Auryn Resources Inc. Dec. 22 provided preliminary exploration plans for its Committee Bay gold project in Nunavut and recently acquired Homestake gold project in northwestern British Columbia.

During its 2016 field season, Auryn identified 17 significant gold-in-till anomalies that represent large-scale mineralized systems across the 300-kilometer-long (185 miles) greenstone belt at Committee Bay. Nine of these gold-in-till anomalies were identified in the southwest region of the Committee Bay project.

Anuri, a 20-kilometer-long (12.5 miles) north-south trending gold-in-till structural corridor identified in 2015, has been extended to 30 kilometers (19 miles) with this year's sampling.

In addition to Anuri, a cluster of three new till anomalies was identified in the vicinity of Quartzite Ridge and a very well defined till anomaly was identified near Four Hills, both in the southwestern region of Committee Bay.

In the central region of the Committee Bay belt, near the 1.6-million-ounce Three Bluffs gold deposit, six gold-in-till anomalies were identified.

The 2016 sampling program identified two other large till anomalies south of the Inuk prospect, in the northeastern region of Committee Bay.

In 2017, Auryn plans to complete 55,000 meters of drilling to test these 17 targets that span the enormous Committee Bay property.

In addition to its work in Nunavut, Auryn is planning 15,000 meters of drilling at its Homestake property in British Columbia's Golden Triangle, an asset it acquired through an all-share acquisition of Homestake Resource Corp. valued at C$8.9 million.

According to a 2013 calculation, the three main deposits at Homestake host 604,000 metric tons of indicated resource averaging 6.4 grams per metric ton (124,000 oz.) gold; 48.3 g/t (939,000 oz.) silver; and 0.18 percent (2.4 million pounds) copper. Additionally, these deposits host 6.77 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 4.2 g/t (911,000 oz.) gold; 93.6 g/t (20.37 million oz.) silver; and 0.11 percent (16.3 million lbs.) copper.

Auryn is also planning about 15,000 meters of drilling at its Sombrero, Huilacollo and Baños del Indio projects in southern Peru.

"Each project provides a significant standalone opportunity for major discoveries while our portfolio approach significantly lowers Auryn's overall risk profile," explained Auryn President and CEO Shawn Wallace. "2017 will be a year where our technical and financial teams will capitalize on this foundation and execute our operational plan to realize the goal of value creation for all stakeholders and investors."

-SHANE LASLEY