Ecuador Gold announces an increase of 1.6 million oz of gold in indicated mineral resources at the Condor Gold Project
To approximately 8.0 million ounces of gold with a further increase of 0.6 million ounces of gold in inferred mineral resourceTORONTO, March 24, 2014 - Ecuador Gold & Copper Corp. (TSX-V: EGX), (the "Company" or "EGX") is pleased to report that it has completed a new mineral resource estimate for the Company's Santa Barbara South and North Zones incorporating results from Phase II drilling up to drill hole DSB-44. The new resource calculation at Santa Barbara incorporates results from 7 additional drill holes (3,939m) completed up to January 31st, 2014. As a result, the Company's indicated resources at the Condor Gold Project in Ecuador have increased by an additional 1.6 million ounces to approximately 8.0 million ounces of gold together with a further increase of 0.6 million ounces of inferred resources to a total of approximately 2.6 million ounces of gold. Further, the Company's new copper resource estimate is now approximately 0.8 billion lbs of copper in the indicated resource category and approximately 1.5 billion lbs of copper in the inferred resource category.
Highlights:
- The new mineral resource estimate at the Santa Barbara Gold(Au)-Copper(Cu) porphyry deposit incorporates drill results from 7 additional drill holes totaling 3,939m drilled since October 2013. The increased drill density and number of drill holes has resulted in an expanded resource with new indicated resources and conversion of some previously reported inferred resources to the indicated category. Resources at Santa Barbara South and North have been combined into a single block model and now stand at 364.5 million tonnes at 0.51 g/t Au and 0.1% Cu (5.98 million ounces Au and 804.8 million lbs. Cu) in the indicated category and 177.6 million tonnes at 0.40 g/t Au and 0.1% Cu (2.3 million ounces Au and 391.5 million lbs. Cu) in the inferred category. The new Santa Barbara mineral resources estimates are summarized in Table 1 below.
- Total resources at the Condor Gold Project now comprise 447.3 million tonnes at 0.56 g/t Au (8.0 million ounces Au) in the indicated category with a further 197.6 million tonnes at 0.4 g/t Au (2.6 million ounces Au) in the inferred category. (For details of the previously reported resources see the Company's technical report (the "Technical Report") prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards for Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") dated effective October 16, 2013 and filed on SEDAR on November 29, 2013, available at www.sedar.com). Assay results from the seven recent drill holes at Santa Barbara are summarized in the Company's news release dated February 24th, 2014.
- The El Hito copper porphyry deposit, situated 5km east of Santa Barbara hosts an additional inferred copper resource of 161 million tonnes at a grade of 0.31% Cu (1.1 billion lbs. Cu). For further details and a description of El Hito, see the Company's NI-43-101 Technical Report dated October 16, 2013 at www.sedar.com.
- Continuing increases of the gold and copper resources at the Santa Barbara deposit confirm the emergence of Santa Barbara as the Company's flagship project in Ecuador.
The new resource estimates were calculated by Mr. Phil Jones of Al Maynard and Associates Pty Ltd. in Perth, Australia and incorporate drill results from 7 new drill holes (3,939m) drilled since October 2013 by EGX and all previous drilling to the end of January 2014. The Company's updated resource table for Santa Barbara is presented in Table 1 (below). The Company's updated resource estimates are summarized in Table 2, below. A new NI 43-101 technical report with full details will be filed on www.sedar.com within 45 days of the date of this news release. Previous news releases, location maps and plans with simplified geology, collar locations and drill hole traces are available for reference on the Company's website at www.ecuadorgoldandcopper.com.
