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Nicaragua

La India Project

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Overview

Mine TypeOpen Pit
StagePermitting
Commodities
  • Gold
  • Silver
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
Mine Life... Lock
SnapshotCondor’s strategy has been to develop the fully permitted La India Project in 2 stages. The plan is to materially expand production with a stage 2 expansion by converting existing Mineral Resources into Mineral Reserves and an associated integrated mine plan.

The Board has concluded it is in the best interests of the Company and all stakeholders to sell the assets of the Company to a gold producer with mine building expertise, thus ensuring a new mine at La India, a significant investment in the local area and a regeneration of the local communities.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Condor Gold Plc 100 % Indirect
Condor Gold Plc holds 100% ownership of a 588 km2 concession package covering 98% of the historical La India Gold Mining District.

Contractors

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Deposit type

  • Hydrothermal
  • Vein / narrow vein
  • Breccia pipe / Stockwork

Summary:

Gold mineralisation at La India occurs associated both with quartz vein systems and within well-confined hydrothermal breccias. The veins and stockwork zones are hosted within massive andesites, andesitic and felsic tuffs or felsic lava flow deposits. Veins are typically less than 3 m in width, but stockwork zones and stacked stockwork-vein zones can be up to 25 m wide.

Quartz veins, often including a brecciated component, vary in thickness and are most typically between 0.7 m and 2 m in thickness. In many areas, the wallrock hosts a breccia or stockwork zone with vuggy quartz veinlets up to 5 cm thick and accounting for up to 70% of the rock mass. The breccia/stockwork zone is typically up to 10 m thick and is associated with silica-haematite alteration. The quartz in the breccia zone may be gold mineralised, although the country rock component means that gold grades are diluted compared to the veins.

The grade of gold and silver can vary from a few grams per tonne to significant intersections with grades in excess of 30 g/t Au (>1 oz/t). Gold mineralisation occurs as fine gold-silver amalgam with a gold to silver ratio of 1 to 1.5.

The “Central Breccia” Deposit is interpreted as a gold-mineralised hydrothermal breccia with, low grade gold mineralisation is associated with carbonate breccia cement and high-grade gold mineralisation is associated with argillic alteration and sulphide mineralisation.

The gold-silver mineralised phreatic breccia and associated clay alteration (acid sulphate) at the Central Breccia, and the outcropping sinters and strong proximal sericite grading through to medial smectite and distal chlorite-calcite-sulphide (propylitic) alteration at Cacao is consistent with near surface hydrothermal mineralisation at the top of a low sulphidation epithermal system. This observation is consistent with their locations within a downthrown graben and borne out by the observations of classic low sulphidation banded gold-silver mineralisation encountered in drilling more than 200 m below surface at Cacao.

La India
New diamond core drilling completed in 2020-2021, along with re-logging of previous drill core and mapping of new surface exposures, has allowed a more robust geological (lithological and structural) model of the La India deposit to be developed.

The La India Vein Set comprises two cross-cutting structures, comprising the NW striking La India structure (previously referred to as the India-California structure) and EW striking Teresa-Agua Caliente-Arizona veins.

The majority of the mineralisation is hosted by the La India structure. The La India structure is a normal fault striking 330° and dipping ENE which can be traced at surface along a strike length of approximately 1,550 m.

The mineralised vein does not reach surface further to the southeast, apparently downthrown by the orthogonal Highway Fault. However, it has been traced with drilling a further 350 m along strike below surface, beyond which it remains open along strike at depth. The La India structure displays evidence of trans-tensional movement with a sinistral transverse component inferred.

In the hangingwall zone, several steep-dipping veins have formed in contact with the main structure that are interpreted as tension gash fill.

America Mine
The gold mineralisation at America occurs along the faulted contacts which separate three structural blocks. The America-Escondido structure forms two of the three recognised block boundaries. The structure is characterized by a 60° bend between the America fault which strikes 300° and dips approximately 55° to the northeast and the Escondido fault which strikes north and dips at approximately 45° to the east. Both the America and Escondido fault limbs are planar normal faults, typically 1-3 m wide and characterized by the development of sand to gravel-grade cataclastic textures on the principal fault plane and small, metre-scale tension gashes in the hangingwall. A wider quartz breccia has developed at the flexure zone. The Constancia veins are hosted by a steeper dipping structure striking at 270-290° and dipping at approximately 70° to the north.

Central Breccia
The Central Breccia is a multi-stage hydrothermal breccia deposit hosted by a massive porphyritic andesite located at the centre of the graben-like structure that runs down the axis of the America Vein Set near the intersection with the regional cross-cutting NE-Fault. Drilling has shown that the andesite overlies a felsic pyroclastic breccia. Two stages of hydrothermal breccia development are recognised, an early hydraulic breccia with evidence of clast movement and rotation and a silica-cemented microbreccia matrix, and a later crack and fill brecciation with calcite-cement containing anomalous gold values formed under a more passive dilational regime.

Gold mineralisation is associated with a later calcite and quartz calcite crack and seal breccia. The breccia typically has grades of 0.1 to 0.2 g/t Au, within which high-grade zones (interpreted as shoots within the wider breccia pipe) typically over 10 m thick and grading between 2 g/t and 7 g/t Au occur. The high-grade zones are often associated with sulphide minerals and intense argillic alteration and quartz veins.

Reserves

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Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

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Processing

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Production

CommodityUnitsAvg. AnnualLOM
Gold koz 82548
Silver koz 700
All production numbers are expressed as metal in doré.

Operational metrics

Metrics
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Ore tonnes mined, LOM  ....  Subscribe
Total tonnes mined, LOM  ....  Subscribe
* According to 2022 study.

Production Costs

CommodityUnitsAverage
All-in sustaining costs (AISC) Gold USD  ....  Subscribe
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Assumed price Silver USD  ....  Subscribe
Assumed price Gold USD  ....  Subscribe
* According to 2022 study / presentation.
** Net of By-Product.

Operating Costs

CurrencyAverage
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Processing costs ($/t milled) USD  ....  Subscribe
G&A ($/t milled) USD  ....  Subscribe
Total operating costs ($/t milled) USD  ....  Subscribe
* According to 2022 study.

Project Costs

MetricsUnitsLOM Total
Pre-Production capital costs $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Sustaining CapEx $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Closure costs $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Total CapEx $M USD  ......  Subscribe
OP OpEx $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Processing OpEx $M USD 179.4
G&A costs $M USD 49.1
Total OpEx $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Income Taxes $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Royalty payments $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Gross revenue (LOM) $M USD  ......  Subscribe
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After-tax NPV @ 0% $M USD  ......  Subscribe
After-tax NPV @ 5% $M USD  ......  Subscribe
After-tax NPV @ 10% $M USD  ......  Subscribe
After-tax NPV @ 8% $M USD  ......  Subscribe
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Required Heavy Mobile Equipment

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Personnel

Mine Management

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Aerial view:

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