Dr. Keith Barron, commented, “Because of the proximity of Aurania’s Crunchy Hill, Latorre, and Yawi epithermal prospects, I believe that the gold coming from the small alluvial gold mine near Patuca has its ultimate origin from the Aurania concessions.  Cristian Vallejo has been retained to provide us guidance in this respect, using his knowledge of sedimentology.”

Dr. Vallejo is an Ecuadorian national and a Geologist with twenty-two years experience in the mining/oil industry and academia.  During his PhD at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH-Zurich) he worked on the geology of the Oriente Basin of Ecuador and the geodynamic evolution of the Western Cordillera of Ecuador and Colombia.  In these studies, he applied field mapping, sedimentology, organic matter analysis, radiometric dating of igneous rocks, isotope geochemistry and provenance analysis.

After finishing his PhD he worked for two years as Project Manager of Salazar Resources in the Curipamba Project, being part of the team that discovered the El Domo Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide deposit (VMS), currently in the mine construction phase.

During the last twelve years he has worked as a consultant for the oil industry in the geological modelling of the main oil fields of the Oriente Basin of Ecuador, Putumayo, Guajira and Magdalena basins of Colombia and the Peten Basin of Guatemala.  The results of his studies have been published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at international geological meetings. 

Most recently Cristian was lead author on: “Jurassic to Early Paleogene sedimentation in the Amazon region of Ecuador: Implications for the paleogeographic evolution of northwestern South America” published in September 2021.  This work specifically refers to geological mapping he carried out in the Cordillera de Cutucu, within the confines of Aurania’s Lost Cities Project.

Dr. Barron further commented, “Back in 2008 there was only a single small miner’s concession at Patuca where they were recovering gold by hydrauliking hillsides and catching the gold in wooden sluice boxes.  It was a very primitive operation, but it supported about a dozen people.  What impressed me at the time was that this was clearly not a modern placer, but an ancient “paleoplacer” of unknown age.  The source of the gold was not apparent, neither was there a stream or river nearby, though the deposit indicated that a substantial river must have existed there at one time.  More recently, there has been what can only be described as an “explosion” of small miner activity and the majority of flowing streams in the Patuca area have now been staked, but this is a “red herring”.  From a geological perspective, the miners may not appreciate that the gold occurrence, worked since 2008, is a fossil system.  They are however recovering small amounts of “second or third cycle” gold; in other words, capturing gold from erosion of this paleoplacer and others nearby. 

On a greater scale however, I believe Cristian is Ecuador’s authority on the Cutucu Basin, which contains Aurania’s copper-silver and zinc-silver-lead prospects hosted in sediments at Tsenken and Tiria-Shimpia.  Due to his enormous experience in stratigraphy and sedimentology in the area he will be a valuable addition to Aurania’s team, and I believe will have much to contribute on these exciting prospects.  For now, he will be examining and evaluating all of Aurania’s information collected to date.” 

Qualified Person

The geological information contained in this news release has been verified and approved by Jean-Paul Pallier, MSc. Mr. Pallier is a designated EurGeol by the European Federation of Geologists and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators. 

About Aurania

Aurania is a mineral exploration company engaged in the identification, evaluation, acquisition and exploration of mineral property interests, with a focus on precious metals and copper in South America.  Its flagship asset, The Lost Cities – Cutucu Project, is located in the Jurassic Metallogenic Belt in the eastern foothills of the Andes mountain range of southeastern Ecuador.

Information on Aurania and technical reports are available at www.aurania.com and www.sedar.com, as well as on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/auranialtd/, Twitter at  https://twitter.com/auranialtd, and LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/aurania-resources-ltd-.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may contain forward-looking information that involves substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties, most of which are beyond the control of Aurania. Forward-looking statements include estimates and statements that describe Aurania’s future plans, objectives or goals, including words to the effect that Aurania or its management expects a stated condition or result to occur. Forward-looking statements may be identified by such terms as “believes”, “anticipates”, “expects”, “estimates”, “may”, “could”, “would”, “will”, or “plan”. Since forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Although these statements are based on information currently available to Aurania, Aurania provides no assurance that actual results will meet management’s expectations. Risks, uncertainties and other factors involved with forward-looking information could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forward looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to Aurania’s objectives, goals or future plans, statements, exploration results, potential mineralization, the corporation’s portfolio, treasury, management team and enhanced capital markets profile, the estimation of mineral resources, exploration, timing of the commencement of operations and estimates of market conditions. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, failure to identify mineral resources, failure to convert estimated mineral resources to reserves, the inability to complete a feasibility study which recommends a production decision, the preliminary nature of metallurgical test results, delays in obtaining or failures to obtain required governmental, regulatory, environmental or other project approvals, political risks, inability to fulfill the duty to accommodate indigenous peoples, uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, changes in equity markets, inflation, changes in exchange rates, fluctuations in commodity prices, delays in the development of projects, capital and operating costs varying significantly from estimates and the other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry, the effects of COVID-19 on the business of the Company including but not limited to the effects of COVID-19 on the price of commodities, capital market conditions, restrictions on labour and international travel and supply chains, and those risks set out in Aurania’s public documents filed on SEDAR. Although Aurania believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. Aurania disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law.