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Aguila American Gold starts drilling at Angostura project

Published: 15:11 25 Oct 2012 BST

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Vancouver-based Aguila American Gold (CVE:AGL) says that drilling has now started at its Angostura gold project in southern Peru. The aim of the program is to produce an NI 43-101 compliant resource by the second quarter of next year.

In preparation for the campaign, the drill camp has been completed, along with 7 drill pads of the 20 permitted. The company is using a custom built, mid-sized, man-portable diamond drill capable of delivering a larger-diameter drill core.

Aguila said its crews will be drilling 2x12 hour shifts per day until the Christmas break, with initial drilling focused on zones 1 and 2 of the more than 5.0 kilometres of mapped strike length. 

These zones are the main oxide gold-bearing areas on the property, and the company said they are considered to be the highest priority targets, with an outcrop of oxide mineralization for over 400 metres. 

The zones have been tested for gold mineralization through mapping, sampling, trenching and channel sampling in various campaigns, as well as through the evaluation of a multitude of artisanal workings, the company said. 

In May, the gold miner reported that sampling of workings returned highs of up to 33.9 grams per tonne (g/t) gold over 1 metre, with a weighted average of 11.4 g/t gold over 9.2 metres, for selective channel sampling at various intervals along 29 metres in length. 

Previously reported trenching results for the area include 75 metres of sampling at an average grade of 3.64 g/t gold. 

Aguila said the target and mineralization begins at surface and is believed to be open along strike and at depth.

The first drill hole is designed to test the true width of oxide zone 2 at depth. The company said the potential depth of the zone of oxide mineralization is believed to be in the range of 600 metres from oxide samples taken one kilometre east of the zone, at close to 4000 metres to mine workings in the valley 400 metres east of the zone. 

Aguila American also said Thursday that it has received the final copy of the geophysical report, detailing what it called "very encouraging" results from magnetics and polarization surveys. The report will be used to select more drill targets for the current program and to help prioritize targets for the next phase of drilling. 

Angostura holds eight titled concessions consisting of 8,644 hectares. The low temperature gold mineralization is associated with a halo of iron carbonate alteration, the company noted, and is up to 80 metres wide with an average width of 45 metres. 

The property is located in a prolific mineral trend, approximately 25 kilometres from the Las Bambas Mine, a $4.5 billion mining project being developed by Xstrata Mining.

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