| Table 1: SANTA BARBARA GOLD-COPPER DEPOSIT RESOURCE BREAKDOWN | |||||||||
| | Tonnes (000 t) | Grade Au (g/t) | Ag (g/t) | Cu (%) | Au (000 oz) | Ag (000 oz) | Cu ( lbs) | ||
| GOLD RESOURCE Indicated: | | | | | | | | | |
| Santa Barbara | * | 364,572 | 0.51 | 0.9 | 0.1 | 5,978 | 10,080 | 0.8 billion | |
| Total Indicated GOLD | 364,572 | 0.51 | 5,978 | - | |||||
| GOLD RESOURCE Inferred: | | | | | | | | | |
| Santa Barbara | * | 177,601 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 2,300 | 4,625 | 0.4 billion | |
| Total Inferred GOLD | 177,601 | 0.4 | 2,300 | - | |||||
Notes:
| 1) | The mineral resource estimate has been completed pursuant to NI 43-101. Mr. Phil Jones is an independent Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101 and its companion policy 43-101CP. New resource estimates at Santa Barbara are shown in bold with an asterisk (*). |
| 2) | The definitions of indicated and inferred mineral resources reported here are as defined in the CIM Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves adopted by the CIM Council, as amended. |
| 3) | Inferred resource estimates have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence and economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under NI 43-101, estimates of inferred mineral resources may not form the basis of feasibility or pre-feasibility studies except for a preliminary economic assessment or scoping study. |
| 4) | Sums may not add up due to rounding as all quantities are rounded to the appropriate number of significant figures. |
| 5) | Tonnage and grades are in metric units. Contained gold and silver ounces are reported as troy ounces, contained copper as imperial pounds. |
| 6) | Gold resources at Santa Barbara have been calculated using a 0.25 g/t Au cutoff grade. Inverse distance cubed (ID3) algorithms using wide search ellipses and confined to geological wireframe controls were used. Block size estimated is 20 x 20 x 10m. |
| 7) | Maximum search distances used to calculate indicated resources are 100m at Santa Barbara while inferred resources were calculated using maximum distances of 100-200m from the block being estimated. |
| 8) | The new calculations of indicated and inferred resource shown above are based on results from 44 diamond drill holes at Santa Barbara (20,119m). |
Mit Tilkov, VP Exploration of Ecuador Gold and Copper Corp. comments:
"Drilling at Santa Barbara continues to expand resources. With the completion of this second phase of drilling we have generated additional resources and new targets as our understanding of the Santa Barbara deposit increases. Surface mapping and geochemistry indicate further potential to increase resources to the north and southwest of the Santa Barbara North Zone and to the east and southeast of the best intersections to date in the southern part of the deposit. The Santa Barbara deposit is partially wrapped around a large circular induced polarization (IP) anomaly between the north and south zones. One drill hole (DSB-36) was drilled across a fault and into the flank of this feature where it encountered gold and copper mineralization at depth. Outcrop mapped above the IP anomaly shows elevated gold and copper values in rocks and soils with favorable lithology and alteration. I believe that we may be on the fringes of a very significant gold copper porphyry system that would warrant further drilling in 2015."
"EGX is awaiting the results of a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) for Santa Barbara, now scheduled for completion at the end of April, before proposing a renewed drill program. In the meantime, the Company's geologists are mapping and sampling at Santa Barbara and other identified targets on this large (8300 ha.) concession. Mapping has doubled the strike length of altered diorite porphyry to the north of El Hito where the Company has already defined a 1.1 billion pound copper inferred resource (0.31% Cu). We have further targets to work to the north of the Chinapintza vein district in the north (Tres Cerritos), a potential extension of Santa Barbara style porphyry to the south and a promising potential gold bearing porphyry to the north of El Hito where we are currently mapping and sampling. We'll be spending most of the rest of the year exploring some of our best targets including those close to Santa Barbara in preparation for renewed drilling once the PEA has been completed and the information digested."
Glenn Laing, President and CEO of Ecuador Gold and Copper Corp. comments:
"The Company has completed 22,051 meters of new drilling on the Condor Gold Project concessions between August 2012 and the end of January 2014. EGX boasts close to 2 million ounces of indicated gold resources and 0.3 million ounces of inferred gold resources in our epithermal gold deposits at Los Cuyes and Soledad in the north and an additional 6.0 million ounces of indicated gold resources plus an additional 2.3 million ounces of inferred resources in the south at Santa Barbara. We also have further indicated (0.8 billion lbs) and inferred (0.4 billion lbs) copper resources defined at Santa Barbara, and an inferred copper resource (1.1 billion pounds) at El Hito in our resource inventory. Our Condor Gold Project continues to meet and exceed our expectations and we believe it is proving to be one of the most exciting advanced exploration projects in South America. We estimate our exploration discovery costs in 2012 and 2013 to be in the order of $2.00-$3.00 per ounce of gold resources reported."
