Hi Hulk,
When I saw Robert Mayne-Nicholls’ name as Auryn’s new General Manager it certainly caught my attention. He’s always been known for being somewhat of a “specialist” in MEGA porphyry projects, especially for Antofagasta and the Luksic family. His 3 big projects that I’m aware of are Zaldivar, Los Pelambres, and Collahuasi. These are some of the biggest porphyry mines on the planet. I’m curious to see if there have been some recent advances in Auryn’s copper-moly porphyry prospect (Type 21c) known as the “Pegaso Nero” that might explain this new appointment. Auryn has already had 2 world renowned porphyry specialists on the team, namely Richard Sillitoe and Aquiles Allegria. Several of Auryn’s recent quarterly updates have mentioned that Auryn is broadening out their exploration efforts to more of an ADL Mining District-scale.
For me, the Pegaso Nero copper-moly porphyry prospect has been the one Auryn asset that is long overdue for some type of newsworthy development. At the Auryn “informational meeting” held several years ago in Las Vegas, Maurizio admitted that the Pegaso Nero, as well as the LDM, were way too big for a company like Auryn to tackle by itself. In one of the more recent quarterly updates, in an encrypted fashion, Auryn cited: “To further understand the potential of our site, our team is planning a COMPREHENSIVE EXPLORATION EFFORT (my emphasis). This will involve correlating data with nearby mining districts such as BRONCE PETORCA (to the north) and LA FLORIDA (to the south), specifically targeting regions at 1,550 meters below the Antonino level.”
This elevation would be more in what might be labeled a “porphyry zone” than the current 1,840 meters above sea level where level 3 of the DL2 Mine sits. The 1,840 masl elevation would fit more into an “epithermal zone” elevation category.
Hi also to Mike Gold and CHG,
Wow, what a treat in hearing from the two of you on the same day! Please, both of you, don’t be a stranger any longer. TheMiningPlay desperately needs some input from the SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY because mining is all about the SCIENCE. About a decade ago, I remember doing a series of ADL Mining District hypothecated deposit models with the two of you and Kevin. As you’ll recall, we took all of the geological data available at the time, including the CSAMT hyperspectral satellite imaging report of C.S. Perez, and proposed a SSW to NNE cross-sectional model of the ADL Mining District.
You two have been to enough of these rodeos to realize that it is knowledge of the SCIENCE that allows observers, like TheMiningPlay forum participants, to detect if PROGRESS is being made or not. It’s not always the share price reflected in the market that determines PROGRESS towards a goal. For me, a much better indicator of progress is the caliber of the geoscientists that can be attracted to a deal. They speak the “geogibberish” that few of us can decipher.
Another way of measuring progress involves learning the seemingly never-ending list of tasks needing to be accomplished prior to going into production and checking to see which one have been successfully checked off on.
I sure hope you guys stick around because your engineering backgrounds are invaluable at this pivotal stage of development for the ADL Mining District. You might recall how, several years ago, Kevin flew up to Toronto to attend the PDAC convention and to “meet the new guy” (Maurizio). Kevin contacted me all excited and said doc, you won’t believe how connected Maurizio is. Apparently, he and Maurizio were walking through the hallways of the convention, and Maurizio knew pretty much everybody he encountered, and they all knew him.
A little while later, Auryn put out a press release stating that they had retained none other than London-based Richard Sillitoe, arguably the most prominent “mine finder” in the history of mining. He was commissioned to write a technical report on the prospects for the ADL Mining District. Much to my chagrin, Maurizio has opted to keep that technical report “in-house”, and it is only shared with other geoscientists.
Since Dr. Sillitoe was retained and produced that technical report, a who’s who of prominent geoscientists (both Mining Engineers and “P. Geos”) have contributed to the GIS Database for the ADL Mining District. A “GIS Database” is a computerized format used to collect and store pretty much every bit of data regarding a mineral deposit ever produced. As is the norm for this extremely secretive industry, very few of the “granular” geoscientific facts are shared with shareholders and prospective investors. All we shareholders of Medinah or Auryn with scientific backgrounds notice is that this project sure can attract some very prominent mining professionals from around the world. The question then becomes, what do they know that we shareholders don’t know.
This most recent update, dated 4/4/25, cited yet another household name in the mining industry, that has joined the team acting in the capacity of “General Manager”. Robert Mayne-Nichols joined the Auryn team a couple of weeks ago. For those of you that recognize the name, you probably associate it with the Los Pelambres Mega Mine operated by Antofagasta (the famous Luksic family) and a group of Japanese mining firms including Mitsubishi, Nippon and Marubeni.
You might also recognize RMN’s role at the gigantic Zaldivar Mine owned and operated by Barrick and Antofogasta in a 50/50 JV, or the immense Collahuasi Mine. RMN’s personal specialty is the gigantic porphyry deposits like the 3 WORLD CLASS MINES mentioned above. Professional Geoscientists (“P. GEOs”) tend to have their own subspecialties. One thing that has constantly perplexed me about the ADL Mining District is when are the Pegaso Nero, a copper-moly porphyry prospect, or the LDM, a stratabound gold-copper prospect, going to take center stage.
