Aurania Resources Ltd (TSX-V:ARU, OTCQB:AUIAF) told investors it was preparing to drill the Tatasham target at its Lost Cities - Cutucu project in the fourth quarter this year, which could represent the central part of a porphyry deposit.
The target, which lies near the western margin of the property in Ecuador, has been further refined by geophysical modelling.
"Tatasham is the largest geophysical feature identified in the airborne magnetic survey that we carried out over the whole concession area in 2017," noted Aurania's CEO Keith Barron in a statement.
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"We subsequently covered the target area in the MobileMT survey completed earlier this year. We believe that our geophysical inversion contractors have made a breakthrough in the inversion of MobileMT geophysical data acquired in mountainous areas like the project area," the CEO added.
"The 3D inverted MobileMT and magnetic data define a magnetic core that is approximately 3 kilometres in diameter that could be the central part of a porphyry which is partially enclosed by a conductive zone that could be due to the presence of sulphides - which is where most of the mineralization is located in copper porphyries."
Original processing of magnetic data from the 2017 geophysical survey showed the Tatasham magnetic feature having a diameter of over 10km - the largest in the project area, noted the company.
Refined processing has resulted in a better-defined, smaller magnetic feature that is between three and four kilometres in diameter. In addition, 3D inversion of MobileMT data has refined the location of conductive areas that are consistent with geological data, it added.
The company's flagship asset, the Lost Cities - Cutucu project sits in the Jurassic Metallogenic Belt in the eastern foothills of the Andes mountain range of southeastern Ecuador.
Contact the author at giles@proactiveinvestors.com