| Table 2: UPDATED CONDOR GOLD AND COPPER PROJECT RESOURCE BREAKDOWN (Incorporating updated Santa Barbara resources from Table 1, above.) | ||||||||
| | Tonnes (000 t) | Grade Au (g/t) | Ag (g/t) | Cu (%) | Au (000 oz) | Ag (000 oz) | Cu ( lbs) | |
| Indicated: | ||||||||
| Los Cuyes | 46,800 | 0.82 | 6.2 | 1,234 | 9,314 | |||
| Soledad | 34,900 | 0.63 | 7.2 | 707 | 8,090 | |||
| Enma | 1,005 | 2.88 | 32.8 | 93 | 1,061 | |||
| Santa Barbara | * | 364,572 | 0.51 | 0.9 | 0.1 | 5,978 | 10,080 | 0.8 billion |
| Total Indicated | 447,277 | 0.56 | 2.0 | 8,012 | 28,545 | 0.8 billion | ||
| Inferred: | ||||||||
| Soledad | 20,000 | 0.5 | 6.9 | 300 | 4,500 | |||
| Santa Barbara | * | 177,601 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 2,300 | 4,625 | 0.4 billion |
| Total Inferred | 197,601 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 0.1 | 2,600 | 9,125 | 0.4 billion | |
| Inferred El Hito: | ||||||||
| El Hito | 161,000 | 0.31 | 1.1 billion | |||||
| Total Inferred | 161,000 | 0.31 | 1.1 billion | |||||
Notes:
| 1) | All mineral resource estimates shown above have been completed pursuant to NI 43-101. Mr. Phil Jones is an independent Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101 and its companion policy 43-101CP. New resource estimates at Santa Barbara are shown in bold with an asterisk (*). |
| 2) | Details of previous calculations and resource estimates at Los Cuyes, Soledad, Enma, and El Hito are reported in detail in the Company's NI 43-101 Technical Report dated effective October 16, 2013 and filed on SEDAR on November 29, 2013, available at www.sedar.com. |
| 3) | The definitions of indicated and inferred mineral resources reported here are as defined in the CIM Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves adopted by the CIM Council, as amended. |
| 4) | Inferred resource estimates have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence and economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under NI 43-101, estimates of inferred mineral resources may not form the basis of feasibility or pre-feasibility studies except for a preliminary economic assessment or scoping study. |
| 5) | Sums may not add up due to rounding as all quantities are rounded to the appropriate number of significant figures. |
| 6) | Tonnage and grades are in metric units. Contained gold and silver ounces are reported as troy ounces, contained copper as imperial pounds. |
| 7) | Gold resources have been calculated using a 0.25 g/t Au cutoff grade while the copper resources at El Hito are reported above a 0.2% Cu cutoff grade. |
Quality Assurance
The Company has implemented a quality assurance and quality control program to ensure that the transport, sampling and analysis of all samples are conducted in accordance with the best possible practices. The QA/QC program has been described for each previous release of drill hole results on the project (see recent news releases at www.ecuadorgoldandcopper.com). In preparation for the resource estimate, the Company hired independent consultants to review the QA/QC program. Further details will be released in a technical report prepared in accordance with NI 43-101 that will be posted at www.sedar.com within 45 days of the date of this news release.
Qualified Person
Mit Tilkov, P.Geo., Vice-President Exploration of Ecuador Gold and Copper Corp. is a qualified person, as defined by NI 43-101, supervised the project field work, and is responsible for the preparation of the technical information in this news release.
Phil Jones, BAppSc (Geol), MAIG, MAusIMM, of Al Maynard and Associates prepared the mineral resource estimate. He is an independent qualified person, as required by NI 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release.
Cautionary Note
The Company has not completed a preliminary economic assessment or feasibility study of the Condor Gold Project under NI 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.
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SOURCE Ecuador Gold and Copper Corp.
Contact
Glenn Laing, President & CEO
Telephone: +1 647 865 3101
Email: glaing@ecuadorgoldandcopper.com OR
CHF Investor Relations
eanny So, Senior Account Manager
Tel: +1 416 868 1079 ext. 231
Email: jeanny@chfir.com