Condor Gold shares flying high as mine application progresses

The gold exploration and development company has formally submitted an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment to the Ministry of Envrionment and Natural Resources in Nicaragua with the hopes of obtaining an environmental permit to construct a processing plant with a capacity of up to 2,800 tonnes per day.

The application includes amendments to the design of an open pit mine and the relocation of the processing plant at the company’s wholly owned La India Project.

Mark Child, chief executive of Condor, said: "Condor has been in constructive dialogue for several months with Nicaraguan Government officials at Minister level to permit the construction and operation of a new gold mine at Mina La India, Nicaragua. The general feedback has been that permitting will be much easier if the mine can be redesigned to proceed without resettling 1,000 people."

The mine at the site has an existing probable mineral reserve of 6.9m tonnes at 3.01 grams per tonne of gold for 675,000 oz gold according to a technical report.

2Mine scheduling studies are on-going, and further details will be provided in due course. Condor Gold does not anticipate a material change in the total ounces of gold expected to be recoverable from the redesigned open pit compared to the open pit disclosed in the PFS," said Child.

Planning for the mine has been underway since 2015 and the granting of an environmental permit would allow for the granting of many other permits such as for water management.

As of 0901 GMT, Condor Gold’s shares were up 8.55% at 56.99p.