Fai Project, Mauritania
Ownership: Aura is earning a minimum of 58% in the joint venture with GCM Resources The Fai Project is located in the Mauritanide Fold Belt in Central Mauritania and covers 2900 km2. This well located area lies 250 km east of Nouakchott, Mauritania’s capital. Access to the area is good, and a previous Paris-Dakar Rally route runs through the permit. The project currently consists of one granted permit in joint venture with GCM Resources. Aura is earning a minimum of 58% interest in the granted permit by sole funding exploration, and can earn a higher interest if the partner continues to elect to reduce its interest. The project is at an early stage of evaluation, but preliminary fieldwork in the permit has indicated the presence of laterally extensive uraniferous gravels. The wide areal extent of the mineralisation leads Aura to believe there is high potential at Fai for a large tonnage of mineralised gravels and that this may support a large, low cost mining operation. Three pits which have been excavated within the Fai Est radiometric anomaly all contain uranium bearing gravels from surface to depths between 0.80 and 1.05 metres. The average uranium oxide content of seven sub-surface samples of gravel taken from these three pits is 140 ppm U3O8. The uranium bearing gravels overlie calcrete. The main radiometric anomaly is 17 km² in size. However, the anomaly is bound by sand dune fields, which mask radiometric response, on its western, southern and eastern margins. The uranium-bearing gravels are therefore anticipated to be much more extensive than the area without sand cover. Other radiometric anomalies occur in the Fai Permit scattered over an area 30 kilometres in length (north-south) and up to 12 kilometres in width. Aura is planning a drill programme for the second half of 2010. |
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