VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 30, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wolf Wiese CEO of Golden Dawn Minerals Inc., (TSX-V:GOM) (Frankfurt:3G8A) (OTC:GDMRF) (the “Company” or “Golden Dawn”) announces final results from 2017 surface diamond drilling at its Golden Crown property, part of the Greenwood Precious Metals Project.

Surface diamond drilling at the Golden Crown property in 2017 totaled 3,121 metres drilled in 33 holes. Results for holes 1 to 19 were previously released (see news release dated December 4, 2017). Significant results for holes 20 to 33 are presented in the table below, followed by results for the first 19 holes in a separate table.

Table of Significant Results for 2017 Golden Crown Drill Holes 20 to 33

Table of Significant Results for 2017 Golden Crown Drill Holes 20 to 33 (Cont’d).

NS = not significant; g/t = grams per tonne; qtz = quartz
The widths of zones reported above for the drill holes are core lengths, which may be different from true width. There is insufficient information at this time to accurately estimate the true width of the zones.

Table of Significant Results for Golden Crown Drill Holes 1 to 19.

Table of Significant Results for Golden Crown Drill Holes 1 to 19 (cont’d).

NS = not significant; g/t = grams per tonne; qtz = quartz
The widths of zones reported above for the drill holes are core lengths, which may be different from true width. There is insufficient information at this time to accurately estimate the true width of the zones.

The 2017 drill holes reported above were designed to test the King, Winnipeg, Portal, Southwest and South zones. The drill program intersected zones of significant gold and copper associated with massive sulphide and quartz-sulphide veins and veinlets. Typical sulphide minerals include pyrrhotite, pyrite, chalcopyrite, and arsenopyrite in general order of abundance. Interesting gold values are also associated with veinlet-controlled and disseminated sulphides in the host rocks (meta-diorite, greenstone and serpentinite).

At least in part, the deposit now appears to consist of a field of multiple veins and veinlets, with the main vein structures identified as targets for underground development. Potential for open pit extraction exists where significant gold values occur in wall rocks adjacent to the main veins and near surface.

The 2017 drilling results intersected grades and widths similar to those previously reported for the Golden Crown deposit, encountered additional mineralization marginal to the known zones, and defined extensions to some of the zones tested. 

The Main Zone (King Vein and parallel lodes) was verified by intercepts in drill holes GC17-02, 04, 05, 10, 12 and 13. Drill holes GC17-11 and-31 hit the structure beyond the previously defined limits, with hole 31 possibly extending the MacArthur structure 68 metres to the east. 

The Winnipeg zone was intersected in drill hole GC17-09 and the Portal Zone was intersected in holes GC17-14, 15 and 16.

The MacArthur zone was intersected in holes GC17-31 and GC17-33 indicating the zone extends a further 28 metres down dip than previously defined. The Samaritan Zone was also intersected in these holes, possibly defining the Samaritan Zone an additional 46 metres further west and may extend up to 95 metres to where sulphide mineralization was encountered in hole GC17-32.

The Southwest zone was intersected in drill holes GC17-18 and 19, which encountered mineralization up to 54 metres below a 2004 surface trench on the structure.

The South Zone was confirmed by hole GC17-22 that intersected gold mineralization similar to that recorded in historic 1986 drilling. Holes GC17-23 to -26 indicate this zone extends 100 metres further down dip, and in GC17-28 the zone was defined 28 metres down dip and 17 metres east of a 1986 drill hole intercept.

Further surface exploration drilling is scheduled to commence in the next few weeks, aimed at increasing the resource inventory, upgrading Inferred resources to Indicated category, and for new discoveries. Initial work will explore the western extension of the King zone, eastern extension of the MacArthur zone, infill and extend the Samaritan zone to the east, and explore east and west extensions of the Portal zone. The drill program will then progress to the JD Zone and the area between the Golden Crown mine property and JD, within a 3 km trend of anomalous soil geochemistry and surface mineral showings. The historic JD Zone is located 3 km west of the Golden Crown Mine and hosts quartz and sulphide veins similar to those intersected in the 2017 drilling. As reported in the news release dated October 18, 2017, gold values for individual 1 metre wide surface rock chip samples from the JD area range between 1.8 and 15.8 g/t gold, with an overall average of 7.4 g/t gold. The table below shows weighted average results for consecutive samples (sample traverses) from the JD area in 2017.

