Condor Resources (LON:CNR) said the latest results from further drilling and trenching at the La India gold project in Nicaragua further confirm the potential for an open-pit operation there.
The group reported from the ongoing diamond core and reverse circulation drilling program and further trenching results on the La India vein set.
The drilling results demonstrate that wide zones of high-grade gold mineralisation were left in the wallrock of the historic La India mine, which supports the company's belief that the India-California vein trend has the potential to support open pit mining.
The highlights of recent work found 26 metres with 7.73 grams gold per ton from only 25 meters depth and 16 meters with 7.39g/t gold from surface.
Trench results included 9.35 meters with 5.05 g/t gold, 7 meters with 5.91g/t gold and 37 meters with 1.19g/t gold.
The work has proved the coalescence of the La India and the California vein along a 600 meter strike length with true widths drill intercepts of 15 to 37 meters demonstrating continuity and width for open pit mining.
The resource on the California veins is currently 100 to 150 meters beneath surface. Drilling and trenching has extended the gold mineralisation above this vein to surface.
The drill results from 1188 meters of a current 7,000 meter drill programme on La India vein set provide further evidence that La India vein and California vein coalesce not only at depth but at surface along a 600 meter strike, Condor said in its update.
The current 7,000 meter drill programme on La India Vein Set has 2 objectives: to prove open pit potential; and to increase the overall resource on the La India project to 1.75 million oz from the current 1.62 million oz at 5.6 g/t and double the indicated resource to over 500,000 oz gold by October 2012, which looks increasingly achievable, the group added.