Aurania Resources Ltd (CVE:ARU) (OTCMKTS:AUIAF) (FRA:20Q) said it has been encouraged by finding black "pyrobitumen" when drilling its Kuri-Yawi target at the flagship Lost Cities - Cutucu project in Ecuador.
The diamond drill hole has encountered epithermal-type veining in brecciated basalt with "significant" amounts of black "pyrobitumen" - a pseudo-mineral composed of carbon and derived from hydrocarbon.
READ: Aurania Resources closes private placement, raises C$1.25M
"I consider this discovery of pyrobitumen to be potentially of high significance," said Aurania's CEO, Dr Keith Barron in a statement.
"It is rarely documented in epithermal scenarios but perhaps significantly, it occurs at gold deposits and occurrences such as McLaughlin in California, Esquel in Argentina, Waiotapu in North Island New Zealand, several Carlin Trend gold mines and in the Witwatersrand of South Africa.
"The genetic relationship between gold deposits and hydrocarbon as a transport mechanism in gold systems may be tenuous, but hydrocarbon in geothermal fluids may have scavenged gold much as a carbon-in-pulp system is used in commercial gold recovery in many operating mines to strip gold from pregnant solution."
Barron noted that the company had found it a mystery that high levels of so-called pathfinder elements such as arsenic, antimony, selenium and thallium have been found at the surface in the area, yet samples are entirely devoid of gold.
"The implication is that a very efficient natural mechanism is stripping hydrothermal fluids of their gold before they get anywhere near the paleosurface."
The hole is drilling around 1.1 kilometers (km) from siliceous sinter outcrop and 200 meters (m) from geochemical anomalies of pathfinder elements.
It is still a significant distance away from the potential porphyry target identified via an airborne mobile MT (MMT) geophysical survey, reported in January this year.
Shares in Canada nudged up 5.26% to C$2.40 each.
---Updates for share price---
Contact the author at giles@proactiveinvestors.com