Aurania Signs MOU with Rsa S.r.l. and Firestone Ventures Inc. to Ev Aluate Potential Critical Metals Project IN Europe
TSX-V: ARU
NR 2025-27
AURANIA SIGNS MOU WITH RSA S.R.L. AND FIRESTONE VENTURES INC. TO EV ALUATE
POTENTIAL CRITICAL METALS PROJECT IN EUROPE
Toronto, Ontario, 28, 2025 – Aurania Resources Ltd. (TSXV: ARU; OTCQB: AUIAF; Frankfurt:
20Q) (“Aurania” or the “Company”) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (the “MOU”) with
Società per il Risanamento e lo Sviluppo Ambientale dell’ex miniera di amianto di Balangero e Corio
(Society for the Remediation and Environmental Development of the former asbestos mine of Balangero
and Corio otherwise known as “RSA”), and Firestone Ventures Inc. (“Firestone”). The MOU aims to
examine the extensive tailings for a potentially commercially viable recovery of valuable nickel and cobalt,
two “Critical Metals” for electric battery production, as highlighted in the European Union Critical Raw
Materials Act. The Company has been investigating this concept since March 2024 as complementary to
the ongoing Corsica awaruite nickel programme. Firestone will be responsible for the carbon capture
portion of the project.
The MOU allows for data collection and sampling of tailings at the former Balangero Asbestos Mine (1916-
1990), approximately 25 km NNW of Turin, Italy, to:
1. Examine the possibilities of extracting valuable nickel, cobalt, chromium, iron and copper from the waste
piles, and
2. Examine the feasibility of using the waste stream to capture carbon from industrial sources and
permanently destroy all the asbestos minerals, thereby rendering the material completely benign.
This is a cleanup project with the added bonus of carbon capture and production of critical metals. The
MOU has a term of 1 year, after which, if results prove favourable, the parties are expected to enter into a
commercial agreement with respect to the extraction of metals from the waste piles and subsequent carbon
capture from the waste product stream. Aurania and Firestone have exclusive access to the site for this
evaluation.
RSA have determined that the main dry-stacked tailings pile contains approximately 60 million cubic
metres of serpentinite waste rock (Oboni and others, 2011; doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0107741). This
is material already excavated, milled, and heaped in a pile approximately 250 metres in height. It has been
crushed to -10 cm, and the majority of the material is < 1 cm.
A rigorous determination of parameters has not yet been done, and as such, we stress caution ; however,
with a specific gravity of 2.55 as reported for average serpentinite by the United States Geological Survey
(USGS) and a volume of 60 million cubic metres, circa 153 million tonnes of waste is considered to be in
the waste pile. In a limited reconnaissance sampling program commissioned by Aurania in 2024, Maxime
Dupéré (géo. Project Geologist, SGS Canada Inc. – Geological Services) reported an average of 0.15%
nickel for the Balangero tailings. This agrees well with the published average of around 0.17- 0.18%
(average of over fifty analyses, with minimum and maximum values respectively around 0.1 and 0.3 %) as
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reported by Prof. Steffano Zucchetti in 1966. Assuming an average grade of 0.15% Ni, the waste pile could
contain circa 229,500 tonnes of nickel. There is also a second, older tailings and waste rock pile on the
property that is possibly of similar dimensions.
Figure 1: Main tailings pile at the Balangero Mine. Approximate height is 250 metres.
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Figure 2: Appearance of typical mine waste at Balangero.
This represents a potentially valuable resource which has already been extracted, crushed and dry-stacked.
No drilling, blasting or mining will be required in this project. The main target mineral is “awaruite”, a
natural alloy of nickel and iron (Ni3Fe), with a composition of 77-83% Ni. There is no sulphide component,
and this can be considered a “Green Nickel” recovery project. The awaruite nickel mineral was first
described by Zucchetti in 1966, who discovered the mineral in magnetic sand, along with magnetite
(Fe3O4). Zucchetti worked out an entire flow sheet for the beneficiation and recovery of the awaruite.
Though the nickel-bearing awaruite mineral was not recognized at the time, the magnetic sand from the
Balangero Mine tailings was used for some months in 1943 as furnace feed to make steel during World War
II (Turin archives).
At present, some 450 kg of material taken from 36 sites across the property is being evaluated at STEV AL
(Station expérimentale de valorisation des matières premières et des substances résiduaires) [Experimental
station for the recovery of raw materials and residual substances] in Nancy, France. This will determine a
complete mineralogical characterization of the material, the grain size of awaruite and other valuable
minerals for potential recovery, the necessary grind size to liberate the metals, the bond index for crushing
the material, and Davis Tube magnetic separation, which splits the sub-sample into magnetic and non-
magnetic fractions. The magnetic fraction will then be fused with lithium metaborate/tetraborate flux and
analyzed by X-ray fluorescence. These analyses are more representative of the recoverable grade of the
waste since most recoverable nickel will be in the magnetic separate (e.g., awaruite), whereas the whole
rock fusion/ICP analyses may include non-recoverable nickel hosted in silicate phases. This work is already
ongoing.
