2011 was a transformational year for
Young Davidson Exploration Highlights
During the year, 23,354 metres (20 holes) of surface drilling and 1,720
metres (4 holes) of underground drilling were completed as part of the
-- Further delineation of the Young Davidson (YD) West Zone, which resulted in a Measured and Indicated Resource of 536,000 ounces (4.5 M tonnes grading 3.72 g/t gold) plus an Inferred Resource of 53,000 ounces (0.5 M tonnes grading 3.22 g/t gold) that was announced on September 15, 2011 and is expected to be largely converted to reserve status as part of the Company's Reserve and Resource update. -- Subsequent to the YD West resource estimation, a further six drill holes were completed, five of which intersected the YD West Zone. The deposit remains open to the west and at depth. -- Confirmation of the continuity of a zone footwall to the Upper Boundary Zone that had previously been interpreted as isolated intersections. An oblique drill hole YMX11-04 confirms this continuity and returned 4.80 g/t gold over 15.5 metres.
Recent drilling highlights from the YD West Zone include: (See Figure 1)
-- Hole YD11-244, 54.0 metres grading 5.44 grams per tonne gold -- Hole YD11-245, 6.0 metres grading 2.53 grams per tonne gold -- Hole YD11-247, 46.5 metres grading 2.30 grams per tonne gold -- Hole YD11-248, 54.0 metres grading 2.33 grams per tonne gold
The 40,000 metre drilling program proposed for 2012 will primarily focus on continuing to develop the Young-Davidson West deposit as well as follow-up drilling on six additional targets that were identified in 2011.
Ocampo Exploration Highlights
During the year the Company completed 71,430 metres (456 holes) of
surface drilling and 67,780 metres (331 holes) of underground drilling
as part of the
-- Drilling parallel to and eastward along the PGR trend near the current Picacho open pit has identified a number of gold bearing vein systems (the San Jose, Belen and Altagracia veins) that demonstrate the potential of this system to be exploited both by open pit as well as underground mining methods. Open pit development studies are currently underway on the upper portion of the high grade San Jose / Belen system and this system is expected to be an additional source of mill feed ore. -- In addition, a mineralized extension between the Conico and Estrella Open Pits has been drilled to 25 metre centers. This area is currently being modeled and pit optimization studies are underway. To date, the Estrella vein has been surface mapped over 400 metres beyond the any of the previous drilling undertaken and the new drilling shows that Estrella is now open along strike to the west. -- Drilling from the Santa Eduviges underground mine (located in the southwest part of the mine complex) continues to discover significant down-dip extensions to the vein systems currently being mined. 2011 surface exploration drilling has discovered at least three similar clavos along the strike of the PGR zone immediately west of the Santa Eduviges mine. -- Drilling from the Level 2 mine (a potential third underground mine located in the northeast part of the mine complex) has intersected six mineralized fault systems parallel to the productive high grade San Amado zone. Underground drifting is in progress to establish site drill platforms for the Monos and Burrita targets. -- A new style of mineralization, a high sulfidation epithermal system, as opposed to the typical low sulfidation epithermal system found at Ocampo, has been discovered below the Altagracia deposit at an elevation of 1,150 metres with an intersection of 9.9 metres grading 9.75 g/t gold and 175 g/t silver (13 g/t gold equivalent(2)) 250 meters below current typical working elevations.
Recent drilling highlights include:
Cubiro
-- Hole OG-1463, 2.2 metres grading 27.01 g/t gold equivalent(2)
Altagracia
-- Hole OU-1487, 9.9 metres grading 13.01 g/t gold equivalent(2 )
Belen -
-- Hole OU-1558, 6.0 metres grading 6.91 g/t gold equivalent(2) -- Hole OU-1481, 2.5 metres grading 15.38 g/t gold equivalent(2)
The 100,000 metre drilling program proposed for 2012 will primarily
focus on the
El Chanate Exploration Highlights
During the year, 38,510 metres of reverse circulation drilling in 177
holes and 5,154 metres of core drilling in 14 holes were completed at
El Chanate as part of the
-- Discovery of a new zone of mineralization south of the planned heap-leach pads with hole CHCI-568 intersecting 27.4 metres of 0.50 g/t gold -- The depth extensions of the presently-planned pit to the south and southeast have now been drilled off and results provide encouragement that the open pit may be extended further to the southeast and to a greater depth -- Exploration was initiated on targets to the northwest of the current pit and this work will continue in 2012
Recent drilling highlights include:
-- Hole CHCI-482, 70 metres grading 1.28 g/t gold (See Figure 4) -- Hole CHCI-491, 32 metres grading 0.96 g/t gold -- Hole CHCI-524, 51 metres grading 0.52 g/t gold (See Figure 5) -- Hole CHCI 602, 33.5 metres grading 0.33 g/t gold -- Hole CHCI 511, 45.7 metres grading 0.53 g/t gold
The 27,600 metre drilling program proposed for 2012 will primarily focus on trend to the northwest and southeast of the current pit as well as the newly discovered mineralization south of the planned heap leach pads.
