Condor Gold plc announced the start of a 4,000 metre close-spaced infill diamond drilling programme within the open pit at the La India gold project in Nicaragua.
The company also hopes to start drilling on the high grade Mestiza open pit in January 2021. Condor Gold chairman and chief executive Mark Child added that mining the higher grade would bring forward cash flow, shorten the payback period and enhance project economics.
The infill diamond drilling programme has three aims including tightening the drill hole spacing within the planned high-grade starter pits on the principal La India Vein. The results will provide the sample density needed to finalise pit designs and mine schedules ahead of production.
The programme will also replace all historical reverse circulation
(RC) drill holes within the overall La India open-pit mineral resource, the results of which will improve the geological model and sample quality.
Thirdly, the programme will target nearby inferred mineral resources which could potentially be upgraded to an indicated mineral resource and included in the mine plan.
Condor said that drilling was focused on shallow (some 35m depth), high-grade starter pits within the main La India open pit.
Final drilling will make the starter pits ‘shovel ready’ ahead of production. The pits are designed pits containing 445Kt at 4.17g/t gold for 59,700 oz gold using a 2.0g/t gold cut-off.
The drilling will also convert a small nearby tonnage in the inferred mineral resource category to the indicated mineral resource category, and its potential inclusion in the mine plan.
Chairman and chief executive Mark Child added: “The drill programme within the La India starter pits will close up the sample density to 25 metre by 25 metre spacing and is the final drilling ahead of extraction.”