Aurizon Mines has received the ‘e3 Plus’ award from the Association de L’Exploration Miniere du Quebec (AEMQ) at the recent Quebec Exploration 2009 convention. The company was granted this in recognition of its high level of environmental and social responsibility and its compliance with best practices recommended by the Prospectors and Developers Association (PDAC) in its e3 Plus guidelines: A Framework for Responsible Exploration. The guidelines, which are available in the form of an online toolkit, are an initiative of the PDAC designed to assist exploration companies to continuously improve their social, environmental and health and safety performance and to comprehensively integrate these three aspects into all their exploration activities.
The recent approach that Aurizon took with the Joanna project and the stakeholders was in accordance with the e3 Plus framework. Aurizon met with more than 35 groups of stakeholders, as well as the nearby residents of the Joanna project with the aim of integrating their concerns into the prefeasibility study.

Aurizon recently announced the results of this study on the Joanna property which is located 20 km east of Rouyn-Noranda, in northwest Quebec. This envisages an open-pit mining operation, which could produce 100,000 oz/y of gold, and employ around 160 people in the Abitibi region.

“We are delighted and honoured to receive this award.” said David Hall, President and CEO. “Full credit is due to the dedicated efforts of our global development team in Val-d’Or, who have been very pro-active in communicating Aurizon’s plans to the various stakeholder groups, obtaining their views, and incorporating their concerns into the prefeasibility study.”

Aurizon is a gold producer with a growth strategy focused on developing its existing projects in the Abitibi region of northwest Quebec, one of the world’s most favourable mining jurisdictions and prolific gold and base metal regions, and by increasing its asset base through accretive transactions.