• Kaares Area – Gold intersected along the E-W structural trend 1.8 km W and 800 m E of the Vanha prospect
  • 3.63 g/t Au over 3.20 m from 41.30 m (KS23068)
  • 2.17 g/t Au over 1.60 m from 148.35 m (KS23030)
• Kaares Area – Gold intersected along NW trending structures (splays from the E-W structural trend)
  • 4.67 g/t Au over 1.75 m from 103.15 m (KS23057)
• Risti Northwest – Gold mineralization and favorable host rocks intersected 1 km SE of the Ikkari Discovery (Rupert Resources) and 13 km from Kaares
• Risti North – New deformation zone and favorable host rocks with elevated gold 9 km from Kaares
• Numerous gold and pathfinder anomalies from base of till sampling program

Aurion Resources Ltd. (TSX VENTURE: AU) (OTCQX: AIRRF) (“Aurion” or the “Company”) announces results from the scout drilling and base of till sampling programs at its wholly owned Risti property located in the Central Lapland Greenstone Belt in northern Finland.

Summary

• Kaares Area – Gold intersected along the E-W structural trend 1.8 km W and 800 m E of the Vanha prospect
  • 3.63 g/t Au over 3.20 m from 41.30 m (KS23068), 1.8 km east of the Vanha prospect
  • 2.17 g/t Au over 1.60 m from 148.35 m (KS23030), 800 m west of the Vanha prospect
  • Further evidence of gold mineralization along the mainly unexplored structural trend interpreted to extend over 15 km within the Risti property and further into the Aurion-B2Gold JV area which hosts the recent Vuoma discovery
• Kaares Area – Gold intersected along NW trending structures (splays from the E-W structural trend)
  • 4.67 g/t Au over 1.75 m from 103.15 m (KS23057), 1.2 km north of the Vanha prospect
  • 1.92 g/t Au over 1.40 m from 96.90 m (KS23046), 650 m northwest of the Vanha prospect
• Risti Northwest – Gold mineralization and favorable host rocks intersected 1 km SE of the Ikkari Discovery (Rupert Resources) and 13 km from Kaares
  • 1.09 g/t Au over 2.00 m from 213.85 m (HE23010)
  • Gold mineralization hosted by deformed and altered mafic-ultramafic and sedimentary rocks
• Risti North – New deformation zone and favorable host rocks with elevated gold 9 km from Kaares
  • Hole HE23011 intersected intervals of deformed and altered mafic-ultramafic rocks with elevated gold
• Numerous gold and pathfinder anomalies from base of till sampling program
  • 20+ geochemical and/or geophysical targets to be tested

Comments
“Aurion’s exploration program in till covered areas, now in its third year, is demonstrating the significant discovery potential at Risti, yielding the rapidly growing Kaares discovery and multiple new gold intersections over a broad expanse.” commented Matti Talikka, CEO of Aurion.” Following the discovery, under cover, of the 4+ Moz Ikkari deposit by Rupert Resources, Aurion commenced exploration on the covered areas of Risti. This program has now graduated from base of till sampling and geophysical surveys to drill testing. We believe that shareholder value is best achieved by new discoveries and look forward to delivering more results from this ongoing program.”  

Link to Figures: https://aurionresources.com/site/assets/files/1519/nr23-21figures.pdf

Scout Drill Program
36 scout holes, totaling 4,781.60 m, were drilled at several targets within the wholly owned (182 km²) Risti property (Figures 1 & 2). The targets were drilled to test anomalies identified from geochemical and geophysical surveys.

Gold and favourable host rocks were encountered in all target areas with 19 out of 36 scout holes intersecting precious or base metal mineralization. Copper and PGE mineralization was encountered at two target areas in the southern part of the Risti property.

