TORONTO, June 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Avidian Gold Corp. (TSXV:AVG) (the “Corporation” or “Avidian”) is pleased to report that the 2018 drilling program has commenced at its 100% owned Golden Zone Project. The drilling program will initially focus on following up on the significant intercepts and “New Discoveries” from the 2017 drilling program.

Highlights from the 2017 program include:

1. 2017 drill intersections in and within the immediate vicinity of the Breccia Pipe Deposit include:

• 67 m of 4.93 g/t Au (sulphide breccia)
• 70.6 m of 2.03 g/t Au (silica breccia)
• 28 m of 2.19 g/t Au (sulphide breccia)
• 50 m of 0.73 g/t Au (host monzodiorite intrusive)
• 64 m of 0.65 g/t Au (BLT shear zone)
  

2. The latter two intersections occur outside the presently defined Breccia Pipe Deposit mineral resource that currently hosts an Indicated gold resource of 267,400 ounces plus an Inferred gold resource of 35,900 ounces (see below for details), which is exposed on surface and is open at depth and along strike.

3. 2017 drilling discovered a previously unknown mineralized conglomeratic unit approximately 300 m northeast of the Breccia Pipe Deposit; this unit returned 21.6 m of 1.46 g/t Au, is open in all directions and represents a new mineralized stratigraphic target.

4. A 2017 drill hole at the Riverside occurrence returned multiple intercepts of > 1 g/t Au along with 3.4 m of 4.23 g/t Au (including 1.0 m of 12.2 g/t Au) associated with a quartz feldspar porphyry that can be traced over 1 km in length that has had minimal drill testing.

In addition to the above start-up phase, the 2018 drilling program will also commence testing the 8 km long gold mineralization trend on the property with a focus in the areas where surface sampling, trenching and drilling uncovered high-grade gold occurrences of > 4 g/t Au to > 25 g/t Au plus Ag ± base metals;

Drilling is planned to commence at the Copper King prospect in mid-July where historical:

1. Drilling returned 8 meters of 4.9 g/t Au + 77 g/t Au + 3.5% Cu; and

2. Trenching returned 14 meters of 7.0 g/t Au + 94 g/t Ag + 4.0% Cu; and where

3. Avidian grab sampling returned up to 6.9 g/t Au, 192 g/t Ag, 9.5% Cu, 0.7% Pb and 7.2% Zn.

The technical information contained in this news release has been approved by Dr. Tom Setterfield, P.Geo., VP Exploration of Avidian who is a Qualified Persons as defined in "National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.”

Historical assays mentioned herein have been verified through a review of assay certificates and field data, but may have not all been necessarily resampled by the Corporation. It should be noted that, due to their selective nature, assay results from grab samples may not be representative of the mineralization hosted on the property.

About Avidian Gold

The Corporation is an exploration and development company whose primary business interest is in four advanced gold properties located in the USA: the Golden Zone and Amanita properties, situated in south–central Alaska, and the Jungo and Dome Hill properties located in Nevada, each held 100% by the Corporation.  The Golden Zone property hosts a NI 43-101 (2017) Indicated gold resource of 267,400 ounces (4,187,000 tonnes at 1.99 g/t Au) plus an Inferred gold resource of 35,900 ounces (1,353,000 tonnes at 0.83 g/t Au).  The deposit is exposed on surface and is open at depth and along strike.  Avidian also holds a 100% interest in the Strickland massive sulphide property located in Newfoundland, Canada.

Further detailed information on the Golden Zone can be found in the Technical report dated August 17, 2017 prepared by Leon McGarry, B.Sc., P.Geo and Ian  D. Trinder, M.Sc., P.Geo (the “Technical Report”) that has been posted on SEDAR.

Further details on the Corporation and the individual projects can be found on the Corporation’s website at www.avidiangold.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

James Polson,
CEO
Tel. +1 (647) 283 7600

The TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulations Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Forward-Looking Statements: This News Release includes certain "forward-looking statements" which are not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking statements include estimates and statements that describe the Corporation’s future plans, objectives or goals, including words to the effect that the Corporation or management expects a stated condition or result to occur. Forward-looking statements may be identified by such terms as “believes”, “anticipates”, “expects”, “estimates”, “may”, “could”, “would”, “will”, or “plan”. Since forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Although these statements are based on information currently available to the Corporation, the Corporation provides no assurance that actual results will meet management’s expectations. Risks, uncertainties and other factors involved with forward-looking information could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forward looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, the Corporation’s objectives, goals or future plans, statements, exploration results, potential mineralization, the estimation of mineral resources, exploration and development plans, timing of the commencement of operations and estimates of market conditions. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to failure to identify mineral resources, failure to convert estimated mineral resources to reserves, the inability to complete a feasibility study which recommends a production decision, the preliminary nature of metallurgical test results, delays in obtaining or failures to obtain required governmental, environmental or other project approvals, political risks, uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, changes in equity markets, inflation, changes in exchange rates, fluctuations in commodity prices, delays in the development of projects, capital and operating costs varying significantly from estimates and the other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry, and those risks set out in the Corporation’s public documents filed on SEDAR. Although the Corporation believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. The Corporation disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law.