LONDON, June 29, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --
Condor Gold (AIM: CNR) is pleased to announce more results from
continued drilling on the Mestiza Vein Set ('Mestiza') at the La
India Project, Nicaragua. The
objective is to convert an historic Soviet mineral resource (2,392
kt at 10.2 g/t gold for 785,694 oz gold) to Canadian NI 43-101
standard. The initial focus is on the Tatiana Vein, one of the 4
constituent veins and the largest portion of the resource. Results
are excellent and have identified a high grade ore shoot in the
area of a major dilational bend. The programme continues with two
drill rigs and has now been expanded to 6,000 m in total.
(Photo:
http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/529329/Condor_Gold_Mestiza_Vein.jpg
)
(Photo:
http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/529330/Condor_Gold_Cross_section_2050_of_Tatiana_Vein.jpg
)
(Photo:
http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/529332/Condor_Gold_Mestiza_La_India.jpg
)
(Photo:
http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/529333/Condor_Gold_7_resources_La_India_Project.jpg
)
Highlights:
- LIDC348 drill width 3.6 m (true width 2.3 m) at 23.3 g/t gold
and 66.6 g/t silver from 160.5 m depth.
- LIDC348 is 100 m vertically down dip of a previously reported
drill hole (LIDC344; drill width 3.3 m at 28.3 g/t gold) and
demonstrates a high grade ore shoot which extends to at least 150 m
below surface and may have a strike extent of about 300 m.
- LIDC360 drill width 3.1 m (true width 2.7 m) at 14.4 g/t gold
and 29.2 g/t silver from 40.3 m depth.
- 3,000 m drilling programme is now expanded to 6,000 m.
- The Tatiana vein has excellent continuity for 1.5 km and is a
4-5 m wide mineralised structure. The average true width of the
high grade portion, comprising mostly fault breccia, is
approximately 2.5 m.
- High recoveries have been achieved in the mineralized zone,
including mineralised fault breccias that previous drilling failed
to recover.
Mark Child,
Chairman and CEO comments:
"The drill result of 3.6 m at 23.3 g/t gold on the Tatiana vein
is very encouraging because it is approximately 100 m below our
previously reported drill intercept of 3.3 m at 28.3 g/t gold. This
and neighbouring drill holes define a high grade shoot which is
open down dip and along strike for approximately 300 m. In light of
this, the drill programme has been modified from broadly 100 m
centres, to include drilling some 50 m step out holes in this high
grade zone.
The overall objective is to convert an historic Soviet-style
mineral resource (2,392 kt at 10.2 g/t gold for 785,694 oz gold) to
Canadian NI 43-101 standard. This will hopefully boost the current
NI 43-101-compliant Inferred Mineral Resource at Mestiza (1,490 kt
at 7.47 g/t for 333,000 oz gold).
Mestiza is excluded from the current mine plans in the PFS and
PEAs. A successful resource conversion has the potential to add
large, high grade, and relatively shallow resources to a future
mine plan, thereby increasing the annual gold production, life of
mine, and project economics. The Tatiana vein has excellent
continuity for more than 1.5 km and we hope to identify further
high grade shoots by targeting bends in the vein, which are more
dilational and seem to have controlled gold grade."
Background
La India Project's existing NI 43-101-compliant mineral resource
is 18 Mt at 4.0 g/t Au (2.31 Moz gold). This consists of seven
separate resources, most of them open along strike and at depth. It
includes Mestiza, which hosts a NI 43-101-compliant Inferred
mineral resource of 1,490 kt at 7.47 g/t (333,000 oz gold). Here,
Soviet-backed drilling in 1991 estimated a Soviet-style mineral
resource of 2,392 kt at 10.2 g/t gold (785,694 oz gold) (See RNS
dated 22nd May 2017). The
bulk of the resources are contained within the Tatiana vein, the
largest of the four main veins on Mestiza.
Current Drill Plan
Condor commenced drilling with one drill rig on Mestiza on
23rd March 2017, to test
the Soviet drill intercepts and convert the high grade Soviet-style
mineral resource estimate to Canadian NI-43-101 standard (See RNS
dated 31st March 2017).
The initial batch of drill holes assays was reported on
22 May 2017. It is expected that
further drilling of about 3,000 m (total of 6,000 m drilling) will
be required to convert the majority of the Soviet mineral resource
to a NI 43-101-compliant Inferred Mineral Resource.
Drill results for 1,464 m
New drill results (from holes LIDC349 to 360, inclusive) are
shown in Table 1. The drill plan (Figure 1) shows that holes
LIDC349 to 352, which returned narrow low grade results, were
drilled into an untested area corresponding to a compressional
portion of the structure. Similarly, holes LIDC356, 357 and 359
were drilled in the very west end of the Tatiana vein and, except
for LIDC356, returned narrow low grade results. The remaining holes
reported herein were drilled around a major dilational flexure
known as the "Big Bend." This includes hole LIDC355, which was
abandoned in the vein with a final assay of 0.9 m @ 13.9 g/t Au,
and was re-drilled by LIDC358, which returned 3.55 m @ 23.3 g/t Au.
