Exploration Program Commences at LongCanyon and West Pequop

 

VANCOUVER, BC - AuEx Ventures, Inc. reported that core and reverse circulation drilling has commenced at both the Long Canyon and West Pequop Joint Ventures located in the Pequop Gold District in Elko County, Nevada. Long Canyon is a joint venture with Fronteer Development Group Inc. who owns 51% and is operator. West Pequop is a joint venture with Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited who owns 51% and is operator.

The 2009 exploration program for the Long Canyon joint venture will consist of approximately 115,000 feet of reverse circulation and core drilling totaling about US$10 million funded 51% by Fronteer and 49% by AuEx. The program is designed to increase the confidence level in the known gold mineralization by conducting infill drilling in selected areas and to discover new gold mineralization on the 12,000 acre property. The program will include drilling to the northeast where drilled mineralization remains open and to the southwest of the known mineralization where 450 meters of surficial gold values remain untested. In addition, drilling will be conducted on new exploration targets developed from surface geological mapping and geophysics. One reverse circulation and 2 core rigs are on the property with a third core rig expected by mid-month. Drilling will be ongoing throughout the next several months. Other work comprising the balance of the US$14.1 budget at Long Canyon during 2009 will include metallurgical studies to begin assessing potential processing options, preliminary engineering evaluation, environmental studies and economics of the deposit.

The 2009 exploration program for the West Pequop joint venture will consist of approximately 33,000 feet of both core and reverse circulation drilling totaling over $4.0 million funded by Agnico-Eagle. This program is designed to expand gold mineralization found at the Mountain Top, Section 34 and Acrobat areas and to discover new gold mineralization in other areas identified by surface sampling and geological mapping. One core rig and one reverse circulation drill rig are active on the property with drilling expected to be ongoing throughout the next several months on the 29,000 acres controlled by the venture.

Commenting on the 2009 program for the Pequop Gold District, Ronald L. Parratt, President & CEO states, "2009 will be the most exciting year yet for Pequop with close to $20 million in planned expenditures. We're confident that the known gold deposits will be expanded and that new zones of gold mineralization will be found. It's still early in the discovery history of the Pequop District."

AuEx Ventures has a current portfolio of twenty one exploration projects in Nevada, two projects in Argentina and one project in Spain. The Company controls about 80,000 acres of unpatented claims and fee land in prospective areas of Nevada. Eleven of the projects are in exploration earn-in or formal joint venture agreements with five companies who provide exploration funding.

The company’s address is 940 Matley Lane, Suite 17, Reno, NV 89502, 775-337-1545, fax: 775-337-1542, email: [email protected].