TIDMCNR
RNS Number : 0699B
Condor Gold PLC
28 January 2020
Condor Gold plc
22a St James's Square
London
SW1Y 4JH
Tel: +44 (0) 207 493 2784
28 January 2020
Condor Gold Plc
("Condor" or the "Company")
Permitting Update on La India Project, Nicaragua
Condor Gold (AIM: CNR; TSX: COG) is pleased to announce an
update on the progress the Company is making with the permitting
process at La India Project, Nicaragua.
Highlights:
-- Extension granted until 27 July 2021 to complete the
conditions of the key environmental permit to develop and extract
ore from La India open pit
-- Mine schedule and waste dump schedule completed for La India
open pit, which hosts economic mineral reserve of 6.9Mt at 3.1g/t
gold for 675,000 oz gold
-- Water and sewage management studies for the processing plant
offices and accommodation have been completed
-- A forestry inventory and reforestation plan of 10 new trees
for every tree cut down has been completed
-- Tailings Storage Facility final engineering designs and the
majority of Surface Water Management System for the mine have been
awarded to Tierra Group Inc, Denver, USA, and are in progress.
-- Offers made to buy the surface rights from all landowners
within the mine site infrastructure, 50% have accepted.
-- Designs for fuel station for back up power almost completed.
National grid electricity pylons are located 700 meters from the
processing plant. A new electricity sub-station is being built 12
km from the processing plant. Studies to connect the processing
plant to grid power are underway.
Mark Child, Chairman and CEO Commented.
"The objective is to de-risk La India Project and complete all
studies ahead of a construction decision, thereby making the
Project "shovel ready". Several studies have already been
completed: mine schedule, waste dump schedule, water and sewage
management study for the offices and accommodation for the
processing plant, the forestry inventory and reforestation plan.
Condor is fully engineering the Tailings Storage Facility and
Surface Water Management System required for the mine, both studies
are in progress. Offers have been made to buy the surface rights
from all landowners within the mine site infrastructure, 50% have
accepted. Designs for a fuel station for backup power are almost
completed and studies to connect the processing plant to the
electricity grid are underway."
Completing Studies For the Permitted La India Open Pit
As announced on 6 August 2018, Condor received an Environmental
Permit to construct and operate a new mine at its La India Project
(the "Permit"). La India open pit hosts an economic mineral reserve
of 6.9Mt at 3.1g/t gold for 675,000 oz gold and represents less
than a third of the global mineral resource estimate at La India
Project. The Permit contained certain conditions to be satisfied to
allow construction to commence within 18 months of the grant. On 22
January 2020, Condor received a letter from MARENA detailing an
extension, as provided for under the terms of the Permit, to
complete the conditions of the Permit by 27 July 2021.
Considerable progress has been made completing the conditions of
the Permit. The mine schedule, waste dump schedule, water and
sewage management studies for the processing plant offices and
accommodation have been completed. Tierra Group Inc in Denver, USA
are fully engineering the Tailing Storage Facility and completing
designs for the surface water management system required for the
operation of the mine. Condor has doubled the land acquisition
team; four in-house lawyers and several members of the social team
are working on acquiring the land required for the mine site
infrastructure. Offers have been made to all landowners, over 50%
have accepted. Designs for the fuel service station to support the
processing plant are almost finalised. The national electricity
company has confirmed that the Government is building a new
electricity sub-station 12km from the processing plant; designs for
supplying grid power via the new sub-station are underway. An
updated forestry inventory has been completed. The compensation
plan under the local law is to replace every tree removed with 10
new trees - this study has also been completed. In the last 12
months, Condor initiated a tree nursery which currently has
approximately 6,200 trees.
- Ends -
For further information please visit www.condorgold.com or
contact:
Condor Gold plc Mark Child, Chairman and CEO
+44 (0) 20 7493 2784
Beaumont Cornish Limited Roland Cornish and James Biddle
+44 (0) 20 7628 3396
SP Angel Corporate
Finance LLP Ewan Leggat
+44 (0) 20 3470 0470
Blytheweigh Tim Blythe, Camilla Horsfall and Megan
Ray
+44 (0) 20 7138 3204
About Condor Gold plc:
Condor Gold plc was admitted to AIM in May 2006 and dual listed
on the TSX in January 2018. The Company is a gold exploration and
development company with a focus on Nicaragua.
