Argonaut may have an interesting property, but they essentially have no money. Without the money to run a proper exploration program they can’t really show any results. And without results it’s hard to attract money. Even with results it’s incredibly hard to attract money in this market.
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CALGARY, ALBERTA–(Marketwired – Aug. 29, 2014) – Argonaut Exploration Inc. (TSX VENTURE:AGA) (“Argonaut” or “the Company”) releases 2014 sample results. Argonaut Exploration Inc. investigates untested gold mineralization at surface on the Company’s Columario Gold Mine property. Several samples were collected by company personnel in late summer, 2014 from different locations including sulphide-bearing quartz vein sub-outcrop samples from the historic Valhalla vein, loose sulphide-bearing quartz vein talus from the upper mine road fill and a 17.4 kilogram bulk soil sample collected from an upper mine road cross-trench with approximate dimensions 3.66 meters (m) long by 12.7 centimeters (cm) wide by 7.6 cm deep. The results are presented in Tables 1 and 2.
[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]Argonaut Exploration is a junior company based that has been actively exploring in British Columbia, Canada since 2009. This release discusses the collection and assay of rock, talus and soil from it’s Columario Gold Mine property. Talus is a geological term applied to loose rock and sediment that pile along a slope.
This isn’t the first time we’ve reported about junior miner’s acquiring old mines with the hopes of bringing new life to them. Companies continue to explore for economic mineralization in old tailings, mined out stopes and in this case mined and unprocessed muck near portals. Muck is the term used to describe rock that has been blasted and broken up in a mine. In an active mine, the this material is removed by “mucking” the blasted rock face.[/box]
Argonaut has commenced testing through sample analysis the hypothesis that mined and unprocessed mineralized quartz vein muck was deposited in front of the tunnel portals during the mine tunnel development period from 1927 to 1933. This period of development was prior to the building of the mine’s 100 ton per day flotation mill in 1934 (British Columbia ARIS Assessment report 17551).
Based on the sample results and with further verification, it is increasingly apparent that Argonaut’s upper mine road switchbacks that access five mine tunnels may potentially be located on a mixture of talus and non-transported ore muck.
TABLE 1: 2014 COLUMARIO MINE ROAD SAMPLES
| Sample Number |
Sample Type | Location | Vein | Elevation (m) |
Width (m) |
Gold (g/t) |
Silver (g/t) |
| Val07-14 | Sub-outcrop | Valhalla tunnel Haulage mine road |
1 | 562 | grab | 65.9 | 16.5 |
| Ad107-14 | Talus quartz float aggregate | Adit 1 Haulage mine road |
– | 564 | grab | 39.5 | 112.0 |
[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]The rock samples collected yielded high gold and silver results, however only two samples are being reported. It’s difficult to collect representative samples from a rock pile since the eye is naturally drawn to the most prospective looking rocks. It’s very likely that someone sent to collect rocks from a pile will collect the rocks that look the most interesting and not necessarily those representative of the larger sample. Collecting a random assortment of rocks can sometimes be useful, but even then the result may not be representative. The best way to assess a large sample of loose rock is to collect and assay a large bulk sample weighing several tonnes and collected from various point along the sample area.[/box]
TABLE 2: 2014 COLUMARIO MINE ROAD – TRENCH BULK SOIL SAMPLE R1
| Sample R1 (Elevation 615 m) Description |
Sample Weight (kg) |
Sample •Mesh Size |
% By Weight |
Gold (g/t) |
Silver (g/t) |
| Total | 17.46 | All | 100 | *partly analyzed | *partly analyzed |
| Dry Sieved | 14.51 | * > 4 | 83.1 | *not analyzed | *not analyzed |
| Dry Sieved | 1.22 | 4 to 12 | 7.0 | 1.22 | 4.5 |
| Dry Sieved | 1.73 | < 12 | 9.9 | 8.73 | 20.2 |
| Tabled washed Concentrate | 1.33 | < 12 | 82.3 | 7.53 | 23 |
| Tabled washed Middling | 0.17 | < 12 | 10.7 | 9.00 | not analyzed |
| Tabled washed Tails | 0.11 | < 12 | 7.0 | 22.40 | not analyzed |
| • Mesh size indicates the number of equal sized square holes in a square inch. A standard sieve scale. |
| * Unknown visible amounts of > 4 mesh to gravel sized gold and silver bearing vein fragments are present in the upper switchback mine road fill as indicated by Table 1 sample Ad 07-14. |
[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]
The “bulk” soil sample weighed only 17.46 kg (~38.5 lbs) and can’t really be considered representative of the larger road fill area, but it does indicate that there is some anomalous gold in the sample.
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Argonaut’s prior Columario mine area sample program was conducted in 2011 with some of the results summarized below in Table 3. The prior results were news released on October 24th, 2011 and are posted on the Company’s website and SEDAR. The Columario mine is located on veins 4, 5 and 6 (Dakota vein) with the Valhalla vein, vein 7, Tenderfoot, Victor and several other veins peripheral to the mine workings.
TABLE 3. 2011 COLUMARIO MINE: SIGNIFICANT ROAD VEIN CHANNEL SAMPLES
| Sample Number |
Sample Type | Location (West to East) |
Vein | Elevation (m) |
Width (m) |
Gold (g/t) |
Silver (g/t) |
| G0750891 | chip/channel | Adit 5, Site 1 | 4 | 655 | 0.7 | 37.0 | 103.0 |
| G0750898 + G0750899 | chip/channel | Adit 4, Site 1 | 4 | 630 | 1.25 | 10.6 | 28.1 |
[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ] An adit is a horizontal passageway into a mine. Small chip samples from the adit also show anomalous gold.
The three small samples have yielded some anomalous gold and silver, but we already knew that. Previous chip sampling on the property has already shown that there is gold and silver and a small diamond drilling program in 2011 intersected some narrow veins that weren’t particularly exciting, but worth follow-up. In the end there is no real news here, but it did give us the opportunity to discuss a few mining related terms and perhaps highlight the peril of so many small juniors in this market. Argonaut may have an interesting property, but they essentially have no money. Without the money to run a proper exploration program they can’t really show any results. And without results it’s hard to attract money. Even with results it’s incredibly hard to attract money in this market. So what do you do? Grab a few more chip samples, send out a news release and pray that someone notices.
Argonaut Exploration is trading at $0.01.[/box]
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