Drilling Update

RNS Number : 2968C
Condor Gold PLC
15 April 2013
 

 

 

 

 

Condor Gold plc

                                                      
7th Floor
39 St. James's Street
London
SW1A 1JD
Telephone +44 020 7408 1067
Fax: +44 020 7493 8633

 

15th April 2013

 

 

Condor Gold plc

 

Drilling Update on La India Project, Nicaragua.

 

 

 

Condor (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 the results of a further 36 drill holes for 3,692m of the current phase of resource infill drilling at the La India Vein Set and the initial drill testing of wallrock gold mineralisation on the America Vein Set.

 

Highlights

 

·     A total of 50 drill holes for 7,089.4m have now been completed on La India open pit resource area aimed at proving 800,000 oz gold in the Indicated category.

·     Drilling results continue to confirm continuity of gold mineralisation and grade of the current geological model.

·     Near surface bonanza-grade drill intercept from La India of 4.80m at 37.24g/t gold from 14.40m drill depth.

·     Near surface intercept of 21m at 3.33g/t gold from 4m drill depth improves early mine life open pit economics.

·     39 drill holes for 3,567m completed on the America Vein Set to test for remnant wallrock gold and prove a second open pit resource.

·     Best intercept of 19m at 1.98g/t and 10m at 1.70g/t gold separated by only 6m of low-grade material from only 13m drill depth of at the intersection of the America-Escondido-Constancia veins.

·     Breccia zone at the intersection of the America-Escondido-Constancia veins demonstrated over a 300m down-dip extent.

·     Best intercept in wallrock of historic America mine intercepts up to 1.80m at 13.31g/t gold.

 

Table 1. Best new drill intercepts on La India Vein Set.

Rank

Hole_ID

From (m)

To (m)

Drill Width (m)

True Width (m)

Gold (g/t)

Silver (g/t)

Vein

1

LIDC239

14.40

19.20

4.80

4.4

37.24

120.3

India hangingwall

2

LIRC240

4

25

21

20.3

3.33

5.2

India hangingwall

3

LIDC239

19.70

31.10

11.40

10.3

3.60

6.0

India footwall

4

LIDC232

177.80

194.02

14.22

13.3

2.30

2.4

India wallrock amalgamated

5

LIRC244

15

40

25

24.1

1.17

4.4

India

6

LIDC213

139.65

177.60

37.95

37.4

0.70

1.9

India  hangingwall

7

LIDC212

117.90

141.25

23.35

21.9

1.04

5.1

India

8

LIDC223

67.60

70.80

3.20

3.1

6.63

7.2

India hangingwall

9

LIDC236

4.60

11.90

7.30

6.6

2.95

4.3

India hangingwall

10

185.10

188.90

3.80

3.4

4.82

3.6

India footwall

True width is based on the current interpretation of the veins and may be revised in the future. Top ten intercepts ranked by grade multiplied by true width.

 

Table 2. Best new drill intercepts on the America Vein Set.

Rank

Hole_ID

From (m)

To (m)

Drill Width (m)

True Width (m)

Gold (g/t)

Silver (g/t)

Vein

13

32

19

18.7

1.98

2.5

America-Escondido Upper

174.00

192.80

18.80

18.5

1.53

1.8

America-Escondido  hangingwall

112.80

114.60

1.80

1.8

13.31

8.0

America

38

48

10

9.8

1.70

2.2

America-Escondido Lower

29

37

8

7.5

1.82

4.5

America-Escondido

True width is based on the current interpretation of the veins and may be revised in the future. Top five intercepts ranked by grade multiplied by true width.

 

 

Mark Child, Chairman and CEO commented:

 

"Condor has completed 7,089m of an 8,000m drilling programme on La India open pit resource. The aim of the drilling programme is to increase the geological confidence of the resource by defining 800,000 oz gold in the Indicated Category, a resource category with a high degree of confidence that can be used in a bankable feasibility study. The drill results from this in-fill drilling programme demonstrate continuity of gold mineralisation and grade. Three drill holes, each from a depth of less than 20m from surface provide great confidence that La India open pit resource will continue to demonstrate robust economics: LIDC329 intercepted 4.80m at 37.24g/t gold, LIRC240 intercepted 21m at 3.33g/t gold and LIDC239 intercepted 11.40m at 3.60g/t gold.

