TSX-V-listed Aton Resources has signed a contract with Energold Drilling to carry out a minimum of 4 250 m of diamond drilling at its Abu Marawat concession, in Egypt.

The drilling programme will be focused on the Rodruin and Hamama projects, with drilling expected to begin in September.

The programme will start at Rodruin with 3 350 m of drilling, with the objective of following up on the successful 2018 reverse circulation percussion drill programme, as well as testing, for the first time, the high-grade veins sampled at surface on the North Ridge, which returned assays of up to 321 g/t gold.

Drilling will also further test and delineate the distribution of the near-surface oxide mineralisation identified on the South Ridge, which returned intercepts including 36 m at 12.47 g/t gold and 20 m at 5.36 g/t gold.

The programme will also follow up on the deeper sulphide mineralisation which returned wide intersections including 61 m at 1.55 g/t gold, 8.9 g/t silver and 0.86% zinc.

The drilling programme at Hamama will consist of 900 m of drilling with the objective of delineating additional oxide and transitional resources at the Hamama East and Central areas, which have not been effectively drill tested to date.

Channel sampling of surface trenches has indicated the potential for relatively high-grade oxide mineralisation and has returned intercepts including 84 m at 1.13 g/t gold, 49.7 g/t silver and 7.29% zinc and 42.8 m at 1.28 g/t gold, 55.5 g/t silver and 10.37% zinc.

“We are pleased to announce the upcoming drilling programmes at the promising Rodruin and Hamama projects as we embark on an aggressive exploration strategy to unlock value from our Abu Marawat concession area.

“We have recently reopened our Hamama camp and will initiate construction shortly of a new exploration camp at Rodruin that will be more centrally located within our concession and serve as the main base going forward for exploration on other high priority regional targets,” Aton interim CEO and board chairperson Bill Koutsouras says.