Launi

Overview

Aurion’s wholly owned Launi Property consists of two blocks, Launi East and Launi West with a combined area of approximately 14,400 hectares. Launi East has no record of prior exploration or mining licenses. Paved highway and all-weather gravel roads provide easy access to the property which is located 8-10 km south of the Risti Property and 10 km northwest of the municipality of Sodankylä.

Launi East Property

The Launi East Property covers an area approximately 4,300 hectares that has not been explored prior to Aurion. The exploration license for the Launi East area was granted in December 2018.

The major regional shear structure, the Sirkka Shear Zone or its splay, is interpreted to traverse across the property. The arcuate stratigraphy on the Launi East property includes a folded and faulted package of siliceous sandstones intercalated with wackes and siltstones, mafic to intermediate volcanic and intrusive sequences and late granitoid intrusions.

Prospecting and mapping have resulted in the discovery of multiple gold-bearing zones, including among others, the Christmas Deformation Zone, Midsommer, Bonanza, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Stubley and Hinge Zone prospects, in a 5.5 by 1.0 km area parallel to and within 1 km to the west of the Sirkka Shear Zone. Widespread fuchsite, tourmaline, sericite and iron-carbonate bedrock alteration along with abundant quartz veining is observed within silicified sandstone or intermediate volcanics. Visible gold is observed in quartz veins and mineralized host rocks. Mineralized zones at Launi East appear to show lateral continuity along strike across the property, and individual zones can be traced for up to 300 m. All prospects are at an early stage of evaluation, and the majority of the Launi East area, particularly areas dominated by mafic and ultramafic rocks, have not yet been explored due to lack of surface exposure.

Approximately 2,300 samples have been collected from boulders, sub-crops and outcrops assaying up to 709 g/t Au with an average grade of 4.20 g/t Au. Other exploration activities have included trenching, geophysical surveys, till sampling and diamond core drilling.

A total of 58 holes for 8,445.6 m primarily utilizing a small capacity “scout” drill rig have been drilled with most holes located in a 1.0 by 1.5 km area in the northern portion of the property. The main drill targets have been the Hinge Zone, Christmas Deformation Zone, Midsommer and Bonanza. The majority of the drill holes have intersected zones of gold mineralization and identified several envelopes of near-surface gold mineralization. Multiple gold bearing veins have been intersected in a >300 m wide by >1.0 km long corridor at the Christmas Deformation Zone. At the Hinge Zone, where drilling targeted blind geophysical anomalies, high-grade near-surface gold was intersected in a fault zone returning assays up to 30.70 g/t Au and 8.65 g/t Au and in a magnetic volcanogenic sediment unit returning an intercept of 3.05 g/t Au over 5.30 m. The Hinge Zone target has a strike length of over 1 km.

Channel sampling highlights from Launi East:

  • 27.01 g/t Au over 1.77 m (LNT1904, Christmas Deformation Zone)
  • 14.76 g/t Au over 2.95 m (LNT1904, Christmas Deformation Zone)
  • 10.81 g/t Au over 3.11 m (LNT1904, Christmas Deformation Zone)
  • 39.50 g/t Au over 0.56 m (BZT1901, Bonanza)
  • 29.00 g/t Au over 0.44 m (BZT1901, Bonanza)
  • 19.50 g/t Au over 0.77 m (BZT1901, Bonanza)

Drilling highlights from Launi East:

  • 63.90 g/t Au over 0.37 m from 260.83 m (LN20014 Christmas Deformation zone)
  • 5.50 g/t Au over 0.40 m from 78.50 m (LN20008 Christmas Deformation zone)
  • 3.05 g/t Au over 5.30 m from 106.50 m (LN20050 Hinge Zone)
  • 8.65 g/t Au over 0.55 m from 28.40 m (LN20042 Hinge Zone)

Exploration activities

During the twelve months ended December 31, 2020, the Company conducted two drilling campaigns at the Launi East property with 51 holes totalling 6,909 m. 37 holes (4,115 m) were drilled using a small, limited capacity “scout” drill rig, and 14 holes using a more powerful drill rig. The first reconnaissance drilling program was designed to test multiple targets and successfully intersected near-surface, high-grade gold mineralization on several of these targets (Jul 27, 2020 Press release) The second program was mainly a follow up program at the Hinge Zone target (Dec 3, 2020 Press release).

Heavy mineral sampling (87 locations) was conducted in several target areas within the Launi East Property. Both pan and Knelson preconcentration sampling revealed similar anomaly patterns. 35 out of 58 Knelson samples returned gold grain counts higher than 30 grains (max 820 grains) indicating the highly gold anomalous nature of the area. Results identified a new area of gold mineralised quartz veins at Lakijänkä and indicate the potential continuation of the gold mineralisation north of the Midsommer target and south of the Bonanza target.

Four trenches (total length 303 m) were excavated late in the summer season in the Lakijänkä area located approximately 1,000 m southwest from the Hinge Zone target. Individual grab samples collected from the trenches returned elevated gold grades up to 2.77 g/t.