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TORONTO,
Oct. 16, 2013 /CNW/ - Ecuador Gold
& Copper Corp. (TSXV: EGX), (the "Company" or
"EGX") is pleased to report that it has completed a new
updated mineral resource estimate for the Company's Santa Barbara
South Zone. As a result, Indicated resources at the Condor
Gold Project in Ecuador have
increased to approximately 6.4 million ounces of gold with an
additional Inferred resource of approximately 2.1 million
ounces. The new resource calculation at Santa Barbara South
Zone incorporated results from 11 additional drill holes completed
up to August 31st,
2013.
Highlights:
- The new mineral resource estimate at the Santa Barbara South
Zone incorporates drill results from 11 additional drill holes
totaling 6,985m drilled since May
2013. The increased drill density and number of drill
holes has resulted in an expanded resource with new Indicated
resources and conversion of previously reported Inferred resources
to the Indicated category. Resources at Santa Barbara South
now stand at 236.1 million tonnes at 0.57 g/t Au and 0.1% Cu (4.33
million ounces Au and 520.0 million lbs. Cu) in the Indicated
category and 102 million tonnes at 0.50 g/t Au and 0.1% Cu (1.6
million ounces Au and 225 million lbs. Cu) in the Inferred
category.
- Indicated resources at the Condor Gold Project now total 318.9
million tonnes at 0.62 g/t Au (6.365 million ounces Au) with a
further 127.0 million tonnes at 0.52 g/t Au (2.067 million ounces
Au) in the inferred category at Santa Barbara South and North
Zones, Los Cuyes, Soledad and Enma. (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 July
23, 2013 and filed on SEDAR on September 5, 2013, available at
www.sedar.com).
- The El Hito copper porphyry project, situated 5km east of Santa
Barbara hosts an additional Inferred copper resource of 161 million
tonnes 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 at www.sedar.com.
- Continuing increases of the gold 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
Phil Jones of Al Maynard and Associates Pty Ltd. in
Perth, Australia and incorporate
drill results from 11 new drill holes (6,985m) drilled since
May 2013 by EGX and all assays up to
the end of August 2013. The
Company's updated resource table for Santa Barbara is presented
below in Table 1 with previously released resources summarized in
Table 2. Al Maynard and
Associates Pty Ltd. were also responsible for the previous resource
estimates calculated in the Company's NI 43-101 Technical Report
dated effective July 23, 2013 and
filed on SEDAR on September 5, 2013,
available at www.sedar.com. 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. Location maps and plans with
simplified geology, collar locations and drill hole traces are
available for reference on the Company's web site at
www.ecuadorgoldandcopper.com.
Glenn Laing,
President and CEO of Ecuador Gold and Copper Corp.
comments:
"The newly updated resource estimate at our
Condor Gold Project represents a substantial increase in the
Company's resource base and in particular at the Santa Barbara
South Zone. We are extremely encouraged by the addition of
new gold resources at the Santa Barbara South Zone and the upgrade
in the quality of the resource estimate to now include Indicated
gold resources. The Company has completed 17,321 meters of new
drilling on the Condormining concessions between August 2012 and the end of August 2013. EGX boasts close to 2 million
ounces of indicated gold resource in our epithermal gold deposits
at Los Cuyes and Soledad in the north and in the south 4.33 million
ounces of indicated gold resources at Santa Barbara plus an
additional 1.745 million ounces of inferred resources at Santa
Barbara. We also have a further inferred resource of 500,000 tonnes
of copper (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 costs of discovery to be in the order of $2.00 per ounce of gold in 2012 and 2013."
Table 1: SANTA BARBARA GOLD-COPPER
PORPHYRY
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 South Zone |
* |
236,100 |
0.57 |
0.85 |
0.10 |
4,330 |
- |
520 million |
| Total Indicated GOLD |
|
236,100 |
0.57 |
|
|
4,330 |
- |
|
| GOLD RESOURCE |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Inferred: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Santa Barbara South Zone |
* |
102,000 |
0.5 |
0.9 |
0.1 |
1,600 |
- |
225 million |
| Santa Barbara North Zone |
|
5,000 |
0.9 |
|
|
145 |
- |
|
| Total Inferred GOLD |
|
107,000 |
0.52 |
|
|
1,745 |
- |
|
| 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 South Zone are in bold and
shown 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 28 diamond drill holes at Santa
Barbara (13,207m). |
Table
2: CONDOR GOLD AND COPPER PROJECT
RESOURCE BREAKDOWN (Incorporating Updated Santa Barbara South
Zone Resources)
|
|
|
Tonnes
(000 t) |
Grade
Au (g/t) |
Ag (g/t) |
Cu (%) |
Au
(000 oz) |
Ag
(000 oz) |
Cu
( lbs) |
| GOLD RESOURCE |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Indicated: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Los Cuyes |
|
46,848 |
0.82 |
6.19 |
|
1,235 |
9,323 |
|
| Soledad |
|
34,900 |
0.63 |
7.21 |
|
707 |
8,090 |
|
| Enma |
|
1,005 |
2.88 |
32.83 |
|
93 |
1,061 |
|
| Santa Barbara South Zone |
* |
236,100 |
0.57 |
0.85 |
0.1 |
4,330 |
- |
|
| Total Indicated GOLD |
|
318,853 |
0.62 |
2.43 |
|
6,365 |
18,474 |
|
| GOLD RESOURCE |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Inferred: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Soledad |
|
20,000 |
0.5 |
6.93 |
|
322 |
4,456 |
|
| Santa Barbara South Zone |
* |
102,000 |
0.5 |
0.90 |
0.1 |
1,600 |
- |
|
| Santa Barbara North Zone |
|
5,000 |
0.9 |
|
|
145 |
- |
|
| Total Inferred GOLD |
|
127,000 |
0.52 |
1.09 |
|
2,067 |
4,456 |
|
| COPPER RESOURCE |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Inferred: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| El Hito |
|
161,000 |
|
|
0.31 |
|
|
1.1 billion |
| Total Inferred COPPER |
|
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 South Zone
are in bold and shown with an asterisk (*). |
| 2) |
Details of previous calculations and resource estimates at Los
Cuyes, Soledad, Enma, Santa Barbara North Zone and El Hito are
reported in detail in the Company's NI 43-101 Technical Report
dated effective July 23, 2013 and filed on SEDAR on September 5,
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.
SOURCE Ecuador Gold and Copper Corp.