Condor Gold plc
(‘’Condor’’ or “the Company”)
Exploration Trenching
Update for La India Project, Nicaragua
Condor (AIM:CNR), is pleased to announce the results from an on-going trench sampling programme on the La India Project. Trenching has been underway since February; the original 1,400m programme has been extended to approximately 3,500m in response to further geological interpretation and positive assay results for the first 2,100m returned to date. The trenching is testing four regional targets that were identified as having near surface gold mineralisation in geological structural settings conducive to the development of wide zones of mineralisation considered exploration targets for open pit resources. In addition, geological definition trenching within La India Open Pit resource has improved confidence in selected zones of the mineral resource for consideration in the on-going Pre-Feasibility Study (“PFS”).
Highlights of Exploration Trenching:
- Confirmation of Newmont Mining trench excavated in 2001 of with 63.6m at 1.01g/t gold on Real de la Cruz concession.
- Backed up by new trench 25m to east of 39.6m at 0.98g/t gold.
- 4m wide quartz breccia grading up to 16.4g/t gold exposed and sampled in artisan pit wall some 45m from the original Newmont trench
- Real de la Cruz surface gold anomaly over 1,100m by 900m defined by augur, rock chip and trenching.
- San Lucas resource trench results of 6m at 7.65g/t and 16.15m at 2.2g/t.
- 6 trenches for 321m within La India Open Pit Resource and detailed core re-logging aimed at converting inferred ounces within the pit to the indicated category.
Mark Child, Chairman and CEO commented:
“Condor is at an advanced stage of a Pre-Feasibility Study (“PFS”) on the 2.33M oz gold at 3.8g/t gold La India Project. The PFS is being conducted on a base case using the open pittable resource of 840,000 oz at 3.1g/t in the indicated category within La India Open Pit. There are additional open pit resources of 300,000 oz at 3g/t excluded from the PFS as the resources are largely in the inferred category, which we intend to bring into the indicated category ahead of a Bankable Feasibility Study.
The other side of our strategy is to demonstrate the considerable upside potential of La India Project via geophysics, geochemistry, soil sampling, rock chip sampling and trenching. We have doubled the size of the current trench programme to 3,500m on the back of positive assay results. Notably, on Real de la Cruz concession a Newmont trench of 2001 has been repeated with 63.6m at 1.01g/t, but what has most encouraged Condor’s geologists are the results from sampling a artisan pit wall, some 45m from the original Newmont trench, that reveals a 4m true width quartz breccia grading up to 16.4g/t gold. The San Lucas resource is demonstrating the potential for another feeder pit with trench results of 6m at 7.65g/t gold and 16.15m at 2.20g/t gold.”
Improving Confidence of the La India Open Pit Mineral Resource Estimate
La India Open Pit Resource is 921,000 oz at 3.1g/t including 840,000 oz at 3.1g/t in the indicated category and 81,000 oz gold in the inferred category. Six trenches for 321m in the La India Open Pit Resource were designed to expose selected gold mineralised structures intersected in drilling, but covered at surface by transported material, in order to better establish the vein orientation and correlate the vein textures and thereby improve the confidence in the geological model. The structures investigated are those that are in the inferred category in the current mineral resource. Sufficient improvement in the geological understanding, due to detailed core re-logging and positive trench results will upgrade some of these mineralised structures to the more confident indicated category which will allow them to be included in the PFS.
Trench Testing Four Regional Exploration Targets
Real de la Cruz Concession, located approximately 8km northeast of the La India Open Pit Resource (Target 6 on Figure 1 below) has returned the most encouraging results. Results from 600m of trenching have confirmed and improved on wide low-grade gold mineralised stockwork zones originally identified by previous explorer Newmont Mining in 2001. Condor has repeated Newmont’s discovery trench returning an intercept of 63.6m at 1.01g/t gold where the Newmont’s trench sampling reported 64m at 1.57g/t gold. The gold intercept is a stockwork zone of multiple high-grade quartz veinlets, predominantly striking east-west, which is perpendicular to the north-south orientated trench, and hosted by a felsic lava dome. The variation in grade is well within expectations for a trench sampling programme using chip channel sampling of hard rock and is therefore considered a validation of the Newmont data. Gold mineralisation is not confined to this 64m wide zone; Condor’s initial 230m long trench intercepted similar, but more widely spaced veinlets across the entire length of the trench. Condor geologists were particularly encouraged to intercept a cross-cutting, northeast-striking, 4m true width quartz breccia grading at up to 16.4g/t gold exposed in an artisanal pit wall. The artisanal pit is some 45m south of the main stockwork zone and was excavated to a depth of 6m below a section of the original Newmont trench that had returned only 6m at 1.47g/t gold nearer surface. The gold intercepts reported in this initial trench are located at the centre of a much larger surface gold anomaly defined by a 1,100m by 900m auger and rock chip anomaly. Condor plans to test continuity of the wide low-grade gold mineralisation with further trenching. A parallel trench excavated 25m to the east has already verified continuity of gold mineralisation with an intercept of 39.6m at 0.98g/t gold including two higher grade zones of 6m at 2.71g/t gold and 5m at 1.69g/t separated by 20m of lower grade material. The Newmont trench data already demonstrates some lateral continuity in the system with notable wide low-grade intercepts of 56m at 1.02g/t gold located 100m to the east and 28m at 1.0g/t gold located 200m to the southeast. Further trench extension and step-out trenching at 200m spacing is underway along the entire 1,100m strike length of the surface anomaly in order to better test the continuity and extent of the gold mineralisation. The assay results for the entire trench programme are expected over the next two months. If continuity of the wide low-grade gold mineralisation is demonstrated over a significant lateral distance then it will be considered a drilling target for low-grade open pit bulk mineable gold mineralisation. A further 1,650m trenching to complete a planned 2,250m programme is underway on Real de la Cruz.
