Condor Gold makes solid progress with La India study work

Condor Gold updated the market on the status of work underway to support a feasibility study for its fully-permitted La India Project in Nicaragua on Tuesday.

The AIM-traded firm said the work would bring the level of confidence for the project to the industry standard of engineering design, in order to support capital and operating cost estimates with a 15% buffer.

Work was “well underway”, the board said, with supporting field and testing studies nearing completion, for the final mine design to start in November, and publication of the feasibility study in the first quarter of 2022.

The company said processing plant design, incorporating the 2,300 tonnes per day SAG mill it had purchased, was complete, with associated infrastructure designs and costs under development.

A surface water hydrological model had also been completed, which would feed into the site-wide water balance, with the supporting documentation due by the end of October.

Detailed water management structure designs were underway.

Tailings storage facility design was complete, with the draft report delivered to Condor during the first week in October.

The report was being reviewed by the company, with the material take-offs for construction passed to Hanlon Engineering for cost estimation.

Condor said the stormwater attenuation structure at La Simona was under design, and was 90% completed.

As with the tailings storage facility, the material take-offs would be passed to Hanlon to estimate the construction costs.

Looking at the metallurgical studies, analytical work was 95% completed, and a draft report was due by the end of October.

On the mineral resource estimate, Condor said all assays from the infill drilling programme had been received, and updates to the geological framework, including the lithological, structural and weathering model, were about 80% complete.

Once completed, the mineral resource estimate update for La India would take place.

A review of the initial round of 1700 metres of geotechnical drilling by SRK indicated that an additional 690 metres of oriented core drilling, followed by televiewer logging, would be required to meet feasibility study-level confidence.

Completion of the drilling and logging was expected by mid November, with televiewer inspection to be conducted on completion of each hole.

Finally, Condor said it had successfully intercepted the deepest level of the 1950s-era underground mine workings in hole LIDC 178, providing confidence that said workings were suitable to tap into to draw down groundwater levels and support depressurising the pit slopes.

A test borehole close to the historical mineshaft would be drilled in November to one of the options for the location of the long-term pumping station.

“I am pleased to provide an update on the development of a feasibility study in line with International best practices for the La India open pit and associated mineral processing and mine site infrastructure,” said chairman and chief executive officer Mark Child.

“Several key studies have been completed or are near completion.

“There are no negative surprises, and the project continues to be materially de-risked, nearing a shovel ready status.”

Child said a feasibility study would increase the confidence of the project, incorporating a feasibility-level engineering design, and capital and operating costs within 15%.

“This in turn will facilitate project financing ahead of Project construction.

“Condor staff and our contractors at Hanlon Engineering, Tierra Group, SGS Lakefield Laboratories and SRK Consulting have been diligently pursuing the supporting work for the study for over a year and are making substantial headway in completion of that work, despite the challenges of logistics, market conditions, and of course, the impact of Covid-19 on the ability to travel.”

At 1448 BST, shares in Condor Gold were up 1.74% at 36.63p.