/NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR
DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED
STATES. ANY FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH THIS RESTRICTION MAY
CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF U.S. SECURITIES LAWS./
VANCOUVER,
Feb. 19, 2013 /CNW/ - Ecuador Gold
& Copper Corp. (TSX-V: EGX), (the "Company" or
"EGX") is pleased to announce assay results from drill hole
DEH-05 at its El Hito copper porphyry deposit. The El Hito deposit
is located within the Company's 8,300 hectare Condor Gold and
Copper Project in the Zamora Gold
and Copper Belt, Southeast
Ecuador. Numerous intercepts are highlighted by two
continuous intersections of a 31.85 meter interval with 0.42% Cu
and 1.2 g/t Ag and a further 229 meter interval with 0.40% Cu and
0.71 g/t Ag including 41.55meters of 0.73% Cu and 3.20 g/t Ag.
This is the first EGX drill hole at El Hito,
part of the previously announced 10,000 meter Phase I drill program
on the Company's extensive Condor Gold and Copper Project. DEH-05
encountered a number of long mineralized intervals that confirm the
potential for a significant porphyry copper deposit at El
Hito. For further details see the Company's web site at
www.ecuadorgoldandcopper.com or the June 14,
2012 Technical Report at www.sedar.com.
DEH-05 was collared approximately 200 meters
south of four shallow discovery holes drilled in the late 1990s by
previous operators and was drilled to the east to a depth of
711meters. Table 1 summarizes the assay results.
Table 1: Summary of Results from El
Hito Drill Hole DEH-05 (length weighted average assays,
uncapped)
Drill Hole |
From
(m) |
To
(m) |
Interval
(m) |
Cu (%) |
Ag (g/t) |
DEH-05 |
8.0 |
162.0 |
154.00 |
0.32 |
1.08 |
DEH-05 |
283.15 |
315.0 |
31.85 |
0.42 |
1.20 |
DEH-05 |
478.0 |
707.0 |
229.00 |
0.40 |
0.71 |
including |
478.0 |
614.6 |
136.60 |
0.36 |
1.49 |
and |
631.45 |
673.0 |
41.55 |
0.73 |
3.20 |
- g/t = grams per metric tonne.
- The true width of down hole interval lengths are estimated
to be approximately 50% to 60%.
Commentary
Drill hole DEH-05 intersected relatively
continuous copper mineralization over 703 meters from 8.0m to
711.0m grading an average of 0.31% Cu and 1.18 g/t Ag over the
entire length. Porphyry copper mineralization is associated
with a Late Jurassic dioritic intrusive complex hosted by Jurassic
age plutonic rocks of the Zamora
batholith. Two major structural orientations are exhibited by
steeply dipping intrusive contacts, quartz veins, sulfide-mineral
veinlets, and faults striking north and northwest. The majority of
the diorite complex is moderately to strongly
quartz-sericite-pyrite (phyllic) altered, overprinting potassic
alteration at depth. The 40km long Zamora Gold and Copper
Belt in Southeastern Ecuador is
host to Ecuacorriente's Mirador, Panantza and San Carlos copper
porphyry deposits and Kinross's
Fruta del Norte epithermal gold deposit of the same age. The
Company cautions that reference to the nearby deposits is for
information purposes only and there is no assurance that its Condor
gold and copper concessions will develop into economically viable
producing deposits.
10,000 Meter Phase I Drill Program
El Hito is one of four targets including two
epithermal gold deposits: the Los Cuyes deposit (where previously
released results on 29 January 2013
showed 149.0 meters @0.84 g/t Au and 9.0 g/t Ag including
14.1meters @ 5.00g/t Au and 39.0 g/t Au); the Soledad
deposit in the northern part of the gold and copper concessions of
the Condor Gold Project; and the Santa Barbara deposit, a
gold-copper porphyry south of the epithermal district and 5 km west
of the El Hito deposit.
EGX is currently drilling four more holes at the
El Hito copper porphyry target and seven follow up holes at the
Santa Barbara gold-copper porphyry target to the west where
previously released results showed 420 meters of 0.571 g/t Au
including 101meters grading 1.017 g/t (see Company News Release,
October 17, 2012).
Drilling completed to the end of January, 2013
totaled approximately 7,000 meters and new holes are in progress at
Santa Barbara and El Hito with two drill rigs currently
turning.
Existing Resources
The Condor Gold Project contains a Measured
& Indicated Mineral Resource of 1.52 million ounces gold
(within 50.4 Mt grading 0.94 g/t gold). Additional Inferred Mineral
Resources contain 1.28 million ounces gold (within 28.4 Mt
grading 1.4 g/t gold). The measured resource consists of 54,000
ounces of gold (within 147.0 Mt grading 1.0 g/t gold) and the
indicated resources consist of 1.47 million ounces gold (within
50.3 Mt grading 0.94 g/t). For more information, please see
the Company's resource table at www.ecuadorgoldandcopper.com or its
Technical Report dated June 14, 2012
which is available under the Company's profile on SEDAR at
www.sedar.com.
Quality Assurance
The Company has implemented a quality assurance
and quality control program to ensure that the transport, sampling
and analysis of all samples is conducted in accordance with the
best possible practices. Drill core is transported from the drill
by employees to the Company's secure core logging facility at its
camp where, after geotechnical and geological logging, it is marked
for sampling. The entire hole is sampled and core samples are
generally 2m in length, varying at geological contacts to between
1.5m and 2.5m and are split in half by EGX employees. One
half is retained in a secure storage facility and the other half is
transported by EGX employees or a bonded courier to ACME Labs'
sample preparation facility in Cuenca, Ecuador where the core sample is crushed so
that 80% passes a 10 mesh screen and a 250g split is pulverized so
that 85% passes a 200 mesh screen. From Cuenca ACME Labs
ships the samples to their laboratory in Santiago, Chile for analysis. The lab is
ISO/IEC 17025:2005 (CAN-P-4E) certified. Where appropriate, samples
are analyzed for gold by 30-gm fire assay with an AA finish and by
gravimetric methods for assays over 10 ppm. Samples are analyzed
for silver and copper by ICP-ES after a four acid digestion.
For silver assays over 200 ppm, samples are analyzed using ACME
Labs 7AR method consisting of hot aqua regia digestion and ICP-ES
analysis. Copper assays over 10,000 ppm are re-analyzed using four
acid digestion with ICP-ES finish (ACME Labs 7TD method).
ACME Labs are independent from the Company.
Under the Company's QA-QC procedures, samples
are submitted for re-analysis based on their proximity to a
certified reference standard that returns a value greater than
three standard deviations higher or lower than the mean value for
that standard. In addition, any two consecutive reference standards
falling outside the two standard deviation threshold will be
considered to have failed. Since every twentieth sample is a
reference standard, ten samples above and below a failed standard
will be re-analyzed. The same protocol will be applied to duplicate
samples considered to have unacceptably divergent gold values.
Periodically, random samples will be submitted to another
laboratory as an external check on the results provided by the
primary lab.
Qualified Person
Mit Tilkov, P.Geo., Vice-President Exploration
of Ecuador Gold and Copper Corp. is the qualified person, as
defined by National Instrument 43-101, supervised the project field
work, and is responsible for the preparation of the technical
information in this release.
Cautionary Note
The Company has not completed a preliminary
economic assessment or feasibility study of the Condor Gold Project
under National Instrument 43-101, and there is no assurance that
the exploration and subsequent development operations of the Condor
Gold Project will be economically or technically viable.
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.
SOURCE Ecuador Gold and Copper Corp.