 

Condor has completed 3,567m of a 4,000m drilling programme on the America Vein Set. The aim of the drilling programme is to prove a second open pit resource and increase the size of the resource. The most interesting new drill result, demonstrating open pit potential, is from drill hole LIRC215, which from a depth of only 13m intercepted 19m at 1.98g/t gold separated by 6m of waste rock from a further 10m at 1.70g/t gold."

 

Table 3. Summary of Drilling Programme

Location

Drilling programme (m)

Drilling completed (m)

Drilling pending (m)

Assay results previously announced (m)

New Assay results for this announcement (m)

La India Vein Set

8,000

7,089

911

4,692

2,128

America Vein Set

4,000

3,567

433

1,842

1,565

 

La India Vein Set

Fifty drill holes for 7,089m, including 3 reverse circulation (RC) drill holes for 143.5m have been completed on La India Vein Set aimed at upgrading the mineral resource that falls within the bounds of the current Whittle open-pit from Inferred to Indicated level of confidence. The current in-pit resource is 8.21 million tonnes at 3.6g/t for 954,000 oz gold, of which 534,000 oz gold at 3.9g/t is in the Indicated Category and 420,000 oz gold at 3.3g/t in the Inferred Category (Figure 1 below). The drilling programme is designed to increase the indicated resource to 800,000 oz gold within the open pit. The original 7,000m drilling programme has been extended to approximately 8,000m to follow-up on better than expected high-grade intercepts in the northern zone which are expected to extend the open pit to the north and further increase the overall open-pit resource at Indicated level of confidence.

 

Assay results have been received for a further 17 drill holes for 2,128m (Table 4 below) since the last announcement (see RNS announcement dated 4th March 2013) such that a total of 48 drill holes for 6,819m of the current drilling programme on the India-California vein trend have been received to date (Figure 2 below). The latest results are generally consistent with expectations and appear to validate the geological model used in the current resource by confirming the continuity and average grade of the gold mineralisation.

 

Drilling in the Central zone has continued to demonstrate wide moderate to high-grade gold mineralisation along a 300m strike length between the 600 and 900 cross-sections. Of particular note:

1.   A near surface intercept of 21m (20.3m true width) at 3.33g/t gold from 4m drill depth in drill hole LIRC240 on the 1050 cross-section should improve the early mine life open-pit economics within the Central Zone.

2.   The first near surface bonanza grade intercept of 4.80m (4.4m true width) at 37.24g/t gold from 14.40m drill depth has been returned from drill hole LIDC239 on the 650 cross-section.

 

Further 50m spaced drilling on the recently defined North zone returned a best new intercepts of 3.20m (3.1m true width) at 6.63g/t gold from 67.60m drill depth in drill hole LIDC223 on the 1500 cross-section and 4.90m (3.5m true width) at 3.95g/t gold from 136.2m drill depth in drillhole LIDC217 on the 1450 cross-section. These results demonstrate a minimum 150m strike length to this zone which is expected to positively affect the open-pit plan and add further open pit resource ounces; the North Zone had not been discovered when the current mineral resource was calculated.

 

Table 4. Significant drill intercepts for the latest 17 drill holes for 2,128m of the current drill programme on the India-California veins.

Prospect

Drillhole ID

From

To

Drill Width

True Width

Au (g/t)

Ag (g/t)

Vein

53.30

54.30

1.00

0.8

2.18

1.9

India hangingwall

54.30

54.90

0.60

0.5

-

-

mine cavity

54.90

59.90

5.00

3.8

3.62

2.9

India footwall

43.65

46.40

2.75

2.1

0.58

1.0

India

4.60

11.90

7.30

6.6

2.95

4.3

India hangingwall

including

6.30

7.90

1.60

1.5

6.01

10.3


11.90

12.70

0.80

0.7

-

-

mine cavity

12.70

12.90

0.20

0.2

0.70

1.1

India pillar

12.90

13.35

0.45

0.4

-

-

mine cavity

13.35

17.80

4.45

4.0

1.23

2.9

India footwall

38.55

38.85

0.30

0.3

2.01

1.2

India FW1

14.40

19.20

4.80

4.4

37.24

120.3

India hangingwall

including

17.00

19.20

2.20

2.0

80.34

259.9


19.20

19.20

0.50

0.5

-

-

mine cavity

19.70

31.10

11.40

10.3

3.60

6.0

India footwall


including

19.70

20.40

0.70

0.6

43.60

29.6


48.30

49.70

1.40

1.3

0.69

0.7

India FW1

84.80

85.90

1.10

1.1

7.13

21.8

Cal 2

118.65

121.50

2.85

2.8

3.23

7.8

Cal 1

139.65

177.60

37.95

37.4

0.70

1.9

India  hangingwall

Including

156.80

159.20

2.40

2.4

5.69

15.4

India upper zone

including

174.65

177.60

2.95

2.9

1.07

1.7

India lower zone (hw)

