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Aurania Resources (TSXV: ARU) announced on Friday it has made a new discovery known as Shimpia North, an area in which elevated metal values have been found in streams draining a ridge that is 7 kilometres (4.5 miles) long.
Shimpia North is an extension to the high-grade silver-zinc-lead mineralization at Tiria-Shimpia, part of the company’s Lost Cities – Cutucu project in southeastern Ecuador. The new discovery extends the Tiria-Shimpia target from 15 km to a total length of 22 km.
Outcropping mineralization in the first reconnaissance exploration in this new area gave a grade of 40 g/t silver in an extensively weathered gossan (iron-rich residue that remains after intense weathering of sulphide-rich rock) and, among other samples, a boulder of barite in a stream returned 19 g/t silver, 6.5% lead and 1.1% zinc.
“Shimpia North appears to have the same character, style and mineralization type as Tiria-Shimpia, though it is displaced to the northwest. I consider it to be part of the same system,” Aurania’s CEO Dr. Keith Barron said in a press release.
“This may be the distal expression of the copper/silver in-sediment system we have traced further to the south across country for 23 kilometres,” Barron added.
According to the company, rock chip and stream sediment sampling that highlights the extent of the mineralized zone corresponds closely with high potassium detected in radiometric data from the geophysical survey completed in 2017.
The potassium enrichment feature extends approximately 10 km beyond the area investigated so far, which Aurania believes would provide an “invaluable exploration guide” to finding possible further extensions of the mineralized system.
Shares of Aurania advanced 2.8% by 12:30 p.m. Toronto time following announcement of the new discovery. The company has a market capitalization of C$137.8 million.
