Aura Silver Appoints Independent Chairman and Provides Company Update
OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwire) -- 10/09/12 -- Aura Silver Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE: AUU) ("Aura Silver" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that Mr. Nick Tintor has been appointed the Independent Chairman of the Board of Directors of Aura Silver. Mr. Tintor is Managing Director of RG Mining Investments Inc., and President & Chief Executive Officer and a Director of Caracara Silver Inc. as well as Ferrum Americas Mining Inc. From January 2007 to March 2011, Nick acted as the President & CEO and a Director of Homeland Uranium Inc. as well as the President & CEO of Southern Andes Energy Inc. (now amalgamated with Macusani Yellowcake Inc.).
Mr. Tintor is a professional geologist with more than 25 years of experience in the mining industry and has been involved with all aspects of junior mining company management, finance and project acquisition.
Company Update
Prevailing market conditions have made it difficult for small capitalization exploration companies to raise funding for exploration programs. Aura Silver is no exception. Available Company funds are not sufficient to undertake the scale of exploration programs required to advance the Company's projects. As a result, the Company has entered into discussions with outside parties for potential joint ventures on our properties which would allow these partners to earn in to a portion of our projects utilizing their own capital over time. It is believed that such joint venture arrangements will limit shareholder dilution while allowing the Company and our shareholders to benefit from any success generated by the joint venture drill programs.
Aura Silver owns or controls two large land positions in two properties under consideration, our 100% owned Greyhound property in Nunavut, Canada comprises over 55,000 hectares in total and our 70% owned East Taviche and Alma Delia properties in Oaxaca Mexico comprise over 46,000 hectares. Both projects have drill ready gold and silver targets.
The Company has had success with its drilling programs at the Taviche, Mexico project which to date have outlined small 43-101 compliant inferred gold and silver resources. Moreover, there is enough geological evidence to suggest the mineralized system could be expanded with further deeper drilling.
At Greyhound, in addition to having identified high-grade surface gold and silver targets which remain untested, the most recent geochemical analysis indicates our previous drill program was undertaken some 500 metres south-west of the most likely sources of the gold and two of the silver targets. It is anticipated that these prospects will provide considerable excitement when drilling recommences.
About The Greyhound, Nunavut Property
Since staking the initial property position in 2006, progress has continued at a rapid pace with numerous completed airborne and ground geophysical surveys and ground prospecting. Prospecting has uncovered numerous mineral showings containing both precious and base-metal content with spectacular assay values up to 28.2 g/t gold, 5,380 g/t silver, 8.2% lead, 18.5% zinc and 9.2% copper. With a focus on VMS (volcanic massive sulphides) deposits the Company carried out a drilling campaign in 2010 testing airborne VTEM conductors, all of which proved to reflect the presence of graphite. The source of the high-grade base metal prospects to the north of Aura Lake therefore remains unexplained but numerous conductive bodies underlying water have yet to be drill tested.
During 2010, additional prospecting and soil sampling uncovered a potential four kilometre long corridor extending south from the original gold showing on the east shore of Aura Lake. Together, the gold enriched rock samples averaged 14.8 g/t Au and the silver rich samples averaged 1,472 g/t Ag. Over 80% of the soil samples are above background values. An induced polarization survey was carried out over a portion of this corridor. Results indicate several high chargeability anomalies co-incident with the soils and the high-grade rocks.
In addition to this defined corridor, broad zones of extensively carbonatized ultramafic rocks ("green carbonate") containing disseminated sulphides, including traces of arsenopyrite and chalcopyrite were intersected in drill core to the north of Aura Lake. This alteration is strongly reminiscent of Kirkland Lake style mineralization and further drilling is warranted, likely following a further I.P. survey. In all, the potential for a gold and silver zone appears to be pervasive over an area of several square kilometres.
In 2011, Actlabs of Ancaster, Ontario undertook two biologically based geochemical analyses of the soil sampling previously completed. The results of these organic analyses identified possible source targets for both the high-grade surface samples of gold and of the silver. A large gold target was discovered to the northeast of Aura Lake as well as two silver targets further south. These targets are some 500 metres north-east of the drilling completed during 2011.
