Update on Regional Exploration Activities and Commencement of Drilling at Risti

• Multiple gold in till anomalies
• Several large-scale structures interpreted from geophysical data
• Drilling commenced, base of till sampling program continues

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

Summary

• Multiple gold in till anomalies
  • Large number of gold and pathfinder element in till anomalies identified within Risti
  • 1,938 new base of till samples taken at Risti, results pending for over 600 samples
  • Follow up and expansion of the sampling program ongoing
• Several large-scale structures interpreted from geophysical data
  • Several structural features potentially representing domain boundaries and shear zones interpreted from the geophysical data sets
  • Property wide drone magnetic survey completed
  • Ground magnetic surveys on selected areas ongoing
• Drilling commenced, base of till sampling program continues
  • Drilling program commenced and expected to continue until the end of 2022
  • Drilling to test for extensions of gold mineralization at Aamurusko
  • Scout drilling to test regional targets such as base of till anomalies and geophysical features
  • Base of till sampling continues with follow up and expansion of the program

Comments
“We are pleased to recommence diamond drilling on Aurion’s 100% owned Risti property. The 2022 program will focus on growing our high-grade discovery at Aamurusko and will include regional targets, under cover, detected by base of till sampling (BOT) and geophysical surveys. Significant recent discoveries in Lapland; Kittilä Mine (Agnico Eagle), Ikkari (Rupert Resources) and Sakatti (Anglo American), resulted from BOT and geophysics programs.” commented Matti Talikka, Aurion’s CEO.

Update on regional exploration activities
The vast majority of the Risti property is covered by glacial till. Such areas are not amenable to prospecting and surface mapping that has led to multiple discoveries, including the Aamurusko high-grade discovery. Till sampling combined with geophysical surveys have been key exploration methods behind most gold and base metal discoveries within the Central Lapland Greenstone Belt, including Agnico Eagle’s Kittilä Mine, Ikkari by Rupert Resources and Sakatti by Anglo American.

Aurion commenced a regional scale till sampling program in late 2020 and has continued the program throughout 2022. The aim of the program is to provide information on regional geology and gold prospectivity in till covered and mainly unexplored parts of the property.

The sample spacing along the profiles varies between 25 and 100 metres (m) and the distance between profiles is up to several kilometres. The reconnaissance sampling covered only a limited part of the property and the sample density remains very sparse in many areas of interest.

The sample depths vary between 0.53 and 35.20 m with an average depth of 4.48 m. The sampling targeted the base of till layer, but in some locations the base of till layer was not reached for example due to boulders in the till.

A total of 1,938 new base of till samples have been taken from the Risti property since late 2021. Results are pending for over 600 samples. The results to date highlight several areas with elevated gold at Risti. For example, thirty samples have returned highly anomalous values exceeding 0.1 g/t gold in till with the highest value of 1.26 g/t gold. In addition, several pathfinder elements have returned highly anomalous values of up to 1,975 ppm (parts per million) arsenic, 2,560 ppm copper, 1 ppm tellurium, 7.48 ppm silver, 815 ppm lead, 9,230 ppm zinc, 0.129 ppm platinum and 0.086 ppm palladium.

Elevated gold values were encountered within several geologic settings including sediment, mafic volcanic, ultramafic volcanic and intrusion related domains.

A drone magnetic geophysical survey covering the whole Risti property has been completed. The survey has provided valuable information for the interpretation of geological features including structures that play a key role in the emplacement of gold mineralization.

Ground magnetic surveys are ongoing in selected target areas with an aim to provide more detailed geophysical data to support interpretation of structural features and lithologic units.

Many of the gold in till and pathfinder anomalies coincide with or are in close proximity to potential structural features and/or lithological contacts interpreted from geophysical data sets.

The ongoing follow-up activities include infill base of till sampling and/or scout drill testing. The base of till sampling program will also be expanded into previously untested areas.

Link to Figure 1 - Map of the till samples at Risti and Launi properties: https://aurionresources.com/site/assets/files/1448/au22-12figure.pdf.

Quality Assurance and Quality Control
All 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 are ISO compliant (ISO 9001:2008, ISO/IEC 17025:2017). Early in the program samples were only assayed for gold using the Au-AA24 procedure (50 g fire assay with AAS finish: Lower Detection Limit (“LDL”) 0.005 g/t gold; Upper Detection Limit (“UDL”) 10 g/t gold) or the Au-AA23 procedure (30 g fire assay with AAS finish: LDL 0.005 g/t gold; UDL 10 g/t gold). The assay method was subsequently changed to include platinum and palladium. All subsequent samples were assayed 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 Flagship Risti and Launi projects, 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: msantarossa@aurionresources.ca

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.