San Lucas trench results are positive. San Lucas prospect, which contains a mineral resource of 329,000t at 5.6g/t gold for 59,000 oz gold located only 2km west of the flagship La India Open Pit resource. Results returned wider intercepts than had been reported in previous explorers manual excavated trenches (Target 2 on Figure 1 below). The best trench intercepts from the 6 trenches for 189m at San Lucas include 6.00m (5.9m true width) at 7.65g/t gold and significantly an intercept of 16.15m (15.9m true width) at 2.20g/t where the vein was shown to split into three veins. The discovery of branching of the vein at surface at San Lucas is encouraging and points to the possibility of discovering additional un-exploited gold in the walls of the historic San Lucas Mine.
Of the other three areas tested by trenching, the two targets outside of the main resource area returned narrower gold mineralised intercepts that are now considered underground mine targets:
- The Dos Hermanos structure, located 4km west of La India Open Pit Resource, returned high-grade intercepts in the area of the historic Dos Hermanos Mine workings, with a best trench intercept of 1.00m at 11.5g/t gold and a best artisanal mine channel sample of 1.50m at 9.17g/t gold (Target 1 on Figure 1 below). Over 1km along strike to the northwest a 20m wide zone of multiple veins including 1.60m at 4.61g/t gold, 0.60m at 5.70g/t gold and 0.10m at 2.30g/t gold near the intersection of the northwest striking Dos Hermanos structure and the north striking El Duende Vein remains open along strike.
- The Chaparro Prospect, located 4km north of La India Open Pit Resource on the Northwest extension of the India-America and Mestiza structure which is located at a flexure in the gold mineralised structure returned narrow intersections of up to 1.10m (1.0m true width) at 6.93g/t Au (Target 4 on Figure 1 below).
Table 1. Reported trenching completed on La India Vein Set and regional exploration targets.
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No. |
Name |
Target Style |
Interpretation |
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La India Vein Set |
Resource Definition |
6 trenches for 321m. |
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1 |
Dos Hermanos |
Exploration |
5 trenches for 640m testing a 1500m strike length. |
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2 |
San Lucas |
Exploration |
12 trenches for 330m. |
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4 |
NW extension of India-America and Mestiza; El Chaparro Prospect |
Exploration |
5 trenches for 226m. |
|
6 |
Real de la Cruz |
Exploration |
6 trenches for 823m, further c.650m of trenching underway. |
Figure 1. Regional exploration targets and current mineral resources and shown overlying a radiometric Thorium:Potassium background, high potassium to low thorium coloured blue.
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 by and reviewed by Dr Luc English, the Country Exploration Manager, who is a Chartered Geologist and Fellow of the Geological Society of London, and a geologist with nineteen years of experience in the exploration and definition of precious and base metal mineral resources. Luc English is a full-time employee of Condor Gold plc and has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralization and type of deposit under consideration, and to the type of activity which 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. Luc English 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.
- Ends -
For further information please visit www.condorgold.com or contact:
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Condor Gold plc |
Mark Child, Executive Chairman and CEO +44 (0) 20 7408 1067
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Luc English, Country Manager Nicaragua +505 8854 0753
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Beaumont Cornish Limited
Numis Securities Limited |
Roland Cornish +44 (0) 20 7628 3396
John Prior and James Black
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Farm Street Media |
Simon Robinson +44 (0) 7593 340107
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About Condor Gold plc:
Condor Gold plc is an AIM listed exploration company focused on developing gold and silver resource projects in Central America. The Company was admitted to AIM on 31st May 2006 with the stated strategy to prove up CIM/JORC Resources in Nicaragua and El Salvador. Condor has eight 100% owned concessions in La India Mining District (“La India Project”); three 100% owned concessions in three other project areas and 20% in the Cerro Quiroz concession in Nicaragua. In El Salvador, Condor has 90% ownership of four licences in two project areas.
Condor’s La India Project in Nicaragua currently contains a total attributable mineral resource of 18.4Mt at 3.9g/t for 2.33M oz gold and 2.68M oz silver at 6.2g/t to the CIM Code. Total gold equivalent of 2.37M oz. Including: Indicated mineral resource of 9.6Mt at 3.5g/t for 1.08M oz gold, Inferred mineral resource of 8.8Mt at 4.4g/t for 1.25M oz gold. Total open pit mineral resources of 1.14M oz gold at 3.1g/t. In El Salvador, Condor has an attributable 1,004,000 oz gold equivalent at 2.6g/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.
