Auryn/Medinah - 2022 - 1st Half General Discussion

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Yup. Enami won’t provide the copper credits if they are processing/focused on the gold as it would require a different recovery circuit. AUMC will need something along the lines of the Gekko Systems used in the New Afton Mine.

It ain’t cheap. I recently priced out a simple gravity/floatation circuit using Gekko in the Northern Territory of Australia for a relatively small scale project (0.5 million tonnes per annum) and the engineering report came in 50% above estimates ($100M). Inflation is crushing the miners right now (especially as gold prices haven’t gone up with almost every other commodity).

An onsite plant would be a game changer for AUMC but they need to have proven reserves and a feasibility study before considering financing options. Permitting shouldn’t take more than 18 months and, if there is actually 5%+ copper (which is impossible to know at this point) there could be some good options for an offtake financing.

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DoneDeal

I’ll post a new chart tomorrow. This guy is pretty good… Human nature never changes - YouTube

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Hi EZ,

As I interpret it, the question you asked several days ago is whether or not that 15.8 gpt gold grade with 5.3% Cu (about 24 gpt “gold equivalent) is REPRESENTATIVE of the ore that has been or is about to be mined out of the DL1 Vein. Upcoming Auryn assays and Auryn production reports should tell the story. The reality is that the average “gold equivalent“ grade for the first decade or so of production is going to be a lot higher than the average grade over the mine’s life.

Luis de la Tierra told us to use Meridian/Yamana’s El Penon Mine (arguably a “World Class Deposit”) as a template for the ADL’s future production operations. The average grade there started out at 14 gpt gold. Now, 24 years later, the average grade is 4 gpt and they’re still making money. I’m a little biased (actually a lot), but I think that the evidence available to date suggests that the “gold equivalent” grades at the DL1 Vein will blow the doors off of the El Penon grades. If I had to make my case, it would go something like this.

BASED ON HISTORICAL RESULTS, WHAT GRADE OF “GOLD EQUIVALENT” IS LIKELY TO BE MINED IN THE FIRST SEVERAL YEARS OF PRODUCTION AT THE DL1 VEIN?

  1. The most statistically significant data point we have would have to be the 64 gpt gold average grade that SMFL (artisanal miners) achieved from 1940 to 1970 at the DL1 Vein. The average silver grade came in at 51 gpt silver and they also had 0.2% Cu. Thirty years is a very long period of time to average that high of a gold grade and this was achieved under artisanal mining conditions. These numbers come from ENAMI and their predecessor “Caja de Credito Minera” or “CCM”. The tailings piles and dumps remaining to this day average 5.25 gpt gold which illustrates how inefficient the mining process was back then. This would put the head grade closer to 70 gpt gold. When SMFL added a crude 4-cell flotation system, they were able to get the grade up to an average of 92 gpt gold.

  2. It should be noted that there was no SHINY YELLOW STUFF (SYS), that may or may not be ”visible gold”, present in these older workings from SMFL as per ACA Howe. In the Antonino Adit, the SYS is all over the place but keep in mind that it might be gold, or pyrite and/or chalcopyrite that can all present in a similar fashion. OBSERVATION: The copper grades have gone up enormously from the ore near surface (0.2%) that SMFL was mining. Why might this be? It’s no doubt associated with SUPERGENE ENRICHMENT (SGE) of ore, now hanging out at the level of the VARIOUS LEVELS of the old/”paleo-“water table” over the last 91 million years. These SGE zones can be vertically extensive to the tune of hundreds of meters. Why are they so vertically extensive? It’s because over the course of the 91 million years of ore genesis involved at the ADL, the water table has varied in its location. How do you know if the SGE process has been at work? What happens is the predominant form of copper i.e. chalcopyrite which is 34% copper, gets “replaced” by higher octane forms of copper like “bornite”, which is 63% Cu, “covellite”, which is 66% Cu, and “chalcocite” which is 80% Cu. These 64 gpt grades seem too high, are they reliable? The best test might be to go to the spot that marks where SMFL ended their exploitation efforts and see what the grades are where they left off. This would be at the intersection of Shaft A and Level 2. What did Auryn’s recent sampling of that shaft (over its 24-meter vertical extent) reveal? See point #7 below. (The numbers were huge.) The 64 gpt gold only (not “gold equivalent”) grades are very reliable. The “CCM” bank that bankrolled SMFL’s operations was constantly on site and their geoscientists, especially two geoscientists named Weisberg and Jeraldo, sampled the heck out of the old DL1 Vein operations and came up with similar numbers.

