Aurania Resources (TSXV: ARU; US-OTC: AUIF) reported that it found more evidence of ancient roads and peculiar landforms that may be old prospecting or mine sites near its Lost Cities - Cutucu project in southeastern Ecuador.
In detail, the Canadian miner found the roads in the vicinity of the Tiria-Shimpia silver-zinc-lead target area, which is developing into one of the larger mineralized areas so far identified in the exploration of the project.
According to Aurania, further investigation of the jungle-covered road reported to be visible in LiDAR imagery in May supports the concept that it is, indeed, an engineered structure.
Keith Barron, Aurania's chairman and CEO, said that he and his team have been intrigued for a while by the accumulation of evidence that Tiria-Shimpia may have been investigated for silver by the Colonial Spanish.
"Although historic references to mining at the centres of Logro??o de Los Caballeros and Sevilla de Oro do not reference silver production, the Colonial Spanish were already familiar with silver-lead-zinc mining at sites like Zacatecas in Mexico, some 20 years before Logro??o and Sevilla were founded in Ecuador," Barron said in a press release. "The Council of the Indies in Spain mandated that all occurrences of minerals be examined thoroughly for the Crown by pitting and tunnelling, not just those that were gold-bearing. If such workings can be located, they potentially provide evidence of Spanish activity."
The mining executive said that investigations of these peculiar landforms in the Tiria-Shimpia area will continue and that fieldwork by a registered archeologist is required to confirm that the structures are man-made.
Subsequent to the archeologist's investigation, the features may require further study by the National Institute of Cultural Heritage of Ecuador.
The Lost Cities - Cutucu project, in the southeastern province of Morona-Santiago, consists of 42 concessions located in the central part of the Cordillera de Cutucu. The area contains clusters of porphyry copper, gold-copper skarn and epithermal gold deposits.
This article first appeared in MINING.com, part of Glacier Resource Innovation Group.