177.60

180.00

2.40

2.4

-

-

mine cavity

177.20

178.50

1.30

1.2

1.64

2.1

India hangingwall

182.10

185.10

3.00

2.7

-

-

mine cavity

185.10

188.90

3.80

3.4

4.82

3.6

India footwall

201.90

202.60

0.70

0.6

4.25

2.2

India FW1

207.45

207.85

0.40

0.4

1.70

1.7

India FW2

227.75

228.15

0.40

0.4

18.08

33.1

India FW3

240.00

241.10

1.10

1.0

11.18

5.3

India FW4

24.75

26.60

1.85

1.7

3.89

4.6

Cal 1


176.80

177.80

1.00

0.9

0.52

1.1

India hangingwall


177.80

180.80

3.00

2.8

-

-

mine cavity


180.80

194.02

13.22

12.4

2.43

2.5

India footwall

177.80

194.02

14.22

13.3

2.30

2.4


210.90

213.80

2.90

2.7

0.44

0.2

India FW1

82.55

83.25

0.70

0.7

16.31

38.7

Cal 1

117.90

141.25

23.35

21.9

1.04

5.1

India

including

137.40

141.25

3.85

3.6

5.16

29.0


1.00

2.00

1.00

1.0

0.75

7.5

mullock

25.00

26.00

1.00

1.0

1.78

6.2

Cal 3

28.00

29.00

1.00

1.0

1.26

1.9

Cal 2

31.00

32.00

1.00

1.0

0.59

0.5

Cal 1

44.00

45.00

1.00

1.0

1.65

1.1

India

31.70

33.65

1.95

1.8

5.26

16.5

Cal 2

73.40

74.00

0.60

0.5

1.83

1.3

Cal 1

80.80

82.90

2.10

1.9

0.32

0.6

India upper

91.60

106.20

14.60

13.2

0.33

0.7

India lower

4.00

25.00

21.00

20.3

3.33

5.2

India hangingwall

12.0

25.0

13.0

12.6

4.83

6.5


25.00

30.00

5.00

4.8

-

-

mine cavity

30.00

31.00

1.00

1.0

1.57

2.4

India footwall

36.50

38.40

1.90

1.6

4.97

7.4

California (a)


47.85

51.85

4.00

3.5

1.77

10.2

India HW1 (z)


54.40

55.70

1.30

1.1

0.84

3.1

India hangingwall

55.70

58.30

2.60

2.3

-

-

mine cavity


64.10

67.90

3.80

3.3

1.21

2.0

India FW1 (w)

15.00

40.00

25.00

24.1

1.17

4.4

India

including

19.0

22.0

3.0

2.9

5.48

25.8


15.30

15.45

0.15

0.1

0.67

0.3

Cal 5


80.20

82.15

1.95

1.8

6.46

6.3

Cal 4


101.20

101.95

0.75

0.7

1.63

1.6

Cal 3


130.10

139.15

9.05

8.2

0.87

0.9

Cal 2


including

136.70

139.15

2.45

2.2

1.92

1.4



149.10

150.70

1.60

1.5

0.58

1.0

Cal 1


160.55

161.30

0.75

0.7

1.49

2.2

India HW1


172.20

173.20

1.00

0.9

-

-

mine cavity


174.50

176.00

1.50

1.4

0.79

2.6

India FW1

81.40

82.40

1.00

0.7

0.58

0.6

Cal 4

87.30

92.20

4.90

3.5

0.85

0.3

Cal 3

100.60

100.80

0.20

0.1

1.05

0.3

Cal 2

106.00

107.25

1.25

0.9

0.64

0.6

Cal 1

114.05

129.90

15.85

11.2

0.73

1.0

India HW1

136.20

141.10

4.90

3.5

3.95

8.3

India hangingwall

141.10

147.50

6.40

4.5

-

-

mine cavity

67.60

70.80

3.20

3.1

6.63

7.2

India hangingwall

including

69.90

70.30

0.40

0.4

40.25

31.6


70.80

72.30

1.50

1.4

-

-

mine cavity

72.30

73.05

0.75

0.7

3.49

5.9

India footwall

70.50

71.50

1.00

0.7

0.65

0.5

Cal 4


77.70

83.10

5.40

3.8

0.69

0.7

Cal 3


87.20

92.40

5.20

3.7

1.02

2.4

Cal 2


99.15

101.70

2.55

1.8

2.48

9.9

Cal 1

110.60

111.60

1.00

0.7

-

-

mine cavity


111.60

112.50

0.90

0.6

2.84

2.2

India

True width is an interpretation based on the current interpretation of the veins and may be revised in the future.