Technical Glossary
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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 |
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Auger |
A devise used to collect unconsolidated soil or other subsurface material by drilling either with a screw thread or with a hollow core tube with a blade bit. |
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Calcite |
A common rock mineral composed of the elements calcium, carbon and oxygen. |
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CIM Code |
The reporting standard adopted for the reporting of the Mineral resources is that defined by the terms and definitions given in the terminology, definitions and guidelines given in the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) Standards on Mineral resources and Mineral Reserves (December 2005) as required by NI 43-101. The CIM Code is an internationally recognised reporting code as defined by the Combined Reserves International Reporting Standards Committee |
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Cross-cutting |
Cross-cutting refers to the orientation of a structural plane or lineament that intersects another plane or lineament at an obtuse or perpendicular angle. |
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Dip |
A line directed down the steepest axis of a planar structure including a planar ore body or zone of mineralisation. The dip has a measurable direction and inclination from horizontal. |
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Epithermal |
Mineral veins and ore deposited from fluids at shallow depths at low pressure and temperatures ranging from 50-300°C |
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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. |
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Gold Equivalent |
Gold equivalent grade is calculated by dividing the silver assay result by 60, adding it to the gold value and assuming 100% metallurgical recovery |
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Grade |
The proportion of a mineral within a rock or other material. For gold mineralisation this is usually reported as grams of gold per tonne of rock (g/t) |
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g/t |
grams per tonne |
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Hanging wall |
The rock adjacent to and above an ore or mineralised body or geological fault. Note that on steeply-dipping tabular ore or mineralised bodies the hanging wall will be inclined nearer to the vertical than horizontal. |
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Inferred Mineral Resource |
That part of a Mineral resource for which tonnage, grade and mineral content can be estimated with a low level of confidence. It is inferred from geological evidence and assumed but not verified geological and/or grade continuity. It is based on information gathered through appropriate techniques from locations such as outcrops, trenches, pits, workings and drill holes that may be limited, or of uncertain quality and reliability |
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Indicated resource |
That part of a Mineral resource for which tonnage, densities, shape, physical characteristics, grade and mineral content can be estimated with a reasonable level of confidence. It is based on exploration, sampling and testing information gathered through appropriate techniques from locations such as outcrops, trenches, pits, workings and drill holes. The locations are too widely or inappropriately spaced to confirm geological and/or grade continuity but are spaced closely enough for continuity to be assumed |
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Intercept |
Refers to a sample or sequence of samples taken across the entire width or an ore body or mineralized zone. The intercept is described by the entire thickness and the average grade of mineralisation |
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JORC |
Australian Joint Ore Reserves Committee, common reference to the Australasian Code for reporting of identified mineral resources and ore reserves |
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koz |
Thousand troy ounces |
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kt |
Thousand tonnes |
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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 |
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Open pit mining |
A method of extracting minerals from the earth by excavating downwards from the surface such that the ore is extracted in the open air (as opposed to underground mining). |
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oz |
Troy ounce, equivalent to 31.103477 grams |
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Quartz |
A common rock mineral composed of the elements silicon and oxygen. |
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Quartz breccia |
Broken fragments of rock cemented together by a network of quartz rock. The quartz is deposited from saturated geothermal liquids filling the space between the rock fragments. |
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Quartz veins |
Deposit of quartz rock that develop in fractures and fissures in the surrounding rock. They are deposited by saturated geothermal liquids rising to the surface through the cracks in the rock and then cooling, taking on the shape of the cracks that they fill. |
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Radiometric |
Also known as gamma ray spectrometry, is the measure of natural radiation on the top 30-45cm of the earth’s surface. The abundance of the three naturally occurring radioactive elements, potassium (K), thorium (Th) and uranium (U), is proportional to the abundance of minerals containing those elements. This information can be used in mapping the surface geology including the definition of areas of potassium enrichment related to hydrothermal alteration. |
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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 |
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Stockwork |
Multiple connected veins with more than one orientation, typically consisting of millimetre to centimetre thick fracture-fill veins and veinlets. |
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Strike length |
The longest horizontal dimension of an ore body or zone of mineralisation. |
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Trench |
The excavation of a horizontally elongate pit (trench), typically up to 2m deep and up to 1.5m wide in order to access fresh or weathered bedrock and take channel samples across a mineralised structure. The trench is normally orientated such that samples taken along the longest wall are perpendicular to the mineralised structure. |
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True width |
The shortest axis of a body, usually perpendicular to the longest plane. This often has to be calculated for channel or drill samples where the sampling was not exactly perpendicular to the long axis. The true width will always be less than the apparent width of an obliquely intersect sample. |
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Mt |
Million tonnes |
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Vein |
A sheet-like body of crystalised 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. |
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Wallrock |
The rock adjacent to an ore or mineralised body or geological fault. |
*Please see attached PDF link*