This is illustrated in a cross section (Figure 2), which includes
LIDC344 (3.30 m @ 28.3 g/t Au) reported on 22 May 2017.
Table 1 Current Drill Results from the Tatiana
vein on Mestiza
Drill *True Au
Drill Width Width (g/t
Prospect hole ID From** To** (m) (m) ) Ag (g/t) Comment
Tatiana LIDC349 45.70 53.20 7.50 4.3 2.08 24.9 incl 2.70 m @ 3.61 g/t [2.70m@3.61g/t] Au
Tatiana LIDC350 67.90 68.55 0.65 0.4 0.85 3.0
Tatiana LIDC351 44.65 45.30 0.65 0.6 0.99 5.0
Tatiana LIDC352 85.00 85.90 0.90 0.6 2.24 6.8
Tatiana LIDC353 98.90 101.00 2.10 1.6 5.35 12.6
Tatiana LIDC354 141.20 143.60 2.40 1.5 2.21 4.3 incl 0.78 m @ 5.87 g/t Au
Tatiana LIDC355 51.80 52.65 0.85 0.5 1.20 4.0 hangingwall vein
LIDC355 135.00 136.00 1.00 0.5 2.54 3.0 hangingwall vein
LIDC355 149.70 150.60 0.90 0.6 13.9 20.0 hole abandoned in target
Tatiana LIDC356 90.00 94.25 4.25 3.6 2.74 7.1 incl 2.00 m @ 5.16 g/t Au
Tatiana LIDC357 172.90 175.90 3.00 1.5 0.82 4.2 incl 0.50 m @ 1.17 g/t Au & 0.60 m @ 1.10 g/t Au
Tatiana LIDC358 160.50 164.05 3.55 2.3 23.3 66.6 redrill of LIDC355
Tatiana LIDC359 74.70 74.80 0.10 0.1 2.43 <2
83.90 85.60 1.70 1.2 3.13 4.8 incl 1.10 m @ 4.48 g/t Au
Tatiana LIDC360 40.30 43.40 3.10 2.7 14.4 29.2
*Intercepts calculated above a 0.5 g/t Au cut off
**Depth from surface
Figure 1: Map of Mestiza Vein Set Showing 4
Main Veins. Drilling so far is only on the Tatiana
Vein
Figure 1
Green line in Figure 1 above is the reference section shown in
Figure 2 below
Figure 2: Cross section 2050 of Tatiana
Vein
Figure 2
Note: The purple line in Figure 2 above represents the Tatiana
Vein at Cross Section 2050
Discussion of Drill Results
As reported in the last drill hole results released on
22 May 2017, mineralisation occurs
within a 4-6 m wide mineralised structure crosscutting a major unit
of welded tuff with conspicuous fiamme. The structure consists
of:
- A central high grade quartz vein, 0.5-1.0 m wide, with comb and
drusy quartz and minor chalcedony. Textures of the vein vary
between holes, from massive silica, to leaching textures with
skeletons of former calcite, to locally colloform banded pale green
chalcedony with fine streaks of sulphide mineralization.
- 2.5 m of jigsaw and crackle hydrothermal breccia around the
central vein. Drusy and comb quartz forms the matrix of these
breccias, normally associated with lower gold grades.
- Late fault breccias along the structure containing clasts of
vein and hydrothermal breccia, which can contain significant high
grade gold mineralisation.
Gold mineralisation is associated with the quartz vein and fault
breccia over true widths of up to 3 m. The nature of the fault
breccia, with variable amounts of gold mineralised vein clasts in a
"difficult to recover" clay gouge, leads to high grade variability
across the deposit. There is also a supergene effect as suggested
by high grade silver spikes in some of the deeper historic holes
(e.g., 0.7 m @ 356 g/t Ag from 198.1 m in LIDC030B).
A long section of the Tatiana Vein (Figure 3) plots the drill
hole intercepts at the point at which they pierce the vein for all
the historic and current drilling. Each point is described by a
grade thickness factor, which is the downhole intercept length
multiplied by the average grade. At the local scale this shows the
highly variable nature of mineralisation, but at the larger scale
shows that the vein is broadly well mineralised and forms high
grade shoots separated by intervening areas of low grade where the
mineralised zone is thinner.
