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VANCOUVER,
Feb. 26, 2013 /CNW/ - Ecuador Gold
& Copper Corp. (TSX-V: EGX), (the "Company" or
"EGX") is pleased to announce assay results from drill holes
DSB-20 and DSB-21 at its Santa Barbara gold-copper porphyry
deposit. The Santa Barbara deposit is located within the Company's
8,300 hectare Condor Gold and Copper Project in the Zamora Gold and
Copper Belt, Southeast
Ecuador. Drill hole DSB-21 returned significant
results including 206m averaging 1.01 g/t Au, 0.12% Cu and 1.14 g/t
Ag within a continuously mineralized 350m interval that averaged
0.74 g/t Au starting at 68m. Best gold grades were
encountered from 140m to 228m (88m) where grades ranged
consistently over 1.00 g/t Au up to 2.8 g/t Au, averaging 1.35 g./t
Au, 0.143% Cu and 0.89 g/t Ag. Full assay results are
described in the table below.
Three drill holes were completed at Santa
Barbara as part of the previously announced 10,000 meter Phase I
drill program on the Company's extensive Condor Gold and Copper
Project. DSB-19 showed 420 meters of 0.571 g/t Au including 101
meters grading 1.017 g/t (see Company News Release, October 17, 2012). In December, DSB-20 was
collared 100m northwest of the mineralized zone on a roadside
geochemical anomaly and failed to return significant results.
DSB-21 intersected the main gold zone approximately 50m south of
previous intercepts. The Santa Barbara South Zone currently
hosts an NI 43-101 compliant inferred resource of 21.0 Mt of 1.00
g/t Au (675,000 oz) while the Santa Barbara North zone (500m to the
northeast), contains a further inferred resource of 5.0 Mt of 0.90
g/t Au (145,000 oz). For further details see the Company's
web site at www.ecuadorgoldandcopper.com or the June 14, 2012 Technical Report at
www.sedar.com.
The locations of EGX holes DSB-19, 20 and 21 are
shown with earlier drill holes on the attached plan map.
Table 1 summarizes the assay results.
Table 1: Summary of 2012 Results from
Santa Barbara Drill Holes DSB-19, 20 & 21 (length weighted
average assays, uncapped)
Drill Hole |
From
(m) |
To
(m) |
Interval
(m) |
Au (g/t) |
Cu (%) |
Ag (g/t) |
AuEq (g/t) |
DSB-19 |
180.00 |
600.00 |
420.00 |
0.57 |
0.08 |
1.16 |
0.69 |
including |
191.54 |
293.20 |
101.66 |
1.02 |
0.11 |
0.84 |
1.17 |
and |
344.10 |
477.00 |
132.90 |
0.62 |
0.10 |
1.12 |
0.76 |
DSB-20 |
0.00 |
400.00 |
400.00 |
0.10 |
0.06 |
0.68 |
0.19 |
DSB-21 |
68.00 |
418.00 |
350.00 |
0.74 |
0.11 |
1.09 |
0.90 |
including |
100.00 |
354.00 |
254.00 |
0.90 |
0.12 |
1.14 |
1.07 |
Including |
100.00 |
306.00 |
206.00 |
1.01 |
0.12 |
0.99 |
1.18 |
including |
140.00 |
228.00 |
88.00 |
1.35 |
0.14 |
0.89 |
1.54 |
- g/t = grams per metric tonne.
- Gold equivalent grade (AuEq) is calculated assuming 90%
recovery of copper with a $3.00/lb.
long term price of copper and 60% recovery of silver,
$25/oz long term price of silver and
$1400 long term price for
gold.
- The true width of down hole interval lengths are estimated
to be approximately 50% to 60%.
Commentary
Drill hole DSB-21 intersected almost continuous
gold mineralization over 350 meters from 68.0m to 418m grading an
average of 0.74 g/t gold, 0.11% Cu and 1.09 g/t Ag over the
interval. Porphyry gold-copper mineralization is hosted by
altered basaltic andesite intruded by Jurassic intrusive stocks and
dikes. Major structural orientations are exhibited by steeply
dipping intrusive contacts, porphyry B-type quartz veins and faults
striking northwest and northeast. The 40km long Zamora Gold
and Copper Belt in Southeastern
Ecuador is host to Ecuacorriente's Mirador, Panantza and San
Carlos copper porphyry deposits and Kinross's Fruta del Norte epithermal gold
deposit of the same age. The Company cautions that reference
to the nearby deposits is for information purposes only.
10,000 Meter Phase I Drill Program
The Santa Barbara gold porphyry deposit is one
of four targets including two epithermal gold targets (Los Cuyes,
and Soledad) in the northern part of the Condor Gold and Copper
concessions together with the promising El Hito copper-molybdenum
porphyry target located 5km east of Santa Barbara that have been
prioritized for resource expansion drilling by the Company (see
Company News Releases, January 30,
2013 and February 19, 2013 for
recent drill results at Los Cuyes and El Hito).
EGX is currently planning seven follow up holes
at Santa Barbara to extend mineralization to the south and east of
the current resource. Two drill rigs are currently moving to Santa
Barbara to commence drilling during the last week of February.
Drilling completed on the Company's Condor Gold
and Copper Project to the end of January, 2013 totaled
approximately 7,000 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 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. Where appropriate, 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 and copper 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. Copper assays over 10,000 ppm are re-analyzed using four
acid digestion with ICP-ES finish (ACME Labs 7TD method).
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.