Ecuador Gold and Copper Corp. Announces Los Cuyes Drill Results of
149.0m @0.84g/t Gold and 9.0 G/t Silver Including 14.1m @ 5.00 g/t
Gold and 39.0 g/t Silver at the Condor Gold Project in Southeast
Ecuador
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VANCOUVER,
Jan. 30, 2013 /CNW/ - Ecuador Gold
& Copper Corp. (TSX-V: EGX), (the "Company" or
"EGX") is pleased to announce assay results from drill hole
DCU-41 at the advanced Los Cuyes gold project located within the
Company's 8,300 hectare Condor gold and copper concessions in
Southeast Ecuador. Within
the 149.0 m @0.84g/t Au and 9.0 g/t Ag there are numerous
intercepts highlighted by a 14.1m interval with 5.00 g/t Au and
39.0 g/t Ag including 4.8m at 10.55 Au and 80.8 g/t Ag.
This is the first EGX drill hole at Los Cuyes, part
of the previously announced 10,000 meter Phase 1 drill program on
the Company's extensive Condor Gold property. DCU-41 encountered a
number of significant intervals that confirm the potential for
expansion of the known NI 43-101 compliant indicated resource at
Los Cuyes of 47 million tonnes at 0.82 g/t Au and 6.2 g/t Ag (1.235
million oz Au and 9.323 million oz Ag). For further details
see the Company's resource table at www.ecuadorgoldandcopper.com or
the June 14, 2012 Technical Report at
www.sedar.com .
DCU-41 was collared approximately 50 meters west
of the previously defined resource and was drilled to the north to
a depth of 638.5m and extends the known mineralized zone to the
north and west. Table 1 summarizes results.
Table 1: Summary Results from Los Cuyes
Drill Hole DCU-41 (length weighted average assays,
uncapped)
Drill Hole |
From
(m) |
To
(m) |
Interval
(m) |
Au (g/t) |
Ag (g/t) |
AuEq (g/t) |
DCU-41 |
132.0 |
281.0 |
149.0 |
0.84 |
9.0 |
0.93 |
including |
145.0 |
228.0 |
83.0 |
0.57 |
7.6 |
0.65 |
and |
260.7 |
274.8 |
14.1 |
5.00 |
39.0 |
5.42 |
DCU-41 |
350.0 |
353.0 |
3.0 |
1.46 |
10.0 |
1.57 |
DCU-41 |
446.3 |
447.1 |
0.8 |
4.76 |
26.1 |
5.04 |
DCU-41 |
477.8 |
481.2 |
3.4 |
0.57 |
8.6 |
0.66 |
DCU-41 |
524.0 |
524.5 |
0.5 |
1.02 |
6.8 |
1.09 |
DCU-41 |
565.0 |
567.0 |
2.0 |
1.27 |
2.3 |
1.297 |
- g/t = grams per metric tonne.
- Gold equivalent grade is calculated assuming 60% recovery of
silver, $25 per ounce long term price
of silver and $1,400 per ounce long
term price for gold.
- The true width of down hole interval lengths are estimated
to be approximately 50% to 60%.
Commentary
Drill hole DCU-41 intersected relatively
continuous gold mineralization over 149m from 132m to 281m to the
north and east of the previously defined NI43-101 compliant
indicated resource at Los Cuyes, suggesting possible expansion of
the deposit and signaling that further drilling is required to
define new resources in this area. Grade is distributed in 2
longer intercepts separated by a 30m low grade stretch with sub
economic grades (<0.1 g/t Au). Best grades are in
granodiorite with common quartz-pyrite +/- sphalerite veinlets and
occasional sulfide veins up to 2 cm thick carrying pyrite plus or
minus sphalerite and rare chalcopyrite. The interval is cut
by several minor faults and bounded by two major faults that have
been mapped at surface. There are further encouraging gold
intersections down the hole where drilling intercepted similar
east-west structures.
Table 2 shows assays over the interval 260.7m to
281.0m where highest gold grades were encountered.
