Resource World Magazine

48 www.resourceworld.com o c t o b e r / n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 4 MININGWORLD Aurora Geosciences targets the tundra by Kathrine Moore Aurora Geosciences Limited specializes in providing professional geological and geophysical services to resource companies explor- ing in the northern regions of North America. This northern-based company has offices in Juneau, Alaska; Whitehorse, Yukon and Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Aurora has 33 years of mineral exploration experience in the north designing, supervising and managing exploration programs from grassroots though advanced exploration stages. Since 1981, Aurora has worked with over 100 companies exploring for everything from diamonds to coal. Aurora applies comprehensive ground and borehole geophysi- cal surveys to a variety of mineral deposit types found in the north including: kimberlites, VMS, SEDEX, unconformity and intrusion-hosted uranium porphyry, orogenic and intrusion- hosted gold, iron formation-hosted gold, placer, coal and Olympic Dam type deposits. Aurora provides comprehensive geological services includ- ing: project generation and property acquisition, mapping, prospecting, soil and stream sediment sampling, drill program management and support, resource delineation, modeling and reporting, and independent report preparation services. As well, Aurora provides professional and complete programs supporting the camps they manage and includes services such as expediting, trenching, line cutting, gridding as well as ground and helicopter mineral claim staking services. The company has contributed to several significant mineral discoveries through innovation over the past three decades: High Lake, Run Lake, Muskox Intrusion, Knife Pipe, Lupin Mine Site, Hackett River, Musk, Deb, Courageous Lake, Diavik, Kennady Lake North and Damoti Lake to name a few. They staked and did much of the ground-based exploration on the producing Diavik Diamond Mine. Currently, Aurora is directing and managing the Kennady Lake North Project located in the NWT on behalf of Kennady Diamonds Inc. [KDI-TSXV]. Toronto-based Kennady Diamonds is a leading Canadian diamond exploration company whose exploration focus is on the 100%-owned Kennady North Project located immediately adjacent to the De Beers/Mountain Province Diamonds Gahcho Kué diamond mine, now under construction. The highly-prospective Kennady North Project hosts four known kimberlite complexes – Kelvin, Faraday, Doyle and MZ – as well as numerous other geophysical exploration targets. Aurora has developed this program from early stage geologi- cal and geophysical targets and has managed all diamond drilling from early exploration to advanced exploration and resource delineation. The company states that the Aurora's management team and professional staff have the capacity "to execute 15 concurrent exploration programs on multiple properties for multiple clients. It is the ability to share northern logistics and resources within the company and with our northern partners that allows Aurora to maximize program budgets while maintaining the highest level of confidentiality between clients." Aurora averages 60 perma- nent and semi-permanent staff in any year though it can employ as many as 150 people during the busier summer exploration season. When asked about innovation, Aurora management told Resource World that the company "is continually developing proprietary data management, processing, and interpretation software to operate at the highest level of efficiency in northern environments and to apply existing technology in new methods or environments; to apply a new approach to an old problem. This has been most recently demonstrated at Kennady Lake North where a unique application of capacitively coupled resistivity and very high resolution ground gravity survey techniques resulted in the discovery of the Kelvin kimberlite body." Aurora owns a ground-based Extra Low Frequency (ELF) sur- vey system which is similar to airborne Z-TEM. This EM survey allows for rapid and inexpensive investigation of very deep tar- gets. Aurora has developed an airborne stream sediment sampling system which facilitates rapid and cost effective stream sediment sampling in areas of poor or impossible foot access. Gary Vivian, President of Aurora Geosciences, said, "Exploration and mining around the world has felt the pinch from the global economic mess we have endured over the past six years. Risk capital has been very difficult to come by and it is very possible we may see a new model for junior mining companies." "Aurora has maintained a strong foothold in the NWT with diamond projects located at Kennady North and Ekati," said Vivian. "We are struggling, like most other consulting firms, in other northern jurisdictions because of the lack of risk capital being put into the market. We will not give up on our northern markets and can see some light at the end of the tunnel going into 2015." n Stefan grondsdahl, aurora geosciences' field technician, completing a sampling program on the Wellgreen property for Wellgreen Platinum Ltd. near burwash Landing, Yukon. Photo courtesy of aurora geosciences.

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