Tonno Vahk, CEO of Aton Resources (TSXV:AAN), joined Sonia Madigan from The Market Herald to discuss the latest results of their diamond drilling program.
The Rodruin gold exploration project is their key target. It’s within the company’s 100 per cent owned Abu Marawat Concession in the Eastern Desert of Egypt. There are ten high-profile targets in the area.
The results include 88m 5.8 g/t of gold and very high numbers of silver and zinc. They’re looking to get 43-101 more together by the beginning of next year.
The company is applying for mining licenses to further explore Rodruin and Hamama.
They’ve gone through 5k m at Rodruin with three more kilometres planned. Meanwhile, 5km drilling is expected to upgrade resources at Hamama. A top exploration camp in the Egyptian desert. The current challenge is two drill programs which are in parallel. Drilling is expected to end around August/September.
Their advantage now is the Sukari mine owned by Centamin. It’s the only operating gold mine in Egypt and is top fifteen in the world with 0.5M gold ounces per year.
Aton lies a few hundred kilometres away which makes them well positioned to build something comparable.
The project is located at the Arabian Nubian Shield, one of the world’s least explored gold exploration areas. They also have a good relationship with the Egyptian government, prioritizing the mining sector. They’re aiming for a 10x mining share of GDP.
All in all, they’ve invested $35M in Egypt and drilled 45k m so far. They’re finally close to bearing fruit and starting to generate cash flow. Egypt is very favourable to gold mining because of the desert and no environmental issues.
Aton has very good access to infrastructure, low-cost exploration and the falling gold price is not much of an issue to economical production.