www.condorresourcesplc.com
Condor Resources Plc is a UK based AIM listed exploration Company focused on proving a large commercial reserve on its 100% owned La India Project in Nicaragua.At 30th December 2011, La India Project had a JORC Code Resource of 1,620,000 oz gold at 5.6g/t. The corporate objective in 2012 is to increase the resource to 2m oz gold and convert Inferred resources to Indicated and complete feasibility studies. Condor has a total resource of 1,707,000 oz gold in Nicaragua.Condor has a JORC Code Resource of 1,004,000 oz gold equivalent in El Salvador, but unfortunately there is a moratorium on all mining in that country.Condor's management team have extensive experience in mineral exploration, project development and project financing, ensuring that the Company has the best possible opportunity to achieve exploration success and take La India Project through to a bankable feasibility study.
Condor Resources smashes gold resource target taking La India project beyond 1.6 Mln ounces
Condor Resources (LON:CNR) this morning upgraded its JORC resource for the La India Project in Nicaragua to 1.62 million ounces of gold at 5.2 grams per tonne.
It follows the completion of almost 12,000 metres of drilling and the figure smashes the 1.5 million ounce target the company itself set for the year-end.
Chief executive Mark Child described achieving the landmark was an “amazing feat”. This is probably an apt description given the company’s resource base stood at just 41,000 ounces at 1.22 grams per tonne at the start of this year.
The La India Project has developed into three main areas separated by 1-1.5 kilometres that could feed a centralised mill.
They are the La India vein set that contains 730,000 ounces at 5.3g/t, the America vein set of 405,000 ounces at 6.2g/t and the Mestiza vein set of 334,000 oz at 7g/t.
The maiden resource on the California vein highlights the potential for resource increases from veins that are hidden and don't outcrop at surface, Condor said.
The discovery is highly significant as the resource in the La India Valley is over 700,000 ounces, comprising of a series of veins that are up to 1,500m long and are separated by a combined width of only 50 metres.
This highlights the potential for an open pit mine, the company added.
“Future exploration will focus on increasing the resource in the three main areas and aim to identify bulk tonnage targets to compliment the high grade vein system as well as seeking to identify a "feeder system" for the gold mineralisation in La India Project," CEO Child said.
The drill rigs keep on spinning well into 2012 as the group completes the remainder of its 20,000-metre programme.
By that time, in early summer, the 2 million ounce landmark ought to have been hit. At this point Child and his team will sit down and decide the next step.
One route might be to compile a bankable feasibility study on the 2 million ounces, thereby adding some detailed economics to the project.
The alternative, however, could see it restart the drilling to prove up a further one to two million ounces at La India.
Whether it does this or not may in turn depend on the results of a deep drilling programme. This is perhaps the most interesting and exciting phase of Condor’s drill programme. To date the group has drilled to an average depth of just 150 metres.
Two of the rigs it has onsite have the capacity to go down to 500 metres. And they will identify the point at which two of the main veins, which run parallel to each other for a length of over 1,000 metres at surface, converge at a depth of around 200 metres beneath surface.
The results of this crucial phase of drilling are expected by the end of the first quarter of next year.
Before he embarks on a more detailed analysis of the project, the Condor chief is keen to sketch in some financial details with a conceptual study of La India, which is expected to be an open-pit and underground operation.
Those who have followed Condor will know it also has a gold-silver project in El Salvador of just over 1 million ounces.
