African Aura Mining (AUR-V) has hit upon a new gold zone at its wholly-owned New Liberty gold project in Liberia, and the market signaled its belief in the discovery’s significance.
In the days after the May 11 announcement of the near-surface zone, African Aura shares climbed 14% and were trading for $1.11 in early June.
That lift came courtesy of assays which returned highlights of: 3.75 grams gold per tonne over 12 metres from the 68 metres mark; 7.52 grams gold over 14 metres from 145 metres; and 5.51 grams gold over 14 metres from 312 metres.
The results came out of 890 metres of drilling done on the new zone, but don’t represent the totality of assays.
Drilling at the new zone, however, didn’t encompass all of the activity at New Liberty.
African Aura also reported that it had finished 10,000 metres of confirmation drilling and is in the midst of working the results into a revised resource estimate and scoping study.
“The excellent high-grade results coupled with the potential of further near-surface ounces in this new zone between the Larjor and Kinjor bodies, adds greater near-term, potential mining value,” Luis da Silva, the company’s president and chief executive, said in a statement.
Da Silva went on to say that the market could expect an update on the project in June.
New Liberty currently has a measured and indicated resources of 13.5 million tonnes grading 3.18 grams gold for 1.38 million oz. gold.
That estimate takes into account three zones along a 1.75-km strike length and accounts for ore to a depth of 300 metres.
But, the company says, with deeper mineralization struck in the latest round of drilling, the scoping study will likely envisage a larger deposit to be mined via open pit. The assays that support such a belief include one hole returning 4.94 grams gold over 10 metres from 379 metres depth and another returning 4.42 grams gold over 8 metres from 447 metres downhole.
Funding for the drill program going forward is coming from an equity financing done in April, which put $17.5 million into its coffers by issuing 17 million shares.
Da Silva says the cash top-up has the company “well positioned to move ahead with the planned development of our key gold assets.”
It’s clear that the company has already done a good job of “moving ahead” up to the present.
It was in February that the company first released results from nine holes drilled at its project’s Larjor zone.
It went on to release more results from Larjor and then the Kinjor zone and will release results from a third zone, Marvoe, along with more results from the newest zone in June.
The company describes New Liberty as a “classic, Archean shear-zone- hosted greenstone gold deposit.”
Metallurgical test work indicates a non-refractory ore with expected recoveries of up to 93%.
And while results from New Liberty are promising, the gold potential of African Aura is only part of its story.
The company also has an iron ore division through its 38.5% interest in the Putu iron ore project in Liberia. The project is currently in the midst of a prefeasibility study being carried out by its joint-venture partner Severstal Resources.
African Aura also has a 100% interest in the Nkout iron ore project in Cameroon.
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