Aurania Resources Ltd (CVE:ARU) (OTCQB:AUIAF) (FRA:20Q) told investors Monday it had identified initial drill targets at its large Tiria-Shimpia silver-gold target at the flagship Lost Cities - Cutucu project in Ecuador.
Tiria-Shimpia spans over 75 square kilometres (sq km) and the company believes the geology is similar to the silver-zinc-lead deposits of the Colquijirca district in Peru, where the Cerro de Pasco deposit has been mined since 1630 and is still being so today.
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Drill sites have been selected in two areas 1.5km apart on the northwestern margin of Tiria-Shimpia target, where exploration found 356 grams per tonne (g/t) silver with 12.7% zinc and 199 g/t silver with 22% zinc.
There are six other extensive zones of silver enrichment in soil, which the company is analyzing, it added.
Aurania's CEO Dr Keith Barron said work had shown that the mineralization at Tiria-Shimpia was not "a simple vein system" as previously thought, but followed fault zones and sedimentary rock layering.
"The best way to explain it, is that these are crumpled sheets of mineralized limestone, with vertical feeders, potentially with a width of up to 3 kilometres and a trend of up to 15 kilometres. We have flown MobileMT over part of Tiria-Shimpia to test whether the geophysics detects pyrite associated with the silver-zinc-lead to assist us in selecting specific drill sites."
Aurania is focused on precious metals and copper in South America. Its flagship asset, The Lost Cities - Cutucu project lies in the eastern foothills of the Andes mountain range of southeastern Ecuador.
Contact the author at giles@proactiveinvestors.com