 

America Vein Set

Thirty-nine drill holes for 3,567m, including 26 reverse circulation (RC) drill holes for 1,896m, out of a 4,000m drilling programme on the America Vein Set have been completed. The drilling programme is designed to test for remnant wallrock gold mineralisation on the historic America Mine workings. Assay results have been received for a further 17 drill holes for 1,565m (Table 5 below) since the last announcement (see RNS announcement dated 4th March 2013) such that assay results for a total of 38 drill holes for 3,407m of the current drilling programme have been received to date (Figure 3 below).

 

The America Vein Set currently contains a mineral resource of 2.11Mt at 6.0g/t for 405,000 oz gold, of which 288,000 oz gold is on the interconnected America-Constancia-Escondido veins, including 480kt at 7.8g/t for 120,000 oz gold in the Indicated category (Figure 1 below). The Indicated Resource is contained within, and as extensions of the historic mine workings and is based largely on historic underground channel sampling which was restricted to the high-grade core of the veins that was historically targeted for mining. At the time of the last resource estimation an absence of drilling and trench sampling in the wallrock of the historic mine workings meant that no remnant wallrock gold was included in the current resource estimation.

 

Previously reported surface mapping and trench sampling has demonstrated that the moderate (50°-60°) dipping America and Escondido veins formed along two edges of an upthrown block. The steeper dipping Constancia Vein formed along a related structure bounding an adjacent block. (see RNS dated 4th March 2013; Figure 3 below). The current exploration programme has identified a wide moderate-grade breccia zone on the flexure between the America and Escondido veins where the structure bends by 60° between the 120° striking America Vein and the North-South striking Escondido Vein. At surface this breccia zone has a strike length of between 100m and 150m as defined by trench intercepts from South to North along a 100m strike length of:

•           6.8m at 3.59g/t Au (LITR158)

•           17m at 6.05g/t Au (LITR122)

•           30m at 2.64g/t Au (LITR123)

 

The latest drilling results have now traced the zone at a 55° dip for a down-dip distance of almost 300m and a vertical difference of approximately 235m with the following significant drilling intercepts:

•           19m at 1.98g/t Au (including 3m at 7.82g/t Au) and 10m at 1.70g/t Au separated by only 6m of waste (LIRC215)

•           4.65m (4.4m true width) at 6.11g/t Au (LIDC179)

•           5.00m (4.9m true width) at 3.11g/t Au (LIRC207)

•           18.80m (18.5m true width) at 1.53g.t Au (LIDC211)

 

The Company considers this zone to have open-pit potential. Further drilling is required at depth to fully define the strike length following intercepts such as 1.8m at 13.31g/t gold in drillhole LIDC216 on the edge of the flexure on the northwest-striking America Vein limb. If combined with the wider, lower grade breccia zone this potentially extends the strike length to at least 200m at the 370m elevation level.

 

Further along strike to the northwest the latest drilling results have demonstrated that wide zones of moderate grade gold mineralisation do occur in zones that were not historically mined with an intercept of 8.0m (7.5m true width) at 1.82g/t gold from 29m drill depth in drill hole LIRC235.

 

Table 5. Significant drill intercepts for the latest 17 drill holes for 1,565m of the current drill programme on the America Vein Set

Prospect

Drillhole ID

From

To

Drill Width

True Width

Au (g/t)

Ag (g/t)

