TSX-V-listed gold explorer Aton Resources has requested and been granted a six-month force majeure compensation period, under the provisions of the Abu Marawat Concession Agreement (CAAM), which will be added to the final exploration period of its current exploration licence at Abu Marawat, in Egypt.

This will allow Aton to complete the maiden mineral resource estimate (MRE) at the Rodruin deposit, as well as to update the existing Hamama West MRE, as it works towards the submission of commercial discoveries at both the Rodruin and Hamama West deposits, in support of the transition to an exploitation licence at the concession.

“We are very pleased to announce that this extra time has been added to the term of the Abu Marawat exploration licence, primarily to make up for time unavoidably lost during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We wish to thank the Egyptian Mineral Resources Authority (EMRA) and the Ministry of Petroleum (MoP) in Egypt for their continuous support and their assistance in making this happen,” says interim CEO Tonno Vahk.

“We will complete the diamond drilling at Rodruin within the next fortnight, where we have now drilled well over double the originally planned number of metres. Work is already well under way on the revision of the Hamama West MRE, following the completion of the reverse circulation drilling there at the end of August, and we will start working on the Rodruin maiden MRE immediately on receiving the final assays from the drilling programme in early 2023,” he points out.

Vahk says that the new MREs at both Rodruin and Hamama West will provide the basis for the definition of commercial discoveries at both projects, which under the provisions of the CAAM, will allow the company to transition to the exploitation licence at Abu Marawat.

“We continue to work closely with the EMRA and the MoP, and plan to submit the application for the exploitation licence in quarter three 2023. The extra time we have been granted will also allow us to continue our ongoing exploration on the concession as a whole, and we plan to start drilling several of our highly prospective regional targets during 2023, including Abu Gaharish, Semna and our recent new discovery at West Garida.

“Next year is really shaping up to be a very significant year for Aton Resources, and also for our partners at the EMRA and the MoP, as we plan to move forwards to the Abu Marawat mining licence, and advancing the development of the first gold mine on the Abu Marawat Concession at Hamama West,” Vahk says.