ASX
ASX Announcement
ASX Code: ARM
Date: 23 October 2015
Aurora Minerals Group of Companies
Diversified minerals exploration via direct and indirect interests
Predictive Discovery Limited (ASX: PDI) - 43.9%
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Gold Exploration / Development in Burkina Faso
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Gold, Silver and Base Metals - Molybdenum and Tungsten Exploration in South Korea
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Gold Exploration/ Development in Burkina Faso
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Manganese, base metals and gold
Peninsula Mines Limited (ASX: PSM) - 34%
Golden Rim Resources (ASX: GMR) - 13.4%
Aurora Western Australian Exploration - 100%
Contact Details
Principal & Registered Office
Suite 2, Level 2
20 Kings Park Road West Perth WA 6005
Martin Pyle - Managing Director Tel: +61 8 6143 1840
Karen Oswald - Media and Investor Relations Tel: +61 423 602 353
Ken Banks - Investor Relations Tel: +61 402 079 999
Website
www.auroraminerals.com
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QUARTERLY ACTIVITIES REPORT
ENDING 30 SEPTEMBER 2015
Aurora Minerals Limited ASX: ARM ('Aurora' or 'the Company') and its subsidiary and associate companies conduct exploration across 3 continents with a focus on West Africa (Predictive Discovery Limited and Golden Rim Resources Limited), South Korea (Peninsula Mines Limited) and Western Australia (Aurora Minerals Limited).
Highlights:
Highlights from the September 2015 quarter are as follows: Predictive Discovery (Predictive)
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Within the Bonsiega tenements and close to the Bongou
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Widespread gold anomalism reported from rock chip and soil sampling in the Kokoumbo permit in Côte D'Ivoire by Joint Venture partner, Toro Gold Limited.P3
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Within the Korongou tenements, Eastern Burkina Faso, an Exploration Target was calculated at 7.95 to 9.72 million tonnes averaging between 1.8 and 2.2g/t Au, for 500,000 to 611,000 oz of gold.G1,
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The Korongou tenements are located along strike from PDI's Bongou Resource and proximal Exploration Target.
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Diamond core drilling commenced at Daehwa supported by funding from the Korea Resources Corporation (KORES) D1.
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Planning for a Diamond drill program at the Company's base and precious metal Osu project is ongoing.
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Aurora cash at bank ~$4.3M (parent) and ~$4.8M (consolidated group) at end of quarter.
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Value of cash and investments as at 30 June 2015 ~$7M (~6c/share).
Resource, Eastern Burkina Faso, an Exploration Target was calculated at 9.4 to 10.4 million tonnes averaging between 1.5 and 1.7g/t Au, for 460,000 to 530,000 oz of gold. Subject to funding, follow-up drilling in the next field season will aim to delineate new resources to add to the Bongou Resource.P1,P2
Golden Rim Resources (Golden Rim)
Peninsula Mines (Peninsula)
Corporate
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A table of Aurora's subsidiary and associate company investments and market valuations as at 30 September 2015 is shown below.
Aurora Minerals Group Investments
Aurora Minerals Group Investments
Shares (M)
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%
Interest
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Price
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Mkt Val
$M
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Totals
$M
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NTA
c/share
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Golden Rim
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193
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13.4%
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$0.004
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$0.8
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Predictive Discovery
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286
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43.9%
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$0.003
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$0.9
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Peninsula Mines
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79
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37.5%
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$0.006
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$0.5
$0.6
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- Loan
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Subtotal
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$2.7
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$2.7
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Total value of investments
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2.3
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Cash as at September 2015
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$4.2
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3.6
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Total NTA
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$7.0
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6.0
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Value of Cash and investments approximately 6c per share.
West African Exploration & Development Portfolio
Burkina Faso is an emerging West African country that contains large areas of the prospective, relatively unexplored, Birimian age greenstone belts. A series of large gold discoveries have been made in Burkina Faso over the past decade, eight of which are now in production.
