Aureus Mining finds potential extensions to New Liberty gold project

Liberia focused gold explorer Aureus Mining (LON:AUE, TSE:AUE) has found potential extensions to the New Liberty gold deposit.

The new area of interest was uncovered through the group’s recently completed geophysical exploration programme.

As part of the programme, Aureus carried out induced polarization and magnetic surveys over the project and surrounding areas, which has shown that the New Liberty mineralisation has a distinctive geophysical signature which can be mapped for follow-up exploration.

Aureus explained that this signature – which it characterised as a ‘metal factor / low-resistivity’ corridor - can be traced continuously eastwards and westwards from the known gold deposit.

"The use of IP as an exploration tool for New Liberty style gold-sulphide mineralisation has been highly effective in terrain with limited surface exposure,” said chief executive David Reading.

“It is encouraging that the New Liberty ore body may be further extended along strike to the east and the west.

“Our exploration drilling programmes are now focused on defining extensions to New Liberty and drill testing other analogous geophysical targets, as well as other advanced targets within the mining lease area."

Aureus said it is now going to carry out a drill programme to test the eastern part of this new area of interest. Work is already underway.

Through its ongoing drill programme 15 holes have been drilled, for a total of 3,000 metres, and another 40 holes, totaling 5,000 metres will be drilled.

Assay results for drill holes completed so far are expected in the current quarter.

Aureus has also found another potential area of interest for exploration through the reprocessing of a high resolution aeromagnetic survey. It said that the re-processed data has outlined a distinctive magnetic signature for the New Liberty deposit and this signature appears to be repeated 1 kilometres south-west of the gold deposit.

The analogous magnetic anomaly has similar dimensions to New Liberty, Aureus said.

Today’s positive geophysical result follows the latest high grade drill results out of New Liberty, which were announced earlier this month.

On October 3, Aureus revealed assays on a further 3,968 metres of drilling from its feasibility programme. It was the third set of drill results that returned multiple intercepts that included grades ranging from three grams per tonne to 8.9 grams per tonne of gold over several metres.

Broker Evolution Securities responded by saying it remained “extremely positive on the New Liberty Project and the wider Bea Mountain licence area”. It has set a price target of 167 pence each for the shares, which were changing hands for 68.5 pence this afternoon.

In all, 190 holes have been drilled to date and they total 28,397 metres. The majority has been drilled in the last four months with four diamond drill rigs.

The feasibility drilling programme was designed to estimate the quantity of gold resources within the New Liberty deposit down to a depth of 200 metres below surface and over a strike length of 1.75 kilometres.

To date the firm has received assay results for 109 holes, accounting for 56 per cent of the drilling programme, and all of the remaining assay results are expected by the end of this month.

New Liberty has an estimated indicated mineral resource of 751,000 ounces of gold grading 4.17 grams per tonne and an estimated inferred mineral resource of 762,000 ounces of gold grading 3.4 grams per tonne.