Aura Silver Announces 2018 Exploration Program

Aura Silver Resources (TSXV:AUU) will extend the Greyhound property exploration program in partnership with Agnico Eagle Mines Limited during 2018. Agnico Eagle, the operating manager of the property and partner of the company, will undertake surface mapping, induced polarization geophysical surveys, till sampling and drilling on newly defined targets. This work will focus primarily on gold targets at two distinct areas around Aura Lake.

As quoted in the press release:

Work thus far has shown two principal types of gold targets. The most gold-rich system is a laterally extensive zone of silicification that extends north-south for about 9 kilom along the western margin of an intrusive complex that forms the base of the greenstone belt. This silicified area, which may represent a major thrust fault, contains several gold and copper-enriched zones, including historic copper-rich veins in its northwestern area, and southeast of Aura Lake, numerous Au-arsenopyrite zones, with previously reported surface samples containing up to 28 g/t Au. Till samples in the area of these high-gold samples indicate an extensive arsenic and gold enriched anomalous zone extending to the southwest. Additional soil sampling in 2018 will better define this anomalous target area. The fault system bounding the east side of the intrusion will also be examined for its gold prospectivity. In 2018, additional IP geophysical work as well as soil sampling across these fault systems will be undertaken.

The second set of gold targets is associated with an iron formation (BIF) that forms the cap to the greenstone belt in the Greyhound area. Numerous previously reported samples containing in excess of 5 g/t gold have been found along a 10 kilometers strike length of this iron formation, southwest of Aura Lake, as well as several similarly anomalous samples to the northeast. Gold occurs in structurally controlled veins and sulfide replacements in magnetite-rich BIF, related to axial cleavage to asymmetric folds. The target will be a major isoclinal fold in the northwest part of the property for similar mineralization. This form of mineralization is similar to that found in many other BIF-related gold districts such as Geraldton, Homestake and Musselwhite.

Based on the results of the additional soil sampling, prospecting and IP surveys, a focused drill program to test any newly defined anomalous targets is expected.

Two additional types of mineralization have been identified in the Greyhound area: (i) base metal-rich volcanogenic massive sulfide-type (“VMS”) sulfide-rich boulders, located along the road to Meadowbank 900 meters north of Aura Lake, containing from 7 to 18 percent Zn and from 0.4 to 9 percent Cu. Glacial transport in the area is from east to west, and one possible source of these is a strongly sodium-depleted felsic unit mapped by Aura Silver about 1.5 kilometers to the east; and, (ii) a set of east-west alkaline dykes, a few hundred metres south of Aura Lake, possibly an extension of the Christopher Island alkaline magmatic system, having several spatially associated Ag-Zn-Pb quartz-carbonate vein systems. Previously reported selected samples from these contain from 750 to 5,000 g/t Ag. Neither the VMS nor Ag-vein systems will be targeted this year with the focus remaining on gold discovery.

Click here to read the full Aura Silver Resources (TSXV:AUU) press release.