Ashley Gold Corp. updated shareholders on the fall drill program on Tabor and exploration program on Howie. A slight travel delay has the program slated to start this weekend. Pads are in place and the drill crew is on standby. Sampling crew is onsite at Howie for grab and channel samples across multiple mineralized occurrences. Drilling will be completed in multiple holes near the Tabor historical workings. The objective of this program is to
confirm the mineralization reported by historical operators in the 1930's to 50's. Additionally, the new information from core will be used to better understand structure of the system to direct follow up drilling and exploration plans.
Pad locations were chosen to optimize time drilling and to test the known mineralization at multiple levels above, between, and below the historical workings. North Pad 1 is located to the east of the shaft and will be used to test the mineralization and structure between the 125ft and 250ft shaft levels. A hole will be extended to the northeast to confirm an interpreted north-south fault that is thought to offset the Quartz Feldspar Porphyry (QFP). Structural measurements will be taken to understand mineralization and any offset of veins. North Pad 2 is located west of the shaft and will be used to test the shallow potential above the 125ft level. Historically, a surface bulk sample of 77 tons was obtained yielding an average of 17 g/t Au. No drilling has occurred in this shallow section to date, so it will be an important data point for understanding the mineralization near surface. South Pad 1 is located southwest of the shaft and will be used to test mineralization and structure below the 250ft level. #8 DDH drilled in 1958 intersected additional parallel gold bearing veins with excellent historical assays of 838 g/t Au over 1m and 60 g/t Au over 1m. It is intent to confirm these parallel veins from the South Pad. The acquisition of modern drill data will provide the following: Historic drilling is from the 50's to 80's and most data including core is missing; historical assays are non-compliant to modern NI-43-101 standards Testing extent of `known' mineralization both in the veins as well as adjacent "Wall Rock" Core measurements necessary for an in-depth structural understanding Mineralogical analysis to determine paragenesis of veining, mineralization, and structural movements Data will be used to refine geological and structural model and plan upcoming exploration programs The upcoming surface program will include channel sampling some of the known mineralized zones where historical data is missing and to prospect over areas of elevated gold soil anomalies across the large property. The results of this program will help determine future geophysical and exploration programs up to and including drilling. An overview of the Howie property follows. The Howie Property is located adjacent to Dynasty Gold's Thundercloud property and about 3km from their Pelham Deposit. Dynasty is currently drilling with results anticipated shortly. Gold emplacement on both properties is thought to be related to the Thundercloud porphyry which is located between the Pelham deposit and the known mineralization on the Howie Property. Figure 1 shows a composite of soil grids (triangles) obtained by previous operators with anomalies above 5 ppb Au highlighted on the map. Anomalous readings outside of the known mineralization are seen across the property with a linear north-south trend south of the Figure 3 Inset that coincides with a series of shears mapped by Esso in the late 1980's. Additional anomalous zones are seen in the northeast of the Howie property as well as proximally to the Thundercloud property on the western boundary. Focused exploration on these `Greenfield' targets will commence in September with prospecting and sampling. The Howie Property has several known historical mineralized zones sampled at surface and, in some cases, drilled. Generally, the mineralization is structurally controlled within or adjacent to shear zones. Thundercloud- type porphyry intrusive dykes have been identified at surface and in drill holes. Esso performed two drilling campaigns in 1986 and 1987 before they exited the mineral exploration space and focused on oil and gas production. Year-round access is excellent with a main forest service road running through many of the mineralized zones. Figure 2 shows the location of the known mineralized zones. The Qualified Person responsible for the technical content of this press release is Shannon Baird, P.Geo, Exploration Manager of Ashley Gold Corp.