Aurania Resources (TSXV: ARU) announced that it completed scout drilling for epithermal gold and silver at the first hole at the ‘Yawi Target A,’ located at its Lost Cities – Cutucu project in Ecuador.
“The first drill hole in Target A, YW-001, reached a depth of 533.40 metres approximately 460 metres vertically below the collar elevation of the borehole,” the miner said in a media brief. “Samples from YW-001 have been submitted to the laboratory and results will be reported as soon as they become available. The drill has been mobilized to the second platform and the second borehole at Target A is underway.”
The Toronto-based miner intersected vein textures that are typical of epithermal gold-silver systems
According to Aurania, its field crew identified four targets at Yawi, while a fifth is being mapped and soil sampled to determine whether it warrants scout drilling.
“The first borehole in Target A intersected veinlets that have banded textures typical of epithermal gold-silver systems at various depths along its trajectory. It is clear from some of the veins that hole YW-001, which was inclined due south at an angle of 60 degrees to the horizontal, was drilled parallel to a component of the vein system. Hole YW-002, therefore, is being drilled towards the north so that it cuts across the vein system,” the press release states.
The Toronto-based company also said that details of the vein textures observed in the first hole at Yawi are being interpreted as indicative of an extensive hydrothermal system. Thus, its plans now involve drilling several boreholes in each of the four targets at Yawi to obtain a sense of large-scale zoning of the epithermal system in order to be able to home in on the core of the system.
The Lost Cities – Cutucu project, in the southeastern province of Morona-Santiago, consists of 42 concessions located in the central part of the Cordillera de Cutucu. The concessions extend for approximately 95 kilometres along the mountain range, which is part of the Northern Andean Jurassic Metallogenic Belt. The area contains clusters of porphyry copper, gold-copper skarn and epithermal gold deposits.