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International consultancy firm SRK has been retained to produce a Scoping Level Review on the Mineral
Assets of the Balangero tailings retreatment project. We forecast this will take approximately 6 months to
complete. Dr. Chiara Boschi, a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources
(IGG-CNR, Pisa, Italy), has been retained by Firestone to develop a process for using carbon dioxide from
industrial sources to neutralize the contained asbestos in the tailings and fix the carbon permanently in a
potentially useful form. Dr. Boschi is a recognized expert and published author on the carbonation of
serpentinite and has over 15 years of experience in this regard.
RSA has some twenty years of experience in managing and reclaiming the Balangero Mine site and has
been highly successful in reducing the threat of airborne asbestos, so today it is not considered a concern
to local communities. It is not economically feasible at the known grades of nickel to consider the reopening
of Balangero as a mining operation, and Aurania has no intention in this regard.
Dr. Keith Barron, a director and Chief Executive Officer of the Company, is also the President and a director
of Firestone Ventures Inc.
Qualified Persons:
The geological information contained in this news release has been verified and approved by Aurania’s VP
Exploration, Mr. Jean-Paul Pallier, MSc. Mr. Pallier is a designated EurGeol by the European Federation
of Geologists and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure
for Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators.
About Aurania
Aurania is a mineral exploration company engaged in the identification, evaluation, acquisition, and
exploration of mineral property interests, with a focus on precious metals and copper in South America. Its
flagship asset, The Lost Cities – Cutucú Project, is located in the Jurassic Metallogenic Belt in the eastern
foothills of the Andes mountain range of southeastern Ecuador.
Information on Aurania and technical reports are available at www.aurania.com and www.sedar.com, as
well as on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/auranialtd/, Twitter at https://twitter.com/auranialtd, and
LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/aurania-resources-ltd-.
For further information, please contact:
Carolyn Muir
VP Corporate Development & Investor Relations
Aurania Resources Ltd.
(416) 367-3200
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.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking information as such term is defined in applicable securities
laws, which relate to future events or future performance and reflect management’s current expectations
and assumptions. The forward-looking information includes: that if results of the MOU prove favourable,
a commercial agreement is expected to be entered into with respect to the extraction of minerals from the
waste piles, the assumption that the waste pile may have the potential to contain circa 229,500 tonnes of
nickel, that this represents a valuable resource which has already been extracted, crushed and dry-stacked,
the expectation that the evaluation of 450 kg of material will provide mineralogical characterization and
other expected information about such material, the timing to produce a Scoping Level Review on the
Mineral Assets of the Balangero tailings retreatment project, Aurania’s objectives, goals or future plans,
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statements, exploration results, potential mineralization, the tonnage and grade of mineralization which has
the potential for economic extraction and processing, the merits and effectiveness of known process and
recovery methods, the corporation’s portfolio, treasury, management team and enhanced capital markets
profile, the estimation of mineral resources, exploration, timing of the commencement of operations, the
commencement of any drill program and estimates of market conditions. Such forward-looking statements
reflect management’s current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently
available to Aurania, including the assumption that, there will be no material adverse change in metal prices,
all necessary consents, licenses, permits and approvals will be obtained, including various local government
licenses and the market. Investors are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are neither promises
nor guarantees and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially
from those expected. Risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results
expressed or implied by the forward-looking information include, among other things: failure to achieve
the anticipated results, incorrect assumptions made in the initial evaluation of the project, failure to identify
mineral resources; failure to convert estimated mineral resources to reserves; the inability to complete a
feasibility study which recommends a production decision; the preliminary nature of metallurgical test
results; the inability to recover and process mineralization using known mining methods; the presence of
deleterious mineralization or the inability to process mineralization in an environmentally acceptable
manner; commodity prices, supply chain disruptions, restrictions on labour and workplace attendance and
local and international travel; a failure to obtain or delays in obtaining the required regulatory licenses,
permits, approvals and consents; an inability to access financing as needed; a general economic downturn,
a volatile stock price, labour strikes, political unrest, changes in the mining regulatory regime governing
Aurania; a failure to comply with environmental regulations; a weakening of market and industry reliance
on precious metals and base metals; and those risks set out in the Company’s public documents filed on
SEDAR+. Aurania cautions the reader that the above list of risk factors is not exhaustive. Although the
Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in
this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only
applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the
disclosed time frames or at all. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any
forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than
as required by law.