To view this release as a .pdf
complete with referenced images please click the following
link:
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8 FEBRUARY 2017
AURA ENERGY LIMITED
(“Aura” or the “Company”)
AURA TO COMMENCE EXPLORATION
DRILLING PROGRAM
ON ITS TASIAST SOUTH GOLD
PROJECT
COPPER AND NICKEL
PROSPECTS WILL ALSO BE EXPLORED
KEY SHAREHOLDERS
HAVE ELECTED EARLY EXCERSISE OF OPTIONS TO PROVIDE $1.84M FUNDING FOR THE DRILLING PROGRAM
-
Aura achieves strong funding support
to commence drilling on its recently acquired gold projects
covering 45 km of Archean Greenstone belts in Mauritania
-
Previous exploration and drill results
show both system size and elevated gold grades making these high
potential targets
-
Adjacent to 20 Moz Kinross Tasiast
Gold Mine and Algold (TSX) permits
-
Option exercise proceeds dedicated to
gold and base metals program
Aura Energy Limited (AEE; ASX, AURA; AIM) is pleased to
announce that drilling of its two under-explored mineralised
greenstone belts in Mauritania
will commence shortly. A key group of shareholders have opted for
early exercise of unlisted options, unlocking $1.84M for the company which will be dedicated to
the exploration of these gold and base metal prospects. As such
this exploration project is now well funded and the company will
soon begin an aggressive drilling program on these highly
prospective gold tenements.
These highly prospective tenements, covering 175km2,
lie along strike from Kinross’ giant +20 million ounce Tasiast Gold
Mine and Algold's Tijirit gold tenements (See Fig 1) which have
recently returned exceptional drilling results. The two areas
are currently held under exploration permit applications and are
expected to be granted soon.
Peter Reeve, Aura Energy's
Executive Chairman said “Aura is very excited to be a
position, with the help of key shareholders, to commence
exploration on its gold and base metal tenements in Mauritania. Aura’s strategy of focussing on
development of its near term Tiris uranium project, despite the
past weak commodity environment, and expanding into a very
prospective gold and base metal package has been a great success
and has the potential to transform the company and provide great
returns to shareholders.
“Considering the large Tasiast Gold
Mine is on the same belt just north of our project and Algold’s
recent strong drilling results on their adjacent tenements, the
potential for technical and commercial success, in the eyes of our
technical people, is very conceivable.
“With serious interest finally coming
back into the uranium sector, gold gaining strength again and
economic growth driving base metals Aura is very well placed to
make solid gains on both a technical and commercial basis across
its projects. We are a different company from two years ago, and we
plan to capitalise on that”
To view this release as a .pdf
complete with referenced images please click the following
link:
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Figure 1:
Location of the Tasiast South project
Gold Prospects
The highly prospective gold areas that make up the Tasiast South
gold project are spread over two under-explored mineralised
greenstone belts in Mauritania
(See Fig 2) representing an excellent opportunity in lightly
explored Archean greenstone belts and will leverage Aura's
extensive operating experience in this part of the world. The
project is favourably located 200 km from Aura’s Nouakchott office, 60 km from the coast, and
can be managed efficiently within the company’s existing management
resources without distraction from Aura's core uranium focus.
The prospects cover portions of the Tasiast and Tijirit
Greenstone Belts and have been explored previously by only one
other company which was forced to suspend activities in the mineral
industry downturn in 2012, despite having located zones of
significant gold mineralisation. Members of Aura’s current
technical team were involved in this previous work and are well
acquainted with the area.
