TIDMCNR
RNS Number : 5017J
Condor Gold PLC
29 June 2017
Condor Gold plc
7(th) Floor
39 St. James's Street
London
SW1A 1JD
Telephone +44 020 74932794
Fax: +44 020 74938633
29(th) June 2017
Condor Gold plc
('Condor', 'Condor Gold' or 'the Company')
Drill Results on La India Project: including 3.6 m at 23.3 g/t
gold and 3.1 m at 14.4 g/t gold
If you want to review the full announcement including maps,
please click on the link:-
http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/5017J_1-2017-6-28.pdf
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.
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 22(nd) 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
23(rd) 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 31(st) 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
Prospect Drill From** To** Drill *True Au Ag Comment
hole Width Width (g/t) (g/t)
ID (m) (m)
---------- --------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ---------------
incl 2.70 m
@ 3.61 g/t
Tatiana LIDC349 45.70 53.20 7.50 4.3 2.08 24.9 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
---------- --------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ---------------
incl 0.78 m
@ 5.87 g/t
Tatiana LIDC354 141.20 143.60 2.40 1.5 2.21 4.3 Au
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ---------------
hangingwall
Tatiana LIDC355 51.80 52.65 0.85 0.5 1.20 4.0 vein
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ---------------
hangingwall
LIDC355 135.00 136.00 1.00 0.5 2.54 3.0 vein
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ---------------
hole abandoned
LIDC355 149.70 150.60 0.90 0.6 13.9 20.0 in target
-------------------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ---------------
incl 2.00 m
@ 5.16 g/t
Tatiana LIDC356 90.00 94.25 4.25 3.6 2.74 7.1 Au
---------- --------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ---------------
incl 0.50 m
@ 1.17 g/t
Au & 0.60 m
@ 1.10 g/t
Tatiana LIDC357 172.90 175.90 3.00 1.5 0.82 4.2 Au
---------- --------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ---------------
redrill of
Tatiana LIDC358 160.50 164.05 3.55 2.3 23.3 66.6 LIDC355
---------- --------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ---------------
Tatiana LIDC359 74.70 74.80 0.10 0.1 2.43 <2
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ---------------
incl 1.10 m
@ 4.48 g/t
83.90 85.60 1.70 1.2 3.13 4.8 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
Green line in Figure 1 above is the reference section shown in
Figure 2 below
Figure 2: Cross section 2050 of Tatiana Vein
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
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
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 A texture found in fine grained quartz
banded (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 on
a rock fracture surface, which may be
an open space in the vein.
---------------------- ---------------------------------------------------
Fiamme Fragments of volcanic 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 Classification The former Soviet system for classification
of reserves and 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.
---------------------- ---------------------------------------------------
- Ends -
For further information please visit www.condorgold.com or
contact:
Condor Gold plc Mark Child, Executive
Chairman and CEO
+44 (0) 20 7493 2784
Beaumont Cornish Roland Cornish and
Limited 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
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.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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