Grant of Las Cruces Concession
Condor expands the La India Project land package by 45% to 455.6 km2 with the grant of a significant concession that is potentially the heat engine and metal source that caused gold mineralisation across the entire La India Gold District.
LONDON, December 7, 2018 - Condor (AIM: CNR; TSX: COG; OTCQX: CNDGF), is pleased to announce that the Ministry of Energy and Mines of Nicaragua (''MEM'') has granted the Las Cruces concession, a 25 year exploration and exploitation concession covering an area of 142.6 km2, to the Company's wholly-owned Nicaraguan subsidiary Condor S.A. The concession is adjacent to, and south-east of, the La India Project (Figure 1). The La India Project now comprises 11 adjacent and contiguous exploration and exploitation concessions, acquired by Condor over 12 years. The addition of Las Cruces expands the La India Project package by 45% to 455.6 km2.
Mark Child Chairman and CEO comments:
''I am delighted that the Government of Nicaragua has granted Condor a major exploration and exploitation concession adjacent to the La India Project. This confirms that the country is pro-mining and open for business. The 142.6 km2 Las Cruces concession expands the La India Project area by 45%. Las Cruces was available for grant by the government under a 25 year exploration and exploitation concession. We remain convinced that the La India Project is a major Gold District with the potential to host over 5 million ounces (''Moz'') of gold.
Condor's geologists have identified a major north-northeast-striking basement feeder zone through the Project (the ''La India Corridor'') which hosts 90% of Condor's 2.4 Moz gold resource. The feeder zone can be projected south-east into Las Cruces. Mapping and early prospecting/sampling show that Las Cruces lies inside a volcanic caldera and has extensive clay alteration and rare vuggy silica. This alteration appears to be a 'lithocap', which raises the possibility of underlying porphyry-style mineralisation (copper and/or gold). This porphyry is potentially the 'heat engine' and metal source that caused gold mineralisation across the entire La India Gold District. We are particularly keen to follow up on anomalous samples of up to 0.1% copper.''
Background
The Las Cruces concession is to the south-east of the La India Project, next to Condor's La Mojarra concession (Figure 1).
Figure 1 Location of the Las Cruces concession within the La India Project area.
Image: https://www.accesswire.com/users/newswire/images//condor%20fig%201.jpg
The area was visited several times by Condor's geologists after a major colour anomaly was identified in satellite imagery within a major Tertiary volcanic caldera (Güisisil caldera) (Figure 2). This circular caldera is about 9 km wide. There were also rumours of artisanal gold mining.
Figure 2 Location of the Güisisil caldera and alteration zones within the Las Cruces concession.
Image: https://www.accesswire.com/users/newswire/images//condor%20fig%202.jpg
The caldera lies directly along strike from the La India Corridor, a proposed basement fracture that controls high grade epithermal veins (Figure 3).
Rock sampling of altered rock and reconnaissance mapping were carried out. The area has extensive argillic (clay) alteration and oxides, with discrete patches of vuggy silica and steam-heated alteration on hilltops. At lower elevations, along creeks, strongly altered and sulphide-rich (marcasite + pyrite) lapilli tuffs and andesites are found.
Trace element concentrations, including anomalous samples of up to 0.1% copper, seem to favour the following possibilities: 1) an extensive fossil water table alteration related to low sulfidation epithermal veins (similar to La India); 2) a distal part of a high sulfidation gold/copper deposit, hosted by advanced argillic alteration (vuggy silica), or 3) a lithocap above a porphyry (gold, or copper/gold).
Figure 3 The location of Las Cruces in respect to the La India Corridor (on a background of antimony anomalies - warm colours indicate anomalous values).
Image: https://www.accesswire.com/users/newswire/images//condor%20fig%203.jpg
Following the grant of the concession, we will apply for environmental authorization to carry out low impact activities such as geological mapping, prospecting and limited trenching and drilling.
