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AURA ENERGY LIMITED
("Aura" or the "Company")
AURA EXTENDS ITS GOLD & BATTERY METALS FOOTPRINT IN HIGHLY PROSPECTIVE TASIAST GOLD BELT, MAURITANIA
FARM-IN AGREEMENT EXTENDS AURA'S HOLDINGS OF THE TASIAST BELT TO 45 KM STRIKE LENGTH OF PRIME ARCHEAN GREEENSTONE
+20 MILLION OUNCE TASIAST GOLD DEPOSIT ONLY 35 KM ALONG STRIKE
· New tenement extends Aura Energy's position significantly to the north towards Tasiast
· Contains substantial sub-outcropping greenstone sequence along strike from a major operating gold deposit and is virtually unexplored
· Nickel, copper and cobalt potential exists in addition to gold
Aura Energy Limited (AEE) is pleased to announce that it has signed a farm-in / joint venture agreement to extend its already significant position in the Tasiast Archean Greenstone Belt.
The agreement has been executed with Nomads Mining Company sarl of Mauritania and allows Aura to earn a 70% interest in Nomads 100% owned exploration permit. The exploration permit of 160 km2covers 50 km2 of Archean greenstones in the Tasiast greenstone belt.
The exploration permit lies approximately 35 km along strike from Kinross' giant +20 Moz Tasiast Gold Mine and 30 km from Algold's Tijirit gold deposits which occur in the adjoining greenstone belt. Algold have reported a resource of +1 million ounces of gold at Tijirit (refer Algold Resources Inc website Tijirit project Mineral Resources Estimate).
The Nomads permit adjoins and is along strike from Aura's Taet exploration permit which covers +30 km strike length of the Tasiast greenstones.
Peter Reeve, Aura Energy's Executive Chairman said "We are delighted with this strategic addition to our project area in the Tasiast gold district. It is unusual today to be able to obtain access to virtually unexplored greenstone belts in established gold bearing provinces such as this. We are excited at the potential given the 20 Moz Tasiast Gold deposit is the only known significant gold resource in a field where little exploration has been conducted and in a geological setting where gold deposits tend to occur in clusters elsewhere in the word.
"We will maintain our core focus in Mauritania of getting the Tiris Uranium Project DFS completed and the project into production as soon as possible. However, given our extensive knowledge of Mauritania and our planned activities in adjoining areas this presents another high-quality opportunity in a country we know well. It is an excellent opportunity, in our opinion, to add significant shareholder value for Aura Energy", Mr Reeve continued.
Aura is not aware of any significant prior exploration on the permit area despite the area being previously held by Normandy La Source (who made the initial discovery of the Tasiast gold deposit) during the 1990s. The area of the Nomads permit, which is close to the large Tasiast mine, has not been exposed to modern exploration techniques.
Initial field geological work indicates the greenstone sequences within the Nomads permit and within Aura's nearby tenement holdings have strong similarities in age (late Archean) and geology with those of the prolifically mineralised greenstone belts in the Yilgarn Province of Western Australia and the Superior Province in Canada. In the Mauritanian Archean greenstone belts, there is currently only one operating mine (excluding small-scale artisanal mining which is active in the area) operated by Kinross at Tasiast, and one other reported gold resource at Tijirit held by Algold Limited.
Aura is of the belief that the reason for the difference in apparent gold mineralisation intensity in Mauritania relative to other late Archean greenstone belts is very likely due to the lack of exploration over much of Mauritania.
On Aura's Taet permit adjoining the Nomads permit to the south, anomalous values of nickel and cobalt have been reported. Nickel and cobalt mineralisation is also common in similar rocks in other Archean greenstones such as the Yilgarn Province in Australia and the Superior Province in Canada, and on this basis it is Aura's belief that potential for similar occurrences in the Nomads permit area is good.
Aura also believes that these lightly explored greenstone belts in Mauritania, with only one producing gold mine, represent some of the best under-explored greenstone belt targets in the world.
On the Nomads permit area Aura is planning a program of:
· Airborne geophysics to define geology and structure
· Bedrock geochemistry based on RAB or aircore drilling
· Possibly ground geophysics (induced polarisation) in selected areas of interest arising from these programs
· RC and diamond drill testing of targets arising
The project is very favourably located 230 km from Aura's Nouakchott office (about 4 hours drive), 60 km from the coast, and can be managed efficiently within the company's existing management resources without distraction from Aura's core uranium focus.
The key terms of the agreement are;
· Aura will pay;
o $25,000 in cash and $25,000 in Aura shares on signature
o $50,000 (shares or cash) 6 months after the initial payment
o $50,000 after 12 months (unless Aura has withdrawn from the venture)
· Aura commits to spend a minimum of $100,000
· Aura may earn a 70% by spending $ 1 million over a 3-years period
· If Aura defines a 1 million oz resource Aura will pay $ 1.5 million to Nomads
· When Aura has earned 70%, Aura will solely fund to Decision to Mine
Figure 1:
Location of the Tasiast South project
Figure 2:
Location of Nomads Farm-in area areas in relation to known mineralisation
Figure 3:
Comparison highlighting the lack of major gold deposits discovered in the lightly explored Tasiast Province versus the well explored Yilgarn Province of Western Australia - both Archean Greenstone provinces of similar geology and age.
For more information please visit www.auraenergy.com.au or contact the following:
Aura Energy Limited Peter Reeve (Executive Chairman) |
Telephone: +61 (3) 9516 6500 [email protected] |
WH Ireland Limited (Nominated Adviser & Joint Broker) Adrian Hadden James Sinclair-Ford |
Telephone: +44 (0) 207 220 1666 |
SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP (Joint Broker) Ewan Leggat Jamie Spotswood |
Telephone: +44 (0) 203 470 0470 |
Yellow Jersey PR Limited Felicity Winkles Joe Burgess |
Telephone: +44 (0) 7769 325 254 [email protected] |