Kaares Area
Scout drilling targeted:

• Extensions of the east-west structural trend hosting the Vanha prospect
• Northwest trending structures, representing potential splays from the east-west structural trend
• Selected geochemical and geophysical anomalies

Gold mineralization was intersected approximately 1.8 km west and 800 m east of the Vanha prospect extending the strike length of the prospective E-W trend to 2.6 km (previously 1.1 km) (Figure 3).

• 3.63 g/t Au over 3.20 m from 41.30 m (KS23068) and 3.48 g/t Au over 1.70 m from 91.00 m (KS23049), 1.8 km west of the Vanha prospect
• 2.17 g/t Au over 1.60 m from 148.35 m (KS23030), 800 m east of the Vanha prospect
• Further evidence of gold mineralization along the mainly unexplored structural trend interpreted to extend over 15 km within the Risti property and further into the Aurion-B2Gold JV area which hosts the recent Vuoma discovery.

Gold mineralization was also encountered along the NW trending structures to the north and northwest of the Vanha prospect.

• 4.67 g/t Au over 1.75 m from 103.15 m (KS23057), 1.2 km north of the Vanha prospect
• 1.92 g/t Au over 1.40 m from 96.90 m (KS23046), 650 m northwest of the Vanha prospect.
• 0.57 g/t Au over 2.10 m from 69.00 m, 0.60 g/t Au over 8.00 m from 80.00 m including 2.93 g/t Au over 1.00 m from 81.00 m (KS23045), 550 m northwest of the Vanha prospect.
• 5.02 g/t Au over 1.05 m from 211.60 m (KS23054), 1.8 km northwest of the Vanha prospect.

An individual hole testing a copper in till anomaly, 700 m southwest of the Vanha prospect, returned 4.20% Cu and 0.27 g/t Au over 0.85 m from 109.15 m (KS23048).

The gold mineralization at the Kaares area is mainly hosted by highly deformed and altered (silica, sericite, albite) mafic volcanic and metasedimentary rocks with minor to moderate amounts of fine-grained sulphide minerals including pyrite, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, galena, sphalerite and arsenopyrite in varying quantities. The higher-grade intervals are mainly hosted within silicified and brecciated zones with a moderate amount of sulphides. Elevated levels of base metals, including copper, have been encountered in several holes.

Risti North Area
Four holes were drilled in the northern part of the Risti property with an aim to test the potential continuation into the Risti property of the prospective trend that hosts the Helmi (Aurion-B2Gold JV) and Ikkari (Rupert Resources) discoveries.

Hole HE23010 is located in the NW corner of the Risti property, approximately 1 km southeast of the Ikkari (4.39 Moz Au) discovery. The nearest previous Aurion drill hole is located 4.8 km to the south. The hole targeted a geophysical feature and intersected contact zones between deformed and altered mafic-ultramafic rocks and a younger sedimentary domain. Elevated gold was encountered at the sheared contact (0.25 g/t Au over 1.60 m from 154.95 m) and in the sedimentary rocks (1.09 g/t Au over 2.00 m from 213.85 m). Hole HE23003, drilled 300 m east of HE23010, intersected deformed and altered units of siltstone and clastic sediments which returned local elevated gold values (≥0.1 g/t).

Hole HE23011 is located in the northern part of the Risti property (7.5 km east of HE23010 and 7 km northeast of Aamurusko). The nearest previous Aurion drill hole is located 3.6 km to the southeast. The hole targeted a geochemical anomaly and geophysical feature, and intersected a contact zone between deformed and altered mafic-ultramafic rocks and a younger sedimentary domain. Intervals with elevated gold (≥0.1 g/t) were encountered within the highly deformed and altered ultramafic rocks.

These results indicate that the favourable structural trend and lithologies that host the recent significant discoveries (Helmi and Ikkari) may extend to the northern part of the Risti property.

Risti Southwest Area
Five scout holes were drilled in the southwestern part of the Risti property testing selected geochemical and geophysical targets. No significant gold mineralization was encountered. HE23006 intersected mafic intrusive rocks which returned 0.74 g/t Pd+Pt over 4.30 m from 35.70 m. Several target areas remain untested in the southwest part of the Risti property.

