Announcement • Jul 16
Alpha Exploration Ltd. Commences Drilling At Aburna Gold Project And Identifies New Targets
Alpha Exploration Ltd. started both core and reverse circulation drilling at its Aburna Gold Project. The Company plans approximately 6,500 metres of drilling in this fully funded 2026 phase one exploration campaign. This drilling is designed to expand the footprint of the shallow gold mineralization discovered by the Alpha team at the Hill 52, Central and Northeast prospects and test several high-priority targets within the Aburna corridor. The Aburna corridor is a tract of prospective terrain measuring some 7 by 2 kilometres defined by numerous gold-in-soil anomalies, shallow rotary air blast sampling results, compelling geological features interpreted to control the gold mineralization, and artisanal workings. The Aburna Gold Project is located within Alpha's 100% owned, 514 km² Kerkasha Project located in Eritrea. Alpha is also exploring the large target footprint Anagulu Copper-Gold Porphyry Project some 7 kilometres south of Aburna, with these projects being two of three significant discoveries made by the Alpha team on the Kerkasha licence. Fully funded exploration drilling has commenced at the Northeast Prospect and will continue during Third Quarter and Fourth Quarter at the Hill 52 and Central expansion target areas. In addition, seven new priority gold targets identified from shallow rotary air blast drilling results, gold-in-soil anomalies and updated geological interpretations will be drill tested. The initial 2026 Aburna drilling plans to deploy 60% of the metres on expansion of the existing prospect footprints, both along trend and to modest depths, and 40% testing compelling newly identified targets within the 7-kilometre long Aburna corridor. Regular batches of drilling results will be reported as they become available over the coming months. Based upon current data and interpretation these previously reported intercepts have estimated true widths ranging between 70% and 90% of the drilled intersections. The Aburna gold mineralization discovered by the Alpha team has numerous zones of high-grade gold mineralization. The mainly shallow drilling to date has returned 90% of the gold mineralization at depths of less than 120 metres below surface and these zones are largely open along trend. Therefore, valuable potential remains to expand the footprints of these prospects that will be tested during this phase of drilling. In addition, with only some 20% of the Aburna corridor area having seen significant drilling, Alpha Exploration Ltd. is excited to explore these seven newly defined target zones. These new targets have been generated by compiling results from previously reported gold-in-soil, and rotary air blast sampling in areas of transported soils, along with an updated geological interpretation of the Aburna gold system. Results from this drilling campaign will be reported in batches as they become available in the coming months. With the recently completed financing of approximately CAD 7.5 million, Alpha Exploration Ltd. is in a strong position to deliver increasing stakeholder value given positive exploration drilling results to further demonstrate the scale and grade potential of the Aburna Gold Project. The gold mineralization at the Aburna prospects crops out, with some 90% of the drilling delivering mineralized gold intercepts shallower than 120 metres. In addition, to date, only approximately 20% of the Aburna corridor, as defined by gold-in-soil anomalies, trenching, reconnaissance rotary air blast drilling in areas of transported soil, permissive geology and structure, has been tested by significant drilling. Some 60% of the planned new phase of drilling will be focused on expanding the existing prospects, with the remaining 40% testing the newly identified gold targets. Alpha's discovery and drilling of these three prospects has delivered a number of zones of high-grade gold mineralization, as indicated by selected intercepts such as: ABD012: 18 metres grading 15.33 grams per tonne gold, ABD001: 23 metres grading 6.74 grams per tonne gold, ABD013: 49 metres grading 2.75 grams per tonne gold, ABRD142: 29 metres grading 2.89 grams per tonne gold, ABR100: 20 metres grading 2.80 grams per tonne gold, ABRD105: 22 metres grading 1.70 grams per tonne gold, ABR064: 34 metres grading 1.50 grams per tonne gold, ABR037: 16 metres grading 14.10 grams per tonne gold, ABR044: 13 metres grading 4.20 grams per tonne gold and ABR092: 9 metres grading 10.00 grams per tonne gold. The Alpha team is building a revised interpretation of the distribution and orientation of the high-grade zones within the Aburna Project. The importance of oriented core measurements has been systematically emphasized. This next phase of drilling to expand the footprint of the gold mineralization along trend and to modest depths will also provide an improved framework of core drill holes to guide future exploration drilling and geological modelling. Alpha has compiled its exploration data sets and integrated them with the updated and improved geological interpretation of the Aburna gold system. This has resulted in the identification of seven new high-priority gold target zones within the larger scale Aburna corridor. The SW and EER targets relate primarily to areas of surface geochemistry or rotary air blast anomalies that are thought to represent potential along-trend and up-dip expressions of the Hill 52 mineralization. The FSW target is a gold-in-soil anomaly along trend from the broader Hill 52 mineralized structure. Both these targets are to be initially tested by reverse circulation drilling. The Obok target is characterised by an area of extensive artisanal gold workings, with observed outcrops of quartz vein material similar in texture and sulphide content to the three main Aburna prospects. This target also has a robust and extensive gold-in-soil anomaly similar in size and tenor to the Hill 52 prospect. Initial oriented core drilling is required at this target to determine vein and fabric geometry that will be compiled with outcrop mapping, along with the results from existing widely spaced reverse circulation drill holes. Rotary air blast drilling is also planned to test for possible extensions of the gold-in-soil anomaly into areas of mapped transported cover that potentially masks bedrock targets. The Perpendicular and Colonial targets are defined by artisanal workings and follow-up surface sampling and mapping by Alpha Exploration Ltd. The IP target zone is focused on an Induced Polarization chargeability anomaly thought to be associated with zones of pyrite observed in sporadic outcrops. Such pyrite zones and associated sulphides have a spatial association with certain areas of gold mineralization at the main Aburna prospects.
