Condor Gold narrows losses as it brings La India to fruition

Condor Gold updated the market on its first half on Wednesday, confirming that it was still pre-revenue, but had narrowed its operating loss to £0.65m in the six months ended 30 June, from £1.29m a year earlier.

The AIM-traded firm noted its updated mineral resource on La India Project, announced in the period, which totalled 9.85 million tonnes at 3.6 grams per tonne of gold, for 1,140,000 ounces of gold in the indicated category, and 8.48 million tonnes at 4.3 grams per tonne of gold, for 1,179,000 ounces of gold in the inferred category.

Its total open pit mineral resource were 8.58 million tonnes at a grade of 3.3 grams per tonne of gold, for 902,000 ounces of gold in the indicated category, and 3.01 million tonnes at a grade of 3.0 grams per tonne of gold, for 290,000 ounces of gold in the inferred category.

Total underground mineral resources were 1.27 million tonnes at a grade of 5.8 grams per tonne of gold, for 238,000 ounces of gold in the indicated category, and 5.47 million tonnes at a grade of 5.1 grams per tonne of gold, for 889,000 ounces of gold in the inferred category;

The board said that of note was the new open pit mineral resource on Mestiza of 92,000 tonnes at a grade of 12.1 grams per tonne, for 36,000 ounces of contained gold in the indicated category and 341,000 tonnes at a grade of 7.7 grams per tonne, for 85,000 ounces contained gold in the inferred category.

It said the four satellite open pits outside the main, permitted La India open pit had combined open pit resources of 206,000 tonnes at 9.9 grams per tonne of gold, for 66,000 ounces of gold in the Indicated category and 2,127,000 tonnes at 3.23 grams per tonne of gold, for 221,000 ounces of gold in the inferred category.

The company raised £1.75m by way of a private placement of new ordinary shares in February.

In March, it announced it was permitting the Mestiza and America satellite feeder pits, which had the potential to increase production to 120,000 ounces of gold per annum for a seven-year life of mine.

The Mestiza and America open pits had, in aggregate, 206,000 tonnes at a grade of 9.9 grams per tonne, for 66,000 ounces of contained gold in the indicated category, and 1,018,000 tonnes at 4.6 grams per tonne, for 152,000 ounces of contained gold in the inferred category.

Metallurgical test work was conducted in the period by B2Gold on behalf of the firm from samples taken from an area within the permitted La India open pit, the board explained.

Two independently-selected samples of approximately 23 kilograms each produced an average head grade of 12.1 grams per tonne of gold, and average metallurgical gold recoveries of 95.4%.

Since the period ended, an additional 132 square kilometre, 25-year Cerro Los Cerritos exploration concession was awarded adjacent to current La India concession package, which Condor said potentially hosted the strike extension of the gold mineralisation at La India, and expanded La India’s concession area to 588 square kilometres.

An additional private placement of 20,192,520 new shares at a price of 20p per unit took place in July, to raise £4.04m, including a directors’ and CFO subscription for 6,350,000 shares, and 9,842,520 shares subscribed by Nicaragua Milling Company.

“Condor Gold has made good progress in the six-month period and continues to de-risk the project by fulfilling conditions of the environmental permit to construct and operate a new mine at La India, while continuing with an exploration programme to demonstrate a major gold district,” said chairman and chief executive officer Mark Child.

“Potential gold production at the project is being materially expanded by applying for environmental permits to extract gold from two high-grade satellite feeder pits, which in aggregate have circa 232,000 ounces of gold at 5.5 grams per tonne of gold.

“Once granted, the company will have permits for extraction of approximately one million ounces of gold from mineral resources.”

Child said the company was targeting production of 120,000 ounces of gold per annum from open pit material for seven years, which compared to the pre-feasibility study of 79,300 ounces of gold per annum for seven years.

“The significant underground mineral resource of 1.2 million ounces of gold will be analysed and potentially converted to mineral reserves after production from the open pits has started.”