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MONTREAL, CANADA–(Marketwire – April 12, 2012) – AMEX EXPLORATION INC (TSX VENTURE:AMX) (“The Company”) is pleased to announced the confirmation of an important large gold bearing polymetallic zone on its 100% owned Perron Gold project. Hole PE-2011-4, the last hole of a 4 drill hole campaign that was initiated late last year, intersected a wide zone of altered and mineralized felsic rhyolitic volcaniclastic unit that returned gold values of 0.41 g/t over 112.3 meters, including multiple higher gold grade sub-zones of up to 5.9 meters grading 2.4 g/t Au, including 2.5 meters at 4.54 g/t Au.
Analyzed diamond drill samples consist of half NQ-size diamond core split on site and transported to Laboratoire Expert Inc. facility in Rouyn-Noranda, Québec by the Amex technical staff. Samples are prepared by the laboratory and assayed for gold by 50g fire assay with Atomic absorption finish. (*= from sulfurized iron formations)
The gold grade seems to be directly associated with the presence of disseminated base metal sulfides, up to few percent mainly of sphalerite (zinc sulfide) and chalcopyrite (copper sulfide). (NB: silver and base metal analysis are pending).
The Perron gold project is located near the village of Normetal in the Abitibi region of Quebec (Figure 1). It consists of 108 adjacent claims for a total area of 4,260 hectares.Geologically, the project is located in the Archean Greenstone Belt of the Lac Supérieur structural province. The area is crossed by the regional NW-SE trending Normetal fault.This fault delineates a major structural corridor associated to massive sulphide deposits such as the nearby old polymetallic (Cu-Zn-Au-Ag) Normetal mine and the Zinc Normetmar deposit.
From 1994 to 1996, the Perron property was explored for base metals by Falconbridge Ltd and from 1996 to 2000 by Ressources Minières Coleraine (now Amex) for gold. During this period, Coleraine drilled a total of 90 holes for nearly 18,000 meters and identified multiple gold-rich bearing structures. From Coleraine’s work, gold mineralization on Perron has been identified in 3 main parallel zones ranging from 300 meters to more than 1 kilometer in strike length. These zones are located near the contact between rhyolite units to the north and altered andesite units to the south. These units are closely associated to the regional NW-SE structural corridor of the Archean greenstone belt.
In early 2009, Amex produced a compilation based on a new interpretation of the various mineralized zones encountered during the previous drilling and a 43-101 compliant resource calculation, done by Jacques Marchand. Qualified Person,on Zone 3, indicated a total of 1.2 million tonnes with a grade of 1.86 g/t Au for a total of 69,907 ounces of gold in the inferred mineral resources category. (Press Release of April 21, 2009).
The current phase of drilling had two main objectives: First, holes PE-11-01, 02,and 03 were drilled to test the western extensions of Zones 2 and 3. Hole PE-11-01 succesfully intersected Zone 3 at a depth of about 150 meters (12 g/t Au over 1.4 m) and Hole PE-11-02 intersected both Zone 2 (0.9 g/t Au over 0.7 m) and Zone 3 (1.4 g/t Au over 1.4 m). Hole PE-11-03, located at 200 meters to the west of Hole PE-11-02, did not encounter any significant mineralization. Second objective of this short campaign was to test at depth a totally different type of gold mineralization that was encountered in Hole PE-99-51 in 1999 (1,69 g/t Au, 14g/t Ag, 0,1% Cu and 0,6% Zn over 21,8m) and later described as a ”deformed volcanogenic precious metal bearing massive sulfide mineralization” ( M.Sc Thesis by A. Laberge, UQAM, 2002), located in the eastern sector at about 1 km to the east of Zone 3. For this, Hole PE-11-04 was drilled about 200 meters to the west of Hole PE-99-51 and intersected the same type of mineralization, but a lot more extensive as it is distributed over a core length of more than 100 meters compare to 20 meters in the later. As for, in hole PE-99-51, this polymetallic mineralization consist of disseminated sulfide (mainly pyrite with sphalerite and chalcopyrite) within an horizon of deformed polymictic felsic volcaniclastic unit associated with alteration minerals such as sericite, chlorite and silica. Also to be noted that centimeter size Mn-garnets are widely spread and associated with this mineralization. According to A. Laberge (UQAM these 2002), these garnets grains are showing some zoning from an outer shell, rich in iron, to a manganese rich center. These types of zoned Mn-garnets have been identified as characteristics of major deformed volcanogenic polymetallic gold mines of the Abitibi region such as Doyon, Bousquet, Dumagami and Laronde.
Although the final geochemical results for base metal and silver of Hole PE-11-04 are still pending, the company is very pleased with the present gold values. Jacques Trottier, PhD, President and CEO of Amex Exploration comments, “We are quite enthusiastic with the results so far. Not only we have been able to add some extensions to Zones 2 and 3 to its western limits, we have been able to confirmed by drilling the high potential of gold bearing polymetallic zone in the eastern part of the Perron gold system. This is changing dramatically the overall perspective of this property. Instead of having just ‘Deformed Gold bearing Quartz-vein systems (as in for Zones1 to 3), we now have a minerali8zed geological setting that open doors to a potential world class deposit”.
Once all the results are compiled, Amex management will elaborate the next phase of work to better follow up theses encouraging results.
Amex Exploration Inc. is a junior mining exploration company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange whose primary objective is to develop and bring into production viable gold and base metal deposits.
The technical information reported in this news release has been approved by Jacques Trottier, geol., Qualified Person as defined by Canadian NI 43-101
Forward-looking statements:
Except for statements of historical facts, all statements in this news release regarding, without limitation, new project acquisitions, future plans and objectives are forward-looking statements which involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate; Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
