Canadian gold exploration company Golden Sky Minerals has acquired the Auden gold property, covering 263km² (26,300 hectares) of land near Beardmore-Geraldton Greenstone Belt, Ontario, Canada.

The company acquired the property through staking, with no underlying royalties.

The property has an approximately 70km strike length of the Auden structural zone, which has mostly been untested, regardless of recording anomalous gold values from drilling and surface rock samples.

The zone is understood to be an eastward extension of the Beardmore-Geraldton structural system.

It is located in an underexplored region underlain by an east-west trending sequence of mafic metavolcanic, metasediment and iron formation.

According to Golden Sky, the property has a geological setting to Equinox/Orion-owned Greenstone gold mines with 5.05 million ounces (moz) of gold (Au), and the Agnico Eagle-owned Detour Lake mine with 20.6moz gold (Au) mineral resources.

It is reputed to have the potential to expand with new gold targets to be discovered.

Operators had previously depended on geophysical survey results due to extensive overburden cover in the region. This was followed by early-phase exploration drilling with widely spaced holes.

The property has 58 historical holes drilled. These drill programmes were limited by a follow-up on ground-based geophysical targets, and the first large-scale airborne geophysical surveys were not conducted until 1993.

The surveys were conducted by McKinnon Prospecting. A follow-up 17-hole drill programme gave critical insights into the geology of the region.

One of the holes intersecting a 27m wide zone returned an assay of 3.33g/t Au over 1.2m, 1.22g/t Au over 1.5m and 1.54g/t of Au over 0.7m.

Golden Sky Minerals president and CEO John Newell said: “The acquisition of a new mineral exploration property near the renowned Geraldton-Beardmore gold district in northern Ontario, marks a significant expansion for Golden Sky Minerals. This area is noted for its prolific gold production, making it a strategic choice for the company outside of the Canadian cordillera.

“With this latest acquisition, Golden Sky Minerals has diversified its exploration portfolio across three of Canada's most prolific mineral districts: Beardmore-Geraldton, Ontario; the Quesnel Trough, British Columbia; and the Tintina Gold Belt, Yukon. This diversification demonstrates the company's comprehensive approach to mineral exploration and its commitment to pursuing a variety of opportunities in various geological settings.”