Resource World Magazine

o c t o b e r / n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 4 www.resourceworld.com 45 Aegean Metals Group Inc. [AGN-TSXV; A91-FSE] is actively involved in four mineral exploration projects; two in Chile – Dona Ines and Exploradora East – and two in Turkey – Ergama and Hot Maden. Dr. Eric Roth, President and CEO, told Resource World, "At this stage we are just looking to complete an initial 2,000-metre RC drill program at the Dona Ines Project to validate the existence of a high sulfidation-type epithermal gold-silver system. Our initial focus will be on the oxidized portion of the system, which we would expect to extend from surface to perhaps 200 metres in depth." The 100%-owned, 3,300-hectare, Dona Ines property is located within an underexplored, epithermal, gold-silver belt that extends northward from the Maricunga belt to the Peruvian border, where Gold Fields Ltd. made the Salares Norte gold-sil- ver discovery (3.1 million oz gold/34 million oz silver inferred). Kinross Gold is also exploring in the area. More IP and magnetic geophysical surveys are planned for Dona Ines as well as the 100%-owned Exploradora East property 10 km to the north-northwest in the porphyry copper belt. Another drill program started in September at the Dona Ines property, located approximately 190 km northeast of the city of Copiapo in northern Chile's Region III. "Ideally, our target will be open-pittable, but of course, higher grade mineralization at depth could potentially be amenable to underground mining. We just need to take the program one step at a time." Roth said that he estimates the cost of the two programs will be of the order of US $450,000; Aegean would either raise the funds or look for a JV partner. "My preference would actually be for the latter, as we do have interested parties and this would be an ideal way to expeditiously move the project forward." Meanwhile, work is progressing in Turkey at the company's 100%-owned Ergama and Hot Maden prospects. At the Ergama, high sulfidation, epithermal gold project in northwest Turkey where Teck Resources Ltd. [TCK.B-TSX; TCK-NYSE] is backing in for a 51% interest by spending $1,275,000 over three years, geological mapping on key outcrops has been carried out as well as silt and rock-chip sampling. A further 14.2 line-km of IP geo- physics has been completed which extended Aegean's existing grid 800 metres to the south. The current Ergama work program identified the presence of two strong geophysical (chargeability) anomalies in the south- western and southeastern quadrants of the geophysical survey area. These chargeability anomalies occur below 100 metres depth, and are interpreted to represent sulphides associated with a buried porphyry system. Aegean expects that future work at Ergama will focus primarily on obtaining the forestry (drill) per- mit required for testing the highest-priority geophysical and geochemical anomalies. At the Hot Maden gold-copper project 1,050 km east of Istanbul, Aegean recently signed an option agreement with Turkish group Lidya Madencilik which can earn a 70% interest in return for US $3 million exploration expenditures and cash payments over four years. Mapping and sampling are under way in preparation for a drill program. In another development, Aegean Metals recently entered into a binding Letter Agreement with Australia-based Mariana Resources Ltd. [MARL-AIM] under the terms of which Mariana will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Aegean in consideration for the issuance of 1.902 ordinary shares of Mariana for every one Aegean share held. This represents an approximate value of CDN $0.0625 per Aegean share based on a 20-day volume-weighted average price ending September 12th, 2014. The transaction represents an approximate 25% premium over the recent trading price of the Aegean shares. Mariana will also acquire all the options and warrants to acquire Aegean shares. The transaction is subject to a definitive agreement and various approvals and will have an effective date of no later than December 31, 2014. Mariana is an exploration and development company with an extensive portfolio of gold, silver and copper projects in Peru and Argentina. These include the Condor de Oro Projec, north- ern Peru, a 51%-optioned copper-gold porphyry project, and the Soledad Project, central Peru where the company can earn 70% in an area prospective for high sulphidation epithermal gold min- eralization. In southern Argentina, Las Calandrias has an initial resource of over 500,000 gold equivalent ounces. Also in southern Argentina are the Sierra Blanca & Los Cisnes projects. n MINING Aegean Metals active on four exploration projects; takeover pending by Ellsworth Dickson TEN YEARS Of GOLD ETfS: A wIDER AND MORE EffICIENT MARKET in a recent report published by the World Gold Council, it states that gold-backed etFs have become a US $70 billion dollar market – with holders of all sizes and types spread across various geographies. Yet, the advent of etFs has benefitted other gold investors as well: they have increased demand, democratized access, increased competition for new and existing gold vehicles, and contrary to popular belief they have responded to rather than driven gold volatility higher.

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