Vein

10.00

11.00

1.00

1.0

2.19

2.6

Escondido

Escondido

18.00

19.00

1.00

1.0

2.88

5.3

Escondido

30.00

31.00

1.00

1.0

0.78

0.8

Escondido upper

61.00

62.00

1.00

1.0

0.60

0.4

Escondido lower

15.0

16.0

1.00

1.0

0.81

0.8

Esc HW2

23.0

24.0

1.00

1.0

0.58

1.2

Esc HW1


30.0

31.0

1.00

1.0

2.21

1.6

Escondido

69.0

70.0

1.0

1.0

-

-

Mine cavity

70.0

73.0

3.0

3.0

1.54

4.3

Escondido footwall

9.0

24.0

15.0

14.8

0.33

0.7

Escondido

including

23.0

24.0

1.0

1.0

1.88

4.6


Not assayed - failed to reach bedrock, re-drilled by LIRC219

50.0

53.0

3.0

3.0

-

-

Mine cavity

54.0

57.0

3.0

3.0

2.70

3.4

Escondido footwall

8.0

9.0

1.00

1.0

0.52

0.9

Esc HW2


14.0

15.0

1.00

1.0

1.33

2.3

Esc HW1

11.0

13.0

2.00

1.9

0.68

1.2

Esc HW2

19.0

24.0

5.00

4.7

0.70

0.6

Esc HW1



26.0

28.0

2.00

1.9

1.28

4.0

Escondido

13.0

32.0

19.0

18.7

1.98

2.5

Escondido Upper

including

21.0

24.0

3.0

3.0

7.82

10.0


38.0

48.0

10.0

9.8

1.70

2.2

Escondido Lower

including

45.0

47.0

2.0

2.0

3.74

3.1


84.05

84.85

0.80

0.8

1.13

3.3

Constancia 4

90.00

90.90

0.90

0.8

8.33

27.2

Constancia 3

94.90

95.60

0.70

0.7

7.28

7.7

Constancia 2

104.00

104.50

0.50

0.5

1.44

1.3

Constancia 1

161.00

167.80

6.80

6.4

1.17

4.5

Escondido

174.00

192.80

18.80

18.5

1.53

1.8

Am-Esc hangingwall

192.80

194.30

1.50

1.5

-

-

Mine cavity

194.30

195.70

1.40

1.4

0.51

1.1

Am-Esc footwall

207.44

207.90

0.46

0.5

0.90

0.5

Am-Esc lower

112.80

114.60

1.80

1.8

13.31

8.0

America

29.0

37.0

8.00

7.5

1.82

4.5

America

41.0

43.0

2.00

1.9

1.84

3.8

America

True width is an interpretation based on the current interpretation of the veins and may be revised in the future.

 

 

Current Drill Programme on La India and America Vein Sets

Less than 1,000m remains to complete the extended infill drilling programme within the current La India Whittle open pit shell to complete the 50m grid spacing needed for conversion from Inferred to Indicated resource category with a target of 800,000 oz gold in the Indicated Category. The drilling includes further additional drilling in the northern zone where infill drilling has defined a new high-grade zone. It is expected that the high grade zone will positively affect the open pit design in this zone.

 

A further 700m of drilling is planned on the America Vein Set to test the open pit potential of mining remnant wallrock material on the America Vein and allow calculation of an updated resource at a mixed Inferred and Indicated level. The updated resource will include remnant wallrock gold mineralisation in addition to the undeveloped historic narrow mine workings that constitutes the current mineral resource in the historically mined part of the America Vein Set.

 

 

Figure 1. Location of the Drilling on the La India and America Vein Sets within the La India Project area.

Figure 2. Plan showing location of drill holes and cross-sections on La India Vein Set

Figure 3. Plan showing location of drill holes and cross-sections on the America Vein Set.

 

Click on, or paste the following link into your web browser, to view the associated PDF document for Figure 1, 2 and 3 above.

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 - Ends -

 

 

 

 

For further information please visit www.condorgold.com or contact:

 

Condor Gold plc

Mark Child, Executive Chairman and CEO

+44 (0) 20 7408 1067

 

Luc English, Country Manager Nicaragua

+505 8854 0753

 

Beaumont Cornish Limited

 

 

Ocean Equities Limited

 Roland Cornish

+44 (0) 20 7628 3396

 

Will Slack

+44 (0) 20 77864385

 


Farm Street Media

Simon Robinson

+44 (0) 7593 340107

 


 

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

 

Assay

The laboratory test conducted to determine the proportion of a mineral within a rock or other material. Usually reported as parts per million which is equivalent to grams of the mineral (i.e. gold) per tonne of rock

Breccia

A rock made up of angular rock fragments cemented together by a finer grained matrix

CIM

Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum whose terminology, definitions and guidelines are an internationally recognised reporting code as defined by the Combined Reserves International Reporting Standards Committee (CRIRSCO) as required by National Instrument 43-101.

Cross-cut adit

A cross-cut adit is a tunnel driven perpendicular to the longest horizontal direction (strike) of an ore or mineralised body, usually constructed to provide access.