Aura's Tasiast South project area has
the following attributes:
-
Tenements over two lightly explored greenstone belts covering
175 km2
-
The +20 Moz Tasiast gold deposit is nearby on the same
greenstone belt and highlights the potential for major deposits in
the region (See Fig 2)
-
$3m has been expended by the
previous explorer on airborne geophysics, soil geochemistry, and
reverse circulation and air-core drilling
-
Broad zones of gold mineralisation have been identified with
strong similarities to the Tasiast Gold Mine mineralisation and
alteration
-
No testing deeper than 150m with most previous holes less than
100m
-
High grade drill intersections have been reported by others in
the district from both past and current programs, including one in
progress with Algold Resources (TSX), which highlight the current
interest and potential in these poorly tested belts
To view this release as a .pdf
complete with referenced images please click the following
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Figure 2:
Location of Aura areas in relation to known mineralisation
Air-core drilling to bedrock by the previous explorer located
several anomalous gold zones, up to eight kilometres in length (See
Fig 3). Of particular interest is the Ghassariat Zone, which has
1-3 g/t gold values on three of the four air-core traverses
drilled. This anomaly extends over about eight kilometres parallel
to the strike of the greenstone belt.
To view this release as a .pdf
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Figure 3:
Ghassariat Zone location and gold anomalous zones defined by air
core drilling
Drilling to date has generally been shallow with limited deeper
testing below the air core drilling. A small number of RC holes
have provided very good results however the density of drilling is
very low averaging approximately one hole per 20 km2. A systematic
program will test both extensions along strike of, and beneath,
existing mineralised intersections, as well as testing new
targets.
Intersections in the Ghassariat Zone reported by the previous
explorer include:
TGRC 022 - 71m @ 0.3 g/t Au including:
-
5m @ 1.2 g/t Au,
-
3m @ 1.0 g/t Au
-
11m @ 0.5 g/t Au
TGRC 007 - 38m @ 0.4 g/t Au including:
-
1m @ 6.1 g/t Au
-
6m @ 0.7 g/t Au
The Ghassariat Prospect intersections occur in strongly
sulphidic and quartz-veined mafic volcanics and have marked
similarities with some of the ore zones and near-ore alteration
zones at the neighbouring Kinross Tasiast Mine (See Fig
4). It is encouraging that the +1 g/t gold
intersections lie within very thick (71m) zones of lower grade gold
bearing sulphide alteration, indicating an extensive mineralised
system.
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Figure 4: Sections
(all at same scale) comparing Aura’s Ghassariat Prospect’s broad
zones of sulphidic & gold alteration to the Tasiast gold mines
alteration & mineralised shells
Aura’s Chief Geologist, Neil
Clifford, commented: "Interestingly the Tasiast gold
mineralisation is in Archean greenstones with strong similarities
in terms of rock types, structure and mineralisation style with the
great gold provinces in the Archean belts of Australia and Canada in which there have been many hundreds
of gold mines. In the Tasiast district there is only one gold
mine, reflecting how little explored this belt is (See Fig
5). Clearly the potential for additional and substantial
discoveries in the Tasiast district is very high"
To view this release as a .pdf
complete with referenced images please click the following
link:
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Figure 5:
Comparison highlighting the lack of major gold deposits discovered
in the lightly explored Tasiast district versus the well explored
Yilgarn Province of Western
Australia
Mr Clifford led the previous exploration in the Aura permit
areas, and has extensive and successful experience in international
minerals discovery and deposit evaluation particularly in gold. He
has played key roles in the discovery of at least 9 major mineral
deposits in Australia,
South America and Africa, for a variety of commodities including
gold, uranium, copper and tin. These discoveries have
included 20 million ounces of gold - including Sunrise Dam - and
seven have subsequently become mines. He also played the lead
role in the discovery of Aura's Tiris uranium deposits in
Mauritania. He has been involved
in West Africa since 2005.
Algold (TSX) Recent Drilling
Results
Algold Resources, a TSX listed explorer, has recently released
exceptional drilling results (see below) in tenements adjacent to
Aura’s (See Fig 6). The exceptional gold exploration results of
Algold, and elsewhere in the region generally, present a compelling
case for the future of Aura’s gold exploration program given the
similarity in the geological setting of each company’s tenements
and the very limited exploration on these extensive greenstone belt
packages.