The drill targets identified were rated by Actlabs at their highest priority in confidence in comparison to the response from other known deposits. The gold zone to the north east was given the highest rating by Actlabs, the north east and southeast silver zones were given a similarly high rating. These drill targets are highly prospective as supported by the organic geochemical results.
The Actlabs analysis has a history of outstanding performance in the past in terms of locating mineralization in both blind tests and in practice. Actlabs' organic geochemistry and its interpretation have been in existence and refined for over 15 years.
About The East Taviche and Alma Delia, Mexico Properties
In the over five year history of our exploration programs at Taviche, the Taviche JV has had the greatest success at Higo Blanco on East Taviche and Alma Delia. At Higo Blanco, the Company previously reported the discovery of a high-grade silver zone extending over 300 metres of strike length; the discovery hole HBET-03 returned 269.7 g/t silver equivalent over 34.2 metres and a 50 metre step-out hole (HBET-16) yielded 303.9 g/t silver equivalent over 36.6 metres. In addition to this silver discovery, the Taviche JV has identified a contiguous gold zone with good indications that the gold grades increase with depth. Our mapping shows an on-strike extension of both the silver and gold zones for an additional 1.1 kilometres. This extension has not been thoroughly tested. A detailed summary of Higo Blanco silver and gold assay results is available at the Company's website (www.aurasilver.com, see Taviche Project - Summary of Silver / Gold Assays under Investors / Presentations). During the fall of 2011, a report under National Instrument 43-101 ("43-101") including an initial resource estimate was completed on the Higo Blanco trend which reported an inferred silver resource of 3.3 million ounces (865,000 tonnes at a grade of 119 g/t) and an inferred gold resource of 54,000 ounces (3.3 million tonnes at a grade of 0.51 g/t).
The 43-101 report also included a mineral potential estimate(i) of 6 to 29 million ounces of silver (2 to 6 million tonnes at a grade of 100 to 150 g/t) and 108,000 to 450,000 ounces of gold (10 to 20 million tonnes at a grade of 0.4 to 0.7 g/t). The 43-101 report is available at www.SEDAR.com under the Company's profile and was filed November 16, 2011.
(i) The potential quantity and grade is conceptual in nature, there has been insufficient exploration to date to define this as a mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the target being delineated as a mineral resource.
Paul Pitman, P. Geo. is Aura Silver's qualified person (as defined by National Instrument 43-101) for the Greyhound project and has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information in this press release. Alain Vachon, Geol. Eng, the Company's Vice-President of Exploration is the qualified person (as defined by National Instrument 43-101) for the Taviche, Mexico project and has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information in this press release.
About Aura Silver
Aura Silver is a TSX Venture listed company engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of precious metal prospects in Canada (100% owned Greyhound project) and in Oaxaca, Mexico. Aura Silver has 101,680,844 common shares outstanding.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS:
This press release may contain forward looking statements that are made as of the date hereof and are based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions which involve risks and uncertainties associated with our business including the uncertainty as to whether further exploration will result in the target(s) being delineated as a mineral resource, capital expenditures, operating costs, mineral resources, recovery rates, grades and prices, estimated goals, expansion and growth of the business and operations, the private placement financing activities of the Company, plans and references to the Company's future successes with its business and the economic environment in which the business operates. All such statements are made pursuant to the 'safe harbour' provisions of, and are intended to be forward-looking statements under, applicable Canadian securities legislation. Any statements contained herein that are statements of historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements require us to make assumptions and are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties. We caution readers of this news release not to place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements as a number of factors could cause actual results or conditions to differ materially from current expectations. Please refer to the risks set forth in the Company's most recent annual MD&A and the Company's continuous disclosure documents that can be found on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Aura Silver does not intend, and disclaims any obligation, except as required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXVenture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Contacts:
Robert Boaz
President and CEO
(905) 403-8010
boaz@aurasilver.com
www.aurasilver.com