In August 2018, the Company announced that the Ministry of the
Environment in Nicaragua had granted the Company the Environmental
Permit ("EP") for the development, construction and operation of a
processing plant with capacity to process up to 2,800 tonnes per
day at its wholly-owned La India gold project ("La India Project").
The EP is considered to be the master permit for mining operations
in Nicaragua. Condor Gold published a PFS on La India Project in
December 2014, as summarised in the Technical Report (as defined
below). The PFS details an open pit gold Mineral Reserve in the
Probable category of 6.9 Mt at 3.0 g/t gold for 675,000 oz gold,
producing 80,000 oz gold per annum for seven years. La India
Project contains a Mineral Resource of 9,850Kt at 3.6 g/t gold for
1,140Koz gold in the Indicated category and 8,479Kt at 4.3g/t gold
for 1,179Koz gold in the Inferred category. The Indicated Mineral
Resource is inclusive of the Mineral Reserve.
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.
Qualified Persons
The Mineral Resource Estimate has been completed by Ben Parsons,
a Principal Consultant (Resource Geology) with SRK Consulting
(U.S.), Inc, who is a Member of the Australian Institute of Mining
and Metallurgy, MAusIMM(CP). Ben Parsons has some eighteen years'
experience in the exploration, definition and mining of precious
and base metal Mineral Resources. Ben Parsons is a full-time
employee of SRK Consulting (U.S.), Inc, an independent Consultancy,
and has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of
mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration, and to the
type of activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a "qualified
person" as defined by NI 43-101 and as required by the June 2009
Edition of the AIM Note for Mining and Oil & Gas Companies. Ben
Parsons 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.
The technical and scientific information in this press release
has been reviewed, verified and approved by Andrew Cheatle, P.Geo.,
who is a "qualified person" as defined by NI 43-101.
Technical Information
Certain disclosure contained in this news release of a
scientific or technical nature has been summarised or extracted
from the technical report entitled "Technical Report on the La
India Gold Project, Nicaragua, December 2014", dated November 13,
2017 with an effective date of December 21, 2014 (the "Technical
Report"), prepared in accordance with NI 43-101. The Technical
Report was prepared by or under the supervision of Tim Lucks,
Principal Consultant (Geology & Project Management), Gabor
Bacsfalusi, Principal Consultant (Mining), Benjamin Parsons,
Principal Consultant (Resource Geology), each of SRK Consulting
(UK) Limited, and Neil Lincoln of Lycopodium Minerals Canada Ltd.,
each of whom is an independent "qualified person" as defined by NI
43-101.
Forward Looking Statements
All statements in this press release, other than statements of
historical fact, are 'forward-looking information' with respect to
the Company within the meaning of applicable securities laws,
including statements with respect to: permitting and related
studies, the Mineral Resources, Mineral Reserves and future
production rates and plans at the La India Project. Forward-looking
information is often, but not always, identified by the use of
words such as: "seek", "anticipate", "plan", "continue",
"strategies", "estimate", "expect", "project", "predict",
"potential", "targeting", "intends", "believe", "potential",
"could", "might", "will" and similar expressions. Forward-looking
information is not a guarantee of future performance and is based
upon a number of estimates and assumptions of management at the
date the statements are made including, among others, assumptions
regarding: future commodity prices and royalty regimes;
availability of skilled labour; timing and amount of capital
expenditures; future currency exchange and interest rates; the
impact of increasing competition; general conditions in economic
and financial markets; availability of drilling and related
equipment; effects of regulation by governmental agencies; the
receipt of required permits; royalty rates; future tax rates;
future operating costs; availability of future sources of funding;
ability to obtain financing and assumptions underlying estimates
related to adjusted funds from operations. Many assumptions are
based on factors and events that are not within the control of the
Company and there is no assurance they will prove to be
correct.
Such forward-looking information involves known and unknown
risks, which may cause the actual results to be materially
different from any future results expressed or implied by such
forward-looking information, including, risks related to: mineral
exploration, development and operating risks; estimation of
mineralisation, resources and reserves; environmental, health and
safety regulations of the resource industry; competitive
conditions; operational risks; liquidity and financing risks;
funding risk; exploration costs; uninsurable risks; conflicts of
interest; risks of operating in Nicaragua; government policy
changes; ownership risks; permitting and licencing risks; artisanal
miners and community relations; difficulty in enforcement of
judgments; market conditions; stress in the global economy; current
global financial condition; exchange rate and currency risks;
commodity prices; reliance on key personnel; dilution risk; payment
of dividends; as well as those factors discussed under the heading
"Risk Factors" in the Company's annual information form for the
fiscal year ended December 31, 2017 dated March 29, 2018, available
under the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.
Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors
that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ
materially from those described in forward-looking information,
there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results
not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no
assurance that such information will prove to be accurate as actual
results and future events could differ materially from those
anticipated in such statements. The Company disclaims any intention
or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information,
whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise
unless required by law.
Technical Glossary
Mineral Resource
Mineral Resources are sub-divided, in order of increasing
geological confidence, into Inferred, Indicated and Measured
categories. An Inferred Mineral Resource has a lower level of
confidence than that applied to an Indicated Mineral Resource. An
Indicated Mineral Resource has a higher level of confidence than an
Inferred Mineral Resource but has a lower level of confidence than
a Measured Mineral Resource.
A Mineral Resource is a concentration or occurrence of solid
material of economic interest in or on the Earth's crust in such
form, grade or quality and quantity that there are reasonable
prospects for eventual economic extraction.
The location, quantity, grade or quality, continuity and other
geological characteristics of a Mineral Resource are known,
estimated or interpreted from specific geological evidence and
knowledge, including sampling.
Material of economic interest refers to diamonds, natural solid
inorganic material, or natural solid fossilized organic material
including base and precious metals, coal, and industrial
minerals.
The term Mineral Resource covers mineralization and natural
material of intrinsic economic interest which has been identified
and estimated through exploration and sampling and within which
Mineral Reserves may subsequently be defined by the consideration
and application of Modifying Factors. The phrase 'reasonable
prospects for eventual economic extraction' implies a judgment by
the Qualified Person in respect of the technical and economic
factors likely to influence the prospect of economic extraction.
The Qualified Person should consider and clearly state the basis
for determining that the material has reasonable prospects for
eventual economic extraction. Assumptions should include estimates
of cutoff grade and geological continuity at the selected cut-off,
metallurgical recovery, smelter payments, commodity price or
product value, mining and processing method and mining, processing
and general and administrative costs. The Qualified Person should
state if the assessment is based on any direct evidence and
testing.
Interpretation of the word 'eventual' in this context may vary
depending on the commodity or mineral involved. For example, for
some coal, iron, potash deposits and other bulk minerals or
commodities, it may be reasonable to envisage 'eventual economic
extraction' as covering time periods in excess of 50 years.
However, for many gold deposits, application of the concept would
normally be restricted to perhaps 10 to 15 years, and frequently to
much shorter periods of time.
Inferred Mineral Resource
An Inferred Mineral Resource is that part of a Mineral Resource
for which quantity and grade or quality are estimated on the basis
of limited geological evidence and sampling. Geological evidence is
sufficient to imply but not verify geological and grade or quality
continuity.
An Inferred Mineral Resource has a lower level of confidence
than that applying to an Indicated Mineral Resource and must not be
converted to a Mineral Reserve. It is reasonably expected that the
majority of Inferred Mineral Resources could be upgraded to
Indicated Mineral Resources with continued exploration.
An Inferred Mineral Resource is based on limited information and
sampling gathered through appropriate sampling techniques from
locations such as outcrops, trenches, pits, workings and drill
holes. Inferred Mineral Resources must not be included in the
economic analysis, production schedules, or estimated mine life in
publicly disclosed Pre- Feasibility or Feasibility Studies, or in
the Life of Mine plans and cash flow models of developed mines.
Inferred Mineral Resources can only be used in economic studies as
provided under NI 43-101.
There may be circumstances, where appropriate sampling, testing,
and other measurements are sufficient to demonstrate data
integrity, geological and grade/quality continuity of a Measured or
Indicated Mineral Resource, however, quality assurance and quality
control, or other information may not meet all industry norms for
the disclosure of an Indicated or Measured Mineral Resource. Under
these circumstances, it may be reasonable for the Qualified Person
to report an Inferred Mineral Resource if the Qualified Person has
taken steps to verify the information meets the requirements of an
Inferred Mineral Resource.
Indicated Mineral Resource
An Indicated Mineral Resource is that part of a Mineral Resource
for which quantity, grade or quality, densities, shape and physical
characteristics are estimated with sufficient confidence to allow
the application of Modifying Factors in sufficient detail to
support mine planning and evaluation of the economic viability of
the deposit.
