Australian resources company Avalon Minerals Limited is pleased to announce the assay results for the first five drill holes from the D Zone Prospect, of the current drill program, on the Viscaria Copper Project  in northern Sweden. This drill program will comprise approximately 25,000 metres of drilling, with the objective of extending the known Mineral Resources at the A and D Zone prospects and delivering on the potential increases to the project Net Present Value outlined in the Scoping Study. The Company’s Managing Director Mr Jeremy Read said, “Drill results like 13.4m @ 2.0% CuEq*, including 6.1m @ 2.5% CuEq* from VDD0133 and 5.7m @ 2% CuEq from VDD0134 are extremely encouraging and indicate on these sections the copper grades are increasing with depth.”

“All drill holes completed to date have intersected mineralised intervals from 12 metres to 58.5 metres down hole thickness and within these broad intervals, zones of high-grade copper occur. The results from these first five drill holes have extended the known mineralisation at least 30 metres further down dip and are consistent with previous drilling results in these areas.” “These initial results indicate that there is excellent potential for the D Zone Mineral Resource to be extended at depth and hence deliver on the first Development Case for Viscaria as outlined in the Scoping Study announced last October,” he added.

D Zone Prospect Extensional Drill Program
The objective of the D Zone Extensional Drill program is to fully define the copper-iron mineralisation, as the mineralisation is currently open along strike and at depth. Fully defining the mineralisation will allow optimisations to be completed on an expanded Mineral Resource, which will estimate the proportions of the D Zone mineralisation which will be able to be extracted using open pit and also potentially underground, mining methods. The Viscaria Project Scoping Study showed that extending the D Zone Mineral Resource 300 metres along strike and 35 metres down dip, will add US$50M to the NPV of the D Zone Mineral Resource. Demonstrating that D Zone has the potential to be mined economically, using underground methods, has the potential to add a further US$28M to the NPV of D Zone.

The results from the drill holes announced today indicate that on the sections containing drill holes VDD0133 and VDD0137, the grade of the mineralisation is increasing at depth (Figure 2). These two holes exceeded expectations due to the occurrence of mineralisation grading in excess of 2% CuEq* over potentially mineable widths. Broad zones of copper-iron mineralisation were intersected in holes VDD0130, VDD0134 and VDD0136, which were similar in terms of the grade and thickness of the copper-iron mineralisation previously intersected on the sections containing these drill holes. Consequently, the drill
results from these holes met expectations.

VDD0133: Central D Zone

Drill hole VDD0133 intersected 13.4m @ 2.0% CuEq*, including a very high grade interval of 6.1m @ 2.5% CuEq*. This drill hole extended the known mineralisation from previous Avalon drill holes VDD0110, VDD0063, VDD0089, VDD0090 and VDD0106 by approximately 50 metres down dip and therefore, could potentially result in a significant increase of the D Zone Mineral Resource. By comparing the previous drill hole intersections from top to bottom and then VDD0130, it is apparent that the copper grade is increasing with depth in this area. This observation is common throughout the D Zone Prospect and often the thickness and/or copper grade of this mineralisation zone continues to increase with depth. The results of the previously announced Viscaria Project Scoping Study indicate that the high copper grades in this area could potentially be economically mined by underground methods (Development Case C), especially if the copper grade continues to increase with depth.

VDD0130: Northeastern D Zone

Drill hole VDD0130 intersected 35.9m @ 0.5% CuEq* and 12.1m @ 0.3% Cu. The upper mineralised intersection extended the known mineralisation from previous Avalon drill holes VDD0114, VDD0088 and VDD0085 by approximately 30 metres down dip and therefore, could potentially result in an increase of the D Zone Mineral Resource. The results of the previously announced Viscaria Project Scoping Study indicate that this broad, shallow mineralised intersection has the scope to increase the tonnes of mineralisation which could be extractable using open pit methods at D Zone (Development Case A). The second intersection in VDD0130 is a newly discovered mineralisation zone that needs to be followed up with further drilling, in order to understand if it increases in copper grade laterally or vertically.

VDD0136: Northeastern D Zone

Drill hole VDD0136 was drilled 100 metres to the northeast of VDD0130 and intersected 56m @ 0.5% CuEq* from only 38 metres down hole. This drill hole extended the known mineralisation from previous Avalon drill holes VDD0077 and VDD0075 by approximately 30 metres down dip and therefore, could potentially result in an increase of the D Zone Mineral Resource. Also, the results of the previously announced Viscaria Project Scoping Study indicate that this broad, shallow mineralised intersection has the potential to increase the tonnes of mineralisation which could be extractable using open pit methods at
D Zone (Development Case A).

VDD0137: Northeastern D Zone

Drill hole VDD0137 was drilled under VDD0136 and intersected 58.5m @ 0.5% CuEq* including a high-grade interval of 3.5m @ 2.2% CuEq*. This drill hole extends the known mineralisation from VDD0136 by approximately 30 metres down dip and therefore, could potentially result in an increase of the D Zone Mineral Resource. Also, the results of the previously announced Viscaria Project Scoping Study indicate that this broad, shallow mineralised intersection has the potential to increase the tonnes of mineralisation which could be extractable using open pit methods at D Zone (Development Case A).

What is also apparent from the drilling results shown on this section (Figure 5) is that high grade copper appears to be starting to accumulate on the footwall side of the mineralisation zone at depth. This observation is common throughout the D Zone Prospect and often the thickness and/or copper grade of this mineralisation zone continues to increase with depth.

VDD0134: Northeastern D Zone

Drill hole VDD0134 was drilled 50 metres to the northeast of VDD0136 and VDD0137, and intersected 12m @ 1.1% CuEq*, including a high-grade interval of 5.7m @ 2.0% CuEq*. This drill hole extended the known mineralisation from previous Avalon drill holes VDD0062, VDD0068 and VDD0060 by approximately 30 metres down dip and therefore, could potentially result in an increase of the D Zone Mineral Resource. Also, the results of the previously announced Viscaria Project Scoping Study indicate that the thickness and grade of this relatively shallow mineralised intersection has the potential to increase the tonnes of mineralisation, which could be extractable using open pit methods at D Zone (Development Case A).

Similar to the previous section 50 metres to the southwest, the drilling results shown on this section also indicate that high-grade copper is accumulating on the footwall side of the mineralisation zone at depth. On this section, the copper grade of this mineralisation zone increases with depth from 6m @ 1.6% CuEq* in VDD0062 to 5.72m @ 2% CuEq* in VDD0134. Drilling is continuing and further geochemical results should be available with the next two weeks.