Erdene Resource Development Corporation has received significant gold and silver results from the first phase of trenching at the Altan Nar Gold-Polymetallic Project in southwest Mongolia. Results from the first four of 28 trenches have exceeded company expectations. 
The trenching program completed in early November was designed to test 10 distinct mineralized zones across the 5.5km-long Altan Nar target area.
“These results have allowed us to meet our objective of establishing initial targets for open pit development while pending results will allow us to prioritize new areas for the next phase of resource drilling,” says Erdene’s president and CEO Peter Akerley.
“We believe the combination of these results and the extent of stockwork breccia uncovered in the remaining 24 trenches, combined with our previous results, demonstrate the potential for Altan Nar to host multiple, near-surface, gold-polymetallic deposits conducive to open pit mine development,” he adds
Three of four trenches returned excellent results over a 250 metre portion of the 400 metre-long Discovery Zone. Gold-silver mineralized stockwork breccia zones were uncovered over wide intervals of 44 to 50 metres in each of the three trenches, all containing average gold content of greater than 1.0 grams/tonne. Each contain wide, higher grade intervals of 11 to 15 metres grading 2.4 to 3.0 grams/tonne gold accompanied by 8 to 20 grams/tonne silver.
A total of 1858 metres of trenching resulted in 1267 1-to-2-metre samples being sent to SGS Laboratory in Ulaanbaatar for multi-element analysis.
The objective is to further define near-surface mineralization identified to date, improve the understanding of the gold mineralized system and prioritize new areas for the next resource drilling phase. Exploration program-generated data will also be used to develop conceptual plans initial open pit development.
These results, combined with previous drill results, indicate a potential shallow, bulk-tonnage, gold-silver-lead-zinc mineralized system in the first of 10 targets tested along the 5km trend. The original trenching program, announced in October, was expanded from 1200 metres to 1858 metres due to the company’s early success in identifying and expanding mineralized zones.
To date, Altan Nar’s targets have not been tested below 250 metres vertical depth, however multiple holes have ended in zones of greater than 1 grams/tonne gold.
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Erdene Resource Development Corporation