El Cubo Exploration Highlights
During the year, the Company completed 15,790 metres of surface core
drilling in 61 diamond drill holes at
-- The main focus of the drilling program has been to step-out and fill-in on the Dolores Vein discovery made in 2009/2010. This is a combined vein / sheeted vein deposit typical of the style of mineralization mined in this district for the last several hundred years. -- The drilling has successfully delineated a 1,100 metre long deposit that has the potential to be mined underground or via an open pit that would include a lower grade envelope of mineralized material that appears to be amenable to heap leach processing. -- Drilling in the Villalpando Gap target area from surface has cut encouraging mineralization that exceeds current cut-off grades and has the potential to be mined from existing workings.
Recent drilling highlights include:
Villapondo Gap
-- Hole 577, 19.0 metres 1.04 g/t gold, 36 g/t silver, 1.68 g/t gold equivalent(2) -- Hole 586, 18.8 metres 1.5 g/t gold, 109 g/t silver, 3.49 g/t gold equivalent(2)
Dolores Capulin (See Figure 7)
-- Hole 587, 5.0 metres 1.72 g/t gold, 273 g/t silver, 6.69 g/t gold equivalent(2) -- Hole 589, 23.3 m 0.94 g/t gold, 46 g/t silver, 1.77 g/t gold equivalent(2)
The 46,600 metre surface and underground drilling program proposed for
2012 will primarily focus on three principal targets namely, Dolores-La
Loca, Cebolletes and
Other Exploration Projects
During 2011, the Company completed 29,040 metres of drilling at four
other projects in
"The Company begins 2012 with a high-quality portfolio of assets that
have significant exploration potential. Young
Quality Control - Analyses and Sample Location
Details of quality assurance/quality control procedures for sample
analysis and drill hole survey methodology are reported in detail in
the Canadian National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for
Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") compliant Technical Reports filed on
SEDAR (www.sedar.com) on
Qualified Persons
The program design, implementation, quality assurance/quality control
and interpretation of the results are under the control of AuRico's
geological staff, which includes a number of individuals who are
qualified persons as defined under NI 43-101.
About
Cautionary Statement
Certain statements included herein, including information as to the
future financial or operating performance of the Company, its
subsidiaries and its projects, constitute forward-looking statements.
The words ''believe'', ''expect'', ''anticipate'', ''target'',
''continue'', ''estimate'', ''may'', and similar expressions identify
forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, among
other things, statements regarding anticipated future financial and
operational performance, the ability to continue to fund expansion and
exploration operations through cash flows, the ability to realize the
perceived benefits of the acquisition of Northgate, the ability of
1. The Company acquired the Young-Davidson mine through its acquisition of Northgate Minerals Corporation on October 26, 2011. Drilling metres and drilling results reported in this press release are for the full year 2011. 2. Using the Company's long-term gold equivalency ratio of 55:1. 3. The Company acquired the El Chanate mine through its acquisition of Capital Gold Corporation on April 8, 2011. Drilling metres and drilling results reported in this press release are for the full year 2011.
SOURCE AuRico Gold Inc.
PDF with caption: "Figure 1:
PDF with caption: "Figure 2: Ocampo Plan Map". PDF available at: http://stream1.newswire.ca/media/2012/01/09/20120109_C2650_DOC_EN_8707.pdf
PDF with caption: "Figure 3: El Chanate 2011 Drilled Holes". PDF available at: http://stream1.newswire.ca/media/2012/01/09/20120109_C2650_DOC_EN_8708.pdf
PDF with caption: "Figure 4: Section NE33/03". PDF available at: http://stream1.newswire.ca/media/2012/01/09/20120109_C2650_DOC_EN_8709.pdf
PDF with caption: "Figure 5: Section NE33/31". PDF available at: http://stream1.newswire.ca/media/2012/01/09/20120109_C2650_DOC_EN_8710.pdf
PDF with caption: "Figure 6: Geology and Drill Hole Location Map from the Dolores - Capulin portion of the El Cubo Mine". PDF available at: http://stream1.newswire.ca/media/2012/01/09/20120109_C2650_DOC_EN_8713.pdf
PDF with caption: "Figure 7: El Cubo Section". PDF available at: http://stream1.newswire.ca/media/2012/01/09/20120109_C2650_DOC_EN_8712.pdf