LONDON, ENGLAND — (Marketwired) — 04/29/13 — (AIM: CNR), a gold exploration company focused on delineating a large commercial reserve on its 100%-owned La India Project in Nicaragua, which hosts a CIM compliant Mineral Resource of 2,375,000 oz gold at 4.6g/t, is pleased to announce that a 2000m drilling programme has commenced on the Central Breccia area. The drilling programme has two objectives: Firstly, to prove a maiden gold mineralised resource on the Central Breccia. Secondly, to drill beneath the soil anomalies identified near to the Central Breccia to test for further buried gold mineralised breccia systems.
Highlights
Mark Child, Chairman and CEO commented:
„Condor-s Preliminary Economic Assessment released on 5th March 2013 shows La India Project has potential production of 152,000 oz gold per annum at 3.8g/t for the first 8 years of a 13 year mine life at a cash cost of US$575 per oz gold. The gold production is evenly split between open pit and underground mining methods. The current focus is to take La India Project to the next stage of economic study, a Pre-Feasibility Study („PFS“), while maintaining potential production at circa 150,000 oz gold per annum, yet proving as much potential open pit production within the overall production guidance.
The Central Breccia had some of the best drill results last year: LIDC101 of 45.8m at 4.24g/t, LIDC097 of 13.7m at 6.7g/t and LIDC099 of 38.7m at 1.28g/t. The current drilling will target a maiden open pit resource on the Central Breccia and test two nearby geochemical anomalies, identified in a soil sampling programme, that are potentially hidden breccia pipes hosting gold mineralization.
Condor currently has five diamond core drilling rigs operating at La India Project, one drilling the Central Breccia area, one continuing with the La India open pit resource infill drilling and the America wallrock programmes and three undertaking a geotechnical drilling programme on La India Open Pit.“
Background
Condor geologists discovered the Central Breccia in 2011 when following-up on historic regional soil sampling data collected in the 1980s. Trench testing around the initial discovery outcrop delineated a 300m by 150m low grade alteration zone with multiple zones of wide high-grade gold mineralisation including trench intercepts (see Table 1 and Figure 1 below) of:
Five exploratory drill holes were drilled in 2011 and early 2012 which confirmed the width and grade of gold mineralisation below surface with best intercepts of (see announcement dated 28th May 2012; see Table 2 and Figure 1 below):
The gold mineralisation appears to be associated with a quartz-calcite hydrothermal breccia zone hosted by chlorite-calcite-haematite altered andesite and is characterised by a background gold mineralisation of 0.1-0.3g/t gold. The high-grade gold mineralised zones listed above are associated with zones of intense argillic alteration and sulphide mineralisation. Drilling and trenching to date suggests that the high-grade gold mineralisation is contained within a 140m by 300m zone and that the mineralised envelope is elongate East-West and dips to the south in line with regional trends.
The Central Breccia is located in the structural centre of La India gold mining District within an east-west to northwest-southeast orientated graben-like axis, a likely location of the heat source and potentially a „feeder zone“ for the gold bearing fluids that transported and deposited the gold. It is interpreted as a structurally controlled breccia pipe and is the first example of wide zones of moderate to high grade gold mineralization hosted by a hydrothermal breccia system yet discovered in the La India District. It is unlikely that the Central Breccia is a unique hydrothermal system and the wide distribution of epithermal vein-hosted gold mineralisation over an area of more than 100km2 in La India Mining District suggests that there was abundant movement of gold bearing fluids in the geological past and that there are more gold mineralized hydrothermal breccia systems to be discovered. An area of 1200m by 500m surrounding the Central Breccia contains numerous outcrops of the same distinctive altered andesite with zones of calcite and quartz-calcite stockwork and breccia veining. Soil sampling on a 100m by 25m grid over this area identified three geochemical anomalies with elevated gold and silver values that may indicate the presence of hidden/buried gold mineralised breccias zones (Figure 2 below).
Table 1. Best previous trench intercepts on the Central Breccia.
Table 2. Best previous drill intercepts on the Central Breccia.
To view „Figure 1. Trenching and drilling plan of the Central Breccia“ please visit the following link: .
To view „Figure 2. Location of Central Breccia and soil anomalies. The stronger anomalies A and B are being tested in the current drilling programme“ please visit the following link: .
Current Drilling Programme
The majority of the drilling programme, approximately 1250m of drilling, is designed to better establish the orientation and continuity of the high-grade mineralised zones by drilling along strike and down-dip at 50m drill spacing. It is anticipated that this phase of drilling will provide enough information to create a geological model with enough confidence to produce a maiden mineral resource estimation on the Central Breccia. The drilling will also to establish how the width and grade of the gold mineralisation changes with depth.
The remaining 750m of drilling is planned to test soil anomalies identified on a 100m by 25m soil sampling survey that was completed at the beginning of the year (see announcement dated 4th January 2013). Three soil anomalies were identified with elevated gold and silver levels within a 1400m by 600m survey area, which included the Central Breccia Prospect, and it was speculated that these might represent the halo around one or more breccia systems that did not reach surface. Outcrop and float mapping has identified calcite and quartz breccia material at two of these localities, in one case with polymict breccia interpreted as explosive near surface volcanic deposits. The near surface geological setting coincident with trace gold and silver anomalies and a higher elevation than the nearby Central Breccia suggests that these localities could represent the top of a gold-bearing epithermal system which could overlie higher grade gold mineralised breccias similar to the Central Breccia. The drilling has been designed to test for such higher grade gold mineralisation breccias beneath the soil anomalies.
Objective
The wide zones of moderate to high-grade gold mineralisation already demonstrated in drilling and trenching on the Central Breccia, combined with potentially favourable stripping ratios as the mineralisation is on top of a 50m high hill, and a location less than 3km from the proposed La India open pit suggests that the Central Breccia has open pit potential. The Company is confident that the Central Breccia will contribute open pit gold ounces to the future mining operations at La India Project.
To view „Figure 3. Location of the Drilling on the Central Breccia within the La India Project area“ please visit the following link: .
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 seventeen 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.
About Condor Gold plc:
Condor Resources 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 seven 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 concession holdings in Nicaragua currently contain an attributable CIM/JORC compliant resource base of 2,497,000 ounces of gold equivalent at 4.6 g/t in Nicaragua and an attributable 1,004,000 oz gold equivalent at 2.6g/t JORC compliant resource base in El Salvador. 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
Contacts: Condor Gold plc Mark Child Executive Chairman and CEO +44 (0) 20 7408 1067
Condor Gold plc Luc English, Country Manager Nicaragua +505 8854 0753
Beaumont Cornish Limited Roland Cornish +44 (0) 20 7628 3396
Ocean Equities Limited Will Slack +44 (0) 20 77864385
Farm Street Media Simon Robinson +44 (0) 7593 340107
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