Table of averaged results for consecutive surface rock chip samples at JD area (2017)

The Golden Crown property lies 3 km from the Greenwood Processing Plant and is planned to be mined and processed at the plant after the Lexington mine is brought online. The Company is continuing with permitting an underground mine and bulk sampling in 2018, leading to full production from the Golden Crown Mine.

In addition, surface rock chip sampling was conducted in late fall of 2017 at the Lexington property. The surface outcrop of the historic City of Paris mine consists of a quartz-sericite altered zone containing disseminated pyrite. A chip sample across this zone returned significant grade and width (14.50 grams per tonne gold over 4.5 metres true width). This result warrants further investigation to determine the extent of mineralization remaining in this historic mine.

DISCUSSION:

The numerous mineralized zones on the Greenwood Precious Metals Project (15,400 hectares), as evidenced by the 34 historic mines including the large scale historic Phoenix copper-gold mine and our present exploration results, all point to the necessity to view this mining district holistically. It is believed that the many precious and base metal deposits on this property were triggered by several geological events, which formed a plethora of mineralization styles, thus requiring our geoscientists to remain open to all possibilities. The exploration effort is utilizing state-of-the-art technology and is being conducted from a bird’s eye perspective as well as a localized focused view to locate potential sources of the mineralization on the Greenwood Precious Metals Project. Importantly, the Greenwood Mining Camp is situated within an area of tectonic extension as evidenced by the Republic Toroda Grabens, which extend from south of the 49^th parallel in the USA where they are associated with gold deposits in the prolific Republic Mining District.  Past exploration efforts in the area of Greenwood Precious Metals Project were severely limited due to the fragmented claim holding situation. Due to our Company’s success in consolidating this prolific mining camp and the presence of a modern processing plant, the Company has the opportunity to produce precious and base metals in the immediate term. Our work over this year will continue towards production at the Lexington and Golden Crown properties, and at the same time conduct an all-inclusive geological assessment of the district aimed at discovering additional resources to prolong the life of the operation.

The Company is rapidly progressing towards the start-up of mining operations at the Lexington mine, located 17 km south of the Greenwood Processing Plant, with de-watering now complete and mine planning and geotechnical assessments being conducted prior to initial mining. The Greenwood Processing Plant will be wet commissioned once the mining operation is underway. The Company is also awaiting assay results to quantify the test work completed in December utilizing new state-of-the-art product/waste separation sensor sorting technology provided by Steinert US Inc.

All of the samples reported above were collected under the supervision of Dr. Mathew Ball, P.Geo. and delivered to Activation Laboratories (Act-Labs) in Kamloops, B.C. Activation Laboratories (Act-Labs) is an independent commercial laboratory that is ISO 9001 certified and ISO 17025 accredited. Analyses for gold were by the fire assay method using 30 gram samples with an AA finish. Fire assay gravimetric analyses were carried out on initial gold analytical results in excess of 30000 ppb gold. Silver and other elements were analyzed by ICP-OES using an aqua regia digestion. Copper results above 1% were re-analyzed by peroxide fusion. Results above 100 g/t silver were re-analyzed in duplicate for ore grade concentrations by the Fire Assay gravimetric method using a 30 gram sample. Quality control was monitored using reference and blank samples inserted into the sample sequence at intervals. Check analyses are being performed on selected samples.

The Company would like to clarify that its decision to proceed to extract mineralized material from the Golden Crown and Lexington deposits for processing at its facility located at the Greenwood Precious Metals Project is not based on a feasibility study. The Company cautions that, in such cases, there is increased uncertainty and higher economic and technical risks of failure.

Technical disclosure in this news release has been approved by Dr. Mathew Ball, P.Geo., a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, and Chief Operating Officer of the Company.

For more details, please see the most recent National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report on the Company's website at www.goldendawnminerals.com.

On behalf of the Board of Directors:
GOLDEN DAWN MINERALS INC.

Wolf Wiese, President & Chief Executive Officer

For further information, please contact:
Corporate Communications
604-221-8936
[email protected]

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