Aura Project - Chile

The Aura Mine is located in the heart of Chile’s northern copper – rich region of Atacama. This region is the world’s foremost copper producing region which hosts a number of world class porphyry deposits. The project stretches across approximately1,110 hectors found 20 miles east of the city of Copiapó. The mine neighbors the two producing mines Candelaria and Ojos del Salado which move approximately 218,600 metric tons of material per day combined.

The Aura Mine Project is strategically located 50 miles southeast of the port facility of Punta Padrones and is a road accessible, oxide and sulfide copper manto project covering 1,140 hectares and consisting of pedimentos (exploration concessions) and mensuras (exploitation concessions). Equinox is in process to convert the remaining pedimentos to mensuras.

The Aura and Cristal claims are largely underlain by the basalts of the Cretaceous Lavas de Sierra La Dichosa, including the area of the copper mantos. The rocks consist of aphanitic to porphyritic andesites, andesitic breccias, conglomerates and sandstones.

Aura Geology

Mineralization on the property consists of six separate copper mantos. They range in width from 30 centimetres to 6 metres. The North and South mantos appear to be sub parallel and strike 230 degrees with vertical to steep southeast dips. The west mantos (W1 to W3) were more rubble and strikes and dips were not attained. The central manto (C1) strikes 100 degrees and dips 65 degrees to the north. The dominant copper mineral is chrysocolla. 

There is only limited exposure of the three west mantos and W1 and W2 look like they may actually be the same manto at two locations along strike, though the suspected trends did look different. Further mapping is required. West 1 was a rubble pile while West 2 was in place, though only the top was exposed. West 3 was sampled in two locations, one as a rubble pile and the other as partially exposed manto. Width and strike measurements were not attainable. A select grab sample was taken from each location: West 1 returned 2.24% Cu and West 2 returned 4.40% Cu with a considerable sulfide component. West 3 returned values of 8.89% Cu, 2.64% Cu and 2.63% Cu. Abundant chrysocolla was noted.

The North manto was the best exposed, opened at a number of locations along 200 metres of strike. This manto varied in width from 30 to 100 centimetres. It appears to be sub-parallel to the South manto and strikes at 230 degrees with vertical to steep southeast dips. Chrysocolla is common in all exposures. The four samples taken moving from south to north along the exposures returned: 3.03% Cu over 0.60 metres; 2.04% Cu over 0.30 metres; 3.06% Cu over 1.00 metre and 3.11% Cu over 0.60 metres.

Plates 1 and 2. Mantos

The South manto was best exposed in one large open cut. It is 4 metres wide and strikes 230 degrees with a vertical dip. Chrysocolla is abundant throughout the face. A series of 4 samples were taken across the face in 1 metre intervals. They returned values of: 1.57% Cu, 1.45% Cu, 2.38% Cu and 0.88% Cu yielding a combined1.57% Cu over 4 metres.

The Central manto was traced by adits and pits over a horizontal distance and vertical distance both in excess of 100 metres. The manto ranges in width from 2 to 6 metres in width. Two samples were taken from the manto. The first was a grab sample of copper oxide material from the adit dump, returning a value of 9.68% Cu. The second was a 2 metre chip sample from the northern side of the 6 metre manto exposed in a pit, returning a value of 3.20% Cu.

2012 Manto Sampling