1m interval . Mineralisation at West Garida is associated with narrow high grade quartz veins .
After the completion of the West Garida programme , the rig was to be mobilised to the Abu Gaharish prospect , where a temporary exploration camp was erected to service the drilling . Drill pad construction had almost finished at the prospect at the time . Abu Gaharish is located approximately 16km northeast of the company ' s main exploration camp at Rodruin and is accessed by rough desert tracks . A provisional programme of 28 holes was being planned for a total of 4 040 metres at Abu Gaharish . The company believes that Abu Gaharish is an analogue of the world-class Sukari deposit , approximately 200km south of Abu Marawat , and where artisanal miners have recently exploited a highly prospective structural system consisting of numerous mineralised veins and structures along a c . 3km strike length on the south-eastern margin of the Gaharish granite pluton . Aton has carried out extensive surface sampling at Abu Gaharish with samples grading up to 157g / t Au .
A further programme of 17 holes for a total of 3 600m was designed at the Semna prospect , which was to be drilled after Abu Gaharish , and where drill access road and pad construction was also well advanced . Semna is located approximately 10km northwest of Abu Gaharish . The Semna area has a long history of gold mining , during both ancient and modern times , dating back as far as the Old Kingdom period , over 4 500 years ago . Semna was exploited by two British companies between 1904 and 1906 , who reported that Semna had the widest vein mined during the British phase of mining in Egypt in the early 20th century , reaching up to 6m in width in places . The British reported mining grades of over two ounces per ton . Reports from the British Mining Journal from 1905 indicated that some pillars from the ancient Pharaonic era stopes assayed up to 5.5 ounces per ton gold . Mineralisation is associated with at least 4 sub-parallel structures at Semna , and Aton has returned channel sampling intercepts including 5.17g / t Au over an interval of 9.7m at surface , and individual channel samples grading up to 18.05g / t Au .
Further drilling programmes were being developed to also test the Zeno , Sir Bakis and Bohlog areas in the current RC programme . •
12 • African Mining • October 2023 www . africanmining . co . za