Atna Extends Gold Mineralization at Cecil R Project
GOLDEN, CO - Atna Resources Ltd. Reported that recently completed drilling at the Cecil R project located four miles north of the Briggs Mine, in Inyo County, California, has significantly extended the known zone of gold mineralization. The drilling program included 8,070 feet of reverse circulation rotary drilling in 23 drill holes designed to expand the known mineralized zone to the south and increase drill hole density in the main area of gold mineralization. The program successfully extended mineralization 700 feet to the south and defined the western and eastern limits of the mineralization within the known mineral horizon.
Gold mineralization at Cecil R has been intercepted in a total of 94 drill holes totaling 21,956 feet distributed over an area 2,000 feet (north-south) by 1,000-1,200 feet (east-west). The mineralization is located directly beneath Quaternary alluvial cover and is hosted along an iron oxide-rich, gently dipping zone within strongly weathered quartz-muscovite-feldspar gneiss and amphibolite. The zone's thickness is variable, ranging in thickness from 10 feet to over 100 feet and occasionally several subparallel zones are present. Within the principal zone of mineralization there are 647 drill samples grading over 0.01 ounce per ton gold, representing 3,214 lineal feet of drilling, which have an average grade of 0.028 ounce per ton gold. This compares to the average grade of proven and probable reserve at the nearby Briggs Mine of 0.021 ounce per ton gold.
The Cecil R project is being evaluated as a satellite project to the Briggs Mine where Atna will begin gold production in the second quarter of 2009. The work completed in this program and the data from previous drilling is being compiled and is anticipated to provide sufficient information to allow the first NI 43-101 compliant resource calculation for the property to be completed during the summer of 2009.
Atna's President and CEO, James Hesketh, states, "We are encouraged by these new assay results and expansion of the mineralized zone at Cecil R. The Cecil R project may allow us to add additional years of operating life in the Briggs Mine district should an economic reserve be developed at Cecil R. The project should benefit from the close proximity of the Briggs Mine infrastructure, management, and staff. Cecil R will require stand-alone permitting under existing regulations in
The company’s address is
303-278-8464, fax: 303-279-3772.