Table 2: Detail of Highest Grade
Section, Los Cuyes Drill Hole DCU-41
Drill Hole |
From
(m) |
To
(m) |
Interval
(m) |
Au (g/t) |
Ag (g/t) |
AuEq (g/t) |
DCU-41 |
260.7 |
262.0 |
1.3 |
1.928 |
14.8 |
2.087 |
DCU-41 |
262.0 |
263.0 |
1.0 |
2.097 |
14.8 |
2.256 |
DCU-41 |
263.0 |
264.0 |
1.0 |
1.015 |
19.2 |
1.221 |
DCU-41 |
264.0 |
265.0 |
1.0 |
1.373 |
13.7 |
1.520 |
DCU-41 |
265.0 |
266.0 |
1.0 |
9.181 |
58.9 |
9.812 |
DCU-41 |
266.0 |
267.0 |
1.0 |
0.616 |
9.7 |
0.720 |
DCU-41 |
267.0 |
268.0 |
1.0 |
0.173 |
5.0 |
0.227 |
DCU-41 |
268.0 |
270.0 |
2.0 |
1.452 |
10.9 |
1.569 |
DCU-41 |
270.0 |
271.0 |
1.0 |
22.200 |
131.8 |
23.612 |
DCU-41 |
271.0 |
272.0 |
1.0 |
2.459 |
20.2 |
2.675 |
DCU-41 |
272.0 |
273.0 |
1.0 |
6.165 |
53.8 |
6.741 |
DCU-41 |
273.0 |
274.0 |
1.0 |
2.070 |
22.2 |
2.308 |
DCU-41 |
274.0 |
274.8 |
0.8 |
22.200 |
200.0 |
24.343 |
DCU-41 |
274.8 |
277.0 |
2.2 |
0.279 |
5.0 |
0.333 |
DCU-41 |
277.0 |
279.0 |
2.0 |
0.197 |
2.4 |
0.223 |
DCU-41 |
279.0 |
281.0 |
2.0 |
0.286 |
3.3 |
0.321 |
- g/t = grams per metric tonne. See notes below Table 1
above for AuEq parameters and true width estimates.
10,000 Meter Phase I Drill Program
The Los Cuyes gold deposit is one of four
targets including the Soledad gold deposit in the northern part of
the Condor gold and copper concessions, and Santa Barbara, a
gold-copper porphyry to the south. In addition the Company is
currently drilling the promising El Hito copper-molybdenum porphyry
target located 5km east of Santa Barbara.
Three drill holes have been completed at Soledad
with assays pending, and EGX is currently drilling five holes at
the El Hito copper-molybdenum porphyry target. An additional hole
has been drilled at the Santa Barbara porphyry Au-Cu target
and assays are awaited. A further five holes are planned at Santa
Barbara.
Drilling completed to the end of December 2012 is approximately 4,600 meters.
Existing Resources
The Condor Gold Project contains a Measured &
Indicated Mineral Resource of 1.52 million ounces gold (within 50.4
Mt grading 0.94 g/t gold). Additional Inferred Mineral Resources
contain 1.28 million ounces gold (within 28.4 Mt grading 1.4
g/t gold). The measured resource consists of 54,000 ounces of gold
(within 147,000 tonnes grading 1.0 g/t gold) and the indicated
resources consist of 1.47 million ounces gold (within 50.3 Mt
grading 0.94 g/t). For more information, please see the
Company's resource table at www.ecuadorgoldandcopper.com or its
Technical Report dated June 14, 2012
which is available under the Company's profile on SEDAR at
www.sedar.com.
Quality Assurance
The Company has implemented a quality assurance
and quality control program to ensure that the transport, sampling
and analysis of all samples is conducted in accordance with the
best possible practices. Drill core is transported from the drill
by employees to the Company's secure core logging facility at its
camp where, after geotechnical and geological logging, it is marked
for sampling. The entire hole is sampled and core samples are
generally 2m in length, varying at geological contacts to between
1.5m and 2.5m and are split in half by EGX employees. One
half is retained in a secure storage facility and the other half is
transported by EGX employees or a bonded courier to ACME Labs'
sample preparation facility in Cuenca, Ecuador where the core sample is crushed so
that 80% passes a 10 mesh screen and a 250g split is pulverized so
that 85% passes a 200 mesh screen. From Cuenca ACME Labs
ships the samples to their laboratory in Santiago, Chile for analysis. The lab is
ISO/IEC 17025:2005 (CAN-P-4E) certified. Samples are analyzed
for gold by 30-gm fire assay with an AA finish and by gravimetric
methods for assays over 10 ppm. Samples are analyzed for
silver by ICP-ES after a four acid digestion. For silver
assays over 200 ppm samples, are analyzed using ACME Labs 7AR
method consisting of hot aqua regia digestion and ICP-ES analysis.
ACME Labs are independent from the Company.
Under the Company's QA-QC procedures, samples
are submitted for re-analysis based on their proximity to a
certified reference standard that returns a value greater than
three standard deviations higher or lower than the mean value for
that standard. In addition, any two consecutive reference standards
falling outside the two standard deviation threshold will be
considered to have failed. Since every twentieth sample is a
reference standard, ten samples above and below a failed standard
will be re-analyzed. The same protocol will be applied to duplicate
samples considered to have unacceptably divergent gold values.
Periodically, random samples will be submitted to another
laboratory as an external check on the results provided by the
primary lab.
Qualified Person
Mit Tilkov, P.Geo., Vice-President Exploration
of Ecuador Gold and Copper Corp. is the qualified person, as
defined by National Instrument 43-101, supervised the project field
work, and is responsible for the preparation of the technical
information in this release.
Cautionary Note
The Company has not completed a preliminary
economic assessment or feasibility study of the Condor Gold Project
under National Instrument 43-101, and there is no assurance that
the exploration and subsequent development operations of the Condor
Gold Project will be economically or technically viable.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its
Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the
policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for
the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
SOURCE Ecuador Gold and Copper Corp.