  3. The gold that SMFL was mining over that 30-year span was extremely “fine” and not visible to the naked eye (ACA Howe report). It was so fine that they used a “minus 200 Tyler mesh size” to process it. The 64 gpt gold grade tells us that there was a LOT OF GOLD present but it was in tiny little invisible to the human eye specks. The average size was .02 to .15 mm (ACA Howe). The question that begs to be asked is this: Can we assume that this 64 gpt invisible gold extends to depth and we can add to that number the gold present that is “visible gold”? My answer would be to wait for a “representative” sampling involving a large suite of assays but I don’t think you can add them up arithmetically. Larger particles of gold might tend to coalesce with other larger samples of gold and form a “colloid” and drop out of solution on the spot due to their density. Tiny particles might have a tendency to stay afloat and advance further upwards in the vertical column of rocks. Eventually these once scalding-hot hydrothermal mixtures of fluids and gases, even if they’re only tiny specks of gold, are going to cool near the surface and deposit their metallic contents on site. One of the favorite sites is within the interstices/caves within a silicate known as “quartz” which loves to provide a “trap” to allow dissolved gold to cool and precipitate out of solution on the spot.

  4. Auryn sent in a 9-tonne sample from the old Fortuna Mine/DL1 Vein as a “test production run” which averaged 45 gpt gold. These “tests” have provided Enami’s lab with the data to design the most efficient extraction protocol. Auryn has no “beneficiation” equipment on site. However, visual sorting may have been done and only the apparently more mineralized ore may have been shipped. I seriously doubt this because this would have thrown off the metallurgical results as to determining the most efficient way to treat the ore that is about to be shipped. This sample came from unconsolidated ore in which no blasting was needed. I would assume this was from a fault structure.

  5. An Auryn press release noted that a 54-tonne sample was mined which sampled out at “over 2 ounces” average gold content. This represents “over 62 gpt” gold. A picture of this stockpiled ore was shown on the website with Director Italo Volante pictured behind it. As of Jan. 7, 2022, it does not appear that this had been shipped yet. No copper or silver numbers were given.

  6. Auryn made an intersection in the Antonino Adit which sampled out at 15.8 gpt gold and 5.3% copper. The copper contribution comes in at 9 gpt gold equivalent. Thus, this represents about 24.8 gpt “gold equivalent”. I did not factor in the silver contribution. Kevin brought up the point that after securing and shipping this ore, management opted to bypass further production from this site and continue forward to hopefully intersect the DL1 Vein. I take this to mean that management was not impressed with the reported numbers. The point should be made that a young producer is obviously going to commence serious production from the fattest and richest veins first. They may or may not ever return to a site like this. Although wonderful grades by most standards, I would not think of them as being “representative” of the ore Auryn will be shipping to Enami or processing on site.

  7. A 48-tonne sample was processed by Enami which came back at 15 gpt gold and 3% copper. This sample came from the “splays/ramifications” presumed to be coming off of the DL1 Vein. The check for over $36,000 for this 3-truckload shipment is due in Jan. of 2022. 3% copper adds about 5 gpt “gold equivalent” so this sample comes in at about 20 gpt “gold equivalent” plus the silver. Again, this is not very impressive by the DL1 Vein’s standards. The question begging to be asked is why do the grades from the DL1 Vein proper seem to be so much higher than those from the “splays”.

