Aurania Resources reports new epithermal target called Kuripan in its Lost Cities-Cutucu Project in Ecuador

Aurania Resources Ltd (CVE:ARU) (OTCQB:AUIAF) (FRA:20Q) has reported on a new epithermal target called Kuripan in its Lost Cities-Cutucu Project in southeastern Ecuador. 

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. 

READ: Aurania Resources intersects sediment-hosted copper at Lost Cities-Cutucu Project in Ecuador

“After focusing on our silver-zinc discovery in the last few press releases, I’m very pleased to report that we have an exciting new target where we’ve been able to pan gold from streams draining an area that has an epithermal signature,” said CEO Keith Barron in a statement. 

“Furthermore, indications from the field are that this is an “intermediate-sulphidation” epithermal system – the same type of mineralization as Lundin Gold’s Fruta del Norte mine 100 kilometres to the south of us in the Cordillera del Condor.”

Aurania said gold was panned from streams over an area of about 12 square kilometres, with pan concentrates returning values of up to 1 gram per tonne (g/t) as the gold grains have an irregular shape consistent with a local source. Stream sediment sample results also have elevated concentrations of silver, arsenic and antimony, and mercury, molybdenum, selenium, and thallium. 

The company said the target area lies within a sequence of black shales and siltstones of the Jurassic Santiago Formation. These strata are extensively silicified in the target area and some chalcedonic silica contains casts of adularia, a key alteration mineral found in low- and intermediate-sulphidation epithermal systems. 

But it noted that banded chalcedonic veinlets are located in volcanic tuff, which is not an ideal host for epithermal veins because the rock is not sufficiently brittle for intense veining to occur. The target for well-developed epithermal veins is the thick lavas beneath the area in which gold occurs at surface.

The company said a clay-altered diatreme breccia is located near the target area and near where the adularia casts were found. The diatreme is reminiscent of the lower parts of the maar-diatreme systems at Crunchy Hill and Yawi. The occurrence of adularia with extensive manganese oxide staining suggests that the mineralized system is an intermediate-sulphidation epithermal.

Next steps

Aurania said soil sampling teams are operating in the Kuripan area with the intention to define the area from which the gold is being eroded into the streams. More detailed geological mapping is underway to refine the target with emphasis on the distribution of brittle lavas that lie beneath the target area.

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Story by ProactiveInvestors