Auryn Resources Inc. Jan. 6 said it has further refined drill targets at Aiviq, a high-grade gold discovery made last year at the Committee Bay project in Nunavut, and plans to further test this discovery with drilling slated to begin in March.

The nearly 1-million-acre (390,000 hectares) Committee Bay property is anchored by Three Bluffs, a deposit with 2.1 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 7.85 grams per metric ton (524,000 ounces) gold; and 2.9 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 7.64 g/t (720,000 oz) gold.

An exploration drill program carried out last year discovered Aiviq, a gold prospect about 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) north of Three Bluffs.

The gold identified at Aiviq is situated along a regional shear zone that is defined by a 7,000-meter-long gold-in-till anomaly. Till is sediment derived from the erosion caused by glaciers that can provide clues to the mineral content of the bedrock from which it eroded.

Auryn drilled a single fence across this anomaly. One of the holes, 17RGR003 cut 12.2 meters of 4.7 g/t gold, including 3.05 meters of 18.09 g/t gold.

The company has since expanded its till sampling at Aiviq, defining three additional target areas over a 3,000-meter-long area.

The company's technical team considers this infill till data as a critical step in advancing the exploration process to further define the source areas of gold mineralization under till cover.

"The additional layer of infill till results provides Auryn's technical team a higher degree of confidence in defining potential source areas of gold mineralization, said Auryn Chief Geologist and COO Michael Henrichsen. "These results clearly show the overlapping nature of high-grade mineralization in drilling with gold in tills and high-grade bolder trains. Each target at Aiviq provides Auryn with the possibility of a significant discovery in this highly prospective shear zone."

Auryn also plans further drilling at the Three Bluffs deposit this spring. The goal of this program is to expand the resource and to explore for new zones of mineralization that were previously untested.

–SHANE LASLEY