  8. 16 samples were taken from the intersection of Shaft A and Level 2 of the Fortuna Mine/DL1 Vein. This is, unfortunately for SMFL, the spot where they ceased operations heading in a NNW direction. 11 came in at over 20 gpt gold, three at over 100 gpt gold and one at 1,220 gpt gold. If you take the arithmetic average of all 16 samples it comes in at an average of 116 gpt gold. If you toss out the 1,220 as a fluke sample, then the average becomes 40.6 gpt gold. Thus, the realistic “average” at this particular site, would be somewhere in between 40 and 116 gpt gold. But again, if all other factors are equal, then this might present as a likely production site. These samples are from the DL1 Vein proper and not the “splays”. I think we can appreciate why management is so intent on intersecting the DL1 Vein proper.

  9. On July 6, 2021 management put out a press release citing that “All indications are that BOTH the grades and the widths of the veins were increasing with depth.” This is the hallmark of a “mesothermal vein system”.

  10. On 1/3/21 Auryn made a PR stating: “Systematic laboratory sample results from the existing mine workings (of SMFL near the surface of the DL1 Vein) indicate consistent and good quality of gold from the main vein, named Don Luis (averaging over 85 g/ton Au)“. This “systematic lab sampling” came from the DL1 Vein proper and not the splays.

  11. Vein widths are important. Up near surface, the DL1 Vein averaged in between 0.15 and 0.4 meters in width (ACA Howe). The artisanal miners probably working with a pick ax and donkey, could selectively mine only the juiciest looking ore and leave the nonmineralized wall rock alone. The flip side of that argument is that nothing looked that juicy since the gold was invisible. Auryn, on the other hand, needs to take out a full 3 to 4 meters width in order to fit their machinery. The new wheel loader has a 2.56-meter-wide bucket. If that 3 or so meter-wide working face is all mineralized then that’s great and there won’t be much grade dilution associated with any nonmineralized wall rock. If, once intersected, the DL1 Vein is only 1-meter wide then Auryn’s head grade will be “diluted” by the wall rock IF IT IS BARREN wall rock. Keep in mind that the vein is already known to be widening with depth.

I think the key point to be made is that the grades cited above occurred BEFORE a striking change in the WIDTH AND APPEARANCE of the mineralization was witnessed at about the 100-meter penetration depth of the Antonino Adit. All of a sudden, the series of pictures of the working face of the adit prior to a blast was filled with SHINY YELLOW STUFF (SYS) that may or may not be “visual gold”. Historically, the 64 gpt gold produced for 30 years had no visible gold. The gold mined for all of those years was extremely fine in nature and invisible to the naked eye. What we don’t know is if that super-fine gold grading out at 64 gpt gold near surface continues on to depth and is augmented by this new SYS. Wait for the assays. It is important to appreciate that gold, pyrite and chalcopyrite can all take on a similar appearance as SHINY YELLOW STUFF. From a reference point of view, it should be stated that the average gold grade being mined worldwide is about 7 gpt gold in underground workings.

The evidence for extremely high-grade copper, no doubt as part of a SUPERGENE ENRICHMENT (SGE) ZONE, is beyond compelling. That’s why we need to speak in terms of “gold equivalent” grades. The norm in underground gold operations is to have maybe 7 gpt gold accompanied by maybe a 0.1% copper component. As I understand it, Enami does not offer a “by-product credit” for the copper in a scenario like this.

ON THAT SHIPMENT IN WHICH ENAMI CUT A CHECK FOR $36,207 FOR 48 TONNES OF 15 GPT GOLD, 31 GPT SILVER AND 3% COPPER, DID AURYN GET PAID FOR THE 3% COPPER?

Based on a price of gold of $1,800 per ounce, 48 tonnes of 15 gpt gold would have a gross value of 48 tonnes times 15 grams equals 720 grams of gold divided by 31.1 grams per ounce equals 23.15 ounces of gold gross. This would have a gross value of $41,672. If there was no payment for the copper then Enami’s fee would have been $5465 to process the ore. This represents a modest 13% fee.