Hopefully, RMN’s sudden appearance might have something to do with an attempt to finally monetize these assets. The text of the 4/4/25 press release cited a quote from RMN: “I am extremely excited to join AURYN Mining at this pivotal time. The potential of the Fortuna (veins) AND LIPANGUE PROJECTS is impressive, and I look forward to contributing to their successful advancement.”
Note that the “Fortuna” projects refer to the 8 Main Veins found on the plateau. I’m going to assume that “THE LIPANGUE PROJECTS” might refer to the Pegaso Nero and LDM prospects, that are part of the “Alto de Lipangue” Mining District, which are located on the downslopes off of the plateau. It is my belief that the 24 “veins, structures, faults” that Auryn encountered while drifting the “Antonino Adit”, as well as the hundreds of meters of “intense alteration” witnessed within this adit, during this drifting process, was HIGHLY SUGGESTIVE of an underlying porphyry structure that the earlier CSAMT hyperspectral satellite imaging survey performed by C.S. Perez hinted at.
Perez opined that the ADL Mining District hosted 2 porphyry deposits, one a copper-moly porphyry and the other a copper-gold porphyry. He cited the presence of a 7 Km swath composed of “about a dozen intrusives” stretching in a SW to NE direction across the ADL Mining District.
“Vein Sets”, like the 8 Main Veins found at the ADL plateau, tend to “telescope out of” underlying porphyry structures. The porphyry itself is what used to be an active magma chamber and the area immediately above its roof or “carapace”. Further, the molybdenite discovered AT SURFACE during the Auryn ridge crest sampling program completed on the southern downslope off of the plateau, is HIGHLY SUGGESTIVE of an underlying copper-moly porphyry structure (Type 21c) as “moly”, on this planet, is pretty much restricted to porphyry structures.
RMN was also Executive V.P. for Enami, and he played a prominent role in Codelco-the largest copper mining firm on the planet. The question arises as to how Maurizio can keep coming up with these mining “stud muffins” (like RMN, Sillitoe, and Aquiles Allegria) willing to play a role in the development of the ADL Mining District and its transitioning into PRODUCTION. What’s exciting for me is that all of these noteworthy geoscientific professionals, bring with them relationships with a vast variety of mining majors and mid-tier miners.
A couple of years ago, Auryn made a press release citing that they had made 2 new appointments to the Auryn BOD. One of these was Isac Burstein, the Head of Business Development for Hochschild. As you two might know, this guy is thought by many to be the pre-eminent “mining deal cutter” in all of South America. He has designed some 60 mining deals throughout his career, 20 of which were in the last 3 years. He has been the keynote speaker at a variety of mining and banking forums.
For me, one of the shockers of this most recent press release, was the fact that Auryn is going to attack the Fortuna (Vein) project via “Sub-Level Stoping”. Sublevel stoping is a mining method in which ore is blasted from different levels of elevation but is removed from one level at the bottom of the mine. This is how the big boys attack a big project. I was anticipating a more modest type of operation with Auryn mining ore simultaneously from 2 “working faces” of the DL2 Vein, one oriented to the NNW and one to the SSE, at each level of the mine. This new approach suggests to me that they found some decent “width” in the structures being mined.
In a recent press release, Auryn cited the plan to develop the Merlin 1 Vein from 2 different areas (one to the north and one to the south), in order to source ore for the new froth flotation plant. Now, all of a sudden, the Merlin 4 Vein, has become the prime target to develop next. The “exploration crew” must have found something recently that changed the battle plan.
You might remember from a couple of years back, that the plan was to extend the Antonino Adit further to the SSW after it intercepted the DL2 Vein, and the DL2 Vein was put into production. The target was 2 “monster veins” (Auryn’s words) that Auryn discovered at surface that both averaged over 2 meters in width at surface. These were located just to the west of the DL2 Vein and were pretty much parallel to the DL2 Vein.
One of these “monsters” was the “Merlin 4 Vein”, which also has gone by the name of the “Don Leopoldo Vein”. In the early days, this vein was also referred to as the “Fortuna Noroeste Vein” or the “Northwest Fortuna Vein”. For the last 9 years after the exhaustive Auryn trenching program was completed, the area of peak interest was the confluence of the Merlin 3 Vein, the Merlin 4 Vein, and the Fortuna Centro or “DL2 Vein”.
If I’m reading the tea leaves correctly, it appears that the Merlin 4 Vein has finally been intersected via the Antonino Adit. Wait for management to confirm or deny this, but a sub-level stoping program would make a lot of sense in an extremely wide vein. There has to be a reason why the Merlin 1 Vein suddenly got bumped as being the next area for the sourcing of ore for the FF plant and being replaced by the Merlin 4 Vein. Might this explain the desire to bring in some heavy artillery like RMN?
With the upwards move in the price of gold and copper over the last year, and the commissioning of the new froth flotation rapidly approaching, I’m going to guess that Auryn is going to move heaven and earth in order to rapidly ramp up production as well as the daily throughput of the FF plant. The original daily “throughput” for the FF plant that was ordered was 100 tonnes per day. However, in a recent quarterly update, Auryn cited that they later “commissioned the fabrication of more units” for the FF plant. The plan is to have 20,000 tonnes of ore stockpiled and ready to go on the day of the commissioning of the new plant.