A geological model has been developed which correlates high
grade gold mineralisation with bends in the vein (see 'Big Bend' in
Figure 1). These bends created more open space, allowing more
hydrothermal fluid circulation, resulting in higher grade. The Big
Bend high grade shoot, which appears to pitch almost vertically,
extends over a strike length of approximately 300 m. It is open to
depth and the deepest intersections, about 150 m below surface,
remain in oxidised material. Deeper drilling, and drilling to
infill untested 'gaps' in Big Bend, are underway with more closely
spaced drilling, on 50 m centres, to better define the geometry and
extent of the high grade shoot.
Drilling will continue on 100 m centres along the strike length
of the Tatiana, Buenos Aires and
Jicaro veins for resource definition purposes and to help identify
new shoots.
Figure 3 Long Section of
Tatiana Indicating a High Grade Ore
Shoot
Figure 3
Mestiza in the context of La
India
Mestiza is significant for five reasons:
1. It already hosts a NI 43-101-compliant mineral resource
(1,490 kt at 7.47 g/t; 333,000 oz gold). This is excluded from the
current Pre-Feasibility Study ('PFS') and Preliminary Economic
Assessment ('PEA') at La India Project.
2. The December 2014 PEA contains
an open pit and underground mining scenario using a 1.6 Mtpa
processing plant recovering 1,203 koz gold over the life of mine,
with the first 5 years production averaging 138,000 oz gold pa.
3. The January 2016 Whittle
Enterprise Optimisation to NPV of the above PEA materially
increased the recovered gold and project economics. Using the same
1.6 Mtpa processing plant, recovered gold increases to 1,437 koz
gold over the life of mine with the first five years of production
averaging 165,000 oz gold pa.
4. All production scenarios to date exclude Mestiza, which is in
close proximity to the La India and America vein sets (See Figure
4). There is a high possibility of bringing additional high grade
gold from Mestiza into a future mine plan, feeding a centralised
processing plant.
5. Importantly, Mestiza hosts a relatively shallow high grade,
oxidised resource, which is currently viewed as a combined open
pit-underground mining target. The average drill depth is 112 m for
the 6,000 m resource conversion drilling programme. The existing
resource is open along strike in both directions and at depth. The
shallow, high grade nature of the resource suggests it could be
added early on to the mine plan, enhancing the production profile
and economics of the project.
Figure 4 Location of 7 resources that comprise the La
India Project
Figure 4
Competent Person's
Declaration
The information in this announcement that relates to the mineral
potential, geology, exploration results and database is based on
information compiled, and reviewed, by Mr Peter Flindell, Member of the Australian
Institute of Geoscientists, Member of the Australasian Institute of
Mining and Metallurgy and Member of the Society of Economic
Geologists. Mr Flindell is a geologist with over thirty years of
experience in the exploration of precious metal mineral resources.
Mr Flindell is a non-executive director on the Board of Condor Gold
plc who also provides technical leadership to the technical team in
Nicaragua and has considerable
experience in epithermal mineralization, the type of deposit under
consideration, and sufficient experience in the type of activity
that he is undertaking to qualify as a 'Competent Person' as
defined in the June 2009 Edition of
the AIM Note for Mining and Oil & Gas Companies. Mr Flindell
consents to the inclusion in the announcement of the matters based
on their information in the form and context in which it appears
and confirms that this information is accurate and not false or
misleading.
Technical Glossary
Assay The laboratory test conducted to determine the proportion of a
mineral within a rock or other material. Usually reported as
parts per million which is equivalent to grams of the mineral
(i.e. gold) per tonne of rock
Ag Silver
Au Gold
breccias A fragmental rock, composed of rounded to angular broken rock
fragments held together by a mineral cement or in a
fine-grained matrix. They can be formed by igneous, tectonic,
sedimentary or hydrothermal processes.
C1 C1 reserves are broadly equivalent to JORC indicated resources
and have been estimated by a sparse grid of trenches, drill
holes or underground workings. The quality and properties of
the deposit are known tentatively by analyses and by analogy
with known deposits of the same type. The general conditions
for exploitation are partially known
C2 C2 reserves are broadly equivalent to JORC inferred resources
and have been extrapolated from limited data, probably only a
single hole
Chalcedony A variety of quartz formed by microscopic or submicroscopic
crystals. In an epithermal environment, chalcedony is formed in
low temperature and pressure conditions high in the system.
Colloform banded A texture found in fine grained quartz (chalcedony) veins where
crystals have grown in a radiating and concentric manner form a
vein centreline to give a finely banded appearance
Comb quartz A quartz vein texture describing masses of parallel long, thin
crystals growing inwards from the vein margins produce a
texture like that of a comb.
Drusy quartz A coating of fine quartz crystals
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal] on a rock fracture
surface, which may be an open space in the vein.