48 tonnes of 3% copper based on a copper price of $4.40 per pound ($9,856 per Tonne) would be a gross value of $14,192. When added to the gross value of the gold you’d get a combined gross value of $55,864. Under this scenario, Enami’s fee would have been $19,657 out of $55,864 equaling 35%.

Since the press release cited:” On November 30, 2021, AURYN received a pre-liquidation value from ENAMI for the 48 tons shipped. The accepted total was 15 g/t Au, 31g/t Ag, and 3% Cu with an anticipated liquidation value of $36,207 “, then either Enami paid for the copper and their fee was about 35% or they did not pay for the copper and their fee was only 13%. I’m going to guess that a 3% copper grade was robust enough to get paid for. If the copper grade was only 0.1% then I doubt they would have been paid for it. From what I understand, their policy is to pay “by product credits” for any amount of copper as long as the gold grade exceeds 25 gpt gold. With the gold grades having been historically shown at the DL1 Vein proper, my gut is that Auryn will be paid for all copper production. We need to follow through on this as the shipments are made and the results announced.

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Not discounting your narrative, BB. It is excellent, thank you!
But I do have a question. Correct me if I’m wrong on this. My recollection is accounts of this 64 gpt gold was as a 64 gpt gold concentrate, which makes sense if it was the fine invisible gold. What process was being used to concentrate ore with invisible gold back then? Can that same (presumably inexpensive) method be used today?
TIA

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Hi EZ,

From 1952 to 1955, SMFL did put in a crude flotation system to capture more of the sulfides and produce a “concentrate”. They were able to goose up the head grade from 64 gpt to 92 gpt. They still were discarding 5.25 gpt gold in the tailings. Their “crusher” was a donkey pulling an upright mill stone on a pivot over a cement floor. It’s called a “trapiche”.

Auryn ran the metallurgical tests on the DL1 Vein ore quite a while back on how to concentrate the ore most economically. They got the recovery percentage into the high 90’s by a simple gravimetric system called the Sepro-Falconer system. It’s basically an inexpensive centrifuge. The ore is “free-milling” which is a wonderful blessing. Auryn already has a primary crusher on site. Enami prefers a certain mesh size to maximize the extraction regimen their engineers designed from the various “production test runs”.

Before you put in any supplemental crushers or gravimetric devices you want to make sure you have adequate levels of “mill feed” to keep these things busy. Before you do that, they need to access the fresh air from Shaft #4 of the old workings. It has an open chimney above it to feed in fresh air. The fresh air will allow Auryn to simultaneously work on probably 6 to 10 or so working faces. The key is to get rid of the blast residue, exhaust fumes and any noxious gases released by the mining process.

My read is that they’re already teed-up to hit things hard once they access Level 2 of the old workings and Shaft #4. The current new ventilation system is doing fine to advance the adit drifting but when things really get cranking you need lots of fresh air and large fans. Back when Auryn was getting ready to crank up production at the Caren Mine, before sernageomin insisted on 3 separate ventilation chimneys extending all of the way to surface, Maurizio was contemplating producing from something like 13 different levels simultaneously. At the “informational meeting” in Las Vegas, Maurizio made it clear that he wanted to rapidly become a “mid-tier” gold producer.

What I personally am looking forward to is Maurizio procuring a “jumbo” drill rig to rapidly prepare the blast holes into the working faces. This will signify that the game is on. In order to keep one of these busy you need to be simultaneously working a lot of working faces. Now they’re using “jack leg” drills which are OK but nothing compared to a “jumbo”.

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Charts are posted.

