Projects

Overview

The Aurizona gold project is located in northeast Brazil between the cities of São Luis and Belém. The main orebody, Piaba, is a 2.9 km long orogenic gold deposit hosted in the Proterozoic Aurizona greenstone belt. The geologic setting of the project area, the São Luis Craton, is an eastern extension of the Guiana Shield which contains several major Proterozoic gold deposits (e.g. Las Cristinas, Omai, Rosebel) extending from Venezuela to Brazil (Figs 1 and 2).

The Aurizona project totals approximately 190,000 ha and is divided into two main areas:

1. Aurizona Main - This area contains the Piaba and Tatajuba deposits and over 10 satellite targets, which collectively form a gold camp. It covers an area of approximately 20,000 ha and is limited by the outer limits of the Company's fully permitted mining license and the Tatajuba exploration permit (Figs. 3, 4a & 4b).


2. Maranhão Greenfields. The Maranhão Greenfields project consists of all Company exploration permits located outside of the Aurizona Main area and covers an area of 170,000 ha. There are over 100 hard rock (primary) gold garimpos located within the Maranhão Greenfields permits (Fig. 3).

2011 Exploration Update

The Aurizona project is at a relatively early stage of exploration when compared with other gold camps of the Guyana Shield and West Africa. The Aurizona Shear Zone (ASZ) is currently the main exploration target at Aurizona and exploration programs are focused on defining its strike extent within company tenements and defining gold anomalies along its length. Particular attention is given to bends in the structure associated with gold anomalies. The Piaba deposit represents a significant mineralizing system within the ASZ and the Company is focused on defining additional satellite deposits along the structure.

In addition to the main ASZ, over 10 near mine exploration targets occur in the vicinity of Piaba which define sub-parallel mineralized structures. The spatial distribution of these targets suggests that they either represent separate mineralized structures or splays from the main ASZ. Exploration work is currently focused on bringing these targets to the resource drilling stage and significant progress has been made in 2011. All near mine exploration targets are being critically evaluated to determine their potential to deliver additional near surface oxide gold deposits at Aurizona.

Luna will deliver an updated resource estimate for the Aurizona project in Q4 2011. On completion of the current Piaba drill program the drill rigs will commence drilling at the Tatajuba deposit and the Boa Esperançã and Micote near mine exploration targets.

Luna Exploration is currently conducting the following exploration programs at Aurizona:

1. Major diamond drill program at Piaba to increase resources (30,000 m)
2. Shallow auger and RC drilling to test for east and west extensions to the Piaba deposit
3. Trenching and auger drilling at the near mine exploration targets
4. Ground magnetic surveying at the near mine exploration targets
5. Soil sampling programs in untested areas within the Aurizona project area

Maps & Figures

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Gallery