Shares in Condor Resources PLC (LON:CNR) got a massive lift at lunchtime after the group announced it has now defined three gold enriched zones on the 2 kilometres Andrea vein on the El Rodeo concession in Nicaragua’s La India mining district.
Condor said it has now received all assay results for the trench and rock drill sampling programme of the Andrea vein. The latest results for eight trenches excavated along a 650 metre strike length of the vein returned the highest grade gold intersection discovered to date and delineated two more gold enrichment zones along strike in addition to the one identified from the initial assay results announced on October 7 2010.
The stock rose in reaction and was trading up nearly 22 percent at lunchtime at 4.52 pence.
Infill trenching around the high grade trench intercept of 1.90 metres at 6.53 grammes per tonne gold and adit sampling in the nearby artisanal miners' shaft will commence next week and last a few weeks.
Condor said the principal aim of the sampling programme has been achieved with three gold enrichment zones now recognised:
- A 350 metre long segment in the northern part of the Andrea vein with a best intersection of 3.25 metres at 1.55 g/t gold in trench ANTR004.
- A high grade trench intercept of 1.90 metres at 6.53 grams per tonne gold in the central segment of the vein, located at the interpreted intersection of the main Andrea structure with a thin vein that has recently been exploited by artisinal miners via a shallow shaft and a short gallery located over 250 metres from trench ANTR008.
- Consistently higher gold grades over the southernmost 100-200 metres of strike length, with a best intercept of 1.15 metres at 1.21 g/t gold. This enrichment zone continues along strike to the south where chip channel sampling by Condor and the previous Canadian explorer returned similar assay results over a further 500 metre strike length, including 3.6 metres at 1.92 g/t and 3.0 metres at 1.30 g/t gold.
Chairman Mark Child said: “The bulk of the estimated 1.84 million oz gold resource of 9 g/t to Russian classification on Condor's concessions in the District lies between 200 metres and 500 metres above sea level. It is encouraging that the Andrea vein has three enriched gold zones along a 2 km strike length at an altitude of between 550 metres and 700 metres, suggesting that the El Rodeo concession, which was not drilled as part of the Russian resource, is an exciting drill prospect.”
SRK Consulting is on target to produce a JORC Resource on Condor's La India and Espinito-San Pablo concessions by December 31 2010 by consolidating all historical exploration and mining data produced by the former La India Gold Mine operators Noranda of Canada, the Russian sponsored exploration programme which defined 2.4 million ounces of gold in the District and exploration work conducted by three Canadian companies in the last 18 years.
AIM-listed explorer Condor is focused on developing gold and silver resource projects in Central America. It has four 100 percent owned licenses and 80 percent of the La India concession in the La India mining district; three 100 percent owned licences in three other project areas and 20 percent in the Cerro Quiroz concession in Nicaragua. In El Salvador, Condor has 100 percent ownership of four licences in two project areas.
Since admission to AIM in May 2006, Condor has increased its JORC compliant inferred resources from 350,000 ounces of gold and 18 million ounces of silver to 788,000 ounces of gold and 22 million ounces of silver.