Over a million shares traded this am as news of their discovery in Arizona picked up the volume. I'm in @ .27American Bonanza Drills High Grade Gold In The Surface Drilling Program At Copperstone
3/18/04
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, Mar 18, 2004 (CCNMatthews via COMTEX) --
AMERICAN BONANZA GOLD MINING CORP. (TSX Venture: BZA) ('Bonanza') is pleased to report positive drill results from the surface drilling program at the 100% owned Copperstone Project in Arizona. The surface drilling program is designed to conduct exploration and provide data for resource estimation, with the goal of producing a measured resource in and around the D-Zone and the C-Zone. The surface drilling program has begun to the north of the open pit, Southeast of the C-Zone, and approximately 1,000 feet Southeast of the D-Zone, which is currently the subject of a detailed underground drilling program. The first hole in the surface drilling program encountered a 13 foot (4.0 metre) interval grading 0.77 ounces of gold per ton (26.5 grams per tonne gold) with 0.5% copper.
The following table is a summary of the assay results for the first drill hole from the surface drilling program; the hole was drilled on a 180 azimuth (due south):
--------------------------------------------------------------------Drill Hole Dip From - To Interval Gold Gold CopperHole Length (degrees) (feet) Length Grade Grade (%)Number (feet) (feet) (opt) (g/t)--------------------------------------------------------------------CRD-04-01 885 -82 814.5-827.5 13 0.77 26.5 0.5--------------------------------------------------------------------
The above result is very near the true thickness of the mineralised structure. CRD-04-01 was drilled with 720 feet of reverse circulation followed by 165 feet of core drilled at the bottom of the hole. The mineralised zone was encountered in core portion of the drill hole. Recoveries from the surface drilling program to date are excellent. While not drilled on a grid, the nearest drill hole to CRD-04-01 is approximately 140 feet distant with the nearest other drill holes being over 200 feet distant.
Drilling continues on the surface program to target the Copperstone fault with two drilling rigs currently working and additional rigs to be on site soon. CRD-04-01 is the first hole of a 30,000 metre surface drill program that will continue through most of 2004. Results from additional drill holes will be reported as they become available. All assays at Copperstone are at least triple-checked routinely.
Mr. Brian Kirwin, President and CEO stated: 'These very positive results over mineable widths are an encouraging indication of the potential of Copperstone to ultimately support a significant, low cost gold mine. It is important to note that this ore-grade intercept was discovered utilizing our geologic model. This model is constantly under revision as new information is gathered and serves us well as a predictive tool in our definition drilling program.'Additional information concerning this drill hole is available on the Company's website at: www.americanbonanza.com in the Copperstone page