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Condor Gold PLC eyeing re-rating as it mulls overseas listing

Published: 12:40 30 Nov 2016 GMT

Mark Child, chief executive of Condor Gold PLC (LON:CNR) flew straight into London and thence to the Mines & Money conference from Nicaragua, where on Monday he signed an agreement with three government ministers.
The deal means the Nicaraguan government will be in Condor’s corner when it comes to getting permits for its flagship La India project.
“That’s a positive step in the permitting, and we’re trying to permit a gold processing plant of 2,800 tonnes a day that can produce 100,000 ounces of gold a year, and that’s our base case,” Child told Proactive Investors.
“We think we can produce a lot more than that,” Child ventured, “but for the moment we’re getting just 100,000 ounces permitted.”
Looking back on the eight years the company has been working on La India, Child said it had passed the major milestones of completing all of the technical studies, and both the company and the Nicaraguan government are looking to moving on to the next stage.
Condor hopes it will get the permits in the first half of next year, but Child notes the company is not the one issuing the permits, and it is beholden to the government on that front.
In the meantime, the company has started scout drilling on El Cacao, a small satellite resource of 53,000 ounces at La India. A resource that size would be sub-economic, but the company is hopeful that can be enlarged, and has been encouraged by the results from the three holes it has drilled so far, which has “good, broad intercepts of gold mineralisation”.
Condor has sent samples off to the lab and although it does not know the grades yet, “it looks interesting”, according to Child.
Scout drilling at other satellite concessions is lined up after that, as the company probes for “the upside of the project”.
If everything slots into place next year, Child thinks the estimated size of the project could be upped by 40% next year as a result of further drilling and testing.
You’d like to think that would make the market sit up and take notice but Child confessed to be disappointed with the company’s experience of listing on Aim.
“We’re valued at about a quarter of the value of the peer group in Canada. We’re the only company on Aim with 2.4mln ounces of gold; the rest have all gone bust or fallen. We’ve got the highest grade – one of the highest grade deposits in the world at four grams [per tonne] – 0.6 grams is the average, I think, and Toronto would be a natural fit for us, or New York. We’re also looking at New York,” Child disclosed.
So, watch out for a listing next year, possibly, on TSX or New York.
“I think we’ll get two re-ratings,” Child predicted. One will come from the scout drilling, and the other will come from moving to a market where gold explorers are better appreciated.

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