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This math is correct. A typical tolling arrangement is based on a per ton basis. Enami will charge anywhere from $100 to $150 per ton to process ore (transportation is often included which is non applicable in this case as AUMC secured a truck). The gross value of the gold was ~$42,000. If the net numbers is $36,207, the tolling cost would have been ~$6,000 or 125 per ton. Smack in the middle of the typical cost range. As is typical with the Enami’s of the world, they are not assigning credits for the copper nor silver, regardless of grade. This could change if AUMC ever reaches enough scale. If AUMC can “guarantee” a large volume of ore over several years they could have an opportunity to enter into a different processing agreement with Enami. Until then Enami won’t make the additional efforts to dedicate a silver/copper recovery circuit (and if they do, they’ll pocket the credits/profits).

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Thank you TR!

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Hi mrb,

I apologize, I just now noticed your request for a comment on the most recent photo of ore from Kevin. I think the key word here is DIFFERENT. It is different than the photos we’ve seen over the last 30 or so meters in the Antonio Adit. I’ve been getting used to all of that bluish-looking bornite high-grade copper and now all of a sudden you only have a little bit of it in the lower right corner.

Now, we’ve got two pretty distinct somewhat parallel veinlets showing a lot of mineralization. A while back, the SHINY YELLOW STUFF (SYS) was more disseminated and centering on somewhat circular arrays of mineralization. The headlamps of the miners were focused on these and the reflection back to the camera was very strong.

This new pattern is more like what we saw in the DL1 Vein proper. Historically, the somewhat tiny specks of gold would be associated with either arsenopyrite or a mixture of pyrite and arsenopyrite. Arsenopyrite is famous for hanging out with high-grade gold composed of very fine particles.

What I’d like to see is a photo of the ore sampled at the intersection of Level 2 and Shaft A of the old workings that came back with the super high grades. Did it look anything like this new sample? We’re in the general neighborhood of this intersection right now. As far as intersecting the DL1 Vein proper, you have to understand this it’s a WHEN and not an IF.

While drifting this Antonino Adit towards the SSW, you have to remember that somewhere around 25 to 30 two-meter-long holes are being filled with ANFO on each working face and being detonated with det cord. An employee standing in Level 2 of the old workings can certainly tell when the blasts from the Antonino Adit are getting closer. If the ore within the vein proper is somewhat unconsolidated, the guys in Level 2 might even get puffs of blast residue when they’re real close which I’m starting to suspect. Unfortunately, GPS doesn’t work in an underground mine setting.

Intersecting the DL1 Vein proper (probably below Level 2 of the old workings) is going to be goal #1. Going upwards vertically (via a raise or an incline) into Level 2 will provide the fresh air needed to simultaneously mine perhaps 6 to 8 working faces. We need to remember that the ore within the DL1 Vein itself is a known commodity. We’ve got all of the production records and the samples taken by CCM and Enami of yet to be mined high-grade ore.

The vein-like material in all of these “splays” off of the DL1 Vein are not a known commodity YET. The sampling and production results are way behind schedule. The frequency of the individual splays increasing as they have is highly suggestive of proximity to the DL1 Vein. Those extremely high-grade results taken from the intersection of Level 2 and Shaft A are from the DL1 VEIN PROPER. These are not “splays”, this is the parent structure that has already shown both GEOLOGICAL CONTINUITY and GRADE CONTINUITY. The samples taken from the intersection of Level 2 and Shaft A represent a wonderful corroboration of the historical grades and a predictor for future grades in that area. Of course, this area is going to be a primary production target.

Once they blast through the DL1 Vein proper, they’ll have a new working face as you look to the SSW and another new working face to the NNE. Then I assume they’re going to go VERTICAL in order to quickly expand the number of working faces. There might be one more horizontal “Level” above the level of the Antonino Adit before they hit the old workings and fresh air. Once you’re into the DL1 Vein proper, they the target becomes these things called “ore shoots”. These are very large 3-dimensional areas where the prerequisites for extremely high-grade mineralization were all present. The grades seen at the Level 2 and Shaft A intersection are highly suggestive especially that 1,220 gpt gold intersection. Keep in mind that during the drifting of the Antonino Adit recently, all of a sudden all of this SHINY YELLOW STUFF (SYS) started appearing when we got in the general neighborhood of the intersection of Level 2 and Shaft A. Coincidence? Who knows?

