LONDON (Alliance News) - Aura Energy Ltd said Wednesday it has been granted exploration licences for its gold, base and battery metal tenements in Mauritania.
Shares in the mineral miner were up 12% Wednesday at 0.64 pence each.
The tenements cover two "under-explored" Archean Greenstone belts in Mauritania. The area lies along strike from Canadian miner Kinross Gold Corp's 20 million ounce Tasiast gold mine and Algold Resources' Tijirit gold deposits.
Aura said previous drilling at the tenements saw "excellent results" indicating both system size and elevated gold, nickel and cobalt grades, according to Aura.
The company reiterated its belief that the tenements represent "some of the best under-explored greenstone belt targets in the world".
Aura said the belt has been explored by only one other company, which was forced to suspend its operations "in the mineral industry downturn in 2012", but found zones of "significant" gold mineralisation.
"It has taken some time to achieve this tenement grant but to have the opportunity to explore these extremely under-explored greenstone belts with high quality preliminary gold exploration results is exceptional in our opinion. With the huge Tasiast Gold Mine on the same belt just north of our project, the potential for multi-million ounce discoveries, in the eyes of our technical people, is very conceivable," said Executive Chair Peter Reeve.
Aura said it will maintain its core focus of getting its Tiris uranium project completed and into production "as soon as possible".
Aura Egy (AURA)