South Africa police standoff with illegal gold miners escalates
The police sealed off access to the Buffelsfontein gold mine in Stilfontein several weeks ago to deny the miners access to food and other essentials.
Aurania Resources’ (TSXV: ARU) exploration team announced the discovery of silver-lead-zinc mineralization in grab samples that run as high as 325 g/t silver, 48% zinc, and 39% lead in its Lost Cities – Cutucu project in Ecuador.
In a media statement, the Toronto-based miner said that the discovery was made between the new Tiria epithermal gold-silver target and the Jempe copper porphyry zone.
According to the miner, streams around the Tiria target contain concentrations of pathfinder elements typical of epithermal gold-silver mineralization including arsenic, antimony, selenium, thallium, and molybdenum.
“A few days ago, we announced that we are seeing evidence of a gold-silver epithermal target being linked with a copper porphyry in the Kirus-Tinchi mineralized system. We are now seeing evidence of a second complete mineralized system that has the Jempe copper porphyry at its core, which evolves outwards through a silver-zinc-lead zone (Shimpia target) and finally into the Tiria epithermal targets for gold-silver at the furthest extremity of the system. Having these indicators of an entire mineralized system within our project will allow us to develop each target efficiently and turbocharges our definition of value in the project,” Aurania’s Chairman and CEO, Keith Barron, said in the media brief.
Barron also said that even though the firm’s focus is still gold, he and the exploration team thought it was important to let stakeholders know about the possibility of pursuing additional opportunities in other commodities.
“Notwithstanding these additional discoveries, the Crunchy Hill epithermal gold target, located less than one kilometre from a paved road, remains the company’s initial scout drilling target,” he said.
The executive added that the firm is going to continue exploring the structural corridor that links the mineralized zones within the Jempe – Shimpia – Tiria system. He also said that the idea is to complete a stream sediment sampling program in the area, and start a ridge and spur soil sampling to refine the location and shape of specific targets in preparation for scout drilling in 2019.
By market close on Friday, Aurania Resources’ stock was up 6%.