The locating of the DL1 Vein has definitely taken longer than anticipated. It appears to have uprighted from its 45-degree dip to the NE at surface. In the interim time period, it appears that management has built an impressive course of dominoes all waiting on that first domino (intersecting the DL1 Vein and accessing the ore and the fresh air) to topple.

In the last couple of quarterly updates they’ve cited:
-they’re going to be adding workers and shifts
-they’ll be simultaneously mining multiple working faces
-the plan is still to build their own on-site mill and processing facility
-twice in the most recent quarterly update they cited production ramping up IMMEDIATELY coincident with intersecting the DL1 Vein
-they’ll be blocking out MR/MR
-fully audited financials and an up-listing to a superior trading venue is forthcoming
-the procurement of a drilling jumbo is being studied
-new equipment will be purchased
-camp is being improved
-some of the road improvements recommended by the engineers at the University of San Sebastian have already been completed
-financial forecasts will be announced once the production has ramped up
-Medinah’s 16.1 million AUMC shares will be allocated/distributed once the share price of AUMC has increased so that less shares will need to be sold to pay off any remaining Medinah liabilities

I think it goes without saying that in order to bring about a CHANGE in the current share price and market cap it is necessary for management to bring about CHANGES in the current status quo. It’s interesting on how many of these CHANGES are directly tied to one event i.e. the intersecting of the DL1 Vein.

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Great post Doc! With Gold prices moving up again today 1875 as I type this, it should make the intersection of the DL Vein that much sweeter!

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Mods why is Global Health effects even part of the Mining play? Last time I checked this forum is for Auryn /Mdmn and other mining plays.

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Good point. @cabezon, any objection if we remove the entire thread on that topic?

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I dont see the harm in leaving the thread intact, if no one wants to post then so be it, I think there’s been some reasonable discussion and it keeps this thread out of interference of other topics… moo

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Someone requested that topic, in order to keep that from interfering with the main thread. Unfortunately I trusted them with free rein and didn’t follow it. It was only supposed to be about the economic impact, gold, etc. Sorry to all of you that I let it get out of control. Especially @MikeGold.
I’ll be looking into it, Cabezon

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I think a fair/balanced resolution of this is(was) to close that thread and restrict discussion to investment related matters going forward. (There are plenty of other forums for COVID related discussion.) I think that the Global health thread was important especially at first when we are trying to figure out what the Pandemic might do to our investment but it has turned into a well traveled heated discussion between the two main factions about how to address the Pandemic offering little value to others. COVID misinformation is a HUGE problem in the US/elsewhere and we shouldn’t be contributing it. I will continue to post occasionally especially when Auryn finally reaches their Don Luis target. Thanks.

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Thank you Mike for staying! You bring a lot of valuable information to this board. For that I thank you! Hope we can all celebrate soon when this thing pops!

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Regarding your recent post explanaing “SuperGene Enrichment” zones (SGE zone); Do you expect AUMC will comment or touch upon this topic and finding identified in the photos within the Antonino Adit? It’s preliminary at this point, but it’s much more information than the preliminary surface samples on the Pegaso Nero back in early 2016. That surface sampling had several mid-tier/majors quite interested a few years back.

The setback revealed later in 2016 that originally damaged shareholders cannot be overemphasized. The possibility on more news or discovery of significant SGE zones bodes very promising for the very long-range success and potential partnerships with some mid-tiers or majors. I expect AUMC will be moving up to the OTCQB or OTCBX as the next significant news before we are shopping out any new partnerships beyond the December 2023 timeline set by Hochschild’s Joint Venture option. We should know where Hochschild stands prior to that date. AUMC will be at a much better share price by then with real cash flow and a much greater budget for some possible exploration on the PN. Just recalling this shareholder update.

Preliminary Exploration at Pegaso Nero Target Suggests the Discovery of a Copper Molybdenum Porphyry System within the Altos de Lipangue Project.