Meetings with stakeholders are planned to explain our activities and to obtain permission from landowners prior to exploration. Initial exploration will include detailed geological mapping, prospecting, and soil geochemistry surveys to better understand the extent of the alteration zones. Following the identification of mineral prospects of interest, further work such as trenching, geophysical surveys and exploratory drilling may be carried out.
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, reviewed and approved by Dr Warren Pratt, Chartered Geologist (1994), Fellow of the Geological Society of London and Fellow of the Society of Economic Geologists. Dr Pratt is a geologist with over 23 years of experience in the exploration of precious metal mineral resources. Dr Pratt consults to Condor Gold plc on an ad hoc basis and has considerable experience in epithermal mineralization, the type of deposit under consideration, and enough experience in the type of activity that 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. Dr Pratt 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. Dr Pratt is also a Qualified Person under Canadian National Instrument 43-101.
Technical Glossary
| Argillic alteration | Argillic and Advanced Argillic alteration are shallow types of alteration encountered in a variety of different types of hydrothermal systems. Argillic alteration forms at lower temperatures and primarily consists of kaolinite + montmorillonite clay minerals. |
| Caldera | A ring-shaped depression caused by the collapse of an area of land at the centre of a volcanic complex caused by the emptying of the underlying magma chamber. |
| Epithermal | Hydrothermal deposits formed at shallow depths below a boiling hot spring system are commonly referred to as epithermal, a term retained from an old system of classifying hydrothermal deposits based on the presumed temperature and depth of deposition. |
| Geophysics survey | Systematic collection of geophysical data to determine characteristics of underlying rocks and structures. |
| High sulphidation | Hydrothermal deposits formed at shallow depths below a boiling hot spring system which are dominated oxidized, acidic fluids. |
| Hydrothermal | Formation of minerals by hot solutions rising from a cooling magma |
| Lapilli tuffs | A pyroclastic rock where between 25% and 75% of the pyroclastic fragments are lapilli (2-64mm in size) |
| Lithocap | Lithocaps are subsurface, broadly stratabound alteration domains that are laterally and vertically extensive. They form when acidic magmatic-hydrothermal fluids react with wallrocks during ascent towards the paleosurface. |
| Low sulfidation | Hydrothermal deposits formed at shallow depths below a boiling hot spring system which are dominated by reduced, neutral-pH conditions. |
| Porphyry | Porphyry deposits are orebodies that are formed from hydrothermal fluids that originate from a voluminous magma chamber several kilometers below the deposit itself. Predating or associated with those fluids are vertical dikes of porphyritic intrusive rocks from which this deposit type derives its name. |
| Pyroclastic | Fragmental volcanic rocks composed solely or primarily of volcanic materials of different sizes. |
| Soil geochemistry | The process of collecting and analysing unconsolidated soil sediments to locate geochemical anomalies in the underlying rock and to use these to find ore bodies. |
| Vuggy silica | Acid fluid that leaches wall rock, creates a core of residual, commonly vuggy silica that recrystallizes to quartz. |
| Vein | A sheet-like body of crystallised 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. |
For further information please visit www.condorgold.com or contact:
| Mark Child, Executive Chairman and CEO | |
| Beaumont Cornish Limited | Roland Cornish and James Biddle +44 (0) 20 7628 3396 |
| Numis Securities Limited | John Prior and James Black |
| Blytheweigh | Tim Blythe, Camilla Horsfall and Megan Ray |
About Condor Gold plc:
Condor Gold plc was admitted to AIM on 31 May 2006 and dual listed on the TSX in 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 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 in Nicaragua (''La India Project''). The EP is considered to be the master permit for mining operations in Nicaragua. Condor published a Pre-Feasibility Study (''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 million tonnes (''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 in the indicated category of 9.6 Mt at 3.5 g/t for 1.08 million oz gold and a total mineral resource in the inferred category of 8.5 Mt at 4.5 g/t for 1.23 million oz gold. 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.
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 such term is defined in 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: results of exploration activities, 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 ianformation 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.
SOURCE: Condor Gold plc