Geological evidence is derived from adequately detailed and
reliable exploration, sampling and testing and is sufficient to
assume geological and grade or quality continuity between points of
observation.
An Indicated Mineral Resource has a lower level of confidence
than that applying to a Measured Mineral Resource and may only be
converted to a Probable Mineral Reserve.
Mineralization may be classified as an Indicated Mineral
Resource by the Qualified Person when the nature, quality, quantity
and distribution of data are such as to allow confident
interpretation of the geological framework and to reasonably assume
the continuity of mineralization. The Qualified Person must
recognize the importance of the Indicated Mineral Resource category
to the advancement of the feasibility of the project. An Indicated
Mineral Resource estimate is of sufficient quality to support a
Pre-Feasibility Study which can serve as the basis for major
development decisions.
Mineral Reserve
Mineral Reserves are sub-divided in order of increasing
confidence into Probable Mineral Reserves and Proven Mineral
Reserves. A Probable Mineral Reserve has a lower level of
confidence than a Proven Mineral Reserve.
A Mineral Reserve is the economically mineable part of a
Measured and/or Indicated Mineral Resource. It includes diluting
materials and allowances for losses, which may occur when the
material is mined or extracted and is defined by studies at
Pre-Feasibility or Feasibility level as appropriate that include
application of Modifying Factors. Such studies demonstrate that, at
the time of reporting, extraction could reasonably be
justified.
The reference point at which Mineral Reserves are defined,
usually the point where the ore is delivered to the processing
plant, must be stated. It is important that, in all situations
where the reference point is different, such as for a saleable
product, a clarifying statement is included to ensure that the
reader is fully informed as to what is being reported.
The public disclosure of a Mineral Reserve must be demonstrated
by a Pre-Feasibility Study or Feasibility Study.
Mineral Reserves are those parts of Mineral Resources which,
after the application of all mining factors, result in an estimated
tonnage and grade which, in the opinion of the Qualified Person(s)
making the estimates, is the basis of an economically viable
project after taking account of all relevant Modifying Factors.
Mineral Reserves are inclusive of diluting material that will be
mined in conjunction with the Mineral Reserves and delivered to the
treatment plant or equivalent facility. The term 'Mineral Reserve'
need not necessarily signify that extraction facilities are in
place or operative or that all governmental approvals have been
received. It does signify that there are reasonable expectations of
such approvals.
'Reference point' refers to the mining or process point at which
the Qualified Person prepares a Mineral Reserve. For example, most
metal deposits disclose mineral reserves with a "mill feed"
reference point. In these cases, reserves are reported as mined ore
delivered to the plant and do not include reductions attributed to
anticipated plant losses. In contrast, coal reserves have
traditionally been reported as tonnes of "clean coal". In this coal
example, reserves are reported as a "saleable product" reference
point and include reductions for plant yield (recovery). The
Qualified Person must clearly state the 'reference point' used in
the Mineral Reserve estimate.
Probable Mineral Reserve
A Probable Mineral Reserve is the economically mineable part of
an Indicated, and in some circumstances, a Measured Mineral
Resource. The confidence in the Modifying Factors applying to a
Probable Mineral Reserve is lower than that applying to a Proven
Mineral Reserve.
The Qualified Person(s) may elect, to convert Measured Mineral
Resources to Probable Mineral Reserves if the confidence in the
Modifying Factors is lower than that applied to a Proven Mineral
Reserve. Probable Mineral Reserve estimates must be demonstrated to
be economic, at the time of reporting, by at least a
Pre-Feasibility Study.
Pre-Feasibility Study (Preliminary Feasibility Study)
The CIM Definition Standards requires the completion of a
Pre-Feasibility Study as the minimum prerequisite for the
conversion of Mineral Resources to Mineral Reserves.
A Pre-Feasibility Study is a comprehensive study of a range of
options for the technical and economic viability of a mineral
project that has advanced to a stage where a preferred mining
method, in the case of underground mining, or the pit
configuration, in the case of an open pit, is established and an
effective method of mineral processing is determined. It includes a
financial analysis based on reasonable assumptions on the Modifying
Factors and the evaluation of any other relevant factors which are
sufficient for a Qualified Person, acting reasonably, to determine
if all or part of the Mineral Resource may be converted to a
Mineral Reserve at the time of reporting. A Pre-Feasibility Study
is at a lower confidence level than a Feasibility Study.
This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the
London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct
Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United
Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution
of this information may apply. For further information, please
contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.
END
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