TIDMAURA
RNS Number : 6016B
Aura Energy Limited
10 June 2019
TO VIEW THE FULL PDF VERSION OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CLICK HERE
AURA ENERGY LIMITED
("Aura" or the "Company")
AURA EXTENDS ITS GOLD & BATTERY METALS FOOTPRINT IN HIGHLY
PROSPECTIVE TASIAST GOLD BELT, MAURITANIA
FARM-IN AGREEMENT EXTENDS AURA'S HOLDINGS OF THE TASIAST BELT TO
45 KM STRIKE LENGTH OF PRIME ARCHEAN GREEENSTONE
+20 MILLION OUNCE TASIAST GOLD DEPOSIT ONLY 35 KM ALONG
STRIKE
-- New tenement extends Aura Energy's position significantly to the north towards Tasiast
-- Contains substantial sub-outcropping greenstone sequence
along strike from a major operating gold deposit and is virtually
unexplored
-- Nickel, copper and cobalt potential exists in addition to gold
Aura Energy Limited (AEE) is pleased to announce that it has
signed a farm-in / joint venture agreement to extend its already
significant position in the Tasiast Archean Greenstone Belt.
The agreement has been executed with Nomads Mining Company sarl
of Mauritania and allows Aura to earn a 70% interest in Nomads 100%
owned exploration permit. The exploration permit of 160 km(2)
covers 50 km(2) of Archean greenstones in the Tasiast greenstone
belt.
The exploration permit lies approximately 35 km along strike
from Kinross' giant +20 Moz Tasiast Gold Mine and 30 km from
Algold's Tijirit gold deposits which occur in the adjoining
greenstone belt. Algold have reported a resource of +1 million
ounces of gold at Tijirit (refer Algold Resources Inc website
Tijirit project Mineral Resources Estimate).
The Nomads permit adjoins and is along strike from Aura's Taet
exploration permit which covers +30 km strike length of the Tasiast
greenstones.
Peter Reeve, Aura Energy's Executive Chairman said "We are
delighted with this strategic addition to our project area in the
Tasiast gold district. It is unusual today to be able to obtain
access to virtually unexplored greenstone belts in established gold
bearing provinces such as this. We are excited at the potential
given the 20 Moz Tasiast Gold deposit is the only known significant
gold resource in a field where little exploration has been
conducted and in a geological setting where gold deposits tend to
occur in clusters elsewhere in the word.
"We will maintain our core focus in Mauritania of getting the
Tiris Uranium Project DFS completed and the project into production
as soon as possible. However, given our extensive knowledge of
Mauritania and our planned activities in adjoining areas this
presents another high-quality opportunity in a country we know
well. It is an excellent opportunity, in our opinion, to add
significant shareholder value for Aura Energy", Mr Reeve
continued.
Aura is not aware of any significant prior exploration on the
permit area despite the area being previously held by Normandy La
Source (who made the initial discovery of the Tasiast gold deposit)
during the 1990s. The area of the Nomads permit, which is close to
the large Tasiast mine, has not been exposed to modern exploration
techniques.
Initial field geological work indicates the greenstone sequences
within the Nomads permit and within Aura's nearby tenement holdings
have strong similarities in age (late Archean) and geology with
those of the prolifically mineralised greenstone belts in the
Yilgarn Province of Western Australia and the Superior Province in
Canada. In the Mauritanian Archean greenstone belts, there is
currently only one operating mine (excluding small-scale artisanal
mining which is active in the area) operated by Kinross at Tasiast,
and one other reported gold resource at Tijirit held by Algold
Limited.
Aura is of the belief that the reason for the difference in
apparent gold mineralisation intensity in Mauritania relative to
other late Archean greenstone belts is very likely due to the lack
of exploration over much of Mauritania.
On Aura's Taet permit adjoining the Nomads permit to the south,
anomalous values of nickel and cobalt have been reported. Nickel
and cobalt mineralisation is also common in similar rocks in other
Archean greenstones such as the Yilgarn Province in Australia and
the Superior Province in Canada, and on this basis it is Aura's
belief that potential for similar occurrences in the Nomads permit
area is good.
Aura also believes that these lightly explored greenstone belts
in Mauritania, with only one producing gold mine, represent some of
the best under-explored greenstone belt targets in the world.
On the Nomads permit area Aura is planning a program of:
-- Airborne geophysics to define geology and structure
-- Bedrock geochemistry based on RAB or aircore drilling
-- Possibly ground geophysics (induced polarisation) in selected
areas of interest arising from these programs
-- RC and diamond drill testing of targets arising
The project is very favourably located 230 km from Aura's
Nouakchott office (about 4 hours drive), 60 km from the coast, and
can be managed efficiently within the company's existing management
resources without distraction from Aura's core uranium focus.
The key terms of the agreement are;
-- Aura will pay;
o $25,000 in cash and $25,000 in Aura shares on signature
o $50,000 (shares or cash) 6 months after the initial
payment
o $50,000 after 12 months (unless Aura has withdrawn from the
venture)
-- Aura commits to spend a minimum of $100,000
-- Aura may earn a 70% by spending $ 1 million over a 3-years period
-- If Aura defines a 1 million oz resource Aura will pay $ 1.5 million to Nomads
-- When Aura has earned 70%, Aura will solely fund to Decision to Mine
Figure 1:
Location of the Tasiast South project
Figure 2:
Location of Nomads Farm-in area areas in relation to known
mineralisation
Figure 3:
Comparison highlighting the lack of major gold deposits
discovered in the lightly explored Tasiast Province versus the well
explored Yilgarn Province of Western Australia - both Archean
Greenstone provinces of similar geology and age.
For more information please visit www.auraenergy.com.au or
contact the following:
Aura Energy Limited Telephone: +61 (3) 9516 6500
Peter Reeve (Executive Chairman) info@auraenergy.com.au
WH Ireland Limited (Nominated Adviser Telephone: +44 (0) 207 220
& Joint Broker) 1666
Adrian Hadden
James Sinclair-Ford
SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP (Joint Telephone: +44 (0) 203 470
Broker) 0470
Ewan Leggat
Jamie Spotswood
Yellow Jersey PR Limited Telephone: +44 (0) 7769 325
Felicity Winkles 254
Joe Burgess aura@yellowjerseypr.com
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END
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