Fiamme Fragments of volcanic
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcano] ejecta, often pumice,
that have been flattened by compaction to form flame-like
shapes
Geochemistry The study of the elements and their interaction as minerals to
makeup rocks and soils
Geophysics The measurement and interpretation of the earth's physical
parameters using non-invasive methods such as measuring the
gravity, magnetic susceptibility, electrical conductivity,
seismic response and natural radioactive emissions.
Hydrothermal Hot water circulation often caused by heating of groundwater by
near surface magmas and often occurring in association with
volcanic activity. Hydrothermal waters can contain significant
concentrations of dissolved minerals.
Kt Thousand tonnes
Mineral Reserve The economically mineable part of a Measured and/or Indicated
Mineral Resource. It includes diluting materials and allowances
for losses, which may occur when the material is mined.
Appropriate assessments and studies have been carried out, and
include consideration of and modification by realistically
assumed mining, metallurgical, economic, marketing, legal,
environmental, social and governmental factors. These
assessments demonstrate at the time of reporting that
extraction could reasonably be justified. Ore Reserves are
sub-divided in order of increasing confidence into Probable Ore
Reserves and Proved Ore Reserves.
Mineral Resource A concentration or occurrence of material of economic interest
in or on the Earth's crust in such a form, quality, and
quantity that there are reasonable and realistic prospects for
eventual economic extraction. The location, quantity, grade,
continuity and other geological characteristics of a Mineral
Resource are known, estimated from specific geological
knowledge, or interpreted from a well constrained and portrayed
geological model.
NI 43-101 Canadian National Instrument 43-101 a common standard for
reporting of identified mineral resources and ore reserves
Phreatic breccias Fragmental rocks formed near the Earth's surface by the
interaction of hot rock and cold water, or vice versa. Commonly
occur at the top of mineralized epithermal gold systems.
Rock chip A sample of rock collected for analysis, from one or several
close spaced sample points at a location. Unless otherwise
stated, this type of sample is not representative of the
variation in grade across the width of an ore or mineralised
body and the assay results cannot be used in a Mineral Resource
Estimation
Soviet The former Soviet system for classification of reserves and
Classification resources, developed in 1960 and revised in 1981, which divides
mineral concentrations into seven categories of three major
groups, based on the level of exploration performed: explored
reserves (A, B, C1), evaluated reserves (C2) and prognostic
resources (P1, P2, P3)
Soviet GKZ The former Soviet State Commission for Mineral Reserves.
Stockwork Multiple connected veins with more than one orientation,
typically consisting of millimetre to centimetre thick
fracture-fill veins and veinlets.
Strike length The longest horizontal dimension of an ore body or zone of
mineralisation.
Vein A sheet-like body of crystallised minerals within a rock,
generally forming in a discontinuity or crack between two rock
masses. Economic concentrations of gold are often contained
within vein minerals.
Welded tuff A fragmental volcanic rock formed by sufficiently hot volcanic
ejecta that the fragments weld together
Zeolite veinlets Zeolites are hydrated aluminosilicates found in gas bubbles
within basalts and in
geothermal districts. They also found in the upper parts of
gold-bearing epithermal
systems.
About Condor Gold plc:
Condor Gold plc was admitted to AIM on 31st May 2006. The Company is a gold exploration
and development company with a focus on Central America.
Condor completed a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) and two
Preliminary Economic Assessments (PEA) on its wholly owned La India
Project in Nicaragua in
December 2014. The PFS details an
open pit gold mineral reserve of 6.9 Mt at 3.0 g/t gold for 675,000
oz gold producing 80,000 oz gold p.a. for 7 years. The PEA for the
open pit only scenario details 100,000 oz gold production p.a. for
8 years whereas the PEA for a combination of open pit and
underground details 140,000 oz gold production p.a. for 8 years. La
India Project contains a total attributable mineral resource of
18.08 Mt at 4.0 g/t for 2.31 M oz gold and 2.68 M oz silver at 6.2
g/t to the CIM Code.
In El Salvador, Condor has an
attributable 1,004,000 oz gold equivalent at 2.6 g/t JORC compliant
resource. The resource calculations are compiled by independent
geologists SRK Consulting (UK) Limited for Nicaragua and Ravensgate and Geosure for
El Salvador.
Disclaimer
Neither the contents of the Company's website nor the contents
of any website accessible from hyperlinks on the Company's website
(or any other website) is incorporated into, or forms part of, this
announcement.
For further information please visit
http://www.condorgold.com or contact:
Condor Gold plc
7th Floor 39 St. James's Street London SW1A 1JD
Telephone +44-020-74932794 Fax: +44-020-74938633
Condor Gold plc
Mark Child, Executive
Chairman and CEO
+44(0)20-7493-2784
Beaumont Cornish Limited
Roland Cornish and James Biddle
+44(0)20-7628-3396
Numis Securities Limited
John Prior and James Black
+44(0)20-7260-1000
Farm Street Media
Simon Robinson
+44(0)7593-340107