Dip

A line directed down the steepest axis of a planar structure including a planar ore body or zone of mineralisation. The dip has a measurable direction and inclination from horizontal.

Down-dip

Further down towards the deepest parts of an ore body or zone of mineralisation

Down-throw

Referring to the rock that has moved downwards on a fault relative to the other side.

Foot wall

The rock adjacent to and below an ore or mineralised body or geological fault. Note that on steeply-dipping tabular ore or mineralised bodies the foot wall will be inclined nearer to the vertical than horizontal.

Grade

The proportion of a mineral within a rock or other material. For gold mineralisation this is usually reported as grams of gold per tonne of rock (g/t)

g/t

grams per tonne

Hanging wall

The rock adjacent to and above an ore or mineralised body or geological fault. Note that on steeply-dipping tabular ore or mineralised bodies the hanging wall will be inclined nearer to the vertical than horizontal.

Inferred Mineral Resource

That part of a Mineral Resource for which tonnage, grade and mineral content can be estimated with a low level of confidence. It is inferred from geological evidence and assumed but not verified geological and/or grade continuity. It is based on information gathered through appropriate techniques from locations such as outcrops, trenches, pits, workings and drill holes that may be limited, or of uncertain quality and reliability

Indicated resource

that part of a Mineral Resource for which tonnage, densities, shape, physical characteristics, grade and mineral content can be  estimated with a reasonable level of confidence. It is based on exploration, sampling and testing information gathered through appropriate techniques from locations such as outcrops, trenches, pits, workings and drill holes. The locations are too widely or inappropriately spaced to confirm geological and/or grade continuity but are spaced closely enough for continuity to be assumed

Intercept

Refers to a sample or sequence of samples taken across the entire width or an ore body or mineralized zone. The intercept is described by the entire thickness and the average grade of mineralisation

oz

troy ounces

kt

Thousand tonnes

Mineral Resource

A concentration or occurrence of material of economic interest in or on the Earth's crust in such a form, quality, and quantity that there are reasonable and realistic prospects for eventual economic extraction. The location, quantity, grade, continuity and other geological characteristics of a Mineral Resource are known, estimated from specific geological knowledge, or interpreted from a well constrained and portrayed geological model

Mt

Million tonnes

Open pit mining

A method of extracting minerals from the earth by excavating downwards from the surface such that the ore is extracted in the open air (as opposed to underground mining).

oz

Troy ounce, equivalent to 31.103477 grams

Quartz breccia

Broken fragments of rock cemented together by a network of quartz rock. The quartz is deposited from saturated geothermal liquids filling the space between the rock fragments.

Quartz veins

Deposit of quartz rock that develop in fractures and fissures in the surrounding rock. They are deposited by saturated geothermal liquids rising to the surface through the cracks in the rock and then cooling, taking on the shape of the cracks that they fill.

Reverse circulation drilling

A drilling method in which penetration is achieved through a combined hammer and rotary drilling action and pulverised rock samples are transported to the surface through the drilling rods using compressed air. The 1m samples collected for analysis are of sufficient quality to be used in a Mineral Resource Estimation.

Strike length

The longest horizontal dimension of an ore body or zone of mineralisation.

Trench

The excavation of a horizontally elongate pit (trench), typically up to 2m deep and up to 1.5m wide in order to access fresh or weathered bedrock and take channel samples across a mineralised structure. The trench is normally orientated such that samples taken along the wall are perpendicular to the mineralised structure in order to establish the width and grade of the structure.

True width

The shortest axis of a body, usually perpendicular to the longest plane. This often has to be calculated for channel or drill samples where the sampling was not exactly perpendicular to the long axis. The true width will always be less than the apparent width of an obliquely intersect sample.

Up-throw

Referring to the rock that has moved upwards on a fault relative to the other side.

Vein

A sheet-like body of crystalised minerals within a rock, generally forming in a discontinuity or crack between two rock masses. Economic concentrations of gold are often contained within vein minerals.

Wallrock

The rock adjacent to an ore or mineralised body or geological fault.

Whittle Pit

An open pit mine planning method in which the optimum dimensions of an economic open pit are modelled around a mineral resource constrained by various technical and economic variables.

 


This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
 
END
 
 
DRLIIMTTMBTBBJJ

Companies

Condor Gold (CNR)
UK 100
FTSE quotes by TradingView

Latest directors dealings

All directors dealings today