Curibaya

Overview and Highlights

The Curibaya property comprises of approximately 11,000 hectares, which includes the 2019 acquisitions of the Sambalay and Salvador concessions. The project is situated in a copper porphyry belt that hosts some of Peru’s largest porphyry deposits, including Freeport McMoRan’s Cerro Verde deposit, Southern Copper’s Cuajone and Toquepala deposits and Anglo American’s Quellaveco deposit. The project also covers the regional Incapuquio fault zone and subsidiary structures, which are interpreted as one of the fundamental controls for both epithermal and porphyry styles of mineralization within the region. Importantly, the licenses host a number of cross structures to the Incapuquio fault zone that are considered highly prospective. Initial surface sampling programs at Curibaya have returned numerous high-grade samples of silver, gold and copper over a four-kilometer by four-kilometer alteration system.

The Curibaya Project is located 48 km north-northeast of the provincial capital, Tacna, and is accessible by road in 2.5 hours.

For Curibaya related news: Curibaya News Releases

Exploration

Auryn’s 2020 mapping and sampling program identified a new zone of mineralization, approximately one kilometer northeast of previous sampling, with grades of up to 946 g/t silver and 1.96 g/t gold. In addition, a float sample found 800 meters northeast of the sampled veins ran 42.6 g/t gold and 9,180 g/t silver. Through geological mapping, a series of rhyolite to dacite flow dome complexes has been identified, and Auryn’s technical team believes this is the source for the widespread, high-grade precious metal veins sampled to-date –now across a 4 x 4 kilometer alteration system. Rock grab sample highlights are shown below.

The high-grade precious metal veins sampled to-date on the project range in width from five centimeters to one meter and are situated in north – south corridors radiating from the identified flow dome complexes. The sampled veins are primarily situated in the overlying volcanic sequence above the flow dome complexes and provide a good indication of the metal budget; however, are not the target themselves. Auryn believes the veins represent a high-level dispersion of a robust precious metal system that is situated along the margins of the dome complexes at shallow depths. These flow dome complexes provide a geological mechanism to concentrate fluid flow where potential geologic targets include high-grade veins, vein stockwork zones and silicified hydrothermal breccias that would be situated along the margins of the domes.

Auryn’s initial rock sampling program (2019) at Curibaya encountered high-grade silver and gold throughout a 1.5 kilometer by 3 kilometer quartz – sericite – pyrite alteration system. Additional results then expanded this high-grade zone by 1.5 km to the west. Of the samples taken, more than 20 were above 200 g/t silver and multiple results were over 1,500 g/t silver, including one sample of 7,990 g/t silver, and up to 17.65 g/t gold and 6.97% copper were also sampled. This program also demonstrated that the mineralization hosted within veins and stock work vein systems was more extensive than historical results suggested, as vein sets were sampled throughout the alteration system thereby confirming the high-grade nature of silver and gold mineralization.

Table 1: 2019 Rock sampling results

Significant Rock Sample Highlights 2019

The mineralization encountered throughout the quartz – sericite – pyrite alteration system has shown strong average grades of silver and gold over 640 rock samples. Combining both historical and current sampling, the alteration system is averaging 72.9 g/t silver and 0.19 g/t gold. The high average grades, observed in both silver and gold over the 4.5 km² alteration system, demonstrate the strength and potential endowment of the mineralized system. At this early stage, Auryn’s technical team believes there are both precious metal intermediate sulphidation epithermal and copper porphyry targets.

Auryn’s very first exploration efforts at Curibaya consisted of a cyanide leach stream sediment survey that identified a cluster of gold & copper anomalies in contiguous drainage basins within the SW portion of the claim block spanning an area of approximately 50 square kilometres. These anomalies were the first stage of developing Cu/Au porphyry and Au epithermal targets.

Mineralization within the Sambalay and Salvador concessions is hosted within the Toquepala volcanic sequence and the Gramadal limestone. Specifically, there are three defined zones of mineralization on the acquired concessions: Aqua del Milagro, Mina Tapial and Sambalay Chico. The Aqua del Milagro and Mina Tapial zones cover an area of 2 km by 1 km and 900 meters by 100 meters, respectively. They are both interpreted to represent a potential intermediate sulphidation system due to the presence of high-grade gold and silver samples, strong silica clay alteration and associated silica vein stockworks. Auryn’s technical team believes that the observed intermediate sulphidation style of mineralization provides an exploration target analogous to Buenaventura’s San Gabriel deposit (1.4 million gold ounces at 5.7 g/t measured and indicated and 0.8 million gold ounces at 4.6 g/t inferred)¹.

Samples from the Aqua del Milagro zone contain a high gold-silver content, with values up to 14,180 g/t silver and 23.6 g/t gold. Samples from the Minas Tapial epithermal veins contain both high-grade gold-silver as well as copper, with values up to 15.1 g/t gold, 2,780 g/t silver and 13.5% copper.

The third defined zone of mineralization, Sambalay Chico, is situated along an east – west trending structural corridor parallel to the Incapuiqo regional fault. The high-grade copper mineralization extends over an 800-meter strike length and is hosted in three parallel breccia bodies that are between 1.5 meters and 8 meters in thickness. Samples from the breccia bodies have copper values up 10.85% and strongly demonstrate the potential for copper porphyry mineralization at depth.

Table 1: Historical rock samples from the Sambalay and Salvador concessions

Historical Rock Samples