Predictive Discovery (Aurora 43.9%)
Predictive's key project, Bonsiega, covers approximately 100km of strike length in the Samira Hill greenstone belt, situated in the north east of the country and along strike from the Samira Hill gold mine, just inside the Niger border. Predictive has undertaken several phases of exploration on this project, including drilling, intersecting significant gold mineralisation and delineated an Indicated Mineral Resource at the Bongou Prospect.P4,P5 This activity directly complements Aurora's earlier investment in Golden Rim. Both companies have exciting gold projects in Burkina Faso and share a common interest in exploring the Samira Hill greenstone belt in Eastern Burkina (Figure 1).
Predictive's tenement position and that of Golden Rim is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Burkina Faso Map showing Predictive Discovery (blue) and Golden Rim (red) exploration permits on the Samira Hill and Sebba Greenstone Belts
Predictive remains focused on identifying additional, high-grade gold deposits within trucking distance of the Bongou deposit in order to achieve its aim of establishing a highly profitable, long-lived mining operation in the area. There is substantial exploration potential to achieve this, both in the immediate area around Bongou and a little further afield within the well mineralised permit group that makes up the Bonseiga Project.
Following a successful shallow RC drilling program completed mid-year, results of which were announced in July 2015P6, Predictive estimated an Exploration Target for several mineralised zones within approximately 10km of its Bongou Resource.P2
Predictive Discovery Limited (ASX:PDI) has calculated an Exploration Target on drilled prospects exclusive of but within 10km of the Bongou gold deposit (2.2 million tonnes at 2.6 g/t Au totalling 184,000oz in the Inferred and Indicated Mineral Resource categories including 136,000oz at 3.8g/t Au; ASX release dated 4 September, 2014).
The Exploration Target detailed in the following table is estimated to be in a range of 9.4 to 10.4 million tonnes averaging between approximately 1.5 to 1.7 g/t Au and containing approximately 460,000 to 563,000 ounces of gold, as follows:
Bonsiega Exploration Target EstimationP2
Prospect Names
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Million Tonnes
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Gold Grade (g/t)
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Ounces Gold
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(see Figure 2 for locations)
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Lower estimate
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Higher estimate
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Lower estimate
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Higher estimate
|
Lower estimate
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Higher estimate
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Dave
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6.71
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7.41
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1.49
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1.65
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322,000
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394,000
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Laterite Hill
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1.48
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1.63
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1.62
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1.79
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77,000
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94,000
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Near Bongou (W2/W8)
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0.27
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0.30
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1.57
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1.74
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14,000
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17,000
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Prospect 71
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0.68
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0.75
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1.21
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1.33
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26,000
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32,000
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Target 92
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0.23
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0.26
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2.88
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3.18
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21,000
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26,000
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Totals
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9.37
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10.35
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1.53
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1.69
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460,000
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563,000
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Data and parameters used in calculating this Exploration Target were as follows: Data:
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Gold intercepts from 291 reverse circulation holes, 4 air core holes and 5 Diamond drill holes2 were used in the calculation.
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The holes were mostly drilled on lines spaced from 50m to 100m apart, with a spacing along the lines ranging from 10m to 50m.
Parameters:
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0.5 g/t gold cut-off grade;
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Minimum downhole intercept width of 2m and a minimum grade times width intercept of 2g*m;
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Minimum internal waste of 3m except for a few holes where it was clear that the holes had drilled almost down-dip and where the inclusion of larger down-hole intervals of internal waste made geological sense;
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Maximum of 100m strike extent from drill holes (where the continuity of the mineralisation is supported by mapping and/or the location of artisanal workings and/or anomalous auger results);
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Maximum of 70m vertical extent below surface;
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Dry bulk density estimates as follows:
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Fresh felsic to intermediate rocks including granite and granodiorite: 2.7
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The calculation was carried out using a cross sectional method with volumes projected half way to the next hole (on the section) or half way to the next section to a maximum distance of 100m (along strike).
The calculation was restricted to prospects for which there is good evidence of mineralisation orientation and continuity. Most of these prospects are open along strike and at depth. A number of other isolated gold intercepts within 10km of Bongou were excluded, so there is significant potential to expand the Exploration Target further within range of PDI's own drilling.