Feb 3, 2016

Rock sampling returned up to 1.2% Cu , 860 ppm Mo and 0.12 g/t Au in the hydrothermal breccia. Re/Os dating in the breccia returned 91 ± 0.4 Ma, representing a Cretaceous Porphyry System similar to Andacollo Mine and others.

Preliminary Exploration at Pegaso Nero Target Suggests the Discovery of a Copper Molybdenum Porphyry System within the Altos de Lipangue Project. | AURYN Mining Corporation

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A new tweet. Looks like that gallery is updated as well. Visible gold. I see silver too. Cannot wait to see what the DL looks like if this is what we are passing through to hit it.

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Thanks for the new tweet photos WIZ.
In the second and fourth photos, I like all the blue stuff too !
Remember what BB said about bonrite:

[quote=“brecciaboy, post:90, topic:2961”]
The dark blue stuff appears to be bornite. It has been all over the place in the Antonino Adit. Gold loves to hang out near bornite in very high concentrations.
[/quote]

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Part of the reason I think we’re super-close to the DL1 Vein is the 2 newest pictures on the Auryn twitter page. The one with the 2 parallel veinlets shows classical “banding”. You can see the alternating lighter and darker areas. A lot of the time, it’s the darker bands consisting of “ginguro”, that carry the crazy gold grades. I’ll provide a link in a moment to a really good article on high-grade gold associated with “banding”. Each “band” represents a different phase of mineralization from ore-bearing hydrothermal fluids and gases perfusing the host rock. “Banding” is a very good thing.

https://twitter.com/aurynmining/status/1492153844008112130/photo/1

The second link shows some of the best-looking ore I’ve ever seen at the ADL. You’ve got the supergene enriched copper sitting right next to the SHINY YELLOW STUFF. Either of these could carry the insanely high grades that we saw at the intersection of Shaft A and Level 2 which is near where Auryn is in the Antonino Adit currently. DON’T FORGET THE MAGNITUDE AND LOCATION OF THESE SAMPLE ASSAYS.
https://twitter.com/aurynmining/status/1491505889676775430/photo/1

In the effort to intersect the DL1 Vein proper, what’s important is the CHANGE from what we witnessed in the first 100 or so meters of the Antonino Adit. The presentation of this new ore stands head and shoulders above what we’ve been seeing for quite a while. This is not to take away from the other ore which was impressive in its own right. But these were just “splays” off of the parent structure.

As usual, we need to wait on the assays. If the miners accidentally clipped an “ore shoot” associated with the DL1 Vein, then just don’t be surprised if some of the assays come back pretty crazy. Two things to keep in mind, firstly, ore shoots are huge. Secondly, management can start producing from wherever they darn well please. It could take several years to mine out a super high-grade ore shoot. But again, let’s wait for the assays.

One of the photos on the Auryn “gallery” showed 6 pretty good-sized gold nuggets which had the caption “free gold”. This is on the “Don Luis 1” portion of the Auryn website “gallery”. It is photo #12 of 12. Some veins just have a tendency to produce nuggets periodically. A lot of times they occur in these caves within quartz known as a “vug”. That black “sooty” looking stuff covering the nuggets is typically very high-grade silver.

In those 16 samples taken at the junction of Shaft 4 and Level 2, you might recall that the sample that came in at 1,220 gpt gold ALSO HAD OFF THE CHART SILVER NUMBERS AS MIGHT BE EXPECTED IN A TRUE “ORE SHOOT”. Is this 100% diagnostic of an ore shoot, nope, not yet anyways! I suspect that the 1,220 gpt sample might be a statistical outlier that is certainly NOT “representative” of the “run of mine” grade but depending on its vertical and horizontal extent/”continuity” it could certainly increase the average grades of “gold equivalent” measurably.

