{"id":1152008,"date":"2019-11-27T05:49:21","date_gmt":"2019-11-27T11:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1007773"},"modified":"2019-11-27T05:49:21","modified_gmt":"2019-11-27T11:49:21","slug":"aurania-finds-evidence-of-highly-sought-after-gold-lost-city-in-ecuador","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1152008","title":{"rendered":"Aurania finds evidence of highly sought-after gold lost city in Ecuador"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Canadian junior Aurania Resources (TSX-V: ARU) <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aurania.com\/aurania-finds-first-field-evidence-of-colonial-spanish-activity-at-its-lost-cities-project-in-ecuador\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">said on Wednesday<\/a> it had found vestiges of an old road\u00a0at the very centre of its flagship asset, The Lost Cities \u2013 Cutucu project, which it believes provides solid field evidence of it project being at one of Ecuador\u2019s lost gold mining centres.<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center'>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The road, the company said, was<br \/>\ndiscovered by its field teams while searching for \u201cSevilla de Oro\u201d, which was<br \/>\none of two gold producing cities described in historic manuscripts from<br \/>\nEcuador, Peru, Spain and the Vatican.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>Those records talk about Spanish<br \/>\nsettlers operating two gold mines between about 1565 and 1606.&nbsp;The path<br \/>\ndiscovered by Aurania\u2019s exploration teams is thought to be the one that linked \u201cSevilla<br \/>\nde Oro\u201d to the other gold mining centre \u2014 \u201cLogro\u00f1o de los Caballeros\u201d \u2014 described<br \/>\nin the historic manuscripts.<\/p>\n<p>Chairman and chief executive, Keith<br \/>\nBarron, believes searching for&nbsp;Ecuador&#8217;s lost gold production<br \/>\ncentres&nbsp;will help the company zone in on potentially significant gold<br \/>\ndeposits.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We always presumed that ingots would have been transported by horse or donkey along a well-travelled route from the mines,\u201d Barron, who led the team that <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/lundin-kicks-off-production-at-fruta-del-norte-mine-in-ecuador\/\" >discovered Fruta del Norte in 200<\/a>6, said. \u201cIt appears that we have come across one of these trails, though it is cut by more recent landslides at both ends.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/aurania-road.jpg\" alt=\"Aurania finds evidence of highly sought-after gold lost city in Ecuador\" class=\"wp-image-1007777\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/aurania-road.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/aurania-road-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/aurania-road-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><figcaption>Vestiges of an old road found in the central part of Lost Cities \u2013 Cutucu Project in southeastern Ecuador. (<em>Image courtesy of <a href=https:\/\/www.mining.com\/aurania-finds-evidence-of-highly-sought-after-gold-lost-city-in-ecuador\/\n\"  rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aurania Resources.<\/a><\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>He noted that a planned survey applying laser light (<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lidar\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">LiDAR<\/a>) should pick up the continuations of the trail and its termination at the historical mine sites. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe do not anticipate the discovery<br \/>\nof any ruined buildings, though the discovery of dressed stone along the trail<br \/>\nis perhaps significant and suggests that the Spaniards attempted to build a<br \/>\nstone Caja Real (royal treasury) as they had done in other locations in<br \/>\nEcuador, but that the dressed stone was dropped on the road along the<br \/>\nway,&#8221; Barron said.<\/p>\n<p>The finds, believed to be a<br \/>\nportion the north-south road, are over a distance of 2.5km and show it was an<br \/>\nengineered structure cut into embankments with its downslope edges lined with<br \/>\nblocks of shale which prevented erosion. The throughway is well drained and has<br \/>\na surface of packed shale, Aurania said.<\/p>\n<p>The<br \/>\ncompany noted it would continue exploring indications of a mineralised system<br \/>\nnear the road, focusing on an extensive area of quartz-sericite-pyrite<br \/>\nalteration, which is typically found over and adjacent to porphyry systems.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/aurania-lost-cities-map-e1574862868665.jpg\" alt=\"Aurania finds evidence of highly sought-after gold lost city in Ecuador\" class=\"wp-image-1007774\"\/><figcaption><em>Courtesy of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aurania.com\/\"  rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aurania Resources.<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Since its inception in 2001, the<br \/>\nprecious metals and copper-focused explorer has worked to position itself as a<br \/>\nserious company and not a treasure hunter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are geologists in the mineral exploration business, optimistic by nature but also conservative and skeptical,\u201d the company <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"http:\/\/www.aurania.com\/\" >says on its website<\/a>. \u201cNothing swashbuckling about us!\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Aurania\u2019s main asset, Cutucu, is<br \/>\nlocated in the Jurassic Metallogenic Belt in the eastern foothills of the Andes<br \/>\nmountain range of southeastern Ecuador.<\/p>\n<p>The exploration project is perhaps the only one to have ever brought together professional historical archival research with modern geological, geochemical and geophysical exploration techniques in a geographical area of high discovery potential.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0More to come \u2026<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Company geologists found vestiges of an old road in the central part of its Lost Cities-Cutucu project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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