Aurania Resources eyeing potential multiple discoveries at Lost Cities-Cutucu project in Ecuador

• Flagship asset is the Lost Cities-Cutucu project in the eastern foothills of the Andes in Ecuador
• Proven management team that discovered much of the gold and copper in the adjacent Cordillera del Condor
• ‘Outperform’ rating from Noble Capital Markets

What Aurania Resources does:

Aurania Resources Inc (CVE:ARU) (OTCQB:AUIAF) is a Toronto-based junior explorer, focused on precious metals and copper, whose flagship asset is the Lost Cities-Cutucu project in the eastern foothills of the Andes mountain range in southeastern Ecuador.

The company’s origin story reads akin to something of a swashbuckling novel. Aurania’s entry into Ecuador was driven by colonial Spanish documents describing the “lost cities” of Logroño de los Caballeros and Sevilla de Oro – gold mines that operated between about 1562 and 1600. Today, Aurania’s management team believe that these “lost cities” are located within the firm’s large concession area.

Far from being a treasure hunter, the company is led by a team of respected geologists with a track record of world-class discoveries under their belts. CEO Keith Barron co-founded gold explorer Aurelian Resources, which discovered the Fruta del Norte gold deposit in 2006 and is currently being developed by Lundin Gold.

The Lost Cities-Cutucu project lies along-trend of a mineral belt that contains 26 million ounces of gold and almost 40 billion pounds of copper in the Cordillera del Condor region of the country. Aurania’s aeromagnetic data indicates a similar granitic batholith beneath the central part of the project area which, if proven, may have provided a similar source of porphyry, epithermal and skarn mineralization.

How is it doing:

Aurania has been very active so far in 2021.

Most recently, on May 21, Aurania reported that the follow-up of a high-grade boulder found in a stream has led to the discovery of silver-zinc mineralization in an outcrop over 2.7 kilometres (km) in the Tiria-Shimpia target area in the company’s Lost Cities – Cutucu Project in southeastern Ecuador. 

The company said that follow-up exploration, and channel sampling of the mineralized layers, where they are exposed at surface, is turning up “key information” on the distribution of grade on surface within the 15km trend along which, silver-zinc is located at Tiria-Shimpia. According to Aurania, the trend was recently extended to 22 km after the discovery of a 7 km long mineralized zone at Shimpia North.

At the end of April, Aurania had told investors that the Tiria-Shimpia target had been extended to 22 km in length from 15 km with the discovery of Shimpia North. Sampling during the first exploration in this area at the Lost Cities – Cutucu project had uncovered elevated metal values in streams draining a ridge that is 7 km long, it added.

Results included 40 grams per tonne (g/t) silver in an extensively weathered gossan outcrop, said the company. Another sample from a stream returned 19 g/t silver, 6.5% lead and 1.1% zinc.  Aurania said it has begun selecting drill sites at the Tiria-Shimpia target area and expects to begin drilling this quarter.

Meanwhile, earlier in May, Aurania had reported on a new epithermal target called Kuripan in the Lost Cities-Cutucu Project.  The company said gold has been panned from streams that drain the target area with silica veinlets that have typical epithermal characteristics and occur in volcanic tuff.  It added that results from stream sediment sampling show that, in addition to gold and silver, the area is enriched in pathfinder elements such as naturally occurring arsenic and antimony. 

And on April 23, Aurania reported that the first drill hole at the Tsenken N1 target at the Lost Cities-Cutucu Project had intersected sediment-hosted copper.  The company said the TSN1-001 drill hole reached a depth of 722m and native copper was intersected within 2m of the maximum depth that the small-format drill could reach. A second drill hole on the target was underway, it added. 

The mineralization is immediately beneath a 75m thick lava layer that constitutes an impermeable barrier within the permeable sedimentary strata. Though the intersection was modest with grades below economic levels, Aurania said the occurrence of native copper beneath the impermeable layer within the red beds is a key piece of evidence supporting the exploration model the company is using for sediment-hosted mineralization. 

Inflection points:

• More exploration and drill results
• Development of joint ventures over parts of the flagship asset
• Identify specific targets at Kirus for scout drilling

What the broker says:

In a note published on May 24, 2021, analysts at Noble Capital reiterated an ‘Outperform’ rating on Aurania Resources following recent drilling updates.

They said: “Aurania’s exploration program is providing an abundance of drilling targets for a variety of metals and the potential to make multiple discoveries in its large concession package.

“The drilling program is progressing on schedule and the latest discovery at Tiria-Shimpia is encouraging because while the 22-kilometer trend is mineralized, the company appears to be narrowing in on the highest-grade sections for drilling.”

What the boss says:

In the company’s statement on April 30, Aurania CEO and chairman Dr Keith Barron said: ”Shimpia North appears to have the same character, style and mineralization type as Tiria-Shimpia, though it is displaced to the northwest. I consider it to be part of the same system. This may be the distal expression of the copper/silver-in-sediment system we have traced further to the south across country for 23 kilometres.”

“What I find astounding is that Cretaceous and younger cover rocks have been stripped off to just the right erosional level to expose mineralization. Otherwise, we would never have guessed it was there. Equally significant, our very large land parcel has allowed us to piece this story together. If we had had a postage stamp type parcel, we never would have guessed the magnitude of these mineralizing systems. Serendipity has worked in our favour,” Barron added.

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Story by ProactiveInvestors