Condor de Oro
Condor entered into an agreement in January 2008 with a private Peruvian company to acquire a 65% interest in the Condor de Oro gold and copper prospect in northern Peru. This agreement was amended in February 2009, and the Company can now purchase an 85% interest in the project, with the vendor's 15% interest a carried and non-contributing interest. The Company will fund all of the Vendor's cost to commencement of commercial production, such costs to be repaid with interest from the Vendor's share of the production revenues. On the completion and publication of a feasibility study on the project, the vendor will receive 1 million shares of the Company. The vendor also retains a 1% NSR that may be repurchased for US$2 million, at the Company's option.The 102 sq km Condor de Oro project is situated along the Peruvian border with Ecuador and lies within the Cordillera del Condor, potentially one of the most significant emerging gold and copper belts in the world. On the Ecuadorian side of the border, recent discoveries within the belt include the Kinross/Aurelian Fruta del Norte gold deposit, located approximately 124 km to the NE, with published reserves of 13.7Moz gold and 22Moz silver, and Corriente Resources' Mirador Copper District, located north of Fruta del Norte, with an inferred resources of 1.7Bt grading 0.6% Cu. On the Peruvian side of the border, approximately 54 km SW of the Condor de Oro project, is Zijin Mining's Rio Blanco copper-molybdenum project with reserves of 1.2Bt grading 0.57% copper and 228 ppm molybdenum.
There has been very little modern day exploration carried out to date along the Peruvian side of the border due largely to geopolitical events and restrictions imposed by the Peruvian government. Prior to 1992, for example, mineral exploration was not permitted along Peru's border regions. The mining code was revised in 1992 to permit mining in the frontier regions but a border dispute broke out between Peru and Ecuador shortly thereafter and was not resolved until 1999.
Gold-bearing rock outcrop and float was originally discovered on the Condor de Oro property in 2003 and was followed by stream sediment, soil and rock sampling as well as an airborne magnetic geophysical survey. This work, performed by Monterrico Metals plc, is not NI-43-101 compliant and therefore may not be relied upon, reportedly returned highly anomalous gold and base metal geochemical results with a coincident magnetic high over an area of approximately 2 sq km along the western boundary of a large magnetic low. Placer gold has reportedly been panned from the streams draining this target, since named Pucayacu.
The Pucayacu target is characterized by intense quartz-serecite-clay alteration along with abundant disseminated pyrite (plus limonite) and strong quartz vein stockworks with limonite-pyrite and secondary copper. Chalcedonic quartz and jasper are also present, these being products of multiphase hydrothermal events related to an island arc environment, similar to that at Fruta del Norte. Earlier sampling work by the Company returned peak values of 13.2g/t Au in rock chip samples, values as high as 8.2g/t, 11.95 g/t, and 16.0 g/t Au from rock float, and soil samples with peak values of 1.56 g/t and 1.99 g/t Au.
A second target on the property, named Yuracyacu, is found about 8 km north of Pucayacu. At this target, a zone of strongly altered hydrothermal breccias and abundant stockwork quartz veins occurs along the northern boundary of the magnetic low and also exhibits a coincident magnetic high.
Field crews were mobilized to Condor de Oro in September 2009 to complete follow up work in preparation for drilling the Pucayacu gold and base metals target. Results of a mapping and sampling program on the Condor de Oro property to confirm past results were released in March 2009. This project has never been drill-tested.
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