To view this release as a .pdf
complete with referenced images please click the following
link:
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Figure 6:
Location of the Aura Tasiast South Tenements and Algolds
Tenements
The recent Algold results have
included the following drill assays;
- T16RC071 - 6 m @ 39.85 g/t Au,
|
- T16RC072 - 4 m @ 1.35 g/t Au
|
- T16RC070 - 3 m @ 30.03 g/t Au
|
|
- T16RC045 - 5 m @ 6.64 g/t Au
|
- T16RC083 - 2 m @ 5.47 g/t Au
|
- T16RC035 - 7 m @ 3.2 g/t Au
|
- T16RC027 - 6 m @ 16.4 g/t Au
|
- T16RC069 - 3 m @ 2.03 g/t Au
|
- T16RC031 - 6 m @ 9.64 g/t Au
|
- T16RC024 - 6 m @ 4.23 g/t Au
|
|
Nickel and Base Metal Potential
Previous exploration for gold on these permit areas also located
strongly anomalous nickel values in several areas, associated with
ultramafic rocks (See Fig 6). In parts of the tenements high
nickel values are associated with anomalous copper highlighting
potential for nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation, as also occurs
in the greenstone belts of Australia and Canada. At this stage, there has been no
follow-up work carried out on these nickel targets.
To view this release as a .pdf
complete with referenced images please click the following
link:
http://www.auraenergy.com.au/investor/ASX%20Announcements/2017/Tasiast%20South%20Gold%20Exploration%20Comencement%20and%20Funding.pdf
Figure 6:
Key nickel results in bedrock sampling by air-core drilling
Acquisition Terms Restated
Aura executed an agreement in June
2016 to acquire 100% of these permit areas (currently under
application) by making 4 staged payments over 12 months totalling
US$100,000.
Additional financial terms are:
-
If Aura defines an Indicated Resource of greater than 1 million
ounces a further payment to the vendor of US$250,000
-
A royalty of $5/oz on gold and
0.4% NSR on other commodities is payable on production from the
permits, capped at US$5 million
Next steps envisaged at Tasiast South
are:
-
Ground electrical geophysics to:
-
Follow-up RC drilling of the mineralised intersections in the
Ghassariat Zone
-
RC drilling of additional targets arising from ground
geophysics
-
Bedrock drilling (air-core or auger) to test
Option Exercise
Aura previously issued unlisted options associated with past
capital raisings with a strike price of 2.5
cents and a two-year term to a range of sophisticated
investors. Several of these investors have now elected to exercise
these options and this has resulted in the receipt of $1.84m representing 65% of the 113 million
2.5 cent unlisted options.
If the full series of 2.5 cent
options were exercised, approximately $1.0
million of additional funding would be received, bringing to
a total of $2.83m from that series of
options which would be available for this exploration program.
Whilst Aura intends to dedicate these funds to the gold and base
metal exploration program the company reserves the right to use
these funds in the uranium projects or corporate purposes if this
is required.
Mauritania
Mauritania has a long history
of mining, a favourable and well administered Mining Act, and a
government supportive of foreign investment. Until recently,
Mauritania has seen very little
systematic gold exploration compared to other countries in the
region.
Aura continues to enjoy an excellent rapport with the
Mauritanian government and mining departments which
enthusiastically embrace exploration and mining development. The
country remains peaceful and stable with a modern user-friendly
fiscal regime.
Aura has been active in the country since 2007.
References in this announcement to exploration results and
potential have been approved for release by Mr Neil Clifford (Geologist and Member of the
Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy) who has more than
40 years’ relevant experience in the field of activity
concerned. Mr Clifford is a Member of the Australasian
Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Mr Clifford has consented to
the inclusion of the material in the form and context in which it
appears.
For further information visit
www.auraenergy.com.au or contact:
Aura Energy
Limited
Peter Reeve (Executive Chairman and CEO) |
Telephone: +61
(3) 9516 6500
Email: info@auraenergy.com.au |
WH
Ireland Limited
Adrian Hadden
Katy Mitchell
James Bavister |
Telephone: +44 (0)
207 220 1666 |
Yellow Jersey PR
Limited
Felicity Winkles
Joe Burgess |
Telephone:
+44 (0) 7748 843 871
+44 (0) 7769 325 254 |