Permitting Update On The La India Project

 

LONDON, UK  - Condor Gold reported an update on the progress the Company is making with the permitting process at La India Project, Nicaragua. The Company is in full compliance with the terms of the Environmental Permit. Previously, Condor received an Environmental Permit to construct and operate a new mine with capacity to process up to 2,800 tonne per day of mineralized ore producing between 80,000 to 100,000 oz gold per annum at its La India Project (the “Permit”); the Permit contained certain conditions to be satisfied to allow construction to commence within 18 months of the grant. In June, the Company announced that although considerable progress has been made, the land acquisition for the mine site infrastructure had not been completed in the required timeframe under the Permit. The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resource (MARENA) has now granted an extension to the timeline to acquire the land and/or for the Company to reach legal agreements with the landowners to sell the land.

MARENA has also written to the Company confirming that the final designs for the domestic wastewater treatment system for the offices and accommodation blocks at Mina La India comply with MARENA’s technical and environmental requirements and the final designs are approved.

The Company has recently announced a private placement of new ordinary shares to raise net proceeds of £4.04M. The main use of the placement proceeds is to meet the terms of the Permit, including the purchase of land for the mine site infrastructure, technical engineering and other studies required prior to construction.

The Company is making good progress with the completion of two Environmental Impact Assessments, which will be submitted to the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resource in the second half of 2019 and will apply for Environmental Permits for the high grade Mestiza and America satellite feeder pits as well, which have the potential to increase annual production from open pit material by 50% to 120,000 oz gold p.a. for a seven year life of mine. The feeder pits have in aggregate 206 thousand tonnes (“Kt”) at a grade of 9.9 g/t (66,000 oz contained metal) in the Indicated category and 1,018Kt at 4.6 g/t (152,000 oz contained gold in the Inferred category) (see RNS dated 5 March 2019). Upon completion of the permitting of the two feeder pits approximately 1M oz gold of Mineral Resource in the Indicated and Inferred category will be permitted for extraction, producing approximately 800,000 oz gold. It is the intention to permit at a later stage the underground Mineral Resources of 1.27Mt at a grade of 5.8 g/t gold, for 238,000 oz gold in the Indicated category and 5.47Mt at a grade of 5.1 g/t gold, for 889,000 oz gold in the Inferred category.

The company’s address is 22a St James's Square, London, SW1Y 4JH, 44 (0)20 7493 2784, www.condorgold.com.