Base of till sampling program
A total of 713 till samples have been collected in 2023 within the Risti property (Figure 4). Till sampling has returned a number of gold and pathfinder anomalies that warrant follow up activities. Many of the geochemical anomalies coincide with structural features interpreted from the geophysical data sets. The majority of the anomalies remain untested with 20+ targets identified for follow up testing.

Quality Assurance and Quality Control
All drill core samples were delivered to the ALS preparation facility in Sodankylä, Finland where sample preparation work was completed. All analytical work was completed at ALS facilities in Loughrea, Ireland and Rosia Montana, Romania. ALS is an internationally accredited lab and is ISO compliant (ISO 9001:2008, ISO/IEC 17025:2017). Samples were analyzed for gold using either the Au-AA26 procedure (50 g fire assay with AAS finish: Lower Detection Limit (“LDL”) 0.01 g/t gold; Upper Detection Limit (“UDL”) 100 g/t gold) or they were analyzed for gold, platinum and palladium using the PGM-ICP24 procedure (50 g fire assay with ICP-AES finish: LDL 0.001 g/t gold, 0.005 g/t platinum, 0.001 g/t palladium; UDL 10 g/t gold, 10 g/t platinum, 10 g/t palladium) or the PGM-ICP23 procedure (30 g fire assay with ICP-AES finish: LDL 0.001 g/t gold, 0.005 g/t platinum, 0.001 g/t palladium; UDL 10 g/t gold, 10 g/t platinum, 10 g/t palladium). Multi-element analysis (ME-ICP61, four-acid digestion, 35 element ICP-AES) was completed on all samples. Certified standards and blanks were inserted every 10 samples. ALS has its own QA/QC protocol using standards, blanks and duplicates.

All till samples were initially delivered to the ALS preparation facility in Sodankylä, Finland from where they were shipped to the ALS preparation facility in Outokumpu, Finland where sample preparation work was completed. All analytical work was completed at the ALS facility in Loughrea, Ireland. ALS is an internationally accredited lab and is ISO compliant (ISO 9001:2008, ISO/IEC 17025:2017). Samples were analyzed for gold, platinum and palladium using the PGM-ICP24 procedure (50 g fire assay with ICP-AES finish: LDL 0.001 g/t gold, 0.005 g/t platinum, 0.001 g/t palladium; UDL 10 g/t gold, 10 g/t platinum, 10 g/t palladium) or the PGM-ICP23 procedure (30 g fire assay with ICP-AES finish: LDL 0.001 g/t gold, 0.005 g/t platinum, 0.001 g/t palladium; UDL 10 g/t gold, 10 g/t platinum, 10 g/t palladium). Multi-element analysis (ME-MS61, four-acid digestion, 48 element ICP-MS) was completed on all samples. Certified standards were inserted every 25 samples. ALS has its own QA/QC protocol using standards, blanks and duplicates.

This news release has been reviewed by Andrew Hussey, P.Geo., GIS Geologist and Database Manager for Aurion Resources, a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. For more information on these projects please visit our website at www.aurionresources.com.

About Aurion Resources Ltd.
Aurion Resources Ltd. (Aurion) is a well-funded, Canadian exploration company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX-V: AU) and the OTCQX Best Market (OTCQX: AIRRF). Aurion’s strategy is to generate or acquire early-stage precious metals exploration opportunities and advance them through direct exploration by our experienced team or by business partnerships and joint venture arrangements. Aurion’s current focus is exploring on its Risti project, as well as advancing its joint venture properties with B2Gold and Kinross in Finland.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,
Matti Talikka, CEO

For further information, please contact:
Mark Santarossa, Vice President, Corporate Development
Cell: +1 (416) 371-1325
Email: [email protected]

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.