Australian resources company Avalon Minerals Limited is pleased to announce that the two most prospective copper-gold regional exploration prospects, Tjarro and Tjavelk, on the Viscaria Project in northern Sweden have been advanced to drill ready status. The results from a helicopter electromagnetic/magnetic survey of the regional exploration tenements, completed in mid-2012, have been modelled in 3D and drill holes have been planned to test the source of the combined EM/magnetic anomalies. These drill holes will be completed in late March-April this year, following consultation with stakeholders and approval of the drill program by the various Swedish regulatory bodies.

The aim of this drill program is to intersect new bodies of copper-gold or copper-magnetite mineralisation, with priority given to prospects that could possibly be mined and trucked to the processing plant Avalon is planning to build at the A Zone and D Zone prospects in the south-west corner of its Viscaria Project tenement package. The Company’s Managing Director Mr Jeremy Read said, “The Tjarro and Tjavelk targets generated from the Heli-EM/Mag survey data are high quality regional exploration targets being coherent and coincident electromagnetic and magnetic anomalies which are very clearly anomalous from the surrounding geology.”

“The coincidence of the magnetic and EM anomalies with highly anomalous copper and gold surface geochemistry and historic drilling results adds to their prospectivity and is extremely encouraging. This has been the result of three years of successful exploration work which we remain very excited about and has significant potential”, said Mr Read.

Tjarro Prospect
The Tjarro Prospect was first selected for exploration because of the excellent historic drilling results obtained from this area. Historic drill holes from Tjarro intersected 15m of 1.3% Cu from 80m, including 8m @ 1.7% Cu; 17m @ 1% Cu, including 7m @ 1.4% Cu; and 34.45m @ 0.6% Cu & 0.4g/t Au from 85.15m, including 3.6m @ 1.6% Cu & 1.2g/t Au. These results indicate that this area contains significant amounts of high grade copper and gold mineralisation at shallow depths. The recent Heli EM/Mag survey data from the Tjarro area shows several significant zones of conductivity that strike north-south over 2000 metres. The 3D modelling of the EM and magnetic data indicates that the shallow historic drilling did not intersect the dominant EM conductor. Therefore, it appears that the EM conductor has not yet been drill tested, despite it being associated with highly anomalous copper and gold.

Tjavelk Prospect
The Tjavelk Prospect was first selected as an exploration target because of the excellent historic surface geochemistry and drilling results obtained from this area. Surface rock chip samples taken in the vicinity of the Tjavelk prospect returned 12.4% Cu, 6.8% Cu, 6.3% Cu, 5.6% Cu and 1.2% Cu and gold values of 3.1g/t Au, 3.7g/t Au, 1.8g/t Au, 1.3g/t Au and <0.01% Au. Historic drilling intersected 34m @ 39.4% Fe and 0.2% Cu from 50m and 39m @ 38.4% Fe and 0.1% Cu from 135m. The assays from these holes indicate that mineralisation similar to the thick copper-iron mineralisation that Avalon is currently drilling at the D Zone Prospect, was intersected at Tjavelk, but not systematically followed up. Possibly, the Tjavelk area is analogous to Avalon’s D Zone Prospect.

The Heli EM/Mag survey data from the Tjavelk area shows two significant zones of conductivity at the Tjavelk and Lulip Borri prospects. The conductor at the Tjavelk prospect strikes east-west, while the conductor at the Lulip Borri prospect strikes north-south. Both anomalies are about 2000 metres in strike length however, the EM anomaly at the Tjavelk prospect is the stronger conductor, is coincident with a significant magnetic anomaly and is associated with excellent historic geochemistry and drilling results indicating that it is the most prospective.

Modelling of the EM data from the Tjavelk prospect suggests that the EM conductor dips to the north and plunges to the west and that it is coincident with the source of a strong magnetic anomaly. The source of the magnetic anomaly appears to be near surface and has been drill tested with the two historical drill holes returning 38-39% Fe. However, the EM conductor occurs below 100 metres depth and appears not to have been tested by two drill holes drilled to the east of the drill holes which tested the near surface source of the magnetic anomaly. Therefore, it appears that the EM conductor has not yet been drill tested and this EM conductor will be the target of Avalon’s drilling.