Dec 15 2012
Condor ("Condor" or "the Company"), a gold exploration company focused on delineating a large commercial resource on its wholly owned 2.4m oz gold La India Project in Nicaragua is pleased to announce that, pursuant to the agreement announcement on 11th October 2012, the Minister of Energy and Mines has approved the transfer of the 27sq km La Mojarra Concession (the "Concession") to Condor's wholly owned, Nicaraguan subsidiary La India Gold S.A. Under the terms of the Agreement the said approval triggers a US$300,000 payment.
US$200,000 is payable in cash and US$100,000 is payable by way of issuing new ordinary shares in Condor at the 20 day average traded price prior to the said approval. The ministerial approval completes the legal ownership of the Concession by La India Gold S.A. The addition of La Mojarra Concession increases the Company's La India Project by 27km² to 194km² contained within seven contiguous wholly owned concessions.
Accordingly, the Company will issue and allott 34,384 new Ordinary Shares of 20p per Ordinary Share (the "Ordinary Shares") (the "Consideration Shares"). Application will be made for the Consideration Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM and it is expected that Admission will occur, and dealings commence, on 21 December 2012. Following this, the enlarged issued share capital of the Company, will comprise 33,204,130 Ordinary Shares in the capital of the Company. The Consideration Shares will, when issued, rank pari passu in all respects with the existing issued Ordinary Shares of Condor.
La Mojarra Concession lies along strike and to the South of the India-California Vein trend which hosts a CIM Code resource of 11.2 million tonnes at 4.0g/t containing 1,484,000 oz gold including an open pit resource of 8.2 million tonnes at 3.6g/t containing 954,000 oz gold. Gold mineralisation at the southern end of the India-California veins does not reach surface, however significant gold intercepts have been defined at depths from 50m below surface. However, intercepts such as 21.08m (16.1m true width) at 10.24g/t gold from 193.80m drill depth in drillhole LIDC152 (see RNS dated 29th August 2012) located 500m from the La Mojarra Concession boundary. Gold mineralisation on the India Vein remains open at depth and along strike below surface, and it is highly conceivable that the mineralisation continues into La Mojarra Concession.
Condor has received assay results from reconnaissance exploration undertaken as part of the due diligence prior to purchase of La Mojarra Concession which confirm unsubstantiated reports of gold mineralisation on the line of strike of the India-California trend at two locations.
- At a distance of 1km from the currently established southern extent of the India-California Vein a trench returned three close-spaced anomalous gold intercepts over a 12.5m interval; 2m at 1.33g/t, 1m at 1.15g/t and 1.5m at 0.95g/t gold. This was complimented by two high-grade float samples of vein quartz that returned assay results of 23.5g/t and 12.4g/t gold respectively in the vicinity.
- A further 2.3km to the south along the same trend a sample of banded quartz vein float assayed at 9.0g/t gold. At both locations the float material is interpreted as being of local origin.
In addition to the evidence of high-grade epithermal gold mineralisation at surface the Company is encouraged by the recognition of areas of intense argillic alteration over several hundred metres diameter within the concession area. This evidence of intense near surface hydrothermal activity in a location close to the interpreted central caldera of the volcanic complex that hosts the La India epithermal gold mineralisation, where the geology has been downthrown relative to the main La India District mineralisation by a major north-east trending fault, makes the La Mojarra Concession highly prospective for the discovery of a large buried epithermal gold deposit.
The Company plans to undertake a regional rock chip, soil sampling, geophysics and geological mapping programme on the La Mojarra Concession in order to prioritise trenching and drilling for both near surface and potential buried gold deposits.