At the link below you can read about areas of “banding” within veins:

The opening line states: “High-grade ore zones in low-sulfidation epithermal deposits are commonly associated with the occurrence of banded quartz veins. The ore minerals in these veins are heterogeneously distributed and are mostly confined to ginguro bands, which can be identified in hand specimen based on their distinct dark gray to black color.”

Everybody loves the prototypical picture of visible gold within a nice white quartz vein. But quite often, it’s the ugly dark stuff that packs the punch. Note in the article above how they talk about extremely high-grade gold existing in a quartz vein even though it is invisible to the human eye. Also note how the article refers to how the super high-grade gold within this darker “ginguro” stuff IS THE RESULT OF INTENSE BOILING. I think I’ve crammed down your throats the concept of super high-grade gold being associated with “boiling zones” enough so I’ll try to take a break from this (maybe). We forget about how incredibly rare “visible gold” really is and what kind of grades it can carry. Also keep in mind, however, that pyrite and chalcopyrite can present in a similar SHINY YELLOW STUFF (SYS) fashion.

In order to better the odds of the SYS being gold, you need to go to the next level of understanding. Extremely high-grade gold has a predilection to hang out with that bluish bornite stuff ESPECIALLY IN AN AREA THAT DEVELOPED IN A VERY HIGH HEAT ENVIRONMENT i.e. 450-650-degrees C. The highest heat environment in these hydrothermal systems is the area of “potassic alteration”. How do you know if the bornite you’re witnessing is in a very high-heat environment? You look for the most common “signature” of potassic alteration which is “potassium feldspar” or “K-spar” i.e. that salmon-tannish stuff that’s been making an appearance as the blue stuff made its appearance.

Just my luck, while I’m trying to sign off, it looks like we have 11 new photos on the Q-1,2022 section of the Auryn website “gallery”. #33 of 35 jumps out at me. This looks like what I’d call the extremely high-grade gold “trifecta”. You can see what looks like the bluish bornite stuff up high. You can see the salmon-tannish stuff that appears to be high-heat “K-spar” down lower. The SYS on the right side of that veinlet is a nice YELLOW color. Gold is YELLOW. Pyrite (iron sulfide) is a bronzish-yellowish color that can tarnish. Pyrite doesn’t reflect light like gold does. It has cubic crystals that will bounce light off of its flat cubic faces in different directions. Gold is roundish, it will bounce light back right into your face.
Towards the left side of that same veinlet, you can see more of a bronzish reflection. That could be pyrite or arsenopyrite with associated gold. A lot of the gold at the ADL, up higher in the DL1 Vein structure, was associated with arsenopyrite. Again, let’s wait on the grades.

Photo 35 of 35 again looks like the “trifecta” but the shade of blue is very light. This looks like chrysocolla which is 34% Cu while bornite is 63% Cu. Again, you see what appears to be “K-spar”. These recent photos also indicate the same theme i.e. CHANGE as we get closer to the parent structure. Earlier in the adit, the SYS was disseminated and somewhat circular in outline. You can get rid of some of the glare from the headlamps if you look at the photos with your jeweler’s loupe or a magnifying glass.

Now, all of a sudden, the SYS is yellower and more linear in its appearance and is appearing in distinct veinlets.

In the Auryn website’s “gallery” portion under the heading of “2021 Q-4”, in photo # 22 of 32 you can see a good example of “banding”. You can make out 7 distinct “bands” in this sample. This is a close-up view of the ore that Maurizio was pointing to in photo #14 of 32. These pictures were taken back in November of 2021. This marks the point at which the mineralization zone widened out nicely and a lot of apparent supergene enrichment (the blue stuff) started dominating the scene. With Enami we get to add the grade of the copper to the grade of the gold and speak in terms of “gold equivalent” grades. Each 1% in Cu adds about 1.73 grams per tonne in “gold equivalents”. Whether the copper you’re producing is “acid soluble” from oxide copper or “acid insoluble” from copper sulphides, Enami’s “base rate”/”tarifa” is still 2.5% to qualify for payment.

Here is a link to